A complex picture of differing regional trajectories emerges, whilst cultural change is everywhere apparent, in phenomena such as Christianisation, settlement nucleation and fortification."--BOOK JACKET.

The medieval Mediterranean world has inspired a rich variety of archaeological studies aimed at trying to piece together its past. This volume presents seven case studies that reveal the complexities of and possible solutions for exploring various areas of the Mediterranean basin. Individually, they offer models of interdisciplinary study that move beyond the disciplinary boundaries of archaeology to integrate evidence from other fields ranging from history to town planning. As a whole, they provide the only collection of studies of their kind for the medieval Mediterraean. They thus provide readers with a view of a field that is vibrant, nuanced, and utilizes a methodological approach that is capable of greatly increasing our knowledge of the medieval Mediterranean world. Contributors are Tasha Vorderstrasse, Jon van Leuven, Cédric Devais, Michelle Hobart, Giulia Annalinda Neglia, Johnny De Meulemeester, and Sauro Gelichi.

What happened to ancient Greek thought after Antiquity? What impact did Abrahamic religions have on medieval Byzantine and Islamic scholars who adapted and reinvigorated this ancient philosophical heritage? Reason and Revelation in Byzantine Antioch tackles these questions by examining the work of the eleventh-century Christian theologian Abdallah ibn al-Fadl, who undertook an ambitious program of translating Greek texts, ancient and contemporary, into Arabic. Poised between the Byzantine Empire that controlled his home city of Antioch and the Arabic-speaking cultural universe of Syria-Palestine, Egypt, Aleppo, and Iraq, Ibn al-Fadl engaged intensely with both Greek and Arabic philosophy, science, and literary culture. Challenging the common narrative that treats Christian and Muslim scholars in almost total isolation from each other in the Middle Ages, Alexandre M. Roberts reveals a shared culture of robust intellectual curiosity in the service of tradition that has had a lasting role in Eurasian intellectual history.

The celebration of the liturgy is central to the life of faith and also for the self-understanding of the various churches in the East and West. An amazing convergence of Christian denominations has taken place in the area of liturgy and liturgical studies since the Second Vatican Council, entering also into the practice of liturgical celebration. In this collection - with contributions from a symposium held in Vienna in November 2007 - internationally recognized scholars from various Christian denominations present the ecumenical contributions and the Jewish roots of the Christian liturgy. [PLEASE NOTE: The individual essays in this volume are written in various languages. The book contains ten essays in English, eight in German, and two in French.] (Series: Austrian Studies of Liturgy and Sacramental Theology / Osterreichische Studien zur Liturgiewissenschaft und Sakramententheologie - Vol. 6)

Replete with mosaics and revetment, the basilica was the center of the ecclesiastical administration until its destruction in the late seventh century. In this long-awaited report, Megaw and colleagues present in full the results of excavations from the 1930s, 1950s, and 1970s.

Claude Cahen's book on Crusader Antioch cast a long shadow. His thorough monograph seemingly leaves little more to be said. Decades may pass before scholars return to the topic. The long shadow fell even on the Wisconsin History of the Crusades which still seeks, essentially, to stich the written sources together into traditional narrative history, only to do it better. But topics such as architecture, or coins are optional extras and not much integrated into the whole picture. A thorough analysis of political and military developments is indeed the essential groundwork of most medieval history. But high politics was not the whole of life; and charters and texts are not the only witnesses to that life. Social and economic life has its own momentum and its own continuity. Its moral and spiritual aspects deserve historical study, and impose new historical disciplines. Crusades studies have become more interdisciplinary, and less monolithic. That new style of enquiry is fully reflected in the range and variety of the papers, tightly focussed on Antioch, printed in this volume.

Situated in the breathtaking Caucasus Mountains between the Black and the Caspian Seas, the country of Georgia sits at the crossroads between Europe and Asia; it has gone through more turbulence and change in the last twenty five years—the casting off of the Soviet regime, a civil war, two ethno-territorial conflicts, economic collapse, corruption, government inefficiency, and massive emigration—than most countries go through in 250 years. This small nation's strategic location at the crossroads of different civilizations has been a curse as well as a blessing. Once a battlefield between the ancient empires and the Christian and Islamic worlds, today it is caught between its NATO aspirations and its location in Russia’s backyard. Yet, despite all challenges and hardships, this resilient and ancient country, with thousands of years of winemaking, three-thousand years of statehood, and almost two millennia of Christianity, continues to survive and thrive. This book uses its chronology; glossary; introduction; appendixes; maps; bibliography; and over 900 hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries on important persons, places, events and institutions, as well as significant political, economic, social, and cultural aspects to trace Georgia's history and predict its future. This historical dictionary is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Georgia.

Winner of ASOR's 2022 G. Ernest Wright Award for the most substantial volume dealing with archaeological material, excavation reports and material culture from the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. This is a complete history of Antioch, one of the most significant major cities of the eastern Mediterranean and a crossroads for the Silk Road, from its foundation by the Seleucids, through Roman rule, the rise of Christianity, Islamic and Byzantine conquests, to the Crusades and beyond. Antioch has typically been treated as a city whose classical glory faded permanently amid a series of natural disasters and foreign invasions in the sixth and seventh centuries CE. Such studies have obstructed the view of Antioch’s fascinating urban transformations from classical to medieval to modern city and the processes behind these transformations. Through its comprehensive blend of textual sources and new archaeological data reanalyzed from Princeton’s 1930s excavations and recent discoveries, this book offers unprecedented insights into the complete history of Antioch, recreating the lives of the people who lived in it and focusing on the factors that affected them during the evolution of its remarkable cityscape. While Antioch’s built environment is central, the book also utilizes landscape archaeological work to consider the city in relation to its hinterland, and numismatic evidence to explore its economics. The outmoded portrait of Antioch as a sadly perished classical city par excellence gives way to one in which it shines as brightly in its medieval Islamic, Byzantine, and Crusader incarnations. Antioch: A History offers a new portal to researching this long-lasting city and is also suitable for a wide variety of teaching needs, both undergraduate and graduate, in the fields of classics, history, urban studies, archaeology, Silk Road studies, and Near Eastern/Middle Eastern studies. Just as importantly, its clarity makes it attractive for, and accessible to, a general readership outside the framework of formal instruction.

A recent surge of interest in network approaches to the study of the ancient world has enabled scholars of the Roman Empire to move beyond traditional narratives of domination, resistance, integration and fragmentation. This relational turn has not only offers tools to identify, map, visualize and, in some cases, even quantify interaction based on a variety of ancient source material, but also provides a terminology to deal with the everyday ties of power, trade, and ideology that operated within, below, and beyond the superstructure of imperial rule. Thirteen contributions employ a range of quantitative, qualitative and descriptive network approaches in order to provide new perspectives on trade, communication, administration, technology, religion and municipal life in the Roman Near East and adjacent regions.