Macedonia, northern part

Research on the historical geography of south-east Europe has so far been undertaken by the Tabula Imperii Byzantini (TIB) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences with publications on the provinces of Hellas and Thessalia (1976), Nikopolis and Kephallenia (1981), Thrace (1991) and Aigaion Pelagos (1998). Publications on eastern Thrace and on Macedonia, southern part, are in preparation at the moment. The submitted proposal is in close connection with the incipient volume on southern Macedonia, which covers, due to practical reasons, the historic area of Macedonia only from the south to the present Greek border. As the historic area of Macedonia is divided nowadays between Greece, FYROM and Bulgaria, it is indeed necessary to research, in continuation of the incipient volume on southern Macedonia, also the northern part of Macedonia. The submitted project`s methodology follows the concept of the existing volumes of the series Tabula Imperii Byzantini (TIB). The written historical sources (Latin, Greek, Slavonic, Arabic and Ottoman), the monuments and the archaeological reports, the continuance of historical names of settlements, plains and waters and finally the physical state of the area form the basis of the research. Both existent and nonexistent monuments shall be described and documented by using scientific literature, travel literature and by travelling two times to the area itself. The chronological frame of the project is therefore set with Late Antiquity and the Early Ottoman period, thus covering the Byzantine period as a whole. The results of the research will be presented in a text volume with illustrations, photographs and a thematic map (representative fraction 1:800.000) as well as diverse special maps in smaller fractions. In this way the objective will be accomplished to produce an as authentic and complete picture as possible of the aforementioned historic area.

The stand-alone project `Macedonia, northern part` is embedded in the overall project of the `Tabula Imperii Byzantini` (TIB) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, which publishes a historical atlas of the Byzantine Empire since 1966. In the past three years (from 1 March 2006 till 28 February 2009) it had the aim to conduct research on that part of the historical landscape of Macedonia, which lies today in Bulgaria and in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The results of the stand-alone project, which have been achieved during its runtime, form the basis of the homonymous volume, which is to be published as TIB 16 within the series of the overall project. Here, TIB 16 will close the gap between the area of research of the volumes TIB 6 (Thrace) and TIB 11 (Macedonia, southern part) and consequently fulfill a desideratum within the fields of Byzantine Studies, historical geography and South East European Studies. This stand-alone project is closely connected to TIB 11, so that a combined map of the whole historical landscape of Macedonia on the scale of 1 : 800,000 will be created as a visible product of the interrelation of both volumes. The scientific results, which have been achieved in the course of the project, are among other things based on the classification, synthesis and partial reinterpretation of a rich variety of sources and secondary literature. Scientific journeys were conducted in order to visit remote regions of the area of research (e. g. Mariovo) for the purpose of localising and making photographs of monuments according to the working method of the overall project of the TIB. At the same time, numerous contacts with scientific institutions and colleagues in the area of research have been established during the runtime of the project. Thus, important synergy effects have been implemented within a European framework, which has led to an intensive scientific discourse and to the exchange and the reception of relevant publications and excavation reports. Thereby, it was possible to announce the stand-alone project on an international level and to evolve it additionally by means of accompanying publications in scientific as well as in popular scientific journals. Moreover, the project contributed to the formation of young academics in Austria within the field of Byzantine Studies with an emphasis on historical geography, since it enabled the project co-worker Mihailo Popovic to participate in an internationally accepted scientific project of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and to contribute to the applied methods (e. g. Geographic Information System / GIS).