Archaeological excavations at the historic Battle of Manzikert battlefield (modern-day Malazgirt in Turkey), where the Seljuks defeated the Byzantine Empire in 1071, opening the gates of Anatolia, continue to reveal important discoveries. The project, which began in 2020 with support from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, is advancing into its second phase in 2024. […]
Byzantine Empire
Posted inMiddle Ages
Belisarius, the General Who Upheld Justinian’s Empire and Refused to Be Emperor of the West
I entrusted the care of arms to my Belisarius, and so favorable did the divine hand show itself to him that it gave me the security to live peacefully. These words, which Dante Alighieri places in the mouth of Justinian I, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, in canto VI of the Divine Comedy, refer […]
Posted inAntiquity
Cataphracts, The Armored Warriors of Heavy Cavalry in Antiquity
But as soon as the first light of day appeared, the gleaming chainmail, girded with steel bands, and the shining breastplates, seen from afar, showed that the king’s forces were near. This is how Ammianus Marcellinus, a Roman historian who also served as a soldier in the legions of Emperors Constantius II and Julian in […]
Posted inMedieval Archaeology
A Large Byzantine Pilgrimage Hostel Complex Found in the Ancient City of Nessana in the Negev Desert
A team of researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is conducting excavations at the Nessana site, located in the southwestern Negev desert on the border between Israel and Egypt. This settlement, which reached its peak during the Byzantine and early Islamic periods (6th-7th centuries AD), has become a focal point for archaeologists seeking to […]
Posted inMiddle Ages, Science
Greek Fire, the Byzantine Empire’s Secret Incendiary Weapon That Survived Until the 19th Century
They began to blow with blacksmiths’ bellows into a furnace where there was fire, and from it came a great noise. There was also a brass [or bronze] tube, and from it came much fire against a ship, which burned quickly so that it all turned into white ashes… This excerpt is from the Yngvars […]
Posted inMiddle Ages
New England, the Medieval Colony Founded in Crimea by Anglo-Saxons Fleeing the Norman Conquest
In the article dedicated to the Varangian Guard, we explained that, following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, this unit came to be known as Englinbarrangoi (Anglo-Varangians) and English became their usual language because it began to be filled with Anglo-Saxons (English and Scots) who left the islands to settle in Constantinople. In 1098, […]
Posted inMiddle Ages
The Problem of the Two Emperors: The Historical Dispute over Embodying the Legacy of Rome
It wasn’t called the “beacon of civilization” for nothing. The legacy of Rome was so immense—in every realm—that centuries after its fall, there were still struggles to claim legitimacy as its rightful successor, something that continued well into the Middle Ages. Although many self-proclaimed themselves as heirs, the issue was particularly intense in the dispute […]
Posted inMiddle Ages
Varangian Guard, the Viking Escort of Byzantine Emperors
Among the Scandinavian archaeological heritage are the so-called runestones, stelae whose epigraphic content is written -obviously- in runes, with a quite broad chronology, from the 4th century to the 12th. There are about six thousand of them, the majority -three and a half thousand- are in southeastern Sweden and about thirty of them are called […]
Posted inMiddle Ages, Science
Icebergs in Constantinople and a Frozen Black Sea: Climate Anomalies Triggered by Eruptions in Iceland at the Beginning of the Middle Ages
It was one of the coldest winters the region has experienced: in the year 763, large areas of the Black Sea froze, and icebergs were seen in the Bosphorus. Contemporary historians recorded this unusual weather phenomenon during the winter of 763/764 in their accounts of Constantinople, now Istanbul. Now, an international and interdisciplinary study conducted […]
Posted inMiddle Ages
The Turbulent Life of Andronicus I Comnenus, who Managed to Become Emperor by Escaping after 12 Years in Captivity
It’s tough to imagine a life more turbulent and extravagant than that of Andronicus Comnenus, Byzantine emperor and the last of his dynasty. Charismatic, contradictory, lover of worldly pleasures, expert military man, his strong character and lack of scruples led him to experience extreme situations, including twelve years of captivity, numerous military campaigns, scandalous love […]