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Books by Vicky Manolopoulou

Identities in Antiquity (Rewriting Antiquity), 2025

Papers by Vicky Manolopoulou

Culture & History Digital Journal

This paper discusses supplicatory liturgical processions (litae) and their routes in eleventh-cen... more This paper discusses supplicatory liturgical processions (litae) and their routes in eleventh-century Constantinople by examining a hitherto neglected source; the eleventh-century Praxapostolos Dresden A104. References to supplicatory processions found in this source are examined in comparison with one of the most important sources on Byzantine ceremonial: the tenth-century kanonarion-synaxarion known as the Typikon of the Great Church. By comparing the evidence relating to the use of sites within the city during commemorations that included a procession in these two sources it is possible to draw some conclusions in terms of the way the litanic landscape changed between the tenth and eleventh centuries. The paper aims to present new evidence relating to the way annually commemorative processions were performed in Byzantine Constantinople.

Just as a monument like a church building can have multiple phases and a long history, so does th... more Just as a monument like a church building can have multiple phases and a long history, so does the landscape around it; and just as a church is not simply a relic from the past but also part of the ongoing experience of people today, so the landscape in which that building is located continues to change with people in the present. Both landscape and heritage have tangible and intangible aspects; both are dynamic, changing in relation to what has happened in the past and the ways they are understood in the present. These perspectives inform the work of the Apalirou Environs Project (AEP), whose study area comprises part of south-western Naxos. Through work with local people, archive research and fieldwork, the project is seeking to understand the changing story of the landscape around the fortified kastro on the mountain-top above.

J.Crow, D.Hill (eds.), Naxos and the Byzantine Aegean: Insular Responses to Regional Change Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens, Vol. 7. Athens: Norwegian Institute at Athens

Experiencing Byzantium, 2013

Archaeologia Aeliana 41, 2012

In the Society’s collection in the Great North Museum there is an unusual spouted, glazed vessel ... more In the Society’s collection in the Great North Museum there is an unusual spouted, glazed vessel (Accession Number 1967.8). The very characteristic form and shape enable its identification as an Islamic oil lamp from the potteries in Fustat, Egypt. Fustat was a city built by the Arabs on the south bank of the River Nile, next to Roman Babylon, after the conquest of Egypt in the seventh century AD. It served as a capital of Islamic Egypt from the year of its foundation in ad 641 until ad 969 when thecity of Cairo was founded.

Workshops by Vicky Manolopoulou

Call for Papers by Vicky Manolopoulou

Much recent archaeological research has been concerned with religious transformative processes an... more Much recent archaeological research has been concerned with religious transformative processes and their legacy in the present-day landscape. The structure of the modern environment is often anchored in the networks and spaces that evolved in response to religious practices and economic and cultural support systems. Throughout Europe and beyond, the cultural inheritance of religious orders and groupings has structured and influenced much of the modern landscape. The artefacts of religion and beliefs are represented as still-functioning institutions, relict features and as more subtle influences on property boundaries and settlement formation, for example. Religious institutions, buildings and features have had a significant impact on the development of the wider landscape and have played a key role in the way people engage with their environment, creating a sense of place and helping to shape people’s cultural identity. This session invites papers on all aspects of the landscape legacy of sacred places and spaces across periods and disciplines.

Talks by Vicky Manolopoulou

Paper presented at the 'Historicising Belief' workshop, Newcastle University, September 2016.

