RURAL CHRISTIANITY IN LATE ANTIQUE AND BYZANTINE SICILY, 5th-9th CENTURIES AD: AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

罗马晚期到中世纪早期见证了教会在地中海和罗马世界的兴起和扩张，并以教会作为宗教，社区和行政管理的新焦点逐渐出现为标志。然而，我们对空间和心态的这一重大转变的描述是非常面向城市的，而教会在景观中的影响在年表、影响和赞助方面却不太清楚。这个项目将研究从世纪晚期罗马帝国的衰落到827年穆斯林的征服，西西里农村的基督教教堂和社区的证据。我会问一些关键的问题，关于物理的，挖掘的，材料和文献来源：这些教堂是什么时候出现的，它们是如何融入景观的？他们展示了什么样的形式，这些告诉我们什么样的赞助人和他们所服务的社区？教会在土地占有和管理中扮演什么角色？考古学证据揭示了什么关于教堂的发展，特别是在7 - 8世纪，当许多人被认为已经被遗弃？最后，西西里如何融入更广泛的地中海讨论基督教机构对农村生活的影响？本论文将分析公元5至9世纪西西里农村的基督教教堂和社区的证据，特别关注幸存的农村古迹。由于其地理位置在地中海海上接口的十字路口，西西里形成了拜占庭帝国的一个非常重要的省份。然而，西西里基督教社区的考古和文字证据仍然没有得到充分研究。关于农村基督教的现有学术研究非常有限;唯一一个关于农村教会的系统研究可以追溯到20世纪90年代末（Carra 1999）。最近的研究更侧重于微观区域分析（Wilson 2011），而历史研究主要集中在世纪后期教皇格雷戈里的文本（Rizzo 2008）。我的研究，利用已发表和未发表的证据和档案数据，将填补这一空白;我在2016-18年在西西里的几个农村教堂进行了实地调查，已经开始这项重要的任务。结合考古学、建筑学和原始资料，我将：-创建一个新的农村教堂数据库，并生成一个历时性的开源分布图。- 阐明5 - 9世纪之间农村教会和基督教社区连续性/不连续性背后的过程，代理人和年表。- 制作一个新的拜占庭农村西西里的历史考古形象。关于方法，我的目标是每年在缺乏考古调查的地点进行为期8周的实地考察。一般的方法是基于非侵入性和非破坏性的技术，其中结合联合收割机实地调查与文物检查，通过GPS，图纸和无人机图像记录结构。我的博士项目将在许多层面上受益于其他学者。通过参加会议，我将提高在这一时期基督教的学术理解，并开发从古代晚期到中世纪在更广泛的地中海背景下的神圣景观的可能演变的更大的认可。我的研究也将影响现代西西里公众对后古典遗产的看法。这个地区拥有几个业余考古团体，我和其中一些人合作过，我将参与清理古迹，组织年度会议。通过提高对这些古迹的认识，我将提高对这些中世纪早期建筑物的实物遗迹的认识，并有可能扩大文化遗产保护的范围，传统上侧重于古典遗迹。

The late Roman to early medieval period witnesses the rise and expansion of the Church across the Mediterranean and Roman world, and is marked by the progressive emergence of churches as new foci for religion, community, and administration. Yet our picture of this major transformation of space and mentality is very much urban-oriented and the Church's impact in the landscape is less well understood in terms of chronologies, influences, and patronage. This project will study evidence of Christian churches and communities in rural Sicily from the fall of the Roman West in the late 5th century until the Muslim conquest in 827. I will ask key questions with regard to the physical, excavated, material and documentary sources: when do these churches appear and how did they fit in the landscape? What forms do they exhibit and what do these tell us of patrons and the communities they served? What role did churches play in landholding and administration? What does archaeological evidence disclose about church development, especially during the 7th-8th centuries, when many are considered to have been abandoned? Finally, how does Sicily fit into wider Mediterranean discussions concerning the impact of Christian institutions on rural life?This thesis will analyse evidence of Christian churches and communities in rural Sicily from the 5th to 9th centuries with particular focus on surviving rural monuments. Given its geographical position at the crossroads of Mediterranean maritime interfaces, Sicily formed a highly important province of the Byzantine Empire. However, archaeological and textual evidence for Christian communities in Sicily has remained understudied. Existing scholarship on rural Christianity here is extremely limited; the only systematic study dealing with rural churches dates to the late 1990s (Carra 1999). More recent research has focused more narrowly on micro-regional analyses (Wilson 2011), while historical studies have mainly focused on the texts of Pope Gregory of the late 6th century (Rizzo 2008). My research, drawing on published and unpublished evidence and archive data, will fill this gap; I have undertaken field surveys in 2016-18 at several rural churches in Sicily to already start this important task. Combining archaeology, architecture, and primary sources I will: -Create a new database of rural churches and generate a diachronic open-source distribution map. -Shed light on the processes, agents, and chronologies behind the continuity/discontinuity in rural churches and Christian communities between 5th-9th centuries. -Produce a new historic-archaeological image of Byzantine rural Sicily. Regarding the methodology, I aim to conduct fieldwork for 8 weeks per year at sites where archaeological investigation is lacking. The general methodology is based on non-intrusive and non-destructive techniques, which combine field-surveys with examination of artefacts, recording of structures by means of GPS, drawings, and drone imagery.My doctoral project will benefit other scholars on many levels. Via attendance of conferences, I will improve scholarly understanding of Christianity in this period and develop greater recognition of possible evolutions of sacred landscapes from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages in a wider Mediterranean context. My research will also impact on modern Sicilian public perceptions of their post-classical heritage. This region boasts several archaeological groups of amateurs, with some of whom I have collaborated, and whom I will involve in cleaning monuments, and organizing annual meetings. By improving the knowledge of these monuments, I will promote greater awareness of the physical remains of these early medieval structures, with potential for extending boundaries of cultural heritage conservation, traditionally focused on classical remains.