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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 1513: Claiming the Land, Redrawing the Borders: The Discursive Dimension of Landnahme

Thursday 9 July 2020, 09.00-10.30

Organiser:Stefan Donecker, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Paper 1513-aThe Christian Appropriation of Pagan Shrines: A Legal and Archaeological Approach, 4th-6th Centuries
(Language: English)
Yuri A. Marano, Università di Padova
Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Law
Paper 1513-bZona Franca: Ideas of Appropriation and Colonisation of Carolingian Borderlands
(Language: English)
Katharina Winckler, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Political Thought
Paper 1513-cThe Invention of Landnahme: Conceptualising the Appropriation of Land in the Era of European Expansion
(Language: English)
Stefan Donecker, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Political Thought
Abstract

Since antiquity, any appropriation of land ('Landnahme') - be it through settlement, war, or political annexation - needed to be incorporated into an intellectual matrix through which these events were interpreted, evaluated, and narrated. One well-known example for such a narrative template is the biblical tale of the Chosen People and the Promised Land. Borders had to be established and/or relocated, and their existence justified. In a similar vein, the church extended the margins of its spiritual territory into pagan spaces. The session will explore the ideas underpinning the appropriation of territory (worldly or sacred) and the annexation of areas beyond existing borders, employing case studies from different historical contexts (Late Antiquity, Early Middle Ages, Early Modern Era).