Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MIGMAG (Migration and the Making of the Ancient Greek World)
Período documentado: 2022-04-01 hasta 2023-09-30
By c.550 BCE, the ancient Greek world was a culturally integrated but geographically dispersed entity, comprising over a thousand autonomous communities scattered across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Migration was evidently crucial in its formation.
What was the nature and the scale of this migration? Who was moving, over why kinds of distances, and how often? The MIGMAG project combines archaeological and historical evidence to explore the human mobilities c.1200-550 BCE that led to the formation of ancient Greek communities.
What was the nature and the scale of this migration? Who was moving, over why kinds of distances, and how often? The MIGMAG project combines archaeological and historical evidence to explore the human mobilities c.1200-550 BCE that led to the formation of ancient Greek communities.
At the mid-way point of the project, we have successfully established the core team of the PI, three PDRAs, two PhDs, and an Administrative Assistant. We have also established the central operating framework, as laid out in Work Package 1, meeting the milestones of setting up a project website and a bespoke online database capable of combining archaeological and historical data (M1). We have also established regular monthly meetings of the MIGMAG reading group to facilitate the exchange of ideas and knowledge (M2).
As part of Work Package 2, team members have prepared initial literature reviews about each of the five study regions (M3). The population of the database with archaeological data is at an advanced stage, with core data from partner survey projects as well as the majority of published data about settlement patterns already inputted (M4). A baseline dataset of environmental evidence for landscape use has also been inputted (M5). In Work Package 3, claims made about origins and identity known from literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence have been inputted into the database, with data entry complete for Ionia, Cilicia, and Calabria, and well advanced for central Greece and Sardinia (M6).
As part of Work Package 4, two annual workshops for the project team and partners have been held - in Oxford in June 2022, and in Malta in May 2023 (M7). Planning is currently underway for the international conference in Year 4 of the project (M8), which will be held in Vienna in June 2024. The preparation of publications stemming from the project will begin in earnest in the coming months, with submission of most publications expected in the final year of the project (i.e. 2025).
As part of Work Package 2, team members have prepared initial literature reviews about each of the five study regions (M3). The population of the database with archaeological data is at an advanced stage, with core data from partner survey projects as well as the majority of published data about settlement patterns already inputted (M4). A baseline dataset of environmental evidence for landscape use has also been inputted (M5). In Work Package 3, claims made about origins and identity known from literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence have been inputted into the database, with data entry complete for Ionia, Cilicia, and Calabria, and well advanced for central Greece and Sardinia (M6).
As part of Work Package 4, two annual workshops for the project team and partners have been held - in Oxford in June 2022, and in Malta in May 2023 (M7). Planning is currently underway for the international conference in Year 4 of the project (M8), which will be held in Vienna in June 2024. The preparation of publications stemming from the project will begin in earnest in the coming months, with submission of most publications expected in the final year of the project (i.e. 2025).
The MIGMAG project has already gone beyond the state of the art in the development of a new digital workflow for collating and comparing evidence from archaeological sources on the one hand (WP2), and literary, epigraphic, and numismatic sources on the other (WP3). This has involved engaging with existing open data corpora, crucially integrating different types of evidence and corpora, but also bringing together new unpublished data from partner projects in four study regions. Once it is finalised by the end of the project, our bespoke platform for visualising ancient mobilities will be made publicly available, comprising an exciting new resource for other researchers in the discipline.
As we near completion with data entry, we are increasingly beginning to see patterns in our data, both chronologically and spatially. An initial assessment suggests that patterns of regional mobilities and landscape are broadly comparable in Calabria and Cilicia, but followed different trajectories in central Greece, Ionia, and Sardinia. We anticipate that these patterns will become clearer in the coming months, and the historical explanations for divergent mobilities will emerge. By the end of the project, we anticipate that our conclusions will offer a complex and nuanced new picture of this formative period of Greek antiquity, transforming the way that we understand it.
As we near completion with data entry, we are increasingly beginning to see patterns in our data, both chronologically and spatially. An initial assessment suggests that patterns of regional mobilities and landscape are broadly comparable in Calabria and Cilicia, but followed different trajectories in central Greece, Ionia, and Sardinia. We anticipate that these patterns will become clearer in the coming months, and the historical explanations for divergent mobilities will emerge. By the end of the project, we anticipate that our conclusions will offer a complex and nuanced new picture of this formative period of Greek antiquity, transforming the way that we understand it.