The Messápios Plain after Antiquity: Investigation of a sacred landscape of Central Έvia

Archaeological investigation in Greece has long been mainly focused on remains of Antiquity. The interest in the Latin and Ottoman periods, on the other hand, is much more recent. Much has been done in that respect, and large scale diachronic field survey projects in particular brought insights into settlement patterns, domestic architecture, exchange networks, rural economy and other aspects of daily life in these periods thanks to the establishment and refinement of pottery chronologies for the Post-Roman periods. However, our picture of society, culture and daily life during the Latin period, especially in rural areas, is still hazy. Until recently, the only approach to Medieval central Έvia (Euboia) as a landscape rather than a collection of isolated sites and monuments was J. Koder’s study of Negroponte under Venetian rule, published in 1973. Building on it and on recent excavations, the intensive and extensive survey project investigating the landscape and socio-economic...Show moreArchaeological investigation in Greece has long been mainly focused on remains of Antiquity. The interest in the Latin and Ottoman periods, on the other hand, is much more recent. Much has been done in that respect, and large scale diachronic field survey projects in particular brought insights into settlement patterns, domestic architecture, exchange networks, rural economy and other aspects of daily life in these periods thanks to the establishment and refinement of pottery chronologies for the Post-Roman periods. However, our picture of society, culture and daily life during the Latin period, especially in rural areas, is still hazy. Until recently, the only approach to Medieval central Έvia (Euboia) as a landscape rather than a collection of isolated sites and monuments was J. Koder’s study of Negroponte under Venetian rule, published in 1973. Building on it and on recent excavations, the intensive and extensive survey project investigating the landscape and socio-economic transformations of the hinterland of modern Chalkída (Byzantine Euripos, Latin Negroponte), begun in summer 2022, researches the ties between this urban centre and its hinterland. Situated in western central Έvia, the Messápios plain constitutes the northern hinterland of modern Chalkída. As a contribution to the larger survey project, the present study of Medieval churches of the Messápios plain aims to add some detail to the current picture of this region in Medieval times and thereby gain some insight into the societies that built these churches and shaped that landscape. In our extensive survey we used drone imagery, documented the building techniques, architectural form and decoration of medieval buildings and infrastructure in ruinous state or still in use, and analysed local collections of archaeological finds. This new data provided us with a more detailed and nuanced view of this landscape in medieval times. The churches built in the Messapios plain during the Byzantine and Latin periods are all known and have been previously investigated. The novelty here is that in this study they were analysed as different elements of one Medieval landscape, based on the extensive survey and photographic documentation of these monuments as well as on the critical review of prior archaeological research. Some interesting patterns could be revealed, notably the fact that all known churches of the cross-vaulted type, a church type that appeared during the Latin period, are restricted to the eastern end of the valley. Furthermore, this study showed that the Messápios plain can hardly be considered only as the hinterland of Chalkída, as the straight connects it to northern Central Greece rather than isolating it. To gain more significant insights on aspects of society and daily life on Έvia during the Byzantine and Latin periods, the scope of this study should be at least widened to the whole scale of the larger survey project. It should also include data from neighbouring regions connected to Έvia by the straight.Show less

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The Messápios Plain after Antiquity: Investigation of a sacred landscape of Central Έvia