Byzantine Italy

900 that presents a bold thesis on the role of long-distance slave-trading in the formation of the medieval economy. McCormick argued that something significant happened in the middle of the eighth century as Italian merchants began exporting other Europeans south and eastward to the 'Abbasid Caliphate. Each of the four papers presents a very different reaction to the ideas that McCormick pioneered. The first two papers look at aspects of slavery and the slave trade before the proposed shift; Noel Lenski examines the importance of slavery in seventh-century Spain while Thomas MacMaster looks at the evidence for the exportation of slaves from Italy itself in the centuries before McCormick's proposed shift. If these first two papers examine the evidence for a shift in the slave trade, the second half of the session will look at some of the results of that shift. In the third paper, Matthew Gordon looks at Islamic evidence (such as it is) for the 'voracious appetite' for slaves within the Abbasid Caliphate asserted by McCormick while, in the fourth paper, Matthew Delvaux will discuss evidence for the 'return' on the slave trade with the Islamic world seen in the archaeology of Northern Europe. These four papers will present a series of responses to one of the more important recent ideas in early medieval social and economic history and each approaches the question from a very different angle. It is hoped that these papers will both expand knowledge and suggest some of the directions that McCormick's work has suggested. McCormick argues that the Mediterranean economy emerged from a period of relative fallow in the post-Roman period to rebuild itself through commercial exchange focused in no small part on the slave trade in the Carolingian period. The hunger for slaves in the eastern Mediterranean drove a burgeoning market in long-distance trade that McCormick has shown to be well documented in hagiographic and documentary sources. This picture has won a degree of confirmation from numismatic evidence from eastern Europe which confirms the importance of the long-distance trade in slaves via the Vistula/Dniester/Black Sea nexus as well. This paper proposes to provide further context to this picture by emphasizing the ongoing importance of slavery in the post Roman period in the western Mediterranean, and particularly in Visigothic territories in southern Gaul and Spain (fifth through eighth centuries CE). The scanty source record for the period has been greatly enhanced by

La guerra greco-gotica è tradizionalmente considerata per l’Italia la fondamentale linea di separazione tra età tardoantica e medioevo, spesso a prescindere da un’analisi sufficientemente dettagliata della reale dimensione degli eventi. Obiettivo di questo lavoro è sottoporre a una discussione critica questa immagine, partendo da una rap-
presentazione grafica su una base GIS degli eventi per sviluppare una riflessione più generale sulla complessità degli effetti che la guerra stessa ebbe nelle diverse regioni dell’Italia del VI e del VII secolo.


The Gothic War is traditionally considered the fundamental dividing line between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Italy, regardless of a sufficiently detailed analysis of the true dimension of the events. This paper focuses on a critical discussion of this perception, based on a graphic representation of war events generated via GIS. This has
allowed us to engage in a more general reflection on the complexity of the impact that the war itself had on the different regions of Italy in the 6th and 7th centuries AD.

A Western Byzantine Pole: the case of the Southern Adriatic Region

This session focuses on the distinctive forms of interconnection, transition and adoption of cultures among the communities living in the Southern Adriatic region in the Byzantine period. From the 7th to the 13th centuries, the territories facing the Southern Adriatic Sea appear to become fluid frontier zones. During the during the 7th and 8th centuries, within the Italian peninsula and the Balkans, the Byzantine empire kept partial control over its territories, while the Longobards, the Avars and the Slavs respectively in Italy and in the Balkans, and by the 10th century the Arabs in Sicily, expanded their control over the Byzantine lands. Likewise, the Normans from the 11th century and the Latins during the 13th century imposed their authority also on some of these Southern Adriatic territories, while other areas of this region remain under Byzantine control. This state of affairs determined intricated political and diplomatic relations between these political authorities, generating movements of people and ideas, cultural exchange and connections, which lead towards unique artistic and cultural expressions. Core of this region of interchange was the 70 km wide Strait of Otranto, an important hub for the transfer of people and idea between the different districts of the Mediterranean Sea, and also a focal point of connection between the Byzantine Empire and the Western Medieval world.The communities living in the Southern Adriatic territories in the period under examination, through contact, exchange and migrations between Western Europe, the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean experienced a high degree of connectivity and mutual influence, which impacted upon their social and economic organisation. This is visible in the material cultural record, in the manufacturing tradition and in linguistic peculiarities, as documented, for example, by the Hellenophone communities still present in Southern Italy today, or by the Slavic toponomies in the deep Byzantine Peloponnese.The aim of this session is thus to provide a characterisation of the peculiar Byzantine cultural identity of the southern Adriatic region from the 7th to the 13th centuries, creating a dialogue between different literary, archaeological and numismatic sources.

