Calculating the Middle Ages? The Project "Complexities and Networks in the Medieval Mediterranean and Near East" (COMMED)

TL;DR

This paper discusses the COMMED project which applies network theory and complexity sciences to analyze medieval societies, focusing on political networks and conflicts across Europe and Afro-Eurasia during the late medieval period.

Contribution

It develops and applies new methodological tools from network theory to study medieval political dynamics and conflicts in a comparative, cross-regional framework.

Findings

Network analysis reveals complex political relationships in medieval Europe and Afro-Eurasia.

The approach provides new insights into the political and environmental turmoil of the Late Medieval Crisis.

Case studies demonstrate the explanatory power of network-based methods in medieval history.

Abstract

The project "Complexities and networks in the Medieval Mediterranean and Near East" (COMMED) at the Division for Byzantine Research of the Institute for Medieval Research (IMAFO) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences focuses on the adaptation and development of concepts and tools of network theory and complexity sciences for the analysis of societies, polities and regions in the medieval world in a comparative perspective. Key elements of its methodological and technological toolkit are applied, for instance, in the new project "Mapping medieval conflicts: a digital approach towards political dynamics in the pre-modern period" (MEDCON), which analyses political networks and conflict among power elites across medieval Europe with five case studies from the 12th to 15th century. For one of these case studies on 14th century Byzantium, the explanatory value of this approach is presented in greater detail. The presented results are integrated in a wider comparison of five late medieval polities across Afro-Eurasia (Byzantium, China, England, Hungary and Mamluk Egypt) against the background of the {\guillemotright}Late Medieval Crisis{\guillemotleft} and its political and environmental turmoil. Finally, further perspectives of COMMED are outlined.