Tag: Archaeology

Byzantina Symmeikta

Bernard Mulholland, The Early Byzantine Christian Church (Oxford, 2014).
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-early-byzantine-christian-church/id1023114473

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Byzantina Symmeikta is a peer-reviewed open-access electronic journal published by the Byzantine Section of the Institute of Historical Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation. From 1966 to 2005 (vols. 1–17) the journal was published under the title Symmeikta. 
Byzantina Symmeikta accepts for publication articles of original research in all fields of Byzantine studies (history, literature, archaeology and art) as well as book reviews. Accepted languages are English, French, German, Greek and Italian. A rigorous publication process ensures that the journal adheres to the highest standards of scholarship. 
Ιn its electronic version Byzantina Symmeikta is an open-access journal. All articles become available online as soon as a new volume is published on the journal’s platform. A print edition appears about one year after the electronic publication. All volumes from 2008 onwards (vols. 18–) are also available in print.
In the first 15 years of its online presence (2008–2022) 155 research articles and more than 200 book reviews and shorter bibliographical notes have appeared in the journal. 
Webpage: https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/bz

Open-access databases of the National Hellenic Research Foundation

Bernard Mulholland, Ratio analysis of financial KPI in the Higher Education sector: a case study (2018).
https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6445320705
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=YfWkEAAAQBAJ
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MB99NWP

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The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) of the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) provides open access to 16 databases concerning Byzantine History and especially Byzantine Greece: https://anavathmis.eu/?lang=en.

Based on the scrutiny of a large body of primary and secondary sources by members of the Section of Byzantine Research of the IHR/NHRF and associated scholars, the databases provide various search possibilities in certain types of texts (historiography and hagiography) and in specific topics (e.g. gastronomy, bookbinding, imported ceramics, raw materials, natural resources and agricultural products, domestic and wild fauna, Greek merchants), as well as a catalogue of the Byzantine documents kept in the archives of the monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Patmos, notes found in manuscripts of the same monastery, the diplomatic transcriptions of Greek post-Byzantine documents kept in the archives of the monasteries of Mount Athos, a gazetteer of late Byzantine conflicts, a prosopographical index (for the Venetian colonies in Greece), a catalogue of western religious orders in Greece. Of special note is the “Kyrtou Plegmata” platform, which offers search possibilities in the trade and communication networks in and around Greece from Prehistory to the 19th c. 
The IHR/NHRF also provides open access to a number of e-books regarding Byzantine History: https://anavathmis.eu/e-books/?lang=en#1573422809019-ffd3837c-0760

Call for Papers: Armenian Society under Caliphal Rule (Online Workshop)

Bernard Mulholland, Ratio analysis of financial KPI in the Higher Education sector: a case study (2018).
https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6445320705
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=YfWkEAAAQBAJ
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MB99NWP

https://themanfrommensa.com/category/shop/

The Emmy Noether Junior Research Group ‘Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period’ (SCORE) at the University of Hamburg welcomes proposals for participation in the online workshop ‘Armenian Society under Caliphal Rule’, 7–8 December 2023. This workshop will consider the social history of Armenia in the period between the first Muslim invasions and the establishment of the Bagratuni kingdom, i.e. seventh to ninth centuries AD/ first to third centuries AH. Contributions will be warmly welcomed on any aspect of social history and its intersection with economic, environmental, cultural and religious history. Perspectives that draw upon the written word, visual culture, the built environment or any combination of the above will all be equally welcomed. Topics may include, but are by no means limited to, such themes as social hierarchies, government, church structures, labour relations, urbanism and ruralism, taxation, civic architecture, etc.

The workshop is envisaged as a compact and focused event running on two consecutive afternoons (Central European Time) only, thereby facilitating the participation of scholars in multiple time zones. The dates of the workshop are fixed as Thursday 7 and Friday 8 December 2023. Papers will be pre-circulated (though they need by no means be polished) two weeks in advance, i.e. by Friday 24 November 2023. To limit video-call fatigue, there will be a total of no more than ten papers, five on each day. Each speaker will be given a 45-minute presentation slot followed by a 15-minute break: presentations will run for 20–25 minutes; questions will then be opened by a dedicated respondent for around five minutes, after which discussion will be opened to the floor for the remaining time. The language of the workshop will be English.

