Rural Lives and Landscapes in Late Byzantium
Art, Archaeology, and Ethnography

This is the first book to examine the late Byzantine village through written, archaeological and painted sources.

Sharon E. J. Gerstel (Author)

9780521851596, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 July 2015

234 pages, 34 b/w illus. 90 colour illus. 3 maps
28.9 x 22 x 1.6 cm, 1 kg

This is the first book to examine the late Byzantine peasantry through written, archaeological, ethnographic and painted sources. Investigations of the infrastructure and setting of the medieval village guide the reader into the consideration of specific populations. The village becomes a micro-society, with its own social and economic hierarchies. In addition to studying agricultural workers, mothers and priests, lesser-known individuals, such as the miller and witch, are revealed through written and painted sources. Placed at the center of a new scholarly landscape, the study of the medieval villager engages a broad spectrum of theorists, including economic historians creating predictive models for agrarian economies, ethnoarchaeologists addressing historical continuities and disjunctions, and scholars examining power and female agency.

1. The landscape of the village
2. Communication and the village church
3. The village woman
4. Village men, village labor
5. In the service of the church
6. The body and the soul.

Subject Areas: Rural communities [JFSF], Medieval European archaeology [HDDM], Social & cultural history [HBTB], History of art: Byzantine & Medieval art c 500 CE to c 1400 [ACK]