"In medieval minds Constantinople was the queen of cities, a world-famous jewel under the protect... more "In medieval minds Constantinople was the queen of cities, a world-famous jewel under the protection of God and the Theotokos. The city's sacred landscape hosted the relics of important saints and was perceived as being like a church; it was a landscape characterised as a leader of faith and a guide of Orthodoxy. The city was the lieu of religious processions, historic and commemorative, that found their referential traces in various primary sources. These processions are recorded as having salvific and protective properties. In this paper I bring together archaeological and textual data, aiming to create an approach that can be used to understand how sacred meanings about the landscape were created and perceived. The paper approaches one facet of the historic landscape of Constantinople, the litanic landscape, which was transformed through practice during the liturgical year, creating nuclei of power. My paper will explore the archaeology of religion and practice in the Byzantine capital, suggesting that landscapes of power are like organisms; they evolve, transform and should not be seen as static amalgams.
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Until recently, the value of early representations of Constantinople was doubted, because they we... more Until recently, the value of early representations of Constantinople was doubted, because they were considered not to follow any laws of cartography. Lately, however, research has shown that these representations have some degree of accuracy, and can thus be useful tools in the study of the topographical transformation and evolution of the city. Some of these early representations include depictions of street networks; the existence of the latter is often acknowledged but has not yet been approached, due to the depictions being considered a product of the imagination. In the absence of much published archaeological data on streets, the value of historical maps in a retrogressive analysis of the street network is significant. This paper will examine the value of historical maps and early bird’s eye views, by tracing the earliest representations to later historical maps and the modern street network, and in doing so will test whether represented networks are analogous to reality. Digitised historical maps and early bird’s eye views, spanning a period from the 15th to the 21st century, have been selected for analysis. Using GIS to store and query the data will result in a map where “map objects” such as sites and roads can be referenced to historical maps.

Identities in Antiquity (Rewriting Antiquity), 2025

Culture & History Digital Journal

J.Crow, D.Hill (eds.), Naxos and the Byzantine Aegean: Insular Responses to Regional Change Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens, Vol. 7. Athens: Norwegian Institute at Athens

Experiencing Byzantium, 2013

Archaeologia Aeliana 41, 2012

Paper presented at the 'Historicising Belief' workshop, Newcastle University, September 2016.

by George Papasavvas, Alan Peatfield, Vicky Manolopoulou, Christine Morris, Athanasios Vionis, Giorgos Papantoniou, Amelia R Brown, Mireia López-Bertran, Jennifer Webb, Rebecca Sweetman, and Adi Erlich

Processions have been fundamental to many cultures as a form of communal activity, both secular a... more Processions have been fundamental to many cultures as a form of communal activity, both secular and religious. While they are of great importance, they are hard to capture – the sources for different periods offer different kinds of evidence, whether written, visual or material. The aim of the colloquium is to examine the kinds of evidence available to us from the Greco-Roman and Byzantine worlds – from the depiction of a 5th century BCE procession in the Parthenon marbles to the Typikon of the Great Church from 10th century Constantinople. During the course of the colloquium, invited speakers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds will draw selectively upon a variety of textual, visual and material evidence in order to introduce a series of case studies which will enhance our understanding of the history of processions and their social and cultural significance in their respective historical context.

Processing Constantinople : understanding the role of lite in creating the sacred character of the landscape, 2016

The main aim of this thesis is to examine the spatial dimension of religious movement and to unde... more The main aim of this thesis is to examine the spatial dimension of religious movement and to understand its role in creating a sacred landscape. It takes an inter-disciplinary approach towards the archaeology of religion and practice in the Byzantine capital that suggests that sacred landscapes are not static amalgams but that they exist and are transformed through experience. In medieval minds Constantinople was the queen of cities, a world-famous jewel under the protection of God and His mother the Theotokos. The city's sacred landscape hosted the relics of saints and was perceived as being like a church; it was a landscape characterised as a guide of faith and Orthodoxy. The city was the location of religious processions, historic and commemorative, whose echoes are found in various primary sources. These processions are recorded as having salvific and protective properties and as a link to the divine. During these processions churches, but also civic sites like the Forum or even open spaces outside the city walls, were within a sacred sphere. Time, landscape and text are active agents that shape but are also shaped by religious practice. The thesis presents an analysis of the spatiotemporal relationships of text, material culture, religious practice and is aiming to approach an understanding of the litanic character of the sacred landscape. To do so, the argument is based on discussions of the way the Byzantines perceived processions and the way they engaged with practice itself, including the role of emotion and memory and affect. Furthermore the thesis explores the processions of the two liturgical cycles of the 10th century cathedral rite and discusses where possible the origins of these processions. With the use of GIS, it analyses the meaning of their spatiotemporal relationships, proposing at the same time new ways for their visualisation.