Vol. 16 No. 1 (2025)
Special Issue: Spatial Humanities and Contemporary Geographical Approaches

A Geospatial Approach to Modelling Social, Religious and Political Shifts in History

PDF
Mária Vargha
University of Vienna, Austria
Bio
Stefan Eichert
Natural History Museum Vienna, Austria
Visualisation of connections between various RELIC entities. Each symbol stands for one CIDOC-CRM entity
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.si.spat.hum.m.var.90.100
Categories

Published 2025-02-15

Keywords

  • Christianisation,
  • OpenAtlas,
  • GIS,
  • Central Eastern Europe,
  • Medieval Europe

How to Cite

Vargha, Mária, and Stefan Eichert. 2025. “A Geospatial Approach to Modelling Social, Religious and Political Shifts in History”. European Journal of Geography 16 (1):s90-s100. https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.si.spat.hum.m.var.90.100.

Copyright (c) 2025 Mária Vargha, Stefan Eichert

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Received 2024-10-02
Accepted 2025-02-09
Published 2025-02-15

Abstract

The present paper introduces the project RELIC (Modelling Religiopolitics. The Imperium Christianum via its Commoners), conducted at the University of Vienna, and the Natural History Museum Vienna, funded by the European Research Council, highlighting the main potential in research and describing the project’s methodology. RELIC proposes a complex, comparative analysis and contextualisation of archaeological and historical remains of the rural population living on the eastern fringes of the later Holy Roman Empire during the Ottonian and Salian periods (10th -12th c.), exploring the influences of centres and networks of secular and ecclesiastical lords, of the natural environment, and of the economic infrastructure. Investigating this often-overlooked segment of the population and its hitherto unexplored or neglected role allows us to study how (top-level) changes in political and ecclesiastical organisations can be reflected in the evidence concerning the lower levels of society and of the local church network, how different strategies worked in different political settings, and what role local initiatives/agencies could have played in religious and political shifts. The archaeology of Christianisation frequently focuses on one crucial aspect, i.e. the division of pagan and Christian elements, based predominantly on cemetery types and some aspects of the material culture. The spatial contextualization of burial customs and material remains, particularly through comparative and large-scale analysis, has the potential to reveal new narratives about the pagan-Christian transition and the phenomenon of transitional cemeteries.

Highlights:

  • RELIC explores Christianisation through geospatial, historical and archaeological data.
  • Spatial patterns of church networks reveal political-religious dynamics.
  • The OpenAtlas framework enables digital analysis of historical and spatial data.
PDF

