Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant - Investigating The Effects of State Expansion in Rural Greece

Field Museum Of Natural History, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

A fundamental goal of this research is to understand how, in large scale political units such as states or empires, rural or "peripheral" communities are integrated into larger economically dominant social centers. Currently, the lack of such integration has resulted in unrest in developing countries in many regions of the world. Archaeological research, such as this project, has the ability to bring a centuries-long perspective to this question. As empires rise, expand, and fall, the people living within their borders are affected in dramatically different ways. With the guidance of her doctoral advisor, Dr. William Parkinson, Rebecca Seifried will study the ebb and flow of imperial expansion in a region famed for its location on the cultural and geographical edge of Greece - the Mani peninsula in the southern Peloponnese. The project will focus on how the transition from Byzantine (1204-1453) to Ottoman (1453-1830) rule affected where people lived and the types of physical and visual connections they maintained over time. To accomplish this task, she will use an innovative combination of methods, including analysis of aerial photography and satellite imagery, archaeological survey, study of historical archives, and spatial analysis with geographic information systems (GIS) software. Data will be gathered from several different sources: ceramics, architectural traditions, cobbled road systems, village populations, and geographic locations of settlements. After mapping and dating the settlements and the roads that connect them, Seifried will use spatial analysis to determine how their relationships changed after Ottoman rule was established in the region. Finally, the findings will be compared with other regions in the former Ottoman Empire, including the Albanian highlands, the island of Cyprus, and the neighboring peninsulas of Messenia and Laconia. Archaeological research on state expansion has tended to focus on the most important cities and their economically productive hinterlands. Different anthropological models (generally referred to as "core-periphery" models) have been proposed to understand how these types of places interacted. However, most of the rural areas within imperial borders have been left relatively unexplored. This project challenges these core-periphery models by exploring a region on the outskirts of an imperial territory. This work is directly relevant to the modern geopolitical landscape, since, like the Mani, much of the world does not fit neatly into the categories of "core" or "periphery." As such, the project seeks to illuminate the relationship between state systems and their borderlands, regardless of place or time period. The project will also have a broader impact in terms of international collaboration, training, and education. It will also demonstrate how a multidisciplinary approach, combining techniques from the fields of archaeology, geophysics, and history, can greatly benefit our understanding of rural socioeconomic changes in the recent past. It will actively promote collaboration between American and Greek scholars, encourage involvement of women in the sciences, and provide Greek students with training in innovative techniques and hands-on archaeological field experience. The ceramic collection of the local archaeological museum in Pyrgos Dirou will be expanded with material from these later periods, which are severely underrepresented in most Greek museums. More generally, all data will be disseminated to the public and the scientific community through The Field Museum website, publications in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, press releases in Greece, and lectures at Greek institutions and scholarly conferences. Seifried will also give presentations for locals in the Mani to provide information about the project, promote engagement with recent cultural heritage, and encourage the protection of Byzantine and Ottoman archaeological sites and features.