Medieval Landscapes and Rurality in Anatolia and Beyond

International conference hosted at DAI Istanbul, organized in collaboration with the Institut Français d’Études Anatoliennes (IFEA) and the Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED).
With the support of Sorbonne University, Middle East Technical University (METU), UMR 8167 Orient&Méditerranée and the Initiative Circulations Médiévales (MeCir) – Alliance Sorbonne Université

Programme

14 may 2026

REWRITING MEDIEVAL NARRATIVES

9.30-9.45 : Introductory Remarks
9.45-10.15 : Asa Eger (University of North Carolina-Greensboro) : Neither Byzantine nor Saljuq: The Complex Rural World of Southern Anatolia and Northern Syria in the 10-15th Centuries
10.15-10.45 : John Bintliff (University o f Edinburgh) : Bridging the Late Byzantine-Frankish to Ottoman Divide in Greece
10.45-11.15 Coffee Break
11.15-11.45 : D. Burcu Erciyas (Middle East Technical University) & Maxime Durocher (Sorbonne Université) : Land, peasants and institutions: heterarchy and settlement patterns in late-medieval and early Ottoman Komana
11.45-12.15 : Vincent Thérouin (Ghent University) : Turning “villages” into “cities”? The urbanization process in Early Modern Ottoman Bosnia, its effectiveness, and its conceptualization
12.15-12.45 : Anaïs Lamesa (University of Edinburgh) & Grégoire: Sommer (Laboratoire d’études sur les rhétoriques) : Beyond Division: Permeability and Interaction in the Rural Landscapes of Medieval Cappadocia
12.45-13.00 : Discussion

INTERMEDIATE LANDSCAPES, IN-BETWEEN URBAN AND RURAL

14.30-15.00 : Luca Zavagno (Bilkent University) : « Third Spaces » in the early Medieval Mediterranean: the view from Byzantine Anatolia
15.00-15.30 : Suna Çağaptay (Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University) & Filiz İnanan (Bursa Uludağ University) : Anaia from Below (?): New Approaches for Analyzing the Landscape of a Byzantine Settlement in Kuşadası
15.30-16.00 : Coffee Break
16.00-16.30: Marica Cassis (University of Calgary) : Villages, Monasteries, and Kastra: The In-Between Spaces in Yozgat Province
16.30-17.00 : Oya Pancaroğlu (Boğaziçi University) : Degrees of Urbanity and Rurality in the Southern Cappadocian Plains: Develi after 1250
17.00-17.30 Pierre Benoit (Independent Scholar) : Landscape, rurality, and urbanity in western Anatolia from the late Byzantine to the Ottoman period as seen through Pergamon (Bergama) and its hinterland

POWER, PATRONAGE AND TRANSFORMATION OF RURAL LANDSCAPES

10.00-10.30 : Iryna Teslenko (National Archaeological Institute with Museum – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) : A Landscape of Power: Castles of Southern Crimea, 1420s–1475
10.30-11.00 : Birgül Açıkyıldız (Harran University) : Rojkan Dynasty and the Shaping of Medieval Landscapes in Bidlis (14th-16th c.)
11.00-11.30 : Ayşe Belgin-Henry (Bilkent University) : The post- Roman dynamics of Kozkalesi: A micro perspective on rural Antioch/ Antakya
11.30-11.45 Discussion

RIVERINE LANDSCAPES

13.30-14.00 : Ahmet Bilir (Düzce University) : Integrated Waterways of the Bithynia Region: Connecting Inland Plains to the Propontis and Pontos Euxeinos
14.00-14.30 : Alkiviadis Ginalis (DAI Istanbul), Paolo Maranzana (Boğaziçi University), Marco Cavalazzi (University of Bologna), Michele Abballe (Ca’ Foscari University Venice) : East versus West: Riverscapes and the Shaping of Human Occupation in the Hinterlands of Constantinople and Ravenna
14.30-15.00 : Georgios Liakopoulos (University of Ioannina), Mustafa Doğan (Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi), Adam İzdebski (Nicolaus Copernicus University) : Landscapes in Flux: Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman Impacts on Local Socio-Ecosystems in the Great Meander Valley
15.00-15.15 : Discussion
15.15-15.45 : Coffee Break

RURAL ECONOMIES AND LIFEWAYS

15.45-16.15 : Sara Nur Yıldız (Middle East Technical University) : Exploring the Transhumant Pastoralist Economy of Medieval Anatolia during the Mongol Period
16.15-16.45 : Athanasios K. Vionis (University of Cyprus) : Between continuity and transformation: the varied dimensions of rural landscapes in medieval Anatolia, Cyprus and the Aegean in a comparative perspective
16.45-17.15 Evangelia Pişkin (Middle East Technical University) : Foodscapes in Medieval Anatolia
17.15-17.30 : Discussion
17.30-17.45 : Break
17.45-18.30 : John Bintliff (University of Edinburg) : Concluding remarks