ZOF: Zona Franca – Ideas of Territory in the Carolingian Empire

The project ZOF: Zona Franca – Ideas of territory in the Carolingian Empire will investigate and visualise early medieval ideas of territory, specifically in the south-eastern regions of the realm.ZOF will use a new and unique two-part approach: firstly, investigating early medieval source texts using theories of critical and discourse theories as well as cultural geography, and, secondly, applying techniques and methods from digital humanities, critical geography, and GIS to analyse the sources and visualise the research findings.

This will permit a fresh view on early medieval territories and territoriality as represented in the written sources.

One important step towards this is the inclusion of spatial narratives and terms that hitherto were cast aside as ‘not plausible’. All early medieval discourses on territory in the broadest sense will be included in ZOF. The resulting data will be stored in an open-access database and visualised in an interactive map application: ZOF-MAP.

This application will use new and more accurate methods of visualising medieval territories than traditional historical maps or GIS: ZOF will be using methods of critical cartography, mental mapping, and deep mapping.As an open access online application, ZOF-MAP will reach a wider public and thus give a broader audience access to cutting edge historical research.