Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T05:04:13.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The aristocratic oikos on the Vrina Plain, Butrint c. AD 830–1200

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Simon Greenslade  and
Richard Hodges
Simon Greenslade
Affiliation:
Freelance archaeologist/American University of Rome
Richard Hodges
Affiliation:
Freelance archaeologist/American University of Rome
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This essay reviews the archaeology of a mid-Byzantine administrative central place – an aristocratic oikos – in the old Roman suburb of Butrint, Albania. Apart from illustrating the many aspects of the excavated evidence, consideration is given to Paul Magdalino’s ground-breaking essay on the nature of the Byzantine aristocratic oikos.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , 2013 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Ćurčić, S., Architecture in the Balkans from Diocletian to Siileyman the Magnificent (New Haven 2010) 252 Google Scholar.

2 Magdalino, P., ‘The Byzantine aristocratic oikos ’, in Angold, M. (ed.), The Byzantine aristocracy IX to XII centuries (Oxford 1984) 94 Google Scholar.

3 Ugolini, L. M., Butrinto: Il Mito D’Enea gli Scavi (Rome 1937)Google Scholar; Budina, Dh., Harta Akeologjike e bregdetitjon he Pellgut te Delvines (Iliria 1971) 275–342 Google Scholar.

4 Bescoby, D., ‘Geoarchaeological investigations at Roman Butrint’, in Hansen, I. L. and Hodges, R. (eds), Roman Butrint: an assessment (Oxford 2007) 95-118Google Scholar; Chroston, P. N. and Hounslow, M. W., ‘The geophysical survey - the extent and structural layout of the suburbs of Butrint on the Vrina Plain’, in Hodges, R., Bowden, W. and Lako, K. (eds), Byzantine Butrint, Excavations and surveys 1994-99 (Oxford 2004) 64–75 Google Scholar; M. Pluciennik et al., ‘The environs of Butrint 2: The 1995-96 field survey’, in R. Hodges, W. Bowden and K. Lako (eds), Byzantine Butrint, 47-63.

5 S. Greenslade, R. Hodges, S. Leppard, and J. Mitchell, ‘Preliminary report on the early Christian basilica on the Vrina Plain, Albania’, Archeologia Medievale (2006) 397-408; A. Crowson and O. J. Gilkes, ‘The archaeology of the Vrina Plain: assessment’, in Hansen and Hodges (eds), Roman Butrint: an assessment, 119-64; Greenslade, S. with Condi, Dh., ‘Recent excavations on the Vrina Plain, Butrint’, in Cabanes, P. and Lamboley, J.-L. (eds), Illyrie méridionale et l’Epire dans l’antiquité V (Paris 2011) 265-77Google Scholar; Greenslade, S., ‘The Vrina Plain settlement between the 1st-13th centuries AD’, in Hansen, I. L., Hodges, R., and Leppard, S. (eds), Butrint 4: the archaeology and histories of an Ionian town (Oxford, 2012) 207-42Google Scholar.

6 Magdalino, ‘The Byzantine aristocratic oikos.

7 Ibid., 95.

8 Ibid., 96.

9 Hodges, R., Towns and trade in the Age of Charlemagne (London 2000)Google Scholar.

10 S. Greenslade, ‘The Vrina Plain settlement between the lst-13th centuries AD’, in Hansen, Hodges, and Leppard (eds), Butrint 4: the archaeology and histories of an Ionian town.

11 Mitchell, J., Gilkes, O., and Condi, Dh., ‘A new Christian basilica at Butrint’, Candavia 2 (2005) 107-28Google Scholar; Greenslade et al., ‘Preliminary report on the early Christian basilica on the Vrina Plain, Albania’, Archeologia Medievale (2006) 397-408; Greenslade, ‘The Vrina Plain settlement between the lst-13th centuries AD’, in Hansen, Hodges, and Leppard (eds), Butrint 4: the archaeology and histories of an Ionian town.

12 Hodges, Towns and trade; Auge, M., Non-places. Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity (London 1995)Google Scholar.

13 Hodges, R., Kamani, S., Logue, M., and Vroom, J., ‘The sack of Butrint, c.AD 800’, Antiquity 83 Google Scholar (320): http/:www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/hodges (2009); Kamani, S., ‘Butrint in the mid-Byzantine period: a new interpretation’, BMGS 35/2 (2011) 115-33Google Scholar.

14 Bowden, W. and Hodges, R., Butrint 3. Excavations of the Triconch Palace (Oxford 2011)Google Scholar; Bowden, W. and Hodges, R., ‘An “ice age settling on the Roman empire”: Post-Roman Butrint between strategy and serendipity’, in Christie, N. and Augenti, A. (eds), Urbes Extinctae (Aldershot 2012) 207-42Google Scholar.