Confirmed participants include Stephanie Forrest (Cambridge), Tim Greenwood (St Andrews), Nik Matheou (Edinburgh), Leone Pecorini Goodall (Edinburgh/St Andrews), Johannes Preiser-Kapeller (Vienna), and Aram Vardanyan (Yerevan). Around three months after the workshop, and pending the agreement of each presenter, revised papers will be submitted to a journal for consideration as a themed issue. Immediately following the workshop, it is possible that some presenters may be asked to shift the focus of their contribution slightly in order to maximize coverage across the full breadth of papers. If you would be interested in delivering a paper or acting as a dedicated respondent, please contact Alasdair Grant at alasdair.grant@uni-hamburg.de by 31 May 2023. Audience registration will open in October, but expressions of interest are welcome any time. If you are enquiring about acting as a respondent, please indicate which topic areas you would be most interested in responding to.

If you are enquiring about delivering a paper, please send an abstract of around 250 words, accompanied by two or three sentences outlining the background to your interest in and study of the topic. You will be notified of the outcome of your proposal by 7 June, i.e. six months before the workshop. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the organizer.

Call for Sessions: Mary Jaharis Center Sponsored Panel, 7th Forum Medieval Art

Bernard Mulholland, The Early Byzantine Christian Church (Oxford, 2014).
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-early-byzantine-christian-church/id1023114473

https://themanfrommensa.com/category/shop/

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture seeks proposals for a Mary Jaharis Center sponsored session at the 7th Forum Medieval Art/Forum Kunst des Mittelalters, Jena, September 25–28, 2024. The biannual colloquium is organized by the Deutsche Verein für Kunstwissenschaft e.V.


The theme for the 7th Forum Medieval Art is Light: Art, Metaphysics and Science in the Middle Ages.

The Mary Jaharis Center invites session proposals that fit within the Light theme and are relevant to Byzantine studies.

Session proposals must be submitted through the Mary Jaharis Center website. The deadline for submission is May 29, 2023.

If the proposed session is approved, the Mary Jaharis Center will reimburse a maximum of 4 session participants (presenters and session chair) up to $500 maximum for participants traveling from locations in Germany, up to $800 maximum for participants traveling from the EU, and up to $1400 maximum for participants traveling from outside Europe. Funding is through reimbursement only; advance funding cannot be provided. Eligible expenses include conference registration, transportation, and food and lodging. Receipts are required for reimbursement. The Mary Jaharis Center regrets that it cannot reimburse participants who have last-minute cancellations and are unable to attend the conference.

For a complete description of the theme, further details, and submission instructions, please visit https://maryjahariscenter.org/sponsored-sessions/7th-forum-medieval-art.

New series: Studies in Byzantine Epigraphy

Bernard Mulholland, Navan Fort, Ireland: archaeological and palaeoecological analysis (2021).
https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6445397300
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=PhilEAAAQBAJ
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MYXX9GM

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The new series ‘Studies in Byzantine Epigraphy’ (ed. by A. Rhoby and I. Toth) are published with Brepols: https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503590226-1 The series testifies to an ever-greater focus on inscriptions within Byzantine Studies. We envisage that our series would include collective volumes devoted to specific epigraphic themes, such as, authority, display, self-representation, patronage, etc. In addition, it is our aim to create an outstanding academic resource, which would showcase the significance of Byzantine Epigraphy as an academic discipline opening the field to scholars in related disciplines, such as history, art history, and literature, and reaching out to include a wider readership in both Byzantine and, more generally, classical, medieval, and early modern studies.

