The Byzantine Materiality in/of Eastern Europe: Archaeological Approach

Abstract : The Byzantine materiality, how it can be defined and did it exist beyond Byzantium? Evidently it can not be regarded as a simple continuity of Byzantine material culture abroad. However, it does not mean that in the modern "search of lost Byzantium" at the periphery of the Oikouménē researchers have no chances to find any traces of material elements of Byzantine civilization. In this "peripheral search" they could happen on texts and artifacts of Byzantine origin which did not preserve in the cultural space of the Empire. In recent years in various branches of Humanities a spectacular phenomenon was attested: medieval Eastern Europe of the 9th-15th centuries kept the synchronous cultural product of Byzantium under different material forms in amazing completeness .