Early Byzantine sigillographic evidence from western Anatolia: sixth- and seventh-century lead seals from Bergama (ancient Pergamon)

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24
Author(s):  
Ergün Laflı ◽  
Werner Seibt ◽  
Doğukan Çağlayan
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Early Byzantine

This article presents twelve lead seals from the Museum of Bergama (ancient Pergamon), dating from the late sixth to the early eighth century. We offer a descriptive catalogue of these early Byzantine seals preserved in a western Turkish museum. In the introduction, seals excavated in Pergamon as well as seals referring to Pergamon are briefly discussed. The owners of the twelve seals in the museum were primarily ecclesiastical or legal dignitaries who were probably active in Pergamon, in southwestern Mysia, in Aeolis or in Lydia.

After Chalcedon

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian E. Daley, SJ
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
John Of Damascus ◽  
Perceived Impact ◽  
Orthodox Theology ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Maximus The Confessor ◽  
Severus Of Antioch

The Council of Chalcedon’s definition of the terms in which Nicene orthodoxy should conceive of Christ’s person remained controversial. Leontius of Byzantium argued for the correctness of the Council’s formulation, especially against the arguments of Severus of Antioch, but suggested that more than academic issues were at stake: the debate concerned the lived, permanently dialectical unity between God and humanity. In the mid-seventh century, imperially sponsored efforts to lessen the perceived impact of Chalcedonian language by stressing that Christ’s two natures were activated by “a single, theandric energy,” also remained without effect: largely because of the monk Maximus “the Confessor”, who argued that two complete spheres of activity and two wills remained evident in Christ’s life. Maximus’s position was ratified at the Lateran Synod and at the Third Council of Constantinople. The eighth-century Palestinian monk John of Damascus incorporated these arguments into his own influential synthesis of orthodox theology.

Merovingian Meditations on Jesus

2020 ◽  
pp. 1070-1105
Author(s):  
Lynda Coon
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Lives Of Saints ◽  
External Influences ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Biblical Texts

The final chapter of this volume explores the conversation on Jesus held between material and textual sources, where monumental works of sculpture extend salvific themes found in the lives of saints and the verses of poets. Merovingian meditations on Jesus are multivocal, reflecting the cross-cultural rhythms of a world open to and receptive of external influences, whether originating in classical or biblical texts or hailing from Mediterranean or Northern lands. In order to prove this hypothesis on the Merovingian body and the embodied savior, three works of sculpture produced during the early Middle Ages serve as sounding boards for Jesus’ earthly ministry as enacted by human players: the crucified savior featured on the seventh-century Moselkern Stele; the eighth-century Hypogée des Dunes’s sculpted relief of the two thieves crucified along with Jesus; and the so-called Niederdollendorf “Christ,” carved most likely in the seventh century. Saintly actors, such as Radegund of Poitiers (d. 587), animate three themes expressed in the sculpted sources respectively: (1) absence, (2) torture, and (3) light. The three subjects—light, torture, and absence—all point to strategies of integrating the realm of humanity within the celestial spheres, and each motif tracks different styles of meditating on Merovingian Jesus.

Chronology of the Early Kings of Iberia

Traditio ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Toumanoff
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Tradition

The are several reasons why the problem of early-Georgian, and particularly early-Iberian (East Georgian), chronology has been a vexing one. In the first place, the early-Georgian historical works contain almost no direct chronological indications, i.e., dates, but rather offer quite numerous relative indications, i.e., synchronisms, lengths of reigns and lives, regnal years, the distance between events, etc. Secondly, in these historical works, hard facts of history often lie buried under a superimposition of myth, legend, and epos, or are occasionally fused with the picture of other historical facts, occurring at different epochs, that is projected on them. And, thirdly, the attempts at establishing such a chronology, which have not been wanting, have tended to be somewhat vitiated by misconceptions upon which they were based. Thus, early in this century, the imaginative attempt of S. Gorgadze was ruined by the fact that he preferred the evidence of the king-lists (Royal List, I, II, III), which form a later addition to the seventh-century Conversion of Iberia, to that of the more authoritative and older (eighth-century) History of the Kings of Iberia by Leontius of Ruisi, which contains a still older historical tradition. Gorgadze, accordingly, tended to neglect what chronological indications are found in Leontius. And in our own days, another such attempt was made by P. Ingoroqva, which cannot be described as entirely successful.

