From twilight to a new dawn: Byzantine southern Italy

This paper aims to present some issues related to The 'Byzantine Heritage of Southern Italy' project. The scope of this project is the archaeological investigation of some 500 years of Byzantine domination of Puglia, Calabria, Basilicata, and Sicily. This study on Byzantine Heritage includes settlement patterns and connectivity, language and religion, food and society, and, perhaps we might add, mentality. Nonetheless, this large territory was constantly changing in volume and boundaries, and in social composition through politics and mobility. So even if we may speak of it as a significant entity, it was also somewhat of a palimpsest. The examination of the 'Byzantine Heritage of Southern Italy ' is thus an examination of differences and contrasts, in which we will explore unity in disunity.