workshop "Zona Franca – Ideas of Territory in the Carolingian Empire. Regions, Theories and Methods." May 24th / 25th  2024, Trento.

The workshop “Zona Franca – Ideas of Territory in the Carolingian Empire. Regions, Theories and Methods.” will take place on Friday, May 24th,  2024  from 9:15 am to ca. 6:00 pm  and Saturday, May 25th from 9:00 am to ca. 12:45 pm at the University of Trento.

Link to the eventpage at the University of Trento here

Register for the online participation at the event via Zoom here  (registration is only possible until May 23 at 12.00)

It is  funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101063413) project “ZOF- Zona Franca. Ideas of territory in the Carolingian Empire”, 

The workshop will present the project findings and the related work at the University of Trento. Additionally we would like to present the latest research on the topic of early medieval territories and/or early medieval territoriality in general.

We will investigate following topics:
(A) A focus on specific areas, where the formation and/or disappearance (or even destruction) of a territorial unit is observable. What processes led to the formation/disappearance of these territorial units and who were the actors - individuals or groups - responsible for these developments? How reflected those ideas of territories in “real space”, for example in fortifications, villages or churches and do we still have remnants of them? Can we use this information in combination with the written sources?

(B) A focus on theoretical backgrounds. How can we describe early medieval territoriality? What means did early medieval rulers have and use to create/destroy/administer these territories? What role played imagined, liminal and social territories? In this regard, also discussions of historical concepts like feudalism and a critical assessment of historiographic constructions describing medieval territoriality are welcome, for example terms like “Personenverbandsstaat”, “Landnahme”, “Stammesherzogtum” etc.

(C) The different (digital and analogue) techniques to map those territories:  How can we draw maps that accurately reflect these territories? How do we depict fluid frontiers and border areas of the early Middle Ages in digital and analogue maps? The workshop will also be a place to discuss the cartographic and technological methods to store related data.

PROGRAMME 

24 May 2024

9:15 – 9:30 Introduction
By Giuseppe Albertoni and Katharina von Winckler
9:30 – 10:50 Session 1 – Names & Territory / The Eastern Margins
Moderator: Giuseppe Albertoni (Università di Trento)
Walter Pohl (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) – Ethnic and territorial names in the Carolingian World
Laurence Leleu (Université d'Artois) – Terra Thuringorum. Evolution of Thuringia in the Carolingian and Ottonian periods

10:50 – 11:10 Coffe Break

11:10 – 12:30 Session 2 - Italia
Moderator:  Giovanni Rachello (Università di Trento)
Giulia Zornetta (Università di Padova) – Regnum, Provincia, Fines. Definire il principato di Benevento
Manuel Fauliri (Universität Tübingen) – Know the neighbour, frame the territory: networks and geographies of local communities in Carolingian Tuscia

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 16:00 Session 3 – The Western Margins
Moderator: Francesco Borri (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia)
Igor Santos Salazar (Università di Trento) – Under the Mask of a March: Fiscal Assets and Territorial Organisation in Carolingian Catalonia
Sergi Tella Pamies (Universidad de Lleida) – Create, repurpose and eliminate: shaping territoriality in the marca Hispanica after the Carolingian conquest
Fernando Ruchesi (Universidad de Lleida) – In toto regno nostro Goticae... Ideas of Frontiers and Identity in Northeastern Hispania during the ninth century

16:00 – 16:30 Coffe Break

16:30 – 17:50 Session 4 Other Territories  1: Legal Territories / The Idea of Territories
Moderator: Manuel Fauliri  (Universität Tübingen)
Thom Gobbitt (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) – (Visualising) Abstract Legal Territories: Judicial Districts and the Lombard Laws
Katharina von Winckler (Università di Trento) – ZOF/Zona Franca: Digitising and mapping Ideas of Carolingian Territoires

25 May 2024

9:00 – 10:20 Session 5: Reality? Archaeology and Territory
Moderator: Katharina von Winckler (Università di Trento)
Bendeguz Tobias (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) – At the Edges of Empires. Today's Eastern Austrian Region in the 9th century CE
Elisa Possenti (Università di Trento) – Archaeological evidence of secular and ecclesiastical elites in the Trentino and South Tyrolean territories in the Carolingian period

10:20 – 10:30 Coffee Break

10:30 – 12:15 Session 6: Other Territories 2: Far away and Imaginary Territories
Moderator: Giulia Zornetta (Università di Padova)
Francesco Borri (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia) – Cadere dal mondo. I margini imperiali nell’alto Medioevo
Giuseppe Albertoni (Università di Trento) – "Bruciati dal sole": la rappresentazione degli Etiopi in età carolingia.

Resumee - Final Discussion
Igor Santos Salazar (Università di Trento)