Monumental Painting: Pre-Iconoclasm

2021 ◽  
pp. 408-422
Author(s):  
Elizabeth S. Bolman
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Animal Protein ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Bonding Agents ◽  
The City ◽  
Burial Grounds ◽  
Early Byzantine

Early Byzantine artists (active ca. fourth–early eighth century) continued to employ traditional Roman techniques. In most of the empire, they painted on wet plaster (fresco) but in Egypt they applied pigments onto dry plaster (secco) using bonding agents of animal protein (tempera) or molten wax (encaustic). By far the largest number of surviving wall paintings from this period is found in Egypt, especially in desert monasteries and burial grounds. Painted buildings also survive in the city of Ephesus (Turkey), as well in other sites scattered across the empire. Although regional styles probably existed, too little survives to identify their characteristics. Instead, the extant paintings indicate considerable unity in in both styles and subjects.

The Sultan and the Defiant Prince in Hunting Competition: Questions of Legitimacy in Hunting Episodes of Tabaristān

2015 ◽  
pp. 141-152
Author(s):  
Miklós Sárközy
Keyword(s):  
Caspian Sea ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Caspian Sea ◽  
Northern Iran ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic

The provinces of Northern Iran, the region south of the Caspian Sea, had a particular role in the Arab conquest of Iran. Their geographical isolation, mountainous regions, steamy and often intolerable sub-Mediterranean climate and thick forests caused many difficulties for the early Muslim conquerors in the seventh century ad. The ʿAbbāsid empire could only penetrate into the mountains of Ṭabaristān and the valleys of Māzandarān in the second half of the eighth century. In this chapter, I analyse some legends concerning the early Islamic period of the central provinces of the Caspian regions Ṭabaristān and Māzandarān. On the basis of some of the evidence, it seems that these stories could be linked with the myths of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire – that of the Sāsānians.

scholarly journals POLITICS, PATRONAGE AND THE TRANSMISSION OF CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES IN EARLY MEDIEVAL ROME, c. 650–750

2019 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 177-205
Author(s):  
Hendrik Dey
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Building Industry ◽  
Masonry Walls ◽  
Construction Techniques ◽  
Growing Pains ◽  
Rapid Transition ◽  
Fundamental Shift

Well into the seventh century, masons in Rome built bonded-masonry walls using materials and techniques directly descended from antiquity. But walls erected starting in the eighth century are very different and distinctively ‘medieval’. The late seventh / early eighth century therefore represents a moment of rapid transition or even rupture in the Roman building industry, when older ways of doing things ceased forever. Drawing on recently excavated structures on the Palatine and at San Paolo fuori le Mura that offer new insights into this crucial transitional period, I suggest that the break with centuries-old building traditions reflects a fundamental shift in mechanisms of patronage, and of control over the city's built environment. After a hiatus in the second half of the seventh century, when the Roman construction industry languished between a Byzantine administration in decline and a Church bureaucracy not yet empowered to supplant it, early eighth-century popes faced the challenge of creating anew the means and methods to build on a substantial scale. The newly excavated structures of the early eighth century offer an unexpected perspective on the growth of, and the growing pains experienced by, Rome's nascent papal government.

Homer and Attic Geometric Vases

1955 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 38-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. B. L. Webster
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Geometric Representation ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
New Beginning

Since Dr. Hamper's identification of epic scenes in eighth-century art twenty years ago opinion has been divided as to how far these can be accepted. To quote two recent opinions, Mr. G. S. Kirk ends his discussion of Hampe's identifications: ‘thus there is no Geometric representation which we can confidently describe as representing a definite scene from the heroic saga, let alone from epic as we know it’. Professor Kraiker, however, accepts the Aktorione–Molione and the Herakles fighting the Stymphalian birds. Mr. J. M. Cook has argued that the spread of the Homeric epic from Ionia to the mainland was responsible both for the institution of hero cults in Greece and for the appearance in post-Geometric painting (seventh century) of scenes derived from the epic.The existence of epic representations in Attic, Corinthian, and Argive painting of the early seventh century is undoubted, and the list has recently been increased by a very fine Argive Odysseus and Polyphemos and a superb Attic vase with Odysseus blinding Polyphemos and Perseus pursued by Gorgons. The question is whether this is really a new beginning or a development of something already existing which is difficult for us to recognise. I do not wish to argue against the supposition that seventh-century painting was influenced by the spread of the Homeric epic to the mainland, although Boeotian epic would also have to be considered, since its influence on Boeotian fibulae in the seventh century can hardly be doubted; but Boeotian epic was no doubt itself affected by Ionian epic, as certain passages in Hesiod show. On the other hand, Athens was neither without poetry nor without contact with Ionia during the eighth century.

