scholarly journals Christians at Nineveh in Late Antiquity

Iraq ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-294
Author(s):  
St J. Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
First Century ◽  
General Sequence ◽  
Roman Provinces ◽  
Roman Military ◽  
Military Control ◽  
The Military

The mound of Kuyunjik contains the longest known archaeological sequence of occupation in Mesopotamia, spanning all periods from the sixth millennium BC until at least the thirteenth century AD. The prehistoric periods have been comprehensively studied by Gut (1995, 2002) and the general sequence of excavation, occupation and principal architectural finds reviewed by Reade (2000), yet despite a few exceptions (Curtis 1976, 1995; Reade 1998, 1999, 2001; Simpson 1996), the pottery and other finds from the Seleucid period onwards have thus far attracted surprisingly little study. For these periods though, the material culture is characterised by a strong mixture of Classical and Oriental traditions; thus, first-century AD graves contained gold face-coverings and the remains of diadems, both hinting at the eastern extension of practices more commonly found in the eastern Roman provinces, but Western lamps, glassware, ceramics and even a Roman military badge also occur at the site. Some of these betray direct political and military control, whereas others reflect a mixture of imports and local imitations; an appreciation of this rich cultural mix is important for the clearer understanding of Nineveh in Late Antiquity.Nineveh almost certainly held a Roman garrison at the extreme eastern limit of its empire but following the humiliation of the apostate Julian's Mesopotamian campaign of 363, it must have been ceded as part of the handover of five trans-Tigridian Roman provinces containing Nisibis, Singara, Castra Maurorum and fifteen unnamed forts to Shapur II (309–379). Thereafter the material culture from Nineveh finally acquires an Iranian character and, until its capture in 637/38 or 641/42 by an Arab army generally believed to have been commanded by ‘Utba bin Farqad, it flourished as a Sasanian town, bridgehead and fortress on the east bank of the Tigris (cf. Robinson 2000, 36–7). The datable finds of this period include four hoards of silver and bronze coins (Simpson 1996, 95–6); several personal seals, bullae and elaborate cutlery of Sasanian type (Simpson 1996, 97–8; 2003, 362–3, Fig. 3); a range of plain, mould-blown and cut glass (Simpson 2005); and four helmets, the latter hinting at the military component of the settlement referred to in the Arab sources (Simpson forthcoming, b).

scholarly journals Tufa und Armilausini

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-213
Author(s):  
Ludwig Rübekeil
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Migration Period ◽  
Linguistic Interference ◽  
History Of ◽  
Loan Word ◽  
Roman Military ◽  
The Military

AbstractThis article investigates the origin and history of two names dating from late Antiquity or the migration period. The first is the personal name Tufa, the second is the tribal name Armilausini. The two names can be traced back to a corresponding Germanic loan word in the Latin military language, tufa and armilausia, respectively, both of which are continued in the military language of the Eastern Roman and Byzantine Empire. The names are based on the appellative nouns. Both the appellatives and, even more so, the names turn out to be characteristic products of the multilingual background of the Roman military, as they show several signs of linguistic interference such as lexical reanalysis / folk etymology, morphological remodelling and semantic specialization.

Roman Military Units in Olbia

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. M. ZUBAR
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
First Century ◽  
Military Aid ◽  
Roman Military ◽  
The Military ◽  
Military Units ◽  
The City

Around the middle of the first century, Olbia was under siege from the Getae. It was either destroyed or abandoned shortly before its destruction. It was only inhabited at the turn of the first century AD. It is assumed that Roman interest over Olbia only started after the middle of the first century. This chapter discusses the existence of Roman military units in Olbia during the years AD 106–111. These military units were believed to be present in Olbia to protect the city from barbarian intrusion. This assumption is established by the existence of inscribed grave-monuments and epitaphs belonging to Athenocles, and the Bosporans: indications of the attempts of the Rome to maintain its political strength and to defend the city from barbarians. Accordingly, after the collapse of the Olbian-Samartian alliance, the Roman Empire provided occasional military aid to Olbian during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. Other evidences that provide proof of the dependence of Olbia to the military aid given by the Roman military units are the presence of a Roman legionary garrison in Olbia including Thracian dedicatory reliefs.

The Mamlūk institution in early Muslim India

1990 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
The Third ◽  
European Model ◽  
Islamic Faith ◽  
The Military

When Muslim forces under the Ghurid sultan, Mu'izz al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Sām, made their first major breakthrough into Hindūstān in the 1190s, they brought with them two institutions that had long since taken root in the Islamic world. One was the iqṭā' or assignment of land or its revenue, in some cases in return for military service (sometimes misrepresented as “fief” on the Western European model). The other was the mamlūk, or military slave. Mamlūk status, it should be stressed, bore none of the degrading connotations associated with other types of slavery: mamlūks – generally Turks from the Eurasian steppelands – were highly prized by their masters, receiving both instruction in the Islamic faith and a rigorous training in the martial arts, and were not employed in any menial capacity. The mamlūk institution, whose origins go back to the first century of Islam, came into vogue from the first half of the third/ninth century, as the ‘Abbasid Caliphs built up a corps of Turkish mamlūk guards and their example was followed, with the disintegration of their empire, by the various autonomous dynasties that sprang up in the provinces. Turkish slave officers themselves went on to found dynasties, as in the case of the Tulunids and the Ikhshidids in Egypt and the Ghaznawids in the eastern Iranian world. The institution surely entered upon its heyday in the seventh/thirteenth century, with the military coup of 648/1250 in Cairo: a group of mamlūk officers overthrew the last Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and inaugurated a regime in which slave status was the essential qualification for high military and administrative office.

