Meetings Of Cultures In The Black Sea Region

As a theme, Meetings of Cultures in the Black Sea Region: Between Conflict and Coexistence arouses strong feelings. From the remotest Antiquity, the indigenous and nomadic non-Greek populations of the Pontic region were persistently viewed as one of the major Others, first of all by Mediterranean Greeks. And because the region geographically was located as a bridge between Europe and Asia it was, and still is, also part of a Europe/Asia discourse of dichotomy. As far back in time as Antiquity Western self-understanding and identity formation has been shaped not least through its colonial experiences. Until recently, such colonial experience has led to a very static picture in our analysis of colonial encounters. However, as a result of post-colonialism, post-modernism and now globalization our conception of colonization has undergone a rapid and far-reaching conceptual change. Gone are the days when the Black Sea region was seen as a sea of barbarian wilds enlightened by small flicks of Greek civilization along the coast. Settling the Black Sea region was a challenge for the Greeks. Compared with the Mediterranean, this happened relatively late, and the attempt of settling the land was not always equally successful. In fact, frequently the power balance was in favour of the indigenous population. Nevertheless, the cultivation of the land and the establishment of exchange systems must have been beneficial for all participants in the exchange network. In this volume, the acts of an international, interdisciplinary conference held at Sandbjerg Manor House, Denmark in January 2006 are published. 19 contributions by scholars from Denmark, France, Georgia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, and Ukraine give a profound discussion of various topics such as the physical arena of the colonial encounters as spaces of identity; the layout of land and protection of cities; the dynamics of the cultural exchange; the perception of how it was to be Greek in the Pontic realm, and finally the reciprocal strategies exerted by the Greeks and Scythians in Olbia as described in Herodotos' Fourth Book of his Histories. Through the many-sided contributions it is also revealed, how self and other is two sides of the same coin - yesterday, today and, tomorrow.

As a theme, Meetings of Cultures in the Black Sea Region: Between Conflict and Coexistence arouses strong feelings. From the remotest Antiquity, the indigenous and nomadic non-Greek populations of the Pontic region were persistently viewed as one of the major Others, first of all by Mediterranean Greeks. And because the region geographically was located as a bridge between Europe and Asia it was, and still is, also part of a Europe/Asia discourse of dichotomy. As far back in time as Antiquity Western self-understanding and identity formation has been shaped not least through its colonial experiences. Until recently, such colonial experience has led to a very static picture in our analysis of colonial encounters. However, as a result of post-colonialism, post-modernism and now globalization our conception of colonization has undergone a rapid and far-reaching conceptual change. Gone are the days when the Black Sea region was seen as a sea of barbarian wilds enlightened by small flicks of Greek civilization along the coast. Settling the Black Sea region was a challenge for the Greeks. Compared with the Mediterranean, this happened relatively late, and the attempt of settling the land was not always equally successful. In fact, frequently the power balance was in favour of the indigenous population. Nevertheless, the cultivation of the land and the establishment of exchange systems must have been beneficial for all participants in the exchange network. In this volume, the acts of an international, interdisciplinary conference held at Sandbjerg Manor House, Denmark in January 2006 are published. 19 contributions by scholars from Denmark, France, Georgia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, and Ukraine give a profound discussion of various topics such as the physical arena of the colonial encounters as spaces of identity; the layout of land and protection of cities; the dynamics of the cultural exchange; the perception of how it was to be Greek in the Pontic realm, and finally the reciprocal strategies exerted by the Greeks and Scythians in Olbia as described in Herodotos' Fourth Book of his Histories. Through the many-sided contributions it is also revealed, how self and other is two sides of the same coin - yesterday, today and, tomorrow.

The Northern Black Sea in Antiquity brings together the latest research on an important region of the ancient Mediterranean world.

