Project Details
Projekt
Seaports as Intersections of the Maritime-Terrestrial Traffic of Passengers and Goods in the Byzantine Empire (7th to 11th cc.)
Applicant
Professor Dr. Johannes Pahlitzsch
Subject Area
Medieval History
Ancient History
Ancient History
Term
from 2012 to 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 219411444
While during the first phase of the project the administrative structure of Byzantine ports has been in the focus of research, this perspective shall be widened in the second phase of the project we herewith apply for. It will be the central aim to investigate the connective function of Byzantine seaports from the seventh through to the eleventh century. In this investigation three complex topics will be in the centre of attention: the role of the single ports as intersections of the maritime-terrestrial traffic of passengers (i) and goods (ii) as well as factors of disturbance or disruption of this connectivity (iii). In order to discover the function or functions of the respective seaports a prosopographical approach shall be applied so as to arrive finally at a typology of maritime mobility and of ports which facilitate this mobility. Consequently, particular attention will be paid to the protagonists (pilgrims, envoys, rulers, merchants, etc.) and their motives (religious, political, diplomatic, cultural, etc.) for the use of the respective port, while trade routes and passenger itineraries can be reconstructed on the basis of the ports mentioned. Moreover, the question has to be asked who or what initiated the mobility, whether the movements were voluntary or compulsory and how state or church structures tried to influence them, which again had certain effects on the port administration. Generally, it will also be necessary to investigate the importance of the locational conditions of traffic and geography regarding the function of single ports in the contexts mentioned before.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