15 Papadopoulou, P., ‘The numismatic evidence from the southern Adriatic (5th-11th centuries): some preliminary thoughts’, in Gelichi, S. and Hodges, R. (eds), From one sea to the other: trading places in the European and Mediterranean Early Middle Ages (Turnhout, 2012) 297–320 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Morrisson, C., ‘Byzantine money: its production and circulation’, in Laiou, A. E. (ed.), The economic history of Byzantium: from the seventh through the fifteenth century, III (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 39,(Washington D.C. 2002) 954-8Google Scholar; Morrisson, C., ‘La Sicile byzantine: une lueur dans les siècles obscurs’, Quaderni ticinesi di numismatica e antichità classiche 27 (1999) 307-34Google Scholar.

16 Hodges et al., ‘The sack of Butrint’; Kamani, ‘Butrint in the mid-Byzantine period’.

17 R. Hodges, ‘From Roman insula to medieval quarter’, in Bowden and Hodges (eds), Butrint 3: excavations of the Triconch Palace, 319-26.

18 Scranton, R. L., Corinth, vol. XVI. Medieval architecture in the central area of Corinth (Princeton 1957) 39-11Google Scholar; 128-31; pl.3.4.

19 Polei, B., ‘Some aspects of the transformation of the Roman domus between late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages’, in Lavan, L. and Bowden, W. (eds), Theory and practice in Late Antique archaeology (Leiden 2003) 79-112Google Scholar.

20 W. Bowden, Y. Cerova, A. Crowson, and E. Vaccaro, ‘The merchant’s house and the city wall in the 5 th-7th centuries’, in W. Bowden and R. Hodges (eds), Butrint 3: excavations of the Triconch Palace, 193-7.

21 W. Bowden, A. Culwick, K. Francis, O. Gilkes, K. Lako, and J. Price, ‘The 5th- to mid 7th-century occupation of the triconch area’, in Bowden and Hodges (eds), Butrint 3: excavations of the Triconch Palace, 123-4; W. Bowden, A. Crowson, M. Logue, and A. Sebastiani, ‘The medieval occupation of the merchant’s house’, in Bowden and Hodges (eds), Butrint 3: excavations of the Triconch palace, 209-12; Augenti, A., ‘A tale of two cities. Rome and Ravenna between 7th and 9th century AD’, in Gasparri, S. (ed.) 774. Ipotesi su una transizione (Turnhout 2008) 183-92Google Scholar.

22 Bowden and Hodges, ‘Ice age settling on the Roman empire’.

23 Sebastiani, A., ‘Butrinto. Relazione preliminare dello scavo presso il Pozzo di Iunia Rufina’, Archaeologia Medievale 35 (2008) 254-5Google Scholar.

24 Curta, F., Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages 500-1250 (Cambridge 2006) 134-47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 W. Bowden and R. Hodges, Butrint 3. Excavations of the Triconch Palace; Hodges, R., The rise and fall of Byzantine Butrint (London 2008)Google Scholar. A similar harbourside mid-Byzantine settlement has been discovered outside the late Roman fortifications of ancient Aegina: see Pennas, C., Byzantine Aegina (Athens 2005) 14–15 Google Scholar. (Our thanks to Sarah Morris for this reference.)

26 Hodges, R. et al., ‘The sack of Butrint, c.AD 800’, Antiquity 83 (320): http/:www.antiquity.ac.uk/proj gall/hodges (2009)Google Scholar; Kamani, ‘Butrinto in the mid-Byzantine period’.

27 J. Vroom, ‘From one coast to another: early medieval ceramics in the southern Adriatic region, Comacchio’, in Gelichi and Hodges (eds) From one sea to the other, 353-93.

28 P. Papadopoulou, ‘Five lead seals from Byzantine Butrint (Albania)’, Studies in Byzantine Sigillograpby 11, forthcoming.

29 Morrisson, , ‘La Sicile byzantine’; McCormick, M., Origins of the European economy (Cambridge 2001)Google Scholar.

30 A. Rovelli, ‘Gold, silver and bronze: an analysis of monetary circulation along the Italian coasts’, in Gelichi and Hodges (eds), From one sea to the other, 267-97.

31 Bruno, B., Roman and Byzantine Malta. Trade and economy (Sta Venera 2009) 189-92Google Scholar.

32 A. Rovelli, ‘Gold, silver and bronze: an analysis of monetary circulation along the Italian coasts’, in Gelichi and Hodges (eds), From one sea to the other.

33 Morrisson, ‘La Sicile byzantine’; Papadopoulou, ‘The numismatic evidence from southern Adriatic (V-XI centuries)’.

34 Agallopoulou, O., ‘Palaiokastritsa’, Archaiologikon Deltion 28 (1973) 423-4Google Scholar.

35 P. Soustal, ‘The historical sources for Butrint in the Middle Ages’, in Hodges, Bowden and Lako (eds), Byzantine Butrint. Excavations and Survey 1994-1999, 22.

