IMC 2007: Sessions

Session 806: Approaching the Byzantine Family, III: The Family through Prosopography, Art, and Archaeology

Tuesday 10 July 2007, 16.30-18.00

Organisers:	Dion C. Smythe, Institute of Byzantine Studies, Queen's University Belfast Shaun Tougher, School of History, Archaeology & Religion, Cardiff University
Moderator/Chair:	Margaret E. Mullett, Institute of Byzantine Studies, Queen's University, Belfast / AHRC Centre for Byzantine Cultural History
Paper 806-a	Social Mobility in Byzantium?: Family Ties in the Middle Byzantine Period (Language: English) Claudia Ludwig, Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Genealogy and Prosopography, Social History
Paper 806-b	Looking at the Byzantine Family (Language: English) Leslie Brubaker, Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman & Modern Greek Studies, Department of Classics, Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Birmingham / Institute of Archaeology & Antiquity, University of Birmingham Index terms: Art History - General, Byzantine Studies, Social History
Paper 806-c	The Middle Byzantine House and Family: A Reappraisal (Language: English) Simon Ellis, UNESCO Institute for Statistics / University of Reading Index terms: Archaeology - General, Architecture - Secular, Byzantine Studies, Social History
Abstract	This session considers the Byzantine family in diverse arenas: prosopography, art, and archaeology. Utilising the prosopography of the Byzantine Empire Claudia Ludwig explores the validity of the assumption of social mobility in Byzantium. Leslie Brubaker examines visual representations of family in Byzantium, which cluster in four groups: the holy family; the imperial family; ex voto imagery; and families as part of a larger visual narrative. Simon Ellis questions previous ideas about housing and the middle Byzantine family, and pieces together a new view on how early medieval housing moulded and was moulded by the social foundations of the medieval family.