Archaeology: Sites and Approaches

Abstract

Abstract This chapter presents an overview of the history, practice and results of Byzantine archaeology in modern Greece and Turkey. Originating in Classical and Early Christian archaeology, and Byzantine art history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its early focus was largely ecclesiastical; the modern field has widened to investigate the urbanism and rural settlements, fortifications, ecclesiastical, monastic and funerary monuments, along with remains of the Byzantine economy and landscape. The chapter considers sources, contemporary research goals and field methods, theoretical approaches, organization of field surveys and excavations, and the administration of archaeology in Greece and Turkey, as well as academic publishing and the place of the field in academia; It ends with a discussion of future prospects.