Wątek składania ofiar w dekoracji budowli sakralnych Dura Europos

Vox Patrum ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 393-402
Author(s):  
Ilona Skupińska-Løvset
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Dominant Form ◽  
Xxth Century ◽  
Desert Sand ◽  
Military Camp ◽  
The Military

Dura Europos, or as proposed today Europos Dura, was a fortified settlement on the border between the Roman Empire and the East. The archeological dis­coveries reflected the character of the settlement – the fortified agglomeration grouped at the military camp. After its fall Europos Dura was covered by desert sand only to be discovered in the XXth century. Archaeological research has dis­closed documentation of its multicultural character. This paper points to the fact of coexistence of various religions in late antiquity Europos Dura. Paintings and sculptures discovered in situ indicate that scene of offering was a favorite subject in the sacral art of Europos Dura, independent of religion. The ceremony of in­cense burning constitutes the dominant form of offering regarding visualizations of this important ceremony.

The Culture of New Wars

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Global Integration ◽  
New Wars ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Revolutionary Movements ◽  
Small War ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

The article analyses the dominant trends in contemporary armed conflicts that are referred to as the “new wars.” Rather than debating the empirical aspects of the concept, the author focuses on its conceptual content, which provides a theoretical framework for understanding the military actions that came after the end of the Cold War. She traces the genealogy of irregular wars, which is a concept known since late antiquity, although it was not at that time a definitive part military theory. Traditional military conflicts often took place between armies of states that officially declared war on each other. They were limited in time and space and had clear goals that, once achieved, left open the possibility of a return to peace. The term “small war” came into use by theorists only at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to describe the processes taking place on the periphery of classical conflicts. However, that term seems to be the most relevant for understanding the irregular nature of combat actions in the twenty-first century. New wars add a dimension of biopolitics to the traditional realm of geopolitics. Drawing examples from the conflicts and armed revolutionary movements of the second half of the twentieth century, the author argues that there were fundamental transformations that set irregular warfare apart: a shift of strategic emphasis, the insurgent and guerrilla nature of the conflicts, the redefinition of “collateral damage,” the spread of terrorist methods for waging war between unequal forces, and private financing of paramilitary groups. The characterization of the essential features of the new wars concept includes an analysis of the factors that led to reformulating war; the key factor was the combination of authoritarianism with economic openness and neoliberal economic policy. The conclusion reached is that, against the background of ongoing global integration, the changes in the conduct of armed conflicts are creating a new culture of security that is justifiably labelled “new wars.”

Imagining Sound as the Absolute

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-30
Author(s):  
Saam Trivedi
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Scientific Ideas ◽  
The Universe

Saam Trivedi ponders the Sangita Ratnakara by the Ayurveda physician Sarangadeva. In this thirteenth-century manuscript, Sarangadeva asserts that Sound, identical to the Absolute, is the only fundamental thing in the universe and that all other things are illusory or, at best, some derivative or other manifestation of Sound. While the twenty-first century, non-monist Trivedi is critical of this claim, he finds much to be fascinated by, and, in his dissection of the main points of the Sangita Ratnakara, he offers the reader an imagining of sonic monism that, while far-removed from the orthodoxy of today’s acoustics and natural sciences, might one day come to be seen as inspiration for the latest scientific ideas concerning sound.

scholarly journals Isotopic Evidence for Long-Distance Connections of the AD Thirteenth-Century Promontory Caves Occupants

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jessica Z. Metcalfe ◽  
John W. Ives ◽  
Sabrina Shirazi ◽  
Kevin P. Gilmore ◽  
Jennifer Hallson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Turnover Rates ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Carbon Isotopic ◽  
Local Plant ◽  
Northern Utah ◽  
C Value

The Promontory caves (Utah) and Franktown Cave (Colorado) contain high-fidelity records of short-term occupations by groups with material culture connections to the Subarctic/Northern Plains. This research uses Promontory and Franktown bison dung, hair, hide, and bone collagen to establish local baseline carbon isotopic variability and identify leather from a distant source. The ankle wrap of one Promontory Cave 1 moccasin had a δ13C value that indicates a substantial C4 component to the animal's diet, unlike the C3 diets inferred from 171 other Promontory and northern Utah bison samples. We draw on a unique combination of multitissue isotopic analysis, carbon isoscapes, ancient DNA (species and sex identification), tissue turnover rates, archaeological contexts, and bison ecology to show that the high δ13C value was not likely a result of local plant consumption, bison mobility, or trade. Instead, the bison hide was likely acquired via long-distance travel to/from an area of abundant C4 grasses far to the south or east. Expansive landscape knowledge gained through long-distance associations would have allowed Promontory caves inhabitants to make well-informed decisions about directions and routes of movement for a territorial shift, which seems to have occurred in the late thirteenth century.

