Window on to the Middle Ages

“A voyage to another world” is how Professor Zachary Chitwood describes the journey to the object of his research. “The first thing you glimpse of Mount Athos from the ferry is the impressive monasteries, which front the steep cliffs like fortresses,” says Chitwood. “Immediately, you sense that this place is steeped in history.” For the Byzantinist, the monastic mountain republic on a narrow peninsula in Greece is a window on to the Middle Ages. “The monastic community living there is a centuries-old link between cultures and religions.” To this day, the site is home to around 2,200 monks in 20 monasteries, including Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Russian communities.

Zachary Chitwood has been Chair Professor of Byzantine Studies at LMU since last year – but his interest in Mount Athos goes back to his childhood in Nevada. He loved reading historical books and was fascinated by different eras. His academic career began with a degree in history, mathematics, and languages at Ripon College in Wisconsin. “My gateway to Byzantine studies was through my interest in the ancient world, especially the Roman Empire and the Greek language,” he recalls.

“My interest in the question as to what actually happened to Greek culture after classical antiquity ultimately led me to Princeton for a PhD,” Chitwood explains. His topic was Byzantine law under the Macedonian dynasty from the 9th to the 11th century. While working on this dissertation, Chitwood stumbled upon legal documents from Mount Athos, which would subsequently play a key role in his research. After his doctorate, he moved to Humboldt University in Berlin to collaborate on a large-scale research project on endowments in the Middle Ages.

Network reaching all the way into the Caucasus

“During this period, I not only got to know German academic culture, but also learned how foundations in Byzantium differed from their counterparts in the Latin West, the Islamic world, Judaism, and premodern India,” says Chitwood. “It was striking that endowments existed as independent legal constructs only in Islamic societies, whereas monasteries were often endowed in the Christian world but not legally defined.” From Berlin, Chitwood moved to Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where he worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Byzantine Studies with a focus on cultural exchange between the Byzantine and Islamic worlds.

In his first research project of his own about Mount Athos – Mount Athos in Medieval Eastern Mediterranean Society (MAMEMS) – Chitwood was interested in its role as a monastic republic and transcultural hub. “It was only then that I appreciated how multifaceted and international this monastic state was in the Middle Ages,” remembers Chitwood. “People often think of Mount Athos as a remote place cut off from the world.” But the sources indicate the contrary: “Trade routes crossed here, endowments flowed in from across Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean world, and pilgrims from a huge variety of regions left their traces.”

His focus in MAMEMS is on the study of commemorative lists, which not only list the dead, but also often contain details about donors and their endowments. “Particularly informative is the book of commemorations (agapes) of the Georgian monastery Iviron, which has detailed entries on donations and rituals,” explains Chitwood. “It shows that Athos had far-reaching connections all the way into the Caucasus.” By contrast, other lists – from Serbian or Greek monasteries, for instance – usually contain just names, which can only be classified when they can be attributed to well-known historical personalities.

“Hidden treasures”

Chitwood has visited Mount Athos himself several times. Like all visitors, he requires a visa. He shares accommodation with pilgrims in the guesthouses of the monasteries. “While there, you rise bright and early with the monks, take part in their religious services – and are not allowed to talk during meals.” Access to the archives is often tricky to arrange: “Each monastery looks after its own documents and decides individually about access.” Many sources are only available on site and so have scarcely been studied. “There are archives that presumably contain hidden treasures. But getting access is often a question of personal trust – and sometimes you wait in vain for a positive answer.”

Another difficulty is that women are not allowed on Mount Athos due to religious ideas that go back to the Middle Ages. The monasteries follow an ascetic ideal, and the complete exclusion of women is designed to prevent any form of distraction. Even female animals, with the exception of cats, are not permitted on Athos. This rule is based on religious convictions, although naturally it has come in for criticism in the modern world. “Digitalization can at least open a window here,” says Chitwood. “It enables female researchers to work with sources from which they are physically excluded.”

His current project “The Challenge of Islam and the Transformation of Eastern Christian Normative Regimes, ca. 630-1100” (NOMOS) contributes to this digitalization. It develops AI-supported techniques for the automated transcription of Byzantine manuscripts. “The automatic deciphering of handwritten texts is still challenging compared to printed works,” explains Chitwood. “For Greek manuscripts in particular, there are still many sources of errors.” The project seeks to improve these methods and thus accelerate the editing of large volumes of text. “AI can help us work faster,” says Chitwood. “But it does not replace people. Ultimately, we still need researchers – female as well as male – who really understand the old texts.”