International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

EPIRUS REVISITED – NEW PERCEPTIONS OF ITS HISTORY 
AND MATERIAL CULTURE – PART 1
Conveners:
 Lioba
Theis
, 
Christos
Stavrakos
, 
Galina
Fingarova
, 
Fani
Gargova
Lioba
Theis
, 
Workshops in Epirus on the Move
Katerina
Chamilaki – Ioannis P. Chouliarás,
Rescue Excavations at the Ionian Motorway in Aetoloacarnania: 
Revealing New Aspects of the Byzantine Past of a Region
Björn Forsén – Brikena Shkodra-Rrugia
, 
The Early Christian Landscape of Dyrrachium: 
New Archaeological Evidence on the Basilica of Qerret
Myrto
Veikou
, 
Settlement and Material Culture in the Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago 
and Its Vicinity during the Byzantine Period
Ioannis P. Chouliarás
,
Newly Discovered Frescoes in the Middle-Byzantine Church of the Transfiguration of Christ 
near Plakoti of Thesprotia
Fani
Gargova
, 
Contesting Epirote Identities: Material Culture and Ethnicity in the Second Half of the 14
th
Century

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Lioba Theis
University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; 
[e-mail]
Workshops in Epirus on the Move
Due to its geography – transversed by mountain chains with only smaller flatlands, which do 
not allow for surplus food production to feed a large population – no larger settlements with urban 
features developed in the heartland of Epirus (the theme Nikopolis, or Epirus Vetus and Epirus Nova) 
during the Byzantine period. Beyond the narrow coastal strip along the Ionian Sea, the course of the 
mountains divided the interior into not-easily-accessible high valleys, which became home and places 
of refuge for different ethnic groups (Greeks, Slavs, Albanians, Aromanians). The hegemony of an 
individual ethnic group could therefore only be established for a short time: Bulgarians in the 10
th
-11
th
c.; Greeks from the 12
th
c. to the foundation of the Despotate of Epirus following the Fourth Crusade 
at the beginning of the 13
th
c., which shifted from Greek to Latin, Serbian and Albanian rule in the 14
th
c., before coming under five centuries of Ottoman administration from the 15
th
c. on.
These conditions were a significant obstacle to the development and establishment of independent 
artistic and cultural traditions, and a diversified tradition of artisans in larger centers over a longer 
period of time failed to emerge. Nevertheless, both the architecture and the painting of Epirus reveal 
specific developments that arose in Epirus and bear witness to close contacts with neighbouring 
regions. This is valid for neighbours to the North, East, South and also for those in the West. Although 
the course of the mountains did without doubt close off the interior from the coast and impart its own 
character, the Normans in the 10
th
, 11
th
and 12
th
c., the crusaders of the early 13
th
c., and the growing 
claim of the Angevins into the 14
th
c. contributed to an ever increasing and sometimes formative 
influence of Latin cultural traditions. Certain cases demonstrate that this influence was carried by the 
activity of wandering workshops. The paper will pursue this line of enquiry.