This volume publishes the proceedings of a workshop on the social order in the eleventh century held in Oxford in 2011. In the introduction, James Howard-Johnston summarizes the individual chapters and identifies recurring themes. He also provides a summary of the paper of Mark Whittow, the late distinguished scholar of Byzantine history. The ensuing nine chapters are written by leading Byzantine historians and archaeologists, offering valuable perspectives on the eleventh century in Byzantium, a period of fundamental internal and external transformations. They draw on varied methods and lines of research, incorporating documentary sources and archaeological, architectural and topographical evidence. Jean-Claude Cheynet writes on transformations in Byzantine society with a special focus on Constantinople, Dimitris Krallis on the social views of Michael Attaleiates, Kostis Smyrlis on social change in the countryside of eleventh-century Byzantium, Eva Kaptijn and Marc Waelkens on the territory of Sagalassos, Philipp Niewoehner on Anatolia, Pamela Armstrong on Greece, Ghislaine Noye on Byzantine Italy, Tim Greenwood on Armenia. James Howard-Johnston completes the set with some general reflections on Byzantium in the eleventh century.
This book makes an important contribution to the study of regional history and settlement developments in eleventh-century Byzantium. These developments feature predominantly in the case studies concerning Asia Minor and Greece. In Eva Kaptijn and Marc Waelkens’ study of the territory of Sagalassos in southwest Turkey, the results emerge from a combination of research methods including excavations, intensive survey, the establishment of type-chronological study of Byzantine pottery, as well as pollen research. It should be stressed that palynology, which increasingly is being integrated into interdisciplinary projects, plays an important role in the investigation of natural- and human-forced changes in past environments, offering complementary proxies at a local and regional scale and allowing further comparisons with archaeological, historical and climatic data. During the so-called Byzantine Dark Ages (seventh to ninth century), although there was a sharp reduction in the number of sites and in the size of settlements, the overall picture does not point to a total abandonment of the region. Unlike the situation elsewhere in the Byzantine Empire, where there is a preference for the fortified and hilltop type of settlement as a result of insecurity caused by invasions, the sites are in or near plains or valleys with fertile soils suitable for cultivation and are densely clustered. Pollen data also indicate a turn from intensive agricultural practices to the increased importance of animal husbandry, a picture that fits well with the overall reduction in human activity. During the Middle Byzantine period (tenth to eleventh century), contrary to previous periods, several sites are fortified and located on steep mountaintops, suggesting the increased need for control and refuge in response to threats from Selçuks.
A broader picture of the settlement developments in Anatolia around the eleventh century is offered mainly by Philipp Niewoehner’s study on the archaeology of churches. Church archaeology is a promising research field for understanding changes in medieval landscapes, as is shown by a growing number of publications. Here, the results are highly informative about Anatolia, which had been at the forefront of Byzantine architecture in the previous centuries, with large numbers of churches and great construction projects, and particularly revealing in comparison with contemporary development in Greece. Drawing on various types of evidence derived from the study of churches, Niewoehner concludes that there is a severe drop in the number of new churches in Anatolia, a notable urban decline and a shift in the social and economic centre of gravity towards the rural villages and landholdings of the aristocracy and towards Constantinople.
Quite different is the picture outlined by Pamela Armstrong in Greece. Her assessment arises from the careful examination of an array of archaeological evidence, which is supported by textual information that demonstrates economic growth and settlement expansion. Cities became medieval urban centres with intense building activity, artisanal production and commercial traffic. For instance, Athens’ prosperity is reflected not only in a significant number of preserved Middle Byzantine churches but in the idiosyncratic features of their architectural construction. In the countryside, survey archaeology has demonstrated that there was a significant increase in the number of sites in several micro-regions in central Greece and the Peloponnese, pointing to a comfortable level of prosperity in the countryside. The application of innovative methods such as phosphate analysis of soils around sites in the rural hinterland of Sparta reveals the structure of the rural landscape with an arrangement of non-clustered sites indicating areas of intense agricultural activity and underlining an expansion in the countryside. The new territories of the bustling Spartan countryside are marked by the presence of small churches which must have served the new or expanded rural communities. Economic expansion in city and countryside is closely related to agricultural production, the organization of distribution of principal surplus commodities and regional and interregional trade. Therefore, differentiated settlement patterns in Asia Minor and Greece within the same chronological spectrum lead us to consider the role of combined forces such as geographical factors, economic developments and local responses to international events such as western expansion in the Mediterranean or the loss of Asia Minor to the Turks and Norman expansion in southern Italy in the eleventh century.
In conclusion, the volume provides a useful overview of past and especially recent work on eleventh-century Byzantium with a strong regional focus. The authors offer discussion on a range of important issues and promote further research into the eleventh century, while its many new data sets can be further used in multidisciplinary and comparative studies.
