This project studies the interactions of different peoples in the Black Sea from the rise of the Huns to the fall of the Byzantines. Although some of those who made the region their home established deep-rooted colonies, kingdoms, and empires, there was also substantial transitory movement. The Mongols, for example, entered the basin from Central Asia; the Vikings descended from the Baltic; the Byzantines, Ottomans and Crusaders came up from the eastern Mediterranean; and the Italians across from the Western Mediterranean.
We intend to investigate the experiences of those who inhabited or passed through both the littoral and hinterland of the Black Sea. To this end, we focus on the ways in which individuals and groups participated in and reacted to incursions, conquest, and displacement. Probing textual and archaeological evidence, we address fundamental questions regarding the nature of trans-regional networks and the role played in them by local nodes, such as the cities of Kiev (Kyiv), Kherson, Sarai Batu, and Caffa (Feodosia) and Tana (Tanais). We explore the ways in which land and maritime routes interacted with settlement patterns and political boundaries. We show how communities of diverse origin and different systems of belief and modes of governance forged new economic and cultural ties. We assess the impact of increased connectivity upon the development of technology, record-keeping, literature, and art, as well as the spread of disease.
The trade networks that converged on the Black Sea gave rise to one of the largest slave markets in the medieval world. The region is central to any understanding of the wider history of pre-modern slavery. Large numbers of people were taken from entrepots in the region by caravans and ships and sold in Central Asia, North Africa and Western Europe. We intend to identify the experiences of ordinary men, women and children in the shadow of almost a millennium of trade in human beings that has notoriously given us the very word ‘slave’. We therefore study the construction of race, ethnicity and caste within the region, as well as shifts in religious beliefs and practices under the influence of colonisers, such as the Genoese and Venetians, and missionaries, such as the Byzantines. We also analyse the mechanisms of enslavement, transportation and sale, together with their legal frameworks. We find traces of these activities not least in the remains of the material culture of the medieval period.
Topics
Topics under consideration by contributors include, but are not limited to:
- The environmental history of the basin
- Waters, waterways and the flow of goods and coinage
- Ships and life in transit
- Nodes and boundaries I: Mountains, islands and peninsulas
- Nodes and boundaries II: Cities, ports and camps
- Migrations
- Political expansion and contraction
- Institutions and agencies
- Enslavement, race and religious conversion
- Material culture
- Literary culture
- Systems of belief
- Memory, language and identity
Planned Outcomes
The initiative convened a year-long seminar on ‘The Medieval Black Sea’ at Princeton University during 2022-2023. This was followed by a conference on ‘Black Sea Migrations in the Long Thirteenth Century: Bodies, Things, Ideas’ in 2023 and a public lecture on ‘“The Greater Sea”: The Black Sea and Medieval Eurasia.’ An exhibition of coins from the Black Sea region was also at the Firestone Library.
Resources for teaching and learning (e.g. bibliographies, syllabi, short essays and videos) are in the process of being created, compiled and published. An edited volume of our research is also forthcoming, as our other traditional and digital publications.
We are indebted to Princeton’s Center for Collaborative History for hosting this initiative and also to our sponsors.