Johannes Preiser-Kapeller

• Mag. Dr. phil.
• Group Leader at Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)

As the concept of polycrisis gains popularity among academics, policy-makers, and the general public, many questions linger about the utility, scope, and applicability of the term in different contexts. Building on prior work, we argue that crises can fruitfully be understood as existing along a spectrum, characterized by multiple different factors...

Traditionell wird der Ursprung der modernen Bodenkunde in Europa in den Überlegungen zum Boden bei Autoren der „klassischen“ griechisch‐römischen Antike gesucht. Im Folgenden wird zuerst dieser Bestand an schriftlichen Quellen in griechischer und lateinischer Sprache gesichtet. Dann werden deren Angaben zur Charakterisierung und Bearbeitung von Böd...

Existing global volcanic radiative aerosol forcing estimates portray the period 700 to 1000 as volcanically quiescent, void of major volcanic eruptions. However, this disagrees with proximal Icelandic geological records and regional Greenland ice-core records of sulfate. Here, we use cryptotephra analyses, high-resolution sulfur isotope analyses, a...

The concept of “moral meteorology” has been first introduced into the study of Late Imperial China. With several example, this introduction demonstrates its applicability to earlier periods of East Asian history and beyond across the ancient and medieval word before briefly referring to the contents of the special issue devoted to this topic.

Societal ‘crises’ are periods of turmoil and destabilization in socio-cultural, political, economic, and other systems, often accompanied by varying amounts of violence and sometimes significant changes in social structure. The extensive literature analyzing societal crises has concentrated on relatively few historical examples (large-scale events...

Around the turn of the first Millennium AD, both in Christian polities such as the Byzantine Empire as well as in regions with Buddhist communities such as in Heian Japan, expectations of an end of times emerged. Although based on different religious and independent chronological interpretations, they gained attraction at the same time due to the p...

The blinding of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VI in Constantinople in August 797 and his overthrow by his mother Eirene, who then until 802 ruled as first female emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, was used as legitimation for the coronation of the Frankish King Charlemagne as emperor of the Romans on December 25, 800, by contemporaries in Wes...

The study examines the palaeoclimatic background and the regional manifestations of the Medieval Climate Anomaly in the Eastern Mediterranean, with a focus on the Byzantine Empire, but also including neighbouring polities. It explores the interplay between climatic factors and the socioeconomic dynamics between the 10th and 12th centuries, concentr...

Byzantine Studies explores every aspect of the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, which flourished from AD 330 to 1453. Its heart was the city of Constantinople, also known as Byzantium and today as Istanbul. Byzantine Studies covers a vast range of research areas: archaeology and art history; linguistics, philology, and literature in Greek...

Around the turn of the first Millennium AD, both in Christian polities such as the Byzantine Empire as well as in Buddhist communities such as in Heian Japan, expectations of an end of times emerged. Although based on different religious and independent chronological interpretations, they gained attraction at the same time due to the parallel obser...

All major continental empires proclaimed their desire to rule 'the entire world', investing considerable human and material resources in expanding their territory. Each, however, eventually had to stop expansion and come to terms with a shift to defensive strategy. This volume explores the factors that facilitated Eurasian empires' expansion and co...

Preiser-Kapeller demonstrates how different types of source evidence (archaeological and written) can be used to model the inherent information on the interactions between economic actors and markets in the form of network graphs. Embedded in a larger discussion of the actual complexity of the Roman economy, he exemplary analyses a network of river...

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This companion introduces the connections between early medieval societies that have previously been studied in isolation. By bringing together nineteen experts on different regions across the globe, from Oceania to Europe and beyond, it transcends conventional disciplinary boundaries and synthesizes parallel historiographical narratives.

This paper discusses written historical documentation and paleoenvironmental evidence in order to explore connections between climatic and socio-economic change. It focuses thereby on the Byzantine Empire and the eastern Mediterranean more generally in the period between the collapse and “restoration” of Byzantine rule in Constantinople (1204-1261)...

