Natalia Poulou

Natalia Poulou is a professor in Byzantine archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She studied Archaeology and Art at the Department of History and Archaeology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She pursued postgraduate studies in Paris – Université Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne and received her PhD from the same university (Dissertation title: “Samos paléochrétienne: l’apport du matériel archéologique ». Her research centers on Byzantine architecture, pottery and maritime routes and communication in Byzantium. She was a Visiting Professor at the Université Paris Ι, Panthéon Sorbonne, the Université Aix – Marseille in France and the Università di Bologna in Italy. She participated in excavations in Samos, Kythera, Crete and is the director of the excavations in Philippi (east Macedonia) and Mochlos (Crete). She is the president of the administrative broad of the European Center of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments. She is the member of the International Committee of Late Roman Pottery in the Mediterranean and a member of the editorial boards of several scholarly journals and series in Europe. She has published 11 books and more than 60 papers in international journals.

The project

Title: Human activities and communication networks in the Byzantine Aegean (7th-9th c.): the contribution of archaeology.

"The research program is as follows: human activities and communication networks in the Aegean during the Byzantine Middle Ages (14th-9th c.). This is a very important period in Byzantine archaeology, during which Byzantium definitively lost its eastern provinces to Arab attack. It is interesting to examine the archaeological evidence pointing to the changes that took place from the 7th century onwards in important sectors of the Byzantine Empire's administration and defense; at the same time, it is important to study the character of trade and the security of communications in the towns and cities of the Aegean islands. The means used by Byzantine society to adapt to new conditions is also an object of research from an archaeological point of view."

Hosting: Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance

Selective Bibliography

• ‘Maritime Routes in the Aegean (7th–9th centuries): The Archaeological Evidence’, in A. Dunn (ed.), Byzantine Greece: Microcosm of Empire? Papers from the Forty-sixth Symposium of Byzantine Studies, London and New York 2024, 79-107.
• ‘Byzantine globular amphorae in the Aegean (7th-9th centuries)’, in V. Caminneci, E. Giannitrapani, M. Concetta Parello, M. Serena Rizzo (eds.), LRCW 6: Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean: Archaeology and Archaeometry, Archaeopress, Oxford 2023, 577-588.
• ‘Networks, connectivity and supply infrastructure in the Aegean and Ionian Seas (7th - 9th c.)’ in N. Poulou (ed.), Networks and Communication in Byzantium’, Thessaloniki 2022, 73-135.
• ‘Reassessing Urban Continuity in Early medieval Philippi’, in S.J.Friesen et al. (eds), Philippi, from Colonia Augusta to communitas christiana: Religion and Society in Transition, Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2022, 422-455.
• "‘Polychrome Ware: The Long Journey of Decorative Motifs’, in N. Kontogiannis, B. Böhlendorf-Arslan, F. Yenişehirlioğlou (eds.), Glazed Wares as Cultural Agents in the Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman Lands, ANAMED, Istanbul 2021, 84-113.