The Cistercian Monastery of Zaraka, Greece, edited by Sheila Campbell. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, May 2018; pp. xviii, 260.

Abstract

Excavations undertaken by Sheila Campbell and her associates at Zaraka, Greece, beginning in the early 1990s provide much <?page nr="3"?>of the evidence for this volume on this thirteenth-century Cistercian monastery in the eastern Mediterranean established after the Latin Conquest of Constantinople. Ten experts contributed articles that provide evidence about the political and religious context of the Frankish Morea; the architecture and the sculpture of the abbey; a comment on what its library may have contained; its medieval pottery, glass and coins; human and faunal remains, and the archaeology of nearby settlements. More than 200 black and white photos and drawings and four plates in color document the finds and their context. There are very few surviving documents that make mention of the abbey, and it would have been useful to have included them in this publication. The site was probably only occupied by Cistercian monks from circa 1225 to circa 1262. Still this is a very impressive report of the excavations and related topics for the site.