This paper analyses both the commonalities as well as the entanglements between the interactions of imperial rulers and elites at the peripheries of two frontier regions between competing imperial spheres (esp. the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Caliphate) in the early medieval period: the Southern Caucasus (with a focus on Armenia) and the lands of...

This paper proposes to proceed from a rather metaphorical application of network terminology on polities and imperial formations of the past to an actual use of tools and concepts of network science. For this purpose, a well-established network model of the route system in the Roman Empire (ORBIS) and a newly created network model of the infrastruc...

Since the turn of the Millennium, scientists discuss the introduction of the “Anthropocene” as a new epoch in the geological history of our planet in order to reflect the increased human impact on the Earth´s geology and ecology. Together with the concept, also the beginning of this epoch is hotly debated, with proposals ranging from as recent as t...

Discussion of negotiations on a union of churches between the Western Church, Byzantium and Cilician Armenia in the 1320s and 1330s against the background of increasing Turkish respectively Mamluk menace and crusading projects

"We thank Tosh et al. for their interest in our research but note that their analyses do not undermine the main findings of our article."

This article analyses high-quality hydroclimate proxy records and spatial reconstructions from the Central and Eastern Mediterranean and compares them with two Earth System Model simulations (CCSM4, MPI-ESM-P) for the Crusader period in the Levant (1095–1290 CE), the Mamluk regime in Transjordan (1260–1516 CE) and the Ottoman crisis and Celâlî Rebe...

Based on palaeoenvironmental, historical and archaeological data, the paper proposes possible climatic impacts on the history of the Avar Khaganate, which comprised the Carpathian Basin between the late 6 th and the early 9 th century AD. While the establishment of the Avars in East Central Europe took place within a period characterised by cold an...

https://www.mandelbaum.at/buch.php?id=777 Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OHYfqyqEdY Review copies: https://www.mandelbaum.at/bestellung_rezensionsexemplar.php?menu=presse Additional material (link to interactive online map): https://www.dasanderemittelalter.net/news/jenseits-von-rom-und-karl-dem-grosen-aspekte-der-globalen-verflec...

Significance Do human societies from around the world exhibit similarities in the way that they are structured and show commonalities in the ways that they have evolved? To address these long-standing questions, we constructed a database of historical and archaeological information from 30 regions around the world over the last 10,000 years. Our an...

Ancient and medieval harbours connected via navigable and terrestrial routes could be interpreted as elements of complex traffic networks. Based on evidence from three projects in Priority Programme 1630 (Fossa Carolina, Inland harbours in Central Europe and Byzantine harbours on the Balkan coasts) we present a pioneer study to apply concepts and t...

Mitsiou and Preiser-Kapeller offer a unique study of subjects, objects, motives and consequences of labour mobility in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Middle Ages focusing on the Byzantine Empire. Based on recent tools for the mapping of mobility (such as HGIS) and the entanglements of communities (such as network analysis) they conclude that...

Do human societies from around the world exhibit similarities in the way that they are structured and show commonalities in the ways that they have evolved? To address these long-standing questions, we constructed a database of historical and archaeological information from 30 regions around the world over the last 10,000 years. Our analyses reveal...

This paper discusses a recently proposed scenario of a climate-induced Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 11th century AD. It demonstrates that such a scenario cannot be maintained when confronted with proxy data from various regions. On the other hand, data on the interplay between environment and economy in the Komnenian period (1081-11...

We demonstrate the application of the multiplex networks-approach for the analysis of various networks which connected individuals and communities in the politically highly fragmented late medieval Balkans (1204-1453 AD) within and across border zones. We present how we obtain relational data from our sources and the integration of these data into...

Based on the assumption that economic complexity is characterised by the interactions of economic agents (who) constantly change their actions and strategies in response to the outcome they mutually create, this paper presents how network models can be used a proxies for the mapping, quantification and analysis of Roman economic complexity. Network...

