Alkiviadis A. Ginalis from the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul will be giving an online zoom lecture sponsored by Arit, American Research Institute in Turkey, INA, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, and Kudar, Koç University.
The Aegean Sea has been a center of states and empires for millennia, acting as a bridge, a transition, or a barrier for the complex coasts and islands that define it. For the Byzantine Empire, the sea was also a heartland, a link to an imagined and idealized past, and a geographic passage between the wider Mediterranean and the Black Sea. For the centuries between Late Antiquity and the Medieval era, however, these shifting values were accompanied by dramatic changes in the Byzantine Empire itself – constant shifts in its boundaries, and serious alterations in state structure, human activity, and settlement patterns. Characterized by its maritime environment, the different islands and coastal areas of the Aegean therefore played crucial roles in economic, social, cultural and political interactions.
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