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

References

  1. Bak, J.M. (2000). Signs of conversion in Central European laws. In G. Armstrong & I. N. Woods (Eds.), Christianizing peoples and converting individ-uals (pp. 115–124). Brepols. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.IMR-EB.3.3456
  2. Bartlett, R. (2015). The making of Europe: Conquest, colonization and cultural change 950-1350. Princeton University Press.
  3. Bratož, R. (1990). Vpliv oglejske cerkve na vzhodnoalpski in predalpski prostor od 4. do 8. stoletja. Zgodovinski časopis, 44(3), Article 3.
  4. Brogiolo, G., & Jurković, M. (2012). Corpus Architecturae Religiosae Europeae (IV–X saec.)—Introduction. Hortus Artium Medievalium, 18(1), 7–26. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.HAM.1.102781
  5. Bukowska, A. (2012). The origins of Christianity in Poland. Actual Research on church archaeology. In O. Heinrich-Tamáska, N. Krohn, & S. Ristow (Eds.), Christianisierung Europas. Entstehung, Entwicklung und Konsolidierung (pp. 449–468). Schnell & Steiner. https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.1841.7448
  6. Čechura, M. (2024). The Relationship between early medieval burial grounds and churchyards in the process of the Christianization of Bohemia. In M. Vargha & I. Štefan (Eds.), Power in Numbers. State Formation and Christianization on the Eastern Edge of Europe (pp. 59–71). Brepols Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.BBL-EB.5.138107
  7. Diesenberger M., Eichert S., & Winckler K. (Eds.) (2020), Der Ostalpenraum im Frühmittelalter – Herrschaftsstrukturen, Raumorganisation und archäologisch-historischer Vergleich. Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters, 22. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaf-ten. https://doi.org/10.1553/0x003b56ca
  8. Eichert, S. (2010). Zu Christentum und Heidentum im slawischen Karantanien. In M. Salamon, M. Wołoszyn, A. Musin, P. Špehar, M. Hardt, M. P. Kruk, & A. Sulikowska-Gąska (Eds.), Rome, Constantinople and Newly converted Europe. Archaeological and Historical Evidence (pp. 489–502). Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas.
  9. Eichert, S., Koschicek, B. & Popović, M. (2016). Digitising patterns of power (DPP): a digital approach towards recording, managing, analysing and presenting archaeological and historical information based on case studies from Eurasian mountainous regions. Acta Archaeologica Car-pathica, 51, 257-283.
  10. Eichert S., Macháček J., Brundke N. (2019), Frontier – Contact zone – No man‘s land. The Morava–Thaya region during the Early Middle Ages. In M. Popović, V. Polloczek, & B. Koschicek (Eds.), Power in landscape: Geographic and digital approaches on historical research (pp. 45-64). Eu-dora Verlag
  11. Eichert, S. (2021). Digital mapping of medieval cemeteries: case studies from Austria and Czechia. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 14(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1145/3406535
  12. Eldevik, J. (2003). Ecclesiastical Lordship and the Politics of Submitting Tithes in Medieval Germany: The Thuringian Dispute in Social Context. Viator, 34, 40–56. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.300381
  13. Fazioli, K. P. (2015). The Transformation of Sacred Landscapes: Approaching the Archaeology of Christianization in the Eastern Alpine-Adriatic Region during the First Millennium AD. In K. D. Springs (Eds.), Landscape and Identity: Archaeology and Human Geography (pp. 71–82). Ar-chaeopress.
  14. Glaser, F. (2012). Kontinuität und Diskontinuität der Christianisierung des Ostalpenraumes. In O. Heinrich-Tamáska, N. Krohn, & S. Ristow (Eds.), Christianisierung Europas. Entstehung, Entwicklung und Konsolidierung (pp. 121–140). Schnell & Schneider.
  15. Hadley, D. M. (2007). The Garden Gives Up its Secrets: The Developing Relationship between Rural Settlements and Cemeteries, c. 750-1100. In S. Semple, & H. Williams (Eds.), Early medieval mortuary practices (pp. 194–203). Oxford University School of Archaeology.
  16. Hoggett, R. (2007). Charting Conversion: Burial as a Barometer of Belief? In S. Semple, & H. Williams (Eds.), Early medieval mortuary practices (pp. 28–37). Oxford University School of Archaeology.
  17. Kalhous, D., & Šrámek, J. (2024). The Establishment of an Ecclesiastical Organization in the Post–Carolingian Periphery. Czech Lands: Networks – Structures – Sources. In M. Vargha, & I. Štefan (Eds.), Power in Numbers. State Formation and Christianization on the Eastern Edge of Europe (pp. 41–57). Brepols. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.BBL-EB.5.138106
  18. Klimanova, O. A., & Kolbowsky, E. Y. (2017). Types of cultural palimpsest landscapes in the Mediterranean basin delimitation and mapping. Euro-pean Journal of Geography, 8(3), 78-91. https://www.eurogeojournal.eu/index.php/egj/article/view/305
  19. Koller, H. (1972). Die Christianisierung des Ostalpenraumes. In Institut für Österreichkunde (Ed.), Religion und Kirche in Österreich (pp. 13–24). Hirt.
  20. Lehner, M. (2013). Die hochmittelalterliche Burg als Kontinuitätsfaktor in Ex-Karantanien. In K. Kühtreiber, & T. Kühtreiber (Eds.), Beiträge zur historischen Archäologie. Festschrift für Sabine Felgenhauer-Schmiedt zum 60. Geburtstag (pp. 249–260). Österrereichische Gesellschaft für Mittelalterarchäologie.
