Aneurin started following the work of Thomas Gallant, University of California, San Diego, History.
Aneurin started following the work of Andrea Berlin, Boston University, Archaeology.
Aneurin started following the work of 2 people.
Graduate Student, Classics
DPhil student
New College
Thesis Title: The Coastal Interface in the North Aegean: Regional Studies in the Historical Geography of the Polis (7th c. – 1st c. BC)
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Peter Thonemann
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About
My thesis uses the specific example of the north Aegean to examine a type of region which I term the coastal interface. By this, I do not simply mean the coastal strip where land and sea meet (an incidental consequence of physical geography), but rather the zone of transition between two very different ecologies: on the one side the Mediterranean, on the other inland Thrace and Asia Minor. Proximity to these two very different ecologies creates a unique economic environment in which production and transport costs are slashed, which then has consequences for economic specialization and the exchange of goods. For these reasons, the coastal interface is a uniquely attractive place to settle, as well as being of particular interest to external powers. In turn, the particular pressures brought to bear on these regions by outside powers have significant ramifications for the poleis which reside there in the form of the production of a ‘borderland’ identity. Since a comprehensive treatment of this topic is beyond the scope of a doctorate, the thesis is organized as a series of interlocking case studies which aim to establish the viability of this region as a unit of study and, ultimately, the benefit of doing so elsewhere in the Mediterranean. The first part of the thesis consists of several regional studies which establish the existence and nature of the coastal interface. The first chapter takes the Troad as an initial test case. The second chapter will deal with the island of Lesbos and examines the role coastal islands play at the ‘edge’ of the coastal interface. The third chapter will look at the Strymon and Hebros valleys as examples of large, navigable rivers which provide effective access across the coastal interface into the inland world. The second part of the thesis will be a series of thematic case studies. The first will look at Athenian involvement in the north Aegean from 600-300 BC and the second at the peraiai of Thasos, Samothrace, and Mytilene.
Contact Information
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