36 Jørgensen, L., ‘Manor and market at Lake Tissø in the sixth to eleventh centuries: the Danish “productive” sites’, in Pestell, T. and Ulmschneider, K. (eds), Markets in Early Medieval Europe. Trading and ‘Productive’ Sites, 650-850 (Bollington 2003) 175–207 Google Scholar; Wickham, C., The inheritance of Rome: a history of Europe from 400 to 1000 (Harmondsworth 2009) 248 Google Scholar.

37 Cantini, F., Lo Scavo Archeologico del Castello di Montarrenti (Siena). Per la Storia della Formazione del Vilhggio Medievale in Toscana (Secc. V1I-XV) (Florence 2003)Google Scholar; Wickham, The inheritance of Rome, 249.

38 Chrysos, E., ‘The middle Byzantine period (sixth century- 1204)’, in Sakellariou, M. B. (ed.), Epirus. 400 years of Greek history and civilization (Athens 1997) 184 Google Scholar.

39 Hodges, Byzantine Butrint.

40 Chrysos, ‘Middle Byzantine’, 184; Papadopoulou, ‘The numismatic evidence from southern Adriatic (5th-llth centuries)’.

41 Chrysos, ‘Middle Byzantine’, 184.

42 1 O. Gilkes, R. Hodges, V. Vroom, and K. Kondo, ‘New light on early medieval Saranda, ancient Onch-esmos: excavations at the Bashkia of Saranda’, Annual of the British School at Athens (forthcoming); Mitchell, J., ‘The archaeology of pilgrimage in late antique Albania: the basilica of the Forty Martyrs’, in Bowden, W., Lavan, L. and Machado, C. (eds), Recent research on the Late Antique countryside (Leiden 2004)Google Scholar.

43 Vita di Sant’ Eli ail Giovane, ed. and trans. G. Rossi Taibbi, Palermo, Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici. (1962) XVI, 116 (e 73), 182; McCormick, Origins, 957, no. 686.

44 Neville, L., Authority in Byzantine provincial society, 950-1100 (Cambridge 2004)Google Scholar.

45 W. Bowden and R. Hodges, Butrint 3. Excavations of the Triconcb Palace; Bowden and Hodges, ‘Ice age settling on the Roman empire’; Hodges, Byzantine Butrint.

46 Gelichi, S., ‘Flourishing places in north-eastern Italy: towns and emporia between late antiquity and the Carolingian age’, in Henning, J. (ed.), Post-Roman towns, trade and settlement in Europe and Byzantium. Vol. 1. The heirs of the Roman West (Berlin 2007) 77-104Google Scholar.

47 Gilkes et al., ‘Onchesmos’.

48 Loveluck, C. and Tys, D., ‘Coastal societies, exchange and identity along the Channel and southern North Sea shores of Europe, AD 600-100’, Journal of Maritime Archaeology 1 (2006) 148 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 McCormick, Origins, 151-73.

50 Haldon, J., The Palgrave atlas of Byzantine history (London 2005) 90-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 Hodges, R., Saranda. Ancient Onchesmos. A short history and guide (Tirana 2007) 45-7Google Scholar.

52 Bescoby, D., Barclay, J., and Andrews, J., ‘Saints and sinners: a tephrochronology for Late Antique landscape change in Epirus from the eruptive history of Lipari, Aeolian islands’, Journal of Archaeological Science 35(9) (2008) 2574-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53 Tartaron, T., Bronze Age landscape and society in Southern Epirus, Greece (Oxford 2004)Google Scholar; Wiseman, J. and Zachos, K., (eds), Landscape archaeology in Southern Epirus, Greece (Princeton 2003)Google Scholar.

54 N. Molk, F. Paris, and F. Venturini, ‘Material boundaries: The city walls at Butrint’, in Hansen, Hodges and Leppard (eds), Butrint 4.

55 Bowden, W. and Përzhita, L., ‘Archaeology in the landscape of Roman Epirus: Preliminary report on the Diaporit excavations, 2002-3’, journal of Roman Archaeology 17 (2004) 413-33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 Gilkes, O. and Hysa, V., ‘In the shadow of Butrint’, Expedition 53/3 (2011) 34-5Google Scholar.

57 Bowden and Hodges, ‘Ice age settling on the Roman empire’; Hodges, Byzantine Butrint, 91.

58 Bowden and Hodges, ‘Ice age settling on the Roman empire’.

59 Ugolini, Butrinto.

60 Bescoby, D. et al., ‘Saints and sinners: A tephrochronology for Late Antique landscape change in Epirus from the eruptive history of Lipari, Aeolian islands’, journal of Archaeological Science 35(9) (2008) 2574-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Veikou, M., ‘“Rural towns” and “in-between” or “third” spaces. Settlement patterns in Byzantine Epirus (7th-11th centuries) from an interdisciplinary approach’, Archeologia Medievale 36 (2009) 43–54 Google Scholar.

62 Magdalino, ‘The Byzantine aristocratic oikos’.

63 Ibid., 95.

64 Ibid., 95.

65 Ibid., 95.