Medieval Sardinia had a unique position in the Mediterranean interacting politically with the societies surrounding the island. In the four-year archaeological project ‘Power, society, and (dis)connectivity in medieval Sardinia’ funded by The Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) Thomas Birch will partake in analysing new, and re-evaluate old, evidence for the history and archaeology of medieval Sardinia.

Thomas Birch’s primary focus will be on examining the provenance of silver coinage as well as lead seals with Greek or Arabic legends, funereal stele to see if they are produced from local or imported stone and he will analyze high prestige objects such as grave goods in military burials.

Besides producing new scientific insights, the project wants to transfer this knowledge to a large and diverse audience. Therefore, it is among the project aims to establish a major new exhibition on Sardinia and its Mediterranean contexts at the National Museum in Cagliari.

Facts
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) has awarded a £1 million grant to lead new documentary and archaeological research into ‘Power, society, and (dis)connectivity in medieval Sardinia’. 

The four-year project, directed by Dr Alex Metcalfe (Lancaster University) in collaboration with Dr Thomas Birch (Centre for Urban Network Evolutions, Aarhus University, Denmark) and Dr Giovanni Serreli (Institute of European Mediterranean History, National Research Council of Italy), will co-ordinate investigations across a network of ten research institutions. 

Contact
Thomas Birch, assistant professor
E-mail:t.birch@cas.au.dk
Phone: +4587162546