Cultural encounters on Byzantium's Northern Frontier, c. AD 500-700 : coins, artifacts and history / Andrei Gandila.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gândilă, Andrei, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coins, Byzantine--Lower Danube River Valley.

Coins, Byzantine.

Coins, Byzantine--Caucasus, South.

Coins, Byzantine--Pannonia Region.

Lower Danube River Region--Antiquities, Byzantine.

Lower Danube River Region.

Lower Danube River Region--Commerce--History--To 1500.

Byzantine Empire--History--527-1081.

Byzantine Empire.

Byzantine Empire--History--To 527.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 376 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Summary:

In the sixth century, Byzantine emperors secured the provinces of the Balkans by engineering a frontier system of unprecedented complexity. Drawing on literary, archaeological, anthropological, and numismatic sources, Andrei Gandila argues that cultural attraction was a crucial component of the political frontier of exclusion in the northern Balkans. If left unattended, the entire edifice could easily collapse under its own weight. Through a detailed analysis of the archaeological evidence, the author demonstrates that communities living beyond the frontier competed for access to Byzantine goods and reshaped their identity as a result of continual negotiation, reinvention, and hybridization. In the hands of 'barbarians', Byzantine objects, such as coins, jewelry, and terracotta lamps, possessed more than functional or economic value, bringing social prestige, conveying religious symbolism embedded in the iconography, and offering a general sense of sharing in the Early Byzantine provincial lifestyle.

Contents:

The Roman Frontier in Late antiquity

Cultural diversity in the Danube Region and beyond: an archaeological perspective

Christianity North of the Danube

Contact and separation on the Danube Frontier

The flow of Byzantine coins beyond the Frontier

Putting the Danube into perspective: money, bullion, and prestige in Avaria ND Transcaucasia

Money and Barbarians: same coins, different functions.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 09 Oct 2018).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-108-67901-3

1-108-66637-X

1-108-66374-5