A Call for submissions and contributions to the new Amsterdam University Press series Italy in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages [ILAEMA] on behalf of the Editorial Board.

This new series encourages researchers in the field to submit proposals for monographs/books/works on all aspects of culture, life and history in Italy throughout the Late Antique and Early Medieval period inclusive of Ostrogothic Italy [489-562]; Lombard Italy [568-774]; Carolingian Italy [774-888] and the so-called period of the National Kingdom [888-962] in the North and centre of the peninsula together with all those areas associated with the East Roman/Byzantine Empire. Coverage does not exclude Sicily, Sardinia or Corsica.

For further information, please follow this link: https://www.aup.nl/en/series/italy-in-late-antiquity-and-the-early-middle-ages

In several regions of Southern Italy there is still a rural tradition to recite the Passion in the local dialects. They are Balkan dialects which are mixed with the local Italian dialect, but its ritual recitation is usually called kalimera (“Good morning" in Greek). The present study compares five communities which perform the kalimera in a more or less liturgical context of the Holy Week: Spezzano albanese (Spixana), Acquaformosa (Firmoza), Lungro (Ungra), Firmo (Ferma), San Basile (Shën Vasili), Frascineto (Frasnita), and Civita (Çifti). The five communities use a corpus of texts which often follow a literary prototype created by Jul Variboba during the 18th century. Each village uses different melodies or strophic models usually a monophonic recitation by female singers, San Basile's recitation is even performed as a multipart song alternating between male and female singers.

Unfortunately, the Italoalbanian dialect called Arbëresh, registered as world heritage at the UN, is since 2007 on the red list of seriously endangered languages (like Italo-Greek dialects before), despite the fact that the number of active speakers is still is considerably higher. We do not know, if these traditions will be continued during the next decades, so we hope that our recordings might help for a later revival of a lost tradition. Concerning the texts, it seems that all of them are taken from Variboba, although some of them are Calabrian and Italian texts, but we would like to point out how the literary poems have been transformed and adapted to the local tradition. Concerning the melodic models, we would like to describe, what they have in common and what is unique for the tradition of one community.

В няколко региона на Южна Италия намираме традиция на епична рецитация на Пасиони (Страстите), изпълнявана на местни диалекти. Обикновено това са балкански диалекти, които се смесват с локалния италиански, но нейната ритуална рецитация обикновено се нарича калимера (kalimera), защото тя се пее през нощта или рано сутрин между Лазаровден и Цветница и включва официално приветствие към присъстващите. Има дори калимера на италиански диалекти, там където вече са загубени езиковите знания на така наречените малцинствени езици. Ние бихме искали да представим сравнително изследване на пет общини, които изпълняват калимера в повече или по-малко литургичен контекст по време на Страстната седмица: Акуаформоза (Фирмоза), Лунгро (Унгра), Фирмо (Ферма), Сан Базиле (Шън Васили), и Фрашинето (Фраснита). Петте общности използват повече или по-малко същите текстове, които са създадени от един свещеник на име Джул Варибоба през XVIII век, но всяко село използва различни мелодии или строфични модели. Рецитацията в Сан Базиле дори се осъществява като многогласно пеене между мъжки и женски певци, докато едногласната рецитация на другите села се извършва в различна степен неофициално от певици.

За съжаление, италианско-албанският диалект наречен "Arbëresh", регистриран като световно наследство в рамките на ООН, от 2007 е в червения списък на сериозно застрашените езици (като италианско-гръцките диалекти), въпреки факта, че броят на активните говорещите този диалект все още е значително висок. Ние не знаем, дали тези традиции ще бъдат продължени през следващите десетилетия, така че се надяваме нашите записи да могат да помогнат при по-късно възраждане на изгубена традиция. По отношение на текстовете, изглежда, че всичките са взети от Варибоба, въпреки че някои от тях са калабрийски и италиански текстове, но бихме искали да посочим как литературните стихове са трансформирани и адаптирани към местната традиция. Що се отнася до мелодичните модели, бихме искали да опишем това, което е общото между тях и това, което е уникално за традицията на една общност.

Remark: Unfortunately, the published version available under the link:
https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=542930
has graphics in deficient quality. Therefore we cannot authorise the published version!