Archaeology and History of the Balkans in Late Antiquity (3rd-8th Centuries AD)
Officially launched on the 18th of June 2021, the HAEMUS International Research Network (from the ancient name of the Balkan mountains) proposes to bring together researchers in archaeology and history working on the Balkan peninsula and/or the surrounding lands—viz. on the territory covered by the Tetrarchic Dioceses of Pannonia, Moesia and Thrace—during the Late Roman and Early Byzantine periods. This scientific network is designed around ongoing archaeological excavations and other research programmes in the region. There have been similar projects before, especially in France (GDR 924 and 1052 of the CNRS), but this is the first time that the entirety of the Balkans, from east to west and north to south, will be considered more from the perspective of ancient administrative boundaries, between the 3rd and 8th centuries, rather than from contemporary borders. In order to adequately shed light on the phenomenon of the historical transition from Roman Antiquity to the Middle Ages, the network will, however, not hesitate to look beyond established temporal benchmarks and the spatial framework.
The network aims to facilitate the sharing of scientific knowledge and practices between partners:
- by setting up a mobility programme specifically designed for students and colleagues from South-Eastern Europe, in order to give them access to the unique documentary network constituted by the pooling of partners' resources, as well as to accelerate their full integration into the European Research Area;
- through the circulation of knowledge and practices on the field, between the scholars and the students, in order to encourage interdisciplinary approaches and favour the emergence of both Euro- and trans-Balkan projects;
- by sharing equipment in archaeology, archaeometry and digital humanities, in order to support the emergence of occasional or long-term collaborations;
- through the organisation of scientific meetings within 8 thematic Work Packages (annual workshop and online guest lecture series) which should lead to the publication of digital and open access reference monographs in the Rome and After in Central and Eastern Europe–RomA launched in 2020 by Brepols Publishers (https://danubius.huma-num.fr/en/about/resources/roma-series/)—the creation of an online journal is also considered.
Founded by 13 high-ranking European institutions, HAEMUS was mainly supported by the University of Lille, the HALMA-UMR 8164 research centre (Univ. Lille, CNRS, MC) and the I-SITE ULNE Foundation (also as a structuring activity of the InclusU: The European University for Inclusiveness project) for its implementation phase. It also has a specific partnership, in training, research and publishing with Brepols Publishers, and is fully supported by the Hauts-de-France region.