New research project: Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts in Spain; Artworks, Context and Materiality – MABILUS

Bernard Mulholland, Nazareth Quest (2022).
https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6445327630
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=NfWkEAAAQBAJ&pli=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B92V9VYF

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A pioneering research project, “Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts in Spain; Artworks, Context and Materiality – MABILUS” (PID2020-120067GB-I00), has been funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain (from September 2021 to September 2024). Its aim is the study of the precious, varied and largely unknown heritage of Byzantine Illuminated Illumination in Spain, from an essentially art-historical perspective and employing an interdisciplinary approach (Philology, Palaeography, Iconography, History of Techniques; History of Collecting). The project is led by prof. Manuel Castiñeiras (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and involves an international team of researches. The objects of enquiry date from the Byzantine period (to 1453), or immediately afterwards (to 1550). The majority are preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid ) and the Real Biblioteca de El Escorial, with some examples in the Biblioteca Universitaria de Salamanca. The project is mainly focused on a novel study of the Skylitzes matritensis (BNE, Vitr. 26-2), in close collaboration with the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España (IPCE), and the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid. For a better understanding of the genesis of this codex and other controversial artistic issues, a selection of fourteen quires of this codex has been transferred to the IPCE to carry out a systematic analysis of the parchments, pigments, binders, and colouring agents. Laboratory techniques will be used, such as multispectral imaging, infrared reflectography, macro-photography, optical and electron microscopy, as well as the necessary sampling. For further information, please visit the website (in English, Spanish, Catalan): http://www.mabilus.com

New research project: DyAs – Lines and Colours: Lunisolar Diagrams in Byzantine Astronomical Manuscripts (9th–15th C)

Bernard Mulholland, The man from MENSA – 1 of 600: Mensa research (2016).
https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6445329346
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=gfWkEAAAQBAJ
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1535307269

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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 945298-ParisRegionFP.

DyAs studies how astronomical diagrams operate as vehicles for the delivery of scientific arguments in Byzantine manuscripts copied between the ninth and the fifteenth centuries. It focuses on diagrams involving and transmitting knowledge about the two luminaries, the sun and the moon (e.g., lunar and solar eclipse diagrams). Employing the geometric idiom of points, lines, intersections and circles, on the one hand, and differently coloured inks, on the other, lunisolar diagrams encode knowledge about the structure of the universe, light and its intensity, time, distance and movement. In doing so, they rely on the aniconicity they share with the surrounding script and on the use of colour they have in common with the image (eikōn). DyAs aims at understanding the cognitive functions and graphic conventions of Byzantine astronomical diagrams and their employment of light/shadow and colours/lines in order to structure knowledge. DyAs positions the Byzantine evidence in a comparative Afro-Eurasian context and demonstrates its importance within the network of interrelated cultures of the wider medieval world. The project’s comparative, global and highly interdisciplinary perspective is guaranteed through its collaboration with the open data repository and digital humanities platform DISHAS (Digital Information System for the History of Astral Sciences). Together with DISHAS, DyAs will break new ground in the use of AI and computer vision, thus opening up novel research venues in both Digital Humanities and Manuscript Studies. It will also make the Medieval Greek diagrammatic evidence publicly accessible and integrated in a network of contemporary Latin, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Sanskrit and Chinese sources. Thus, DyAs will revolutionise the fields of Medieval and Byzantine Studies, History of Science, Digital Humanities and History of Art.

Searching for Partners!

Bernard Mulholland, Early Byzantine Ireland: a survey of the archaeological evidence (2021).
https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6445354716
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ChilEAAAQBAJ
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MG1YZ8W

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As a National Institution responsible for the cultural heritage in the northeast region of North Macedonia, the National Inst. Museum of Kumanovo started to excavate an early byzantine settlement in Bislim Gorge, near the village of Pcinja. It is a Late Antique fortress built in a middle of a gorge ( https://maps.app.goo.gl/jFjokLSfXkcWnet58). Since the progress of the excavations is very slow, we are interested in the possibility of working with an institution or organization, on a joined project on the excavation of the site, or on digitalization and documentation of the fortress by using modern technology (lidar, geophysics, 3d laser etc..). Moreover, we are ready to collaborate on any other project or idea that you can have in mind that will include the site itself.

To learn more, refer to the document available at this link.

Read more here.

