Jewish Communities in the Early Byzantine Balkans and the Aegean: Communal Structure and Identity

My paper will investigate the social, economic and political developments in the early Byzantine empire that influenced the communal structure of the Jewish communities in the Balkans and the Aegean. The scope of the paper is defined temporally and spatially. It is proposed to begin in the 4th century and end in the 8th century. This will allow the inclusion of the widest possible selection of epigraphical, literary and archaeological sources. I aim to clarify the place the Jewish community occupied within the social structures of Byzantine society and will focus my investigation on several aspects of Jewish everyday life such as communal organisation and leadership of the Jewish community, the social status, occupation and cultural concerns of its members. This will be achieved through a study of the archaeological data related to synagogue buildings, moveable objects and inscriptions mentioning Jewish communal offices such as presbyteros, prostates and archon. Evidence for everyday contacts between Jews, Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in the areas concerned will also be presented. Geographically, my paper will review evidence from the Balkans and the adjacent Aegean islands, which were among the core areas of the Byzantine empire between the 4th and 8th centuries. I plan to go beyond the published record and investigate unpublished sources with particular focus on the epigraphic and archaeological evidence. A number of unpublished inscriptions and archaeological data from Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Corinth, Argos, Sparta, Stobi and Chios will be analysed.