  21. Nowotny, E. (2012). On the Confessional Situation between the Frankish Empire and Moravia in Carolingian Times. Focus on Archaeological Sources from Lower Austria. In M. Salamon, M. Wołoszyn, A. Musin, P. Špehar, M. Hardt, M. P. Kruk, & A. Sulikowska-Gąska (Eds.), Rome, Constantinople and Newly converted Europe. Archaeological and Historical Evidence (pp. 503–515). Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Ge-schichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas.
  22. Pleterski, A. (2024). Images behind the archaeological curtain: Vlachs, Slavs, župas, principalities, Carantania. In B. Štular, M. Lehner, & M. Belak (Eds.), Settlement of the Eastern Alps in the Early Middle Ages (pp. 101–152). Založba ZRC. https://doi.org/10.3986/9789610508786_07
  23. Popović, M., Polloczek, V., Koschicek, B., & Eichert, S. (Eds.) (2019) Power in Landscape. Geographic and Digital Approaches on Historical Research. Eudora Verlag.
  24. Reindel, K. (1964). Die Bistumsorganisation im Alpen-Donau-Raum in der Spätantike und im Frühmittelalter. Mitteilungen des Instituts für Öster-reichische Geschichtsforschung, 72(3–4), 277–310.
  25. Sommer, P., Treštík, D., & Žemlicka, J. (2007). Bohemia and Moravia. In N. Berend (Ed.), Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy. Scan-dinavia, Central Europe and Rus’ c.900-1200 (pp. 214–262). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511496400.007
  26. Štefan, I. (2022). Conversion and Christianization: Bohemia, Poland, Hungary and Rus’ (9th to 12th centuries). In F. Curta (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1300 (1st ed., pp. 101–120). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429276217-7
  27. Štefan, I. (2024). Conversion to Christianization: Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and Rus. In M. Vargha & I. Štefan (Eds.), Power in Numbers. State Formation and Christianization on the Eastern Edge of Europe (pp. 19–40). Brepols. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.BBL-EB.5.138105
  28. Štular, B., Lozić, E., Belak, M., Rihter, J., Koch, I., Modrijan, Z., Magdič, A., Karl, S., Lehner, M., & Gutjahr, C. (2022). Migration of Alpine Slavs and machine learning: Space-time pattern mining of an archaeological data set. PLOS ONE, 17(9), e0274687. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274687
  29. Thomas, G., Pluskowski, A., Gilchrist, R., García-Contreras Ruiz, G., Andrén, A., Augenti, A., Astill, Grenville, Staecker, J., & Valk, H. (2017). Reli-gious Transformations in the Middle Ages: Towards a New Archaeological Agenda. Medieval Archaeology, 61(2), 300–329. https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2017.1374764
  30. Triplett, E. (2017). Mapping Spheres of Influence on Medieval Iberia’s Religious Frontier via Viewshed Analysis and Cost-Distance Analysis. Histor-ical Geography, 45(1), 66–91. https://doi.org/10.1353/hgo.2017.0017
  31. Urbańczyk, P. (2019). Archaeology and the beginnings of Christianity in Poland. In I. Kąkolewski, C. Lübke, & P. Urbańczyk (Eds.), The Dawnings of Christianity in Poland and across Central-Eastern Europe (pp. 65–76). Peter Lang.
  32. Urbańczyk, P. (2024). Burial Practice in Transition—Sepulchral Evidence of Christianization in the Early Piast State. In M. Vargha & I. Štefan (Eds.), Power in Numbers. State Formation and Christianization on the Eastern Edge of Europe (pp. 73–80). Brepols. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.BBL-EB.5.138108
  33. Vargha, M. (2022). Modelling Christianisation. A Geospatial Analysis of the Archaeological Data on the Rural Church Network of Hungary in the 11-12th Centuries. Archeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2vm3b7n
  34. Vargha, M., Janovský, M., & Fajta, M. (2024). Empowering the Voiceless: The Role of the Rural Population in State Building and Christianization in East-Central Europe. Preliminary Results about Bohemia. In M. Vargha & I. Štefan (Eds.), Power in Numbers. State Formation and Christianiza-tion on the Eastern Edge of Europe (Vol. 4, pp. 271–283). Brepols Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.BBL-EB.5.138122
  35. Watzinger, A. (2019), OpenAtlas – how to grow software for historians. In M. Popović, V. Polloczek, B. Koschicek & S. Eichert (Eds.), Power in Landscape. Geographic and Digital Approaches on Historical Research (pp. 193-204). Eudora Verlag.Winckler, K. (2018). Konkurrierende Bi-schöfe und ihre Herrschaftsbereiche in den Ostalpen des 8. Und 9. Jahrhunderts. In Genèse des espaces politiques IXe—XIIe siècle (pp. 121–148). Brepols. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.HAMA-EB.5.113675
  36. Winckler, K. (2019). The territory of the bishop: Ritual and diocesan boundaries in early medieval Bavaria. In M. Popović, V. Polloczek, B. Koschicek & S. Eichert (Eds.),Power in Landscape. Geographic and Digital Approaches on Historical Research (pp. 33–44). Eudora.
  37. Wolfram, H. (1995). Salzburg, Bayern, Österreich: Die Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum und die Quellen ihrer Zeit. Oldenbourg. https://doi.org/10.7767/boehlau.9783205159803
  38. Wolfram, H. (2012). Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum: Das Weißbuch der Salzburger Kirche über die erfolgreiche Mission in Karantanien und Pannonien. Slovenska Akad. Znanosti in Umetnosti.
  39. Wood, I. N. (2001). The Missionary Life: Saints and the Evangelisation of Europe, 400-1050. Longman.