Case Study: The Ethnonym of the Vlachs in the Written Sources and the Toponymy in the Historical Region of Macedonia (11th-16th Cent.)
The project DPP and the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute for History
have started a joint scholarly project entitled "The Ethnonym of the Vlachs in the Written Sources and the Toponymy in the Historical Region of Macedonia", which focuses on the interplay
between the resident population and the nomads (i.e. the Vlachs) in the respective historical region from the 11th to the 16th century. This project, which was successfully submitted
by the project coordinators Doz. Dr. Mihailo Popović and
Prof. Dr. Toni Filiposki,
is funded by the Centre for International
Cooperation & Mobility (ICM) of the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (OeAD-GmbH)
for two years (2016-18) and will form an additional, new case study within DPP.
The historical region of Macedonia at the crossroads of Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Islam and the question of the
origin of the Vlachs, who identify themselves as a separate ethnic group until modern times, as well as the ethnonym
"Vlachs" and its derivatives in the form of toponyms and personal names are at the core of the joint research.
That is why DPP at the Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Institute for History
of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje have decided to explore the medieval Byzantine and Slavic sources
related to the Vlachs in the historical region of Macedonia. Moreover, historical and archaeological research will be
combined with Digital Humanities. The Austrian side will build upon the manifold data provided by the
volume Tabula Imperii Byzantini (TIB) 16 written by M. Popović with the aim to create a historical atlas of the historical region of Macedonia. In addition to identifying and evaluating Byzantine and Slavic sources (especially charters and historiography) and collecting additional secondary literature there will be journeys to the respective country of the cooperation partner with the aim to bring together the project partners, to strengthen their ties, to enable a thorough discussion of the relevant medieval sources on the Vlachs for reaching a common level of interpretation and for preparing to include the elaborated data into the DPP-database.
Fig. 1 A Sheepflock in the Village of Oxynon, Greece. (M. Popović, 2004)
Fig. 2 A Sheepflock in the Village of Oxynon, Greece. (M. Popović, 2004)
Fig. 3 A Sheepflock in the Village of Oxynon, Greece. (M. Popović, 2004)
Fig. 4 Nomadic Infrastructure in dthe Historical Region of Macedonia (14th Cent.) (M. Popović)
Fig. 5 The Winter Pastures in the Historical Region of Macedonia (14th Cent.) (M. Popović)
Fig. 6 The Summer Pastures in the Historical Region of Macedonia (14th Cent.) (M. Popović)
Fig. 7 The Distribution of Vlach Temporary Settlements (Katuni) in the Historical Region of Macedonia (14th Cent.) (M. Popović)
Fig. 8 The Source-Based Presence of Vlachs in the Historical Region of Macedonia (14th Cent.) (M. Popović)