Conference 2023

Black Sea Migrations in the Long Thirteenth Century: Bodies, Things, Ideas

September 22-23, 2023
211 Dickinson Hall | Princeton University

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Sponsored by: Center for Collaborative History | Department of Art & Archaeology Department of Religion | Humanities Council | Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies | Program in Medieval Studies | Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies | The Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies | University Center for Human Values

The Black Sea witnessed a great influx of new populations in the thirteenth century as peoples from across Eurasia came to settle on its coasts and hinterlands, transforming the character of the region. After the fall of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, western Europeans–spearheaded by the Venetians and French, and subsequently the Genoese–extended their commercial reach, gaining access for the first time to the basin and establishing colonies and outposts on its northern coast. In the same period, the overland route to Central and East Asia came under Mongol control. These developments were accompanied by the destabilisation of existing polities, as well as the displacement of Slavs, Turks and other peoples. Many of the casualties of the new socio-political structures that emerged were deprived of their freedom and forced to embark on new lives as enslaved persons in the Mamluk Sultanate or the city states of northern Italy. 

This conference examines the role both of the major ports and cities of the region — such as Constantinople, Pera, Kiev, Caffa, Sudak, Tana, Sarai Batu and Trebizond – and of the agrarian and pastoral communities of the hinterlands in shaping the trans-regional movement of people, goods and ideas between Asia, Europe and Africa. To investigate this historical problem, we invite leading scholars to share their research on these complex political, commercial, and cultural interactions, bringing to light some of the rich source material that survives in unprecedented abundance from this period. 

We will reconstruct the ways in which overland and maritime routes interacted with settlement patterns and political boundaries. We will also examine kinds of ties that were forged between communities of diverse origin. We will ask whether the increased level of mobility in this period gave rise to a distinctly new and unified culture in the region – especially in shaping forms of governance, systems of belief, and knowledge production across the Black Sea. Or, did factors such as the diversity of peoples and customs, stark economic competition, colonization, and rise of the slave market produce greater fragmentation and diversity locally?

Specific topics to be addressed include:

  • The Byzantines’ continuing involvement in the Black Sea 
  • The Latin Empire’s ambitions in the Black Sea
  • Genoese and Venetian colonies in the Black Sea
  • The Empire of Trebizond as a Black Sea polity
  • The impact of the Mongol and Turkish expansion on the region
  • Changes in the importance of maritime and overland routes
  • Coinage, trade and the economic integration of the region
  • The role of the Black Sea basin in the pre-modern trans-regional slave trade
  • Local experiences of captivity and enslavement
  • The Black Death and the Black Sea
  • The Abrahamic religions and the Black Sea
  • The material and intellectual culture of the Black Sea

By exploring the Black Sea from these various angles, we hope to shed light on a region that until now has rarely been studied as a whole.

Organized by the Center for Collaborative History