Book contents
- Rural Communities in Late Byzantium
- Rural Communities in Late Byzantium
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 In Search of Late Byzantine Rural Island Communities
- 2 Who’s Who in the Rural Landscape
- 3 Pathways of Resilience
- 4 Defending the Realm
- 5 Community-Building in the Face of Crisis
- 6 The Return of the People
- Book part
- References
- Index
1 - In Search of Late Byzantine Rural Island Communities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2022
- Rural Communities in Late Byzantium
- Rural Communities in Late Byzantium
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 In Search of Late Byzantine Rural Island Communities
- 2 Who’s Who in the Rural Landscape
- 3 Pathways of Resilience
- 4 Defending the Realm
- 5 Community-Building in the Face of Crisis
- 6 The Return of the People
- Book part
- References
- Index
Summary
In AD 1299, a village in the area of Kake Rache on the island of Thasos was celebrating the construction of a new church dedicated to Prophetes Elias. An inscription commemorating this event survives immured in the west façade of the early modern church of Metamorphoses (Fig. 1.1). The inscription also lists the donors involved: the priest Kaloioannes and his entire village, who bore the expenses for the church, as well as the mason Loukas from Christoupolis (modern Kavala, a town opposite Thasos on the Greek mainland), who was responsible for its construction.1 This inscription thus bears witness to a collective act of donation in which an entire village pooled its resources to create a new focal point of prayer and ritual while reaffirming its collective identity by collaborating in an act of gift-giving and thanksgiving to God.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Rural Communities in Late ByzantiumResilience and Vulnerability in the Northern Aegean, pp. 1 - 28Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022