Funded within the go!digital-Programme of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OEAW) Host Institution: Institute for Medieval Research. OEAW (IMAFO) PI: Dr. J. Preiser-Kapeller, IMAFO (Email: Johannes.Preiser-Kapeller@oeaw.ac.at) Website: : https://oeaw.academia.edu/MappingMedievalConflict While the term “network” has been used abundantly in historical research in the last years, the actual number of studies taking into account the methodology of network analysis is still limited. The reluctance of historians to adapt tools of network analysis can be also connected with the conceptual and terminological divide between humanities and formal sciences. At the same time, the user-friendliness of software tools tempts others to use them as “black boxes” in order to produce a variety of figures without being aware of the underlying concepts. Against this background, the aims of MEDCON are: • The adaptation and combination of a set of software tools which facilitates the relational survey of medieval sources and the visualisation and quantitative analysis of social and spatial networks (using an open source database application named “OpenATLAS”, developed by S. Eichert) • The development of case studies demonstrating a “best practice” of the application and evaluation of tools of network analysis for medieval history (distribution as open data) • The creation of an online platform for the exploration of data, methods and results by the wider public (open access) A generalizable work flow from data input on the basis of medieval sources to the creation, visualisation and analysis of social and spatial network models and their web-based publication and presentation will be established. In order to demonstrate this in detail, MEDCON will focus on the analysis of political networks and conflict among power elites across medieval Europe with five case studies. The project is also conceptualised as digital extension of several internationally renowned long term-projects for text edition, diplomatics and prosopography at IMAFO: • Fluctuation between opposing parties in the struggle for the German throne 1198-1208 (A. Rzihacek, R. Spreitzer) • Coalitions in the war of Emperor Sigismund against Duke Frederick IV of Tyrol (G. Katzler) • Emperor Frederick III Friedrich III. and the League of the Mailberger coalition in 1451/527 (K. Holzner-Tobisch) • Factions and alliances in the fight of Maximilian I for Burgundy (S. Dünnebeil) • Political factions in 14th cent. Byzantium (J. Preiser-Kapeller) We will evaluate the explanatory power of these tools for phenomena of political conflict in medieval societies; thereby, we will provide a set of “best practice” examples of historical network analysis. MEDCON uses the relational structuring provided by modern software not simply as instrument for the organisation of data, but as heuristic tool for the reconstruction and analysis of the relational character of social phenomena of the past which is at the same time also of high relevance for modern-day discussions on the (in)stability of political frameworks. Thus, also the additional benefit of digital tools beyond data collection and their potential to allow for new research questions and analytical results will be demonstrated.

Paper in: Emiliano Fiori/Michele Trizio (eds.), Proceedings of the 24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies. Plenary Sessions. Venice 2022, pp. 393-422 (open access: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-590-2/) The paper synthesises and develops further several attempts to model aspects of the complexity of the infrastructure and administrative organisation of the Roman Empire between the 4th and 8th century CE based on evidence from historiography, historical geography, sigillography and archaeology. It provides a short introduction into concepts and analytical tools of network theory. Furthermore, the paper combines this approach with a visualisation of the spatial range of Roman power and maps based on mobility and perceptions of contemporaries. Thereby, the already successful integration of the 'relational turn' to Byzantine studies shall be demonstrated.

Published in Medieval Worlds Issue 2/2015: ›Empires in Decay‹ (peer reviewed, open access: http://www.medievalworlds.net/medieval_worlds?frames=yes) 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 aims at the adaptation and development of concepts and tools of network theory and complexity sciences for the analysis of societies, polities and regions in the medieval world in a comparative perspective. Key elements of its methodological and technological toolkit are applied for instance in the new project “Mapping medieval conflicts: a digital approach towards political dynamics in the pre-modern period” (MEDCON), which analyses political networks and conflict among power elites across medieval Europe with five case studies from the 12th to 15th century. For one of these case studies on 14th century Byzantium, the explanatory value of this approach is presented in greater detail. The presented results are integrated in a wider comparison of five late medieval polities across Afro-Eurasia (Byzantium, China, England, Hungary and Mamluk Egypt) against the background of the “Late Medieval Crisis” and its political and environmental turmoil. Finally, further perspectives of COMMED are outlined.

While Social Network Analysis (SNA) has become an accepted research tool in historical studies in the last decades, actual theoretical foundations for the approach to depict and analyse past social realities in the form of nodes and ties have remained as many-voiced and sometimes under-determined as in other fields of network analysis. A theoretical framework from which historical network analysis may benefit is the systems theory established by the sociologist Niklas LUHMANN (1927–1998). In Luhmann´s theory, social systems are systems of communication; in modern society, Luhmann identified several differentiated communication systems such as politics, religion or economy. For the analysis of Byzantine society, we combine Luhmannʼs framework with the concepts of SNA: we understand ties between nodes as potential channels of communication which can pertain to any communication system. And while communications between individuals in a specific institutional framework such as state administration or the church may primarily pertain to one system, we have to account for “multiplex” ties of communication and an overlap of various communication systems on the same set of nodes (who, in Luhmannʼs theory, are not per se part of any of these social systems, which only consist of communications). This approach also enables us either to examine communication ties (their density, distribution patterns, etc.) of one system separately or to concentrate on the structural position of individuals within the general social framework. Thus, we demonstrate that Luhmann can provide a coherent and at the same time flexible framework for historical network analysis.

