Overview

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.

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9781108470421

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'The book's brisk survey of imported pottery, oil lamps, and jewelry documents the broad appeal of Roman culture in northern barbaricum, and provides context for the intensive investigation of gold, silver, and bronze coinage. Excavated coins document contractual exchange among political elites as well as low-level social interactions, yet their popular reception remained as exotic objects rather than economic currency. Richly documented and closely argued, this book offers a fresh historical analysis of emerging cultural identities in the early Balkans. Recommended.' M. Rautman, Choice 'The book's brisk survey of imported pottery, oil lamps, and jewelry documents the broad appeal of Roman culture in northern barbaricum, and provides context for the intensive investigation of gold, silver, and bronze coinage. Excavated coins document contractual exchange among political elites as well as low-level social interactions, yet their popular reception remained as exotic objects rather than economic currency. Richly documented and closely argued, this book offers a fresh historical analysis of emerging cultural identities in the early Balkans. Recommended.' M. Rautman, Choice

Author Information

Andrei Gandila is Assistant Professor of History and Director of Ancient and Medieval Studies at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. His numerous publications include articles in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Numismatic Chronicle, Revue Numismatique, American Journal of Numismatics, and Archaeologia Bulgarica.

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