Transformations of Identities

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-116
Author(s):  
Magali Coumert
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Royal Authority ◽  
Place Of Origin ◽  
Made In

Ethnogenesis theory has brought about a seminal shift in research on ethnic identities. This chapter maps the fluidity of Frankish identity in the Merovingian realm, illustrating that the assertion and role of ethnic identity depended on the specific context in which such claims were made. In the fifth century, elite Romans and Franks were open to innovation and local collaborations. As demonstrated by Salic Law, the Merovingians built their kingdom on territorial authority. Only after 580 did they choose to be linked with the Franks as a specific group, in the context of the civil wars and the partition of the territory among different kings. From the seventh century, the Merovingian kings voluntarily increased the legal diversity inherited from the conquests with laws for specific groups, like the Lex Ribuaria, distinguished by their place of origin. This custom highlighted royal authority as well as autonomy within the kingdom. Interest in the gens Francorum grew in parallel. The eighth century brought a new unification of the Franks with Merovingian and Pippinid leaders.

WHAT IF WE HAD NO ACCOUNTS OF SENNACHERIB'S THIRD CAMPAIGN OR THE PALACE RELIEFS DEPICTING HIS CAPTURE OF LACHISH?

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 88-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Edelman
Keyword(s):  
Olive Oil ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Territorial Control ◽  
Palace Reliefs

AbstractIn spite of the important information contained in the various accounts of Sennacherib's third campaign and the reliefs of his conquest of Lachish, their absence would have little effect upon the recreation of the events of the reign of Hezekiah by historians of Judah. The results of excavations at Tell ed-Duweir/ Lachish and Tel Miqne/Ekron suggest that sometime in the last decades of the eighth century or in the opening decades of the seventh century bce, there was an Assyrian military presence in the Judean shephelah and a ceding of control over the olive yield in the shephelah and highlands of Judah to the Philistines to fuel a newly established regional olive oil industry. When information about the kings who ruled Judah in the period in question is considered, Hezekiah remains the most logical candidate under whom the ceding of territorial control, which would have required Assyrian consent and agency, can be plausibly posited. The main outlines of the history of the period can nevertheless be posited; only the specific nature of the interregional conflict between Judah and Philistia and the specific Assyrian resolution of the conflict cannot be established.

The Saxon Culture-Sequence at Portchester Castle

1970 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Cunliffe
Keyword(s):  
Tenth Century ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Isle Of Wight ◽  
Glass Vessel ◽  
Local Tradition ◽  
Culture Sequence ◽  
Made In

SummaryExcavations at Portchester Castle have produced evidence of occupation throughout the Saxon period. After the cessation of standard Roman wares and local hand-made types early in the fifth century two Grubenhäuser were built. The contemporary assemblage, assignable to the mid fifth century, included (?) imported carinated bowls and local hand-made grass-tempered wares made in the Roman tradition. Late in the fifth or early in the sixth century stamped Saxon urns appear and probably continue, alongside the grass-tempered tradition, into the seventh century. An association of a grass-tempered pot with an imported glass vessel of eighth-century date shows that the local tradition persisted, but by the middle of the eighth century hand-made jars in gritty fabrics, like those from Hamwih, appear in a substantial rubbish deposit which belongs to the initial occupation of the hall complex. By the tenth century a new style of wheel-thrown pottery, called here Portchester ware, is dominant. It is mass produced and distributed largely from the Isle of Wight to central Hampshire and from the Sussex border to the River Mean. Contemporary forms include imported wares, green-glazed pitchers, pots from the Chichester region, and an assemblage made in a wheel-made continuation of the local gritty-fabric tradition. Portchester ware had gone out of use by 1100 at the latest.

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