Obituary: Robert ‘Bob’ G. Ousterhout (January 16, 1950–April 23, 2023)

Bernard Mulholland, Nazareth Quest (2022).
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=NfWkEAAAQBAJ&pli=1
https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6445327630
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B92V9VYF

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It is with sorrow that we mark the passing of Robert G. Ousterhout (January 16, 1950–April 23, 2023).  Bob, as he was universally known, was an esteemed, prolific scholar, a generous mentor, an invaluable colleague, and a beloved friend.

Bob was a strong supporter of BSANA, serving multiple terms on the Governing Board, and was a constant presence at the annual conference, which he twice hosted. He had long associations with Dumbarton Oaks, where he was both a Junior and Senior Scholar, and was twice a symposiarch for the annual Symposium. He was also closely affiliated with ANAMED, serving on the first Advisory Board, and organizing the “Cappadocia in Context” summer program, where students learned in the field, from the master himself. He was an ally for imperiled monuments, serving as a consultant for many international entities, including UNESCO and the WMF. 

Bob taught at the University of Oregon, the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and the University of Pennsylvania until his retirement in 2017. He is the author, or co-author, of more than 20 books, as well as countless articles, reviews, op-eds, blog posts, and videos. His impact on the field of Byzantine Studies was recognized by the Medieval Academy of America in 2021, with the Haskins Medal.

Bob lived a big life. Whether (allegedly) organizing a water ballet in the Dumbarton Oaks pool while a Junior Fellow, hosting and feeding class after class of students at his home, organizing impromptu dance parties at conferences, or throwing baby showers, Bob celebrated life.  He was funny, insightful, and always generous with his time and influence.  He will be missed.

We send our deepest condolences to his family.   

For a complete listing of Bob’s publications, see https://arth.sas.upenn.edu/people/robert-ousterhout

Call for Contributions: YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies, seeks contributions for vols 5 (Dec. 2023) and 6 (Dec. 2024)

Bernard Mulholland, The Early Byzantine Christian Church (Oxford, 2014).
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-early-byzantine-christian-church/id1023114473

https://themanfrommensa.com/category/shop/

YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies 5 (2023) and 6 (2024) Call for Papers

YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies invites contributions for its fifth and sixth volumes to be published in December 2023 and December 2024. YILLIK is a peer-reviewed, open access, international academic journal featuring cutting-edge research on Istanbul’s past and present, published by the Istanbul Research Institute in print and online (via DergiPark). YILLIK is indexed by SCOPUS and the MLA International Bibliography.

YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies is accepting submissions of original research articles, opinion pieces and visual essays (Meclis), book and exhibition reviews in Turkish or English, by researchers working on any period of the city through the lens of history, history of art and architecture, archaeology, sociology, anthropology, geography, urban planning, urban studies, and other related disciplines in humanities or social sciences.

Articles submitted for publication in the journal are first evaluated by the Editorial Board. Articles deemed suitable by editors in terms of subject matter and quality will be sent to two anonymous reviewers elected in accordance with their expertise from the Advisory Board or from the larger field. Reports from the double-blind reviewers are combined with the comments of the editors and sent back to the author. Depending on their quality and relevance, articles may be accepted or rejected, or the author may be asked to revise the work.

The review process is mandatory for research articles, while book and exhibition reviews along with the Meclis pieces only require editorial evaluation. The editors of the YILLIK pledge to complete the submission process as quickly and constructively as possible. Our aim is to limit the duration of the evaluation process, from the submission to the journal to the forwarding of reviewer reports to the author, to six weeks.

The deadline for the submission for the fifth volume, to be published in December 2023, is June 20. Some of the accepted articles with revisions may be published in the sixth volume in December 2024.

Every year, one of the articles written by a student or recent PhD will be awarded the YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies Early Career Article Prize. For details, click here.

Those who wish to submit a book or exhibition review are strongly recommended to ask for the opinion of the Editorial Board in order to avoid duplicate reviews.

YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies conforms to Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition. Before submitting your article, please refer to our submission & publishing style guide.

For the “YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies Publishing Ethics and Peer Review Statement” click here.

Peer-reviewed article submissions must be made through Dergipark.

For other submissions and questions: istanbulstudies@iae.org.tr

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