Byzantium in the Adriatic from the 6th to 12th Century, Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments, Split, September 28–30, 2018
The field of Byzantine Studies has recently gained impetus in Croatia from the establishment of the Croatian Society for Byzantine Studies, which aspires to become a cross-disciplinary research hub for experts in manifold disciplines related to Byzantine Studies not only in Croatia but in the region as well. Following the auspicious first steps of bringing Byzantine Studies into the focus of Croatian academia and the research community, the Croatian Society for Byzantine Studies now aims to attract internationally acclaimed researchers of diverse disciplinary backgrounds to a forum that will offer an opportunity to discuss a plethora of research topics and questions bearing on the presence of Byzantium in the Adriatic, and specifically to analyze the profile, genesis and transformation of the region in response to the Byzantine world system. The aim is to present and examine old as well as fresh ideas in an innovative way to provide a more complete and in-depth picture of the political, socio-economic, religious, legal, cultural aspects of Byzantine influence, both direct and indirect, detectable in the Adriatic, and particularly the eastern Adriatic coastal area, with a chronological span from the Age of Justinian I to the final disappearance of all vestiges of Byzantine authority and political sway in the region in the twelfth century.
The conference’s special thematic strands include, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- defining ‘Byzantium’ and its influence in the Adriatic context
- (dis)continuity of the Byzantine presence in the Adriatic region
- Adriobyzantinism, Latin Byzantinism, Slavic Byzantinism
- overlapping zones of influences: problems of centre, periphery and province
- comparative studies: Ravenna, Pentapolis, Roman Duchy, Venice, Istria, Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, Apulia, Calabria, Benevento, Marche, etc.
- Byzantium’s influence on the ethnogeneses in the Adriatic coastal area
- transmission of texts
- conversion, Christianization and the Church (the interference of jurisdictional and liturgical influences from Constantinople, Rome, Aquileia/Grado; the network of bishoprics; the Cyrillo-Methodian Mission)
- Byzantine legal traditions
- Byzantine traditions in diplomatics, language, anthroponymy, toponymy, hagiography
- Byzantine traditions in social structures (urban elites, aristocracy, family and society)
- manifestations of Byzantine authority: public institutions, administrative structures, circulation of Byzantine money, seals
- Byzantine cultural circles in the Adriatic (Justinianic Age, Macedonian dynasty, etc.)
- settlements, towns, urban history, spatial organization
- material culture with Byzantine characteristics and provenance in the Adriatic (archaeology, cemeteries, jewellery, weapons, tools, costumes)
- the so-called Byzantine limes marittimus in the Adriatic (forts, castra, defence systems)