Landscape approaches to the evolution of the Byzantine/Medieval village-community in Greece

Abstract

The Greek landscape preserves a wide diversity of settlements of different character, which were established or developed especially during the later Post-Medieval and Early Modern periods (17th–19th centuries). Early studies in Post-Medieval and traditional rural settlements, with specific reference to Greece, have made a distinction between permanent and temporary ones. Temporary agricultural and pastoral settlements usually comprised 40–50 καλύβια or seasonal habitations, while permanent ones comprised clustered villages and hamlets of a compact or loose layout, such as the çiftlik or commercial farm estates. These rural settlement types appeared in mainland Greece in the 17th–18th centuries, and were used for the production of cash-crops to feed the growing demand for raw materials by rising industrial and capitalist states in Western Europe. Thus, past studies have primarily focused on the general appearance of rural settlements, on the economic forces that shaped their history in pre-modern Greece (and Cyprus), or, more recently, on aspects of their abandonment and post-abandonment formation processes and material change.

Health, diet, and mortuary practices in the countryside of Byzantine and post‐Byzantine Boeotia: The case of Hagios Sozon in Orchomenos

“…Life in the countryside of Byzantine and post‐Byzantine Greece is commonly assessed through archaeology, arts, and textual sources. Recent advances in landscape archaeology and material culture have made it possible to gain a comprehensive insight into the “identities” (e.g., social, economic, and cultural) of the village communities (Vionis, 2020) while bioarchaeological investigation has greatly contributed to the better knowledge of the diet, mobility, weaning practices, and the rather difficult daily challenges of these people (Bourbou, 2010, 2014; Bourbou et al, 2011; Bourbou & Garvie‐Lok, 2015; Garvie‐Lok, 2001, 2009; Gerstel et al, 2003; Rohn et al, 2009; Tritsaroli, 2019, 2022). This paper examines the experiences and social makeup of the inhabitants in the countryside of Byzantine and post‐Byzantine Greece further by focusing on Boeotia, a region that held a central role in the economic, political, and artistic developments during these times.…”