BOOK REVIEW:: E. Tchkoidze, Ένας Γεωργιανός προσκυνητής στον βυζαντινό κόσμο του 9ου αιώνα: ο Άγιος Ιλαρίων ο Γεωργιανός [A Georgian Pilgrim in the Byzantine World of the 9^th Century: Saint Hilarion the Georgian], Athens 2011, 273 pp. (ISBN 978-960-6813-29-0)</p

This paper discusses a recently proposed scenario of a climate-induced "Collapse of die Eastern Mediterranean" in the lla century AD. It demonstrates diat such a scenario cannot be maintained when confronted with proxy data from various regions. On the other hand, data on the interplay between environment and economy in the Komnenian period (1081-1...

The project "Complexities and networks in the Medieval Mediterranean and Near East" (COMMED) at the Division for Byzantine Research of the Institute for Medieval Research (IMAFO) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences focuses on the adaptation and development of concepts and tools of network theory and complexity sciences for the analysis of societies...

Draft for: “Complexity: a new framework to interpret ancient economic proxy data”. Book project and conference: Sagalassos, Sept. 11th-12th 2015 (cf. http://www.rsrc.ugent.be/sdep/complexity) Abstract: Based on the assumption that economic complexity is characterised by the interactions of “economic agents (who) constantly change their actions and...

The aim of the present paper is a demonstration of the explanatory value of instruments of GIS as well as of network analysis on various levels for research on maritime sites, regions and networks with three short case studies in order to illustrate the potential of our approach within Byzantine maritime studies. These three case studies have been...

The „Ego-Network“ of Metropolitan Matthaios Gabalas of Ephesos within the network of interaction between bishops in the Synod of Constantinople for the period 1329-1349 CE, reconstructed on the basis of document from the 14th century “Register of the Patriarchate of Constantinople”; two individuals are linked if they took part together in at least...

 PROLOGUE  METHODOLOGY: NETWORKS, FRONTIERS AND IDENTITIES o Quantitative Network Analysis o Identities and the “Middle Ground” o The “Middle Ground” in (Maritime) Medieval Anatolia o Structure and Identities  HUBS OF TRAFFIC AND COMMERCE IN LATE MEDIEVAL ANATOLIA: THE CASE OF ANTALYA/ATTALEIA o Antalya as hub in the web of routes o Connections...

The paper provides on overview on the negotiations about a union of churches and military cooperation against the Turks respectively the Mamluks between Byzantium, Cilician Armenia and the Papacy in the 1320s and 1330s. In the final section, a simple game theoretical model is presented in order to explain the failure of these and similar attempts....

In the manuscript of the Greek sailor Michael of Rhodes, who served in the Venetian fleet from 1401 to 1443, the author also provides a list of names and places of origin of many of the oarsmen working on a ship which sailed from Venice to Jaffa and back between May 9th and August 15th 1414 under the command of Francesco Querini (cf. Stahl, Alan M....

"Data from: F. Hild – H. Hellenkemper, Kilikien und Isaurien (Tabula Imperii Byzantini 5). Vienna 1990, esp. pp. 128-142; H. Hellenkemper – F. Hild, Lykien und Pamphylien (Tabula Imperii Byzantini 8). Vienna 2004, esp. pp. 244-293; G. Graßhoff – F. Mittenhuber (eds.), Untersuchungen zum Stadiasmos von Patara. Modellierung und Analyse eines antiken...

In his book “Reassembling the social” (2005, p. 173), Bruno LATOUR, one of the proponents of Actor-Network-Theory, stated: “we have to lay continuous connections leading from one local interaction to the other places, times, and agencies through which a local site is made to do something. (…) If we do this, we will render visible the long chains of...

This short study is a first attempt to apply some tools which have been adopted for the analysis of temporal dynamics in the Late Medieval Period to the early medieval world. The study is also inspired by the recent works of KOKKONEN/SUNDELL (2012), who inspected if primogeniture influenced the durability of reigns in Europe in the period between 1...

The statistical analysis is based on binary time series (1 = presence of an event in that year, 0 = absence) for plague epidemics in the entire of the Mediterranean and the Near East for the 6th to 8th century and for the Aegean region and Egypt for the period 1347-1500. Mean waiting times between years with events were calculated on the basis of a...

