Caught between East and West: Southern Calabrian Political Landscapes and the Mediterranean World, 400–900 CE

Summary

Calabria in the first millennium CE does not fit easily into many of the established narratives that are usually applied either to the western or the eastern Mediterranean, nor yet into standard categories of periodisation, which often carry implicit assumptions related to these narratives. Using material, visual, and textual evidence, this poster explores fifth- to ninth-century southern Calabrian political landscapes, particularly the area around Bova Marina, in their broader Mediterranean contexts. In this period, Calabria experienced some continuity with the western Roman Empire alongside changes brought about by Byzantine (re)conquest of southern Italy and its absorption into the Eastern Roman Empire; but the longstanding presence of Greek culture had never been completely erased by Romanisation in any case. Calabria’s settlements, economy, and religious life in this period show links to both Rome and Constinantinople. Caught between East and West, however, Calabria in the period 400-900CE is usually perceived as being marginal to both of these centres and is therefore frequently neglected in scholarship. By showing the extent of Calabria’s connectivity to both East and West in this period, this poster suggests new ways of understanding the contribution of southern Calabria’s political landscapes to the Mediterranean world in the period 400-900CE.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21211