Secular geomagnetic field variations in Bulgarian lands during Classical Age and Late Antiquity – new archaeomagnetic data

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Kostadinova-Avramova ◽  
Petar Dimitrov ◽  
Andrei Kosterov ◽  
Mary Kovacheva
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
National Science ◽  
Basic Research Grant ◽  
National Science Fund ◽  
Research Grant

<p>Numerous historical sources and archaeological monuments attest the age of Antiquity in Bulgaria – from both the early Roman period (I – III c.) and Late Antiquity (IV – VI c.). Owing to systematic archaeological excavations, lasting more than 100 years, plenty of information has been accumulated concerning not only all aspects and manifestations of its material culture, but also their evolution and chronology.  This in turn allows for interdisciplinary fields such as archaeomagnetism to progress.</p><p>There are many archaeomagnetically studied archaeological structures from the Antiquity. The results included in the Bulgarian database form 74 reference points. However, only 20 of them are full-vector determinations because 70 % of the investigated materials are bricks. Hence, the secular variation of declination is poorly constrained within the considered period. Moreover, the reuse of bricks in the constructions occurred quite often (especially in the Late Antiquity) providing for possible errors in archaeological dating. In addition, stronger effects of magnetic anisotropy and cooling rate are usually expected for bricks than for hearths, domestic ovens, production kilns or burnt dwelling remains (there are no results from pottery in the Bulgarian dataset) and both factors are not evaluated for most of the older results. All this can explain the contradictions observed between some of the experimental results juxtaposed over the absolute time scale. In an attempt to clarify these contradictions 13 baked clay structures from eight archaeological sites were archaeomagnetically studied producing seven new directional and eight new intensity data. The samples collected possess variable magnetic properties suggesting differences in clay sources and/or firing conditions. Magnetically soft minerals prevail in seven structures but in the remaining six, abundant HCSLT phase is detected. The success rate of archaeointensity determination experiments vary from 49 to 100 %. It appears that samples containing HCSLT phase always produces good araeointensity results unlike those with the dominant presence of soft carriers.</p><p>The new reference points are compared with the present compilation of Bulgarian archaeomagnetic dataset and with the data from the neighboring countries.</p><p> </p><p>This study is supported by the grant KP-06-Russia-10 from the Bulgarian National Science Fund and Russian Foundation of the Basic Research grant 19-55-18006.</p>

scholarly journals Ancient Coastal Changes Due to Ground Movements and Human Interventions in the Roman Portus Julius (Pozzuoli Gulf, Italy): Results from Photogrammetric and Direct Surveys

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pietro P. C. Aucelli ◽  
Gaia Mattei ◽  
Claudia Caporizzo ◽  
Aldo Cinque ◽  
Salvatore Troisi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
3D Model ◽  
First Century ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Ground Movements ◽  
Vertical Ground ◽  
Coastal Changes ◽  
Fish Tank ◽  
The Military

This research aims to evaluate the amount of vertical ground movements during Roman times inside the archaeological area of Portus Julius (Gulf of Pozzuoli) using high-precision surveys on the most reliable archaeological sea-level markers. Measuring the submersion of ancient floors, structural elements belonging to a former fish tank, and several roman pilae, two different relative sea levels (RSLs), related to the beginning and the end of the first century BCE, respectively, −4.7/−5.20 m and −3.10 m MSL (mean sea level), were detected. A photogrammetric survey was carried out in order to produce a 3D model of the fish tank. The results in terms of the RSL variations have enabled us to reconstruct a morpho-evolution of the ancient coastal sector during the last 2.1 kyBP. At the beginning of the first century BCE, the area was characterized by a sheltered gulf with numerous maritime villae located along the coast. In 37 BCE, the construction of the military harbour of Portus Julius strongly modified the paleogeography of the sector, which was also affected by a prevailing subsidence at least until the end of the first century BCE (year 12 BCE), when the port was converted into a commercial hub.

China’s Military Reform: In Search of Centrality and Joint Capability

2016 ◽  
Vol 08 (03) ◽  
pp. 68-77
Author(s):  
Bojian LIU ◽  
Gang CHEN
Keyword(s):  
New Wave ◽  
Military Reform ◽  
Operational Capability ◽  
Weapon Systems ◽  
People’S Liberation Army ◽  
Military Control ◽  
The Military ◽  
Party State ◽  
Party Congress ◽  
The Way

In a new wave of reform, China’s Central Military Commission remains a party-state organ of the highest military control. Politically, the reorganisation enhances intra-People’s Liberation Army (PLA) supervision and inter-section checks, and paves the way for the personnel reshuffle before the 19th Party Congress scheduled in 2017. Strategically, the military reshuffle is to advance the PLA’s joint operational capability, facilitate modernisation of weapon systems, accelerate China’s transition towards maritime power and improve the PLA’s systemic commanding efficiency.

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