Data basis for these calculations is the oak tree-ring based reconstructed time series of May-June precipitation for the North Aegean and Northwestern Anatolia provided by Criggs et. al., 2007. A part of statistical analysis is based on a binary time series (1 = presence of a drought in that year, 0 = absence); a „drought“ is defined for a reconstr...

The statistical analysis is based on binary time series (1 = presence of a major bank crash in that year, 0 = absence). Mean waiting times between years with events were calculated on the basis of an expectation test for a poisson process for simple columns of event times for the five phenomena. Probabilities of transition between years with events...

The statistical analysis is based on binary time series (1 = presence of an event in that year, 0 = absence) for extreme weather events, plague epidemics, major earthquakes, ruler change and major events of internal unrest for the Byzantine Empire for the period 1200-1453 CE (resp. the Empire of Nicaea for the period 1204-1261 CE). Mean waiting tim...

The present volume consists of the peer-reviewed papers presented at the CAA2011 conference held in Beijing, China between April 12 and 16, 2011. The theme of this conference was -Revive the Past, which means retrieving our history and using it to help create a new civilization. It was a great honour to organize the conference where over 130 resear...

The special issue of the Journal "Historicum" was published parallel to the major exhibition "Byzantium and the Golden Orient" on the Schallaburg in Lower Austria in 2012. It contains contributions by Christian Gastgeber, Sebastian Kolditz, Ekaterini Mitsiou, Mihailo St. Popovic and Johannes Preiser-Kapeller on various aspects of the relations betw...

0 Prologue In the year 1356 a document from the "Register of the Patriarchate of Constantinople" informs us that in the city of Tanaïs at the river Don (today Azov), which was under the sovereignty of the Muslim Khan of the Golden Horde, a Byzantine orthodox Christian had "went over to the Persians" (here used as synonym for Muslims) and "became a...

We demonstrate the application of the “multiplex networks”-approach for the analysis of various networks which connected individuals and communities in the politically highly fragmented late medieval Balkans (1204-1453 AD) within and across border zones. We present how we obtain relational data from our sources and the integration of these data int...

Ziel dieses Beitrags ist die Vorstellung der Theorieangebote der Netzwerkanalyse und der relationalen Soziologie und die exemplarische Demonstration ihres möglichen Werts für die Erfassung und Analyse mittelalterlicher Gemeinschaften; folgende Themen werden dabei behandelt: 0. Der relationale Zugang zu einer komplexen sozialen Welt 1. DIE QUANTITAT...

Until now the source material has made it impossible to reconstruct the distribution of economic power and population within the Late Byzantine Empire on a large scale. Our new analysis of a list of financial contributions from 1324, which includes those from 33 bishoprics and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, connects this data with the economic...

The Register of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which contains more than 800 documents of the period 1315-1402, is one of the most important sources for the (church) history of this time of renewed Muslim expansion at Byzantiumʼs cost. First, this paper analyses how Islam is being described in these documents in regard to the terminology and th...

Im 11. Jh. verstärkte sich der Pilgerverkehr entlang der Donau in Richtung Byzanz und Heiliges Land, vor allem nach der Christiani-sierung Ungarns (ab dem Jahr 1000). Doch die Einheimischen in der noch unruhigen Grenzmark "Ostarrichi" (wie es 996 erstmals in einer Urkunde genannt wird) zu Ungarn und Böhmen begegneten den Fremden oft mit Misstrauen;...

The article provides an overview on the image of the Byzantine Empire as most important christian neighbouring polity provided in the Armenian historiography between the 5th and the 8th century with a special focus on the political, religious and intellectuals relations.

The career of Cyprian, metropolitan of Kyiv and Lithuania, has long been the object of scholarly research. Hero, traitor, usurper and devout spearhead of Byzantium, Cyprian also stands for a connecting bridge between the policies of the Ecumenical Patriarchate towards both the members of the Byzantine Commonwealth and to Western Church, and her sec...