Connecting the dots. The analysis of networks and the study of the past (Archaeology and History) The exploration of linkages between individuals, groups, localities or objects with the help of the concepts and tools of (Social) Network Analysis (NA) has boomed in the last decade; also in historical and archaeological studies, the number of researchers working with network-analytical methods has significantly increased. The aim of this workshop is to bring together scholars from various historical disciplines as well as beyond who are working or interested in this field in order to discuss the possibilities of, experiences with and problems of NA for the study of the past. As keynote speaker, Tom Brughmans from the Archaeological Computing Research Group, University of Southampton (UK) will present his project on Archaeological Network Analysis; he has established an online blog for this new field of archaeological research (http://archaeologicalnetworks.wordpress.com/) as well as a network of researchers interested in NA. Most recently, he has organized a session on Archaeological and Historical NA for the “39th Annual Conference of Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology“ (CAA 2011) in Beijing (China; cf. http://archaeologicalnetworks.wordpress.com/caa-2011/). After the presentation of Tom Brughmans, the research on NA at the Institut für Byzanzforschung will be briefly presented. Then there will be opportunity for all participants to present and discuss their experiences with NA (participants are invited to briefly – 5 minutes – present their ongoing projects– laptop and video-beamer will be provided). In particular we would like to discuss central questions of Archaeological and Historical NA such as: How can NA be applied to different disciplines of historical studies and different sources (objects, documents)? What is the significance of network analytical results from a historical point of view? How can we cope with fragmentary source evidence and incomplete samples? Is it possible to use the research on large scale and complex modern day networks for the study of the past? A summary of the results of our discussion will be presented online afterwards.

The centuries after the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders in 1204 were characterized by the political fragmentation of the former imperial sphere of the Byzantine Empire; especially in the period between 1250 and 1453, attempts to establish hegemony by one of the local powers (Byzantium, Bulgaria, Serbia) were followed by phases of disintegration of these polities until the Ottoman State restored “imperial unity” in the region. While political border zones frequently changed, religious denominations (the orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople, the autocephalous orthodox Churches of Bulgaria and Serbia, the Catholic Church, Islam) tried to preserve or expand their spheres of influence within the entire Balkans; furthermore, local and regional trading networks criss-crossed the region and integrated it in the late medieval “Worldsystem”, which was dominated in the Mediterranean by the cities of Venice and Genoa, which also possessed colonies in the Aegean. The concepts of network analysis allow us to understand these relations between different communities and authorities in a novel way; Michael Szell, Renaud Lambiotte and Stefan Thurner from the Vienna Complex Systems Research Group argued in a recent paper: “Human societies can be regarded as large numbers of locally interacting agents, connected by a broad range of social and economic relationships. (…) Each type of relation spans a social network of its own. A systemic understanding of a whole society can only be achieved by understanding these individual networks and how they influence and co-construct each other (…) A society is therefore characterized by the superposition of its constitutive socio-economic networks, all defined on the same set of nodes. This superposition is usually called multiplex, multi-relational or multivariate network.” (2) We will demonstrate the application of this “multiplexity”-approach for the analysis of various political, religious and mercantile networks which connected individuals and communities from the local and regional level to the level of the competing political, religious and economical centres in the late medieval Balkans within an across border zones. (3) We will present how we obtain relational data from our sources, such as the Register of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which contains more than 700 documents for the years 1315 to 1402, and the integration of these data into networks of various scales; we will demonstrate how smaller networks can be connected to larger ones and how this influences the characteristics and topologies of networks. Finally, we will illustrate the applicability of this network analytical “toolkit” for other historical disciplines. Our paper is strongly connected to the study of Mihailo St. Popović, who will present historical-geographical aspects of these phenomena for one specific region. (

Draft for the IMC Leeds 2014, replacement paper for the Session 1319 “Imperial Elites in Comparative Perspective, 800-1600”, Wednesday 9 July 2014: 16.30-18.00 (a shorter version will be presented at the session) Within this paper, the focus on one selected and relatively well-documented elite family within a well-studied period of Byzantine history (I refer to the older works of Seibt, Winkelmann or Kazhdan and more recent studies of Cheynet, Holmes, Neville, Beihammer or Haldon) allows us to reflect on the relational framework of the emergence and dynamics of elite status and elite networks, which may be of interest also for other cases across the medieval world. At the same time, although the new exhaustive database of the “Prosopography of the middle Byzantine Period” (PmbZ, for the years 641-1025) provides material for an even more systematic survey of the elite, the still more fragmentary character of evidence does not allow for the creation of large scale longitudinal network models as done by Nicolas Tackett in his recent book for the Chinese aristocracy in the same period, for instance. Still, thinking in terms of network theory can be useful even without a full usage of the quantitative tools connected with it.

Murray Eiland talks to Johannes Preiser-Kapeller about his computer-aided research. Dr Johannes Preiser-Kapeller is Team Leader at the Division for Byzantine Research/Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the University of Vienna. His manifold research interests focus on the archaeology and history of the Byzantine Empire using computer-aided methodology to attempt an understanding of its economic, religious, and social aspects and interactions with other medieval civilisations.