Based on extensive research in multiple languages, this book is an innovative and indispensable guide to the history, cultures, and politics of the fascinating Black Sea area and its future at the heart of Europe and Eurasia. Charles King breaks new ground in demonstrating how a region often thought of as a zone of timeless conflict has experienced long periods of integration and co-operation. - ;The area from the Balkans to the Caucasus is often seen as a zone of timeless conflict, a frontier region at the meeting place of mutually antagonistic civilizations. But in this pathbreaking work, Charles King investigates the myriad of connections that have made the Black Sea more of a bridge than a boundary, linking religious communities, linguistic groups, empires, and later, nations and states. For some parts of the world, the idea of waterways as defining elements in human history is uncontroversial. Mention the Mediterranean or the South Pacific, and images of mutual influence come to mind. Those images come less readily for the Black Sea-a region that has experienced ethnic conflict, economic collapse, and interstate rivalries over the last two decades. But in the recent past, the idea of the Black Sea as a distinct unit was self-evident. From its formation some seven or eight millennia ago to the political revolutions and environmental crisis of the late twentieth century, the sea has been a zone of interaction - sometimes cordial, sometimes conflictual - among the peoples and states around its shores. To the ancient Greeks, the sea lay literally at the edge of the known world. In time, the growth of Greek trading colonies linked all the coasts into a web of economic relationships. In the Middle Ages, the sea was tied to the great commercial cities of Venice and Genoa. Later, the Ottomans used the region's resources to build their own empire. In the late eighteenth century, the sea was opened to foreign commerce, and the seacoasts were part of a genuinely global system of trade. After the collapse of the Russian and Ottoman empires, the coastline was carved up among a number of newly formed nation-states, with each asserting a right to a piece of the coast and a section of the coastal waters. Today, efforts to resurrect the idea of the Black Sea as a unified region are once again on the international agenda. Based on extensive research in multiple languages, this book is an indispensable guide to the history, cultures, and politics of this fascinating sea and its future at the heart of Europe and Eurasia. - ;Well footnoted and fluently written...a useful and accessible work - with the Sea itself quite properly at the centre of attention. - Robin Milner-Gulland, History Today;In this timely book Charles King provides a stretchy timeline for the murky pool (once a lake, now a tideless sea) which has always sat on the edge of everything: Europe, Asia, civilisation, barbarism, us and other. - The Guardian Review;This is an essential book for anyone who feels they ought to know about what used to be called "the eastern question" and worries, secretly, that it is too late to start finding out. - The Guardian;A solid work by an academic historian, writing for the general educated public. He is particularly good on little known or forgotten episodes - the part played by Westerners in the development of the area. King is well placed to see through the myths of nationalists ... he has a good eye also for the victims of history. Kings work has all the virtues of good American scholarship ... vast array of sources, ... a transatlantic detachment, and the recent and very welcome fashion for elegant prose. - Andrew Mango, TLS;The collapse of the Soviet Union restored two great geostrategic arenas long buried in now-defunct empires or pushed to the margin by Cold War alignments. The first is Inner Asia, an immense hinterland stretching from the Chinese borderlands, across the Siberian south, to the Hindu Kush. The second is the Black Sea, a junction where the Balkans, Central Asia, and the Middle East meet. (Say no more.) To appreciate what this re-embodiment means one needs a special vantage point. King traces the Black Sea's many political incarnations from the Greeks and Scythians to the Romans, the Byzantine Christians, the Ottomans, the Russians, and the tumult of the twentieth century. Even when fractured and populated with weak and troubled states (as now), the region, King argues in this mind-broadening book, coheres-and deserves to be thought about and approached accordingly. - ;...essential reading for all who are dealing with the Black Sea history and archaeology. - International Journal of Maritime History;The collapse of the Soviet Union restored two great geostrategic arenas long buried in now-defunct empires or pushed to the margin by Cold War alignments. The first is Inner Asia, an immense hinterland stretching from the Chinese borderlands, across the Siberian south, to the Hindu Kush. The second is the Black Sea, a junction where the Balkans, Central Asia, and the Middle East meet. (Say no more.) To appreciate what this re-embodiment means one needs a special vantage point. King traces the Black Sea's many political incarnations from the Greeks and Scythians to the Romans, the Byzantine Christians, the Ottomans, the Russians, and the tumult of the twentieth century. Even when fractured and populated with weak and troubled states (as now), the region, King argues in this mind-broadening book, coheres-and deserves to be thought about and approached accordingly. - Foreign Affairs

Presents a landmark study combining key specialists around the region with well-established international scholars, from a wide range of disciplines.

Environment and human habitation have become principal topics of research with the growing interest in the Black Sea region in antiquity. This book highlights their interaction around all the coasts of the region, from different perspectives and disciplines. Here, archaeological excavation and survey combine with studies of classical texts, cults, medicine, and more, to explore ancient experiences of the region. Accordingly, the region is examined from external viewpoints, centred in the Mediterranean (Herodotus, the Hippocratics, ancient geographers, and poets), and through local lenses, particularly supplied by archaeology. While familiar disconnects emerge, there is also a striking coherence in the results of these different pathways into the study of local environments, which embrace not only Graeco-Roman settlement, but also a broader range of agricultural and pastoralist activities across a huge landscape which stretches as far afield as ancient Hungary. Throughout, there are methodological implications for research elsewhere in the ancient world. This book shows people in landscapes across a huge expanse, in local reality and in external conceptions, complete with their own agency, ideas, and lifestyles.

Papers in this volume cover all shores of the Black Sea and address, alongside many other topics, the establishment dates of some Greek Colonies; East Greek transport amphorae; the history of Tekkeköy; the pre-Roman economy of Myrmekion; Byzantine finds at Komana; glass bracelets from Samsun Museum; dating the Kavak Bekdemir Mosque in Samsun.

The book is the second volume of a series of studies dealing with the Submerged literature in ancient Greek culture (s. vol. 1: G. Colesanti, M. Giordano, eds., Submerged Literature in Ancient Greek Culture. An Introduction, Berlin-Boston, de Gruyter, 2014). It is a peculiar starting point of the research in the field of Greek culture, since it casts a light on many case studies so far not yet analyzed as literary products subjected to the process of submersion: e.g. oracles, philosophy, phlyax play, epigrams, Aesopic fables, periplus, sacred texts, mysteries, medical treatises, dance, music. Therefore the book investigates the complex and manifold dynamics of ‘emergence’ and ‘submersion’ in ancient Greek literary culture, dealing especially with matters as the interaction between orality and literacy, the authorship, the cultural transmission, the folklore. Moreover, the book offers the reader new stimulating approaches in order to reconstruct the wide frame which contained the overall cultural processes, including the literary products subjected to the submersion, in a chronological span going from Greek archaic age to the Imperial age.