scholarly journals Anthropology and 14C Analysis of Skeletal Remains from Relic Shrines: An Unexpected Source of Information for Medieval Archaeology

Radiocarbon ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 569-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark van Strydonck ◽  
Anton Ervynck ◽  
Marit Vandenbruaene ◽  
Mathieu Boudin

Since the early Middle Ages, relics of Catholic saints played an important role in popular religion in Europe. The shrines containing the human remains of the saints, however, are rarely studied, typically only when restoration becomes necessary. Formerly, such study was mostly restricted to the art-historical aspects of the artifacts, sometimes including the counting and rough identification of the bones. In this study, for the first time, and for a number of case studies, a more systematic approach was taken, including detailed physico-anthropological observations, 13C and 15N stable isotope measurements, and 14C analysis of the bones.The importance of this project lies not only in a critical evaluation of the authenticity of the relics. Fruitful insights could also be gained about the origin, history, and treatment of these parts of our religious heritage. Finally, it has been proven that shrines are an important source of early medieval human skeletal material, which is only rarely found in archaeological contexts in Belgium.

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (13) ◽  
pp. 3895
Author(s):  
Marica Baldoni ◽  
Alessandra Nardi ◽  
Flavio De Angelis ◽  
Olga Rickards ◽  
Cristina Martínez-Labarga

The present research investigates the relationship between dietary habits and mortality patterns in the Roman Imperial and Medieval periods. The reconstructions of population dynamics and subsistence strategies provide a fascinating source of information for understanding our history. This is particularly true given that the changes in social, economic, political, and religious aspects related to the transition from the Roman period to the Middle Ages have been widely discussed. We analyzed the isotopic and mortality patterns of 616 individuals from 18 archeological sites (the Medieval Latium sites of Colonna, Santa Severa, Allumiere, Cencelle, and 14 Medieval and Imperial funerary contexts from Rome) to compile a survivorship analysis. A semi-parametric approach was applied, suggesting variations in mortality patterns between sexes in the Roman period. Nitrogen isotopic signatures influenced mortality in both periods, showing a quadratic and a linear effect for Roman Imperial and Medieval populations, respectively. No influence of carbon isotopic signatures has been detected for Roman Imperial populations. Conversely, increased mortality risk for rising carbon isotopic values was observed in Medieval samples.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Bonhomme ◽  
Jean-Frédéric Terral ◽  
Véronique Zech-Matterne ◽  
Sarah Ivorra ◽  
Thierry Lacombe ◽  
...  

AbstractA crucial aspect of viticulture is finally unveiled as the historical dynamics of its agrobiodiversity are described in the Champagne region for the first time. Outline analyses were carried out to compare the morphology of archaeological grape seeds from Troyes and Reims (first c. AD to fifteenth c. AD) with that of a reference collection of modern seeds, including wild vines and traditional grape varieties, believed to be ancient and characteristic of the French vine heritage. This allows us to document the chronological dynamics of the use of the wild Vitis type and of the diversity of the varieties used, based on morphological disparity. After showing the existence of morphological types corresponding to geographical groups, we highlight a geochronological dynamic. Our results show that the wild type is used throughout the series, up to the Middle Ages. In addition, domestic forms, morphologically related to southern varietal groups, are very early involved in the Champagne grape agrodiversity. The groups corresponding to the typical grape varieties of today do not appear until the second millennium. These previously unsuspected dynamics are discussed in light of the social, societal and climatic changes documented for the period.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn A. Wijnhoven

Mail armour (commonly mislabelled 'chainmail') was used for more than two millennia on the battlefield. After its invention in the Iron Age, mail rapidly spread all over Europe and beyond. The Roman army, keen on new military technology, soon adopted mail armour and used it successfully for centuries. Its history did not stop there and mail played a vital role in warfare during the Middle Ages up to the Early Modern Period. Given its long history, one would think mail is a well-documented material, but that is not the case. For the first time, this books lays a solid foundation for the understanding of mail armour and its context through time. It applies a long-term multi-dimensional approach to extract a wealth of as yet untapped information from archaeological, iconographic and written sources. This is complemented with technical insights on the mail maker’s chaîne opératoire.


Author(s):  
Ali Motavalli ◽  
◽  
Javad Mahmoudi ◽  
Alireza Majdi ◽  
Saeed Sadigh-Eteghad ◽  
...  

Although there are numerous views about the concept of consciousness, no consensus exists regarding the meaning. However, with the aid of the latest neuroscientific developments, the misleading obstacles related to consciousness have been removed. Over the last few decades, neuroscientific efforts in determining the function of the brain and merging these findings with philosophical theories, have brought a more comprehensive perception of the notion of consciousness. In addition to metaphysical/ontological views of consciousness e.g., higher-order theories, reflexive theories, and representationalist theories, there are some brain directed topics in this matter which include but not are limited to neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), brain loop connectivity, and lateralization. This narrative review sheds light on cultural and historical aspects of consciousness in old and middle ages and introduces some of the prominent philosophical discussions related to mind and body. Also, it illustrates the correlation of brain function with states of consciousness with a focus on the roles of function and connectivity.


Author(s):  
Taras Mylian

Territory of the upper reaches of Western Bug River, especially the annalistic of Belz in Solokiya and its surroundings, is rich in archeological sites. In 2016, as part of the Program «Protection and Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of the Lviv Region for 2016–2018», conservation research was conducted at the settlement Belz 22 (Hora). It is a multi-layered settlement with cultural and chronological horizons from the final Paleolithic to modern times. Information and research on it were conducted with advantages during XX century however, for the first time in the settlement; remains of a Slavic dwelling-semi-dugout (object 20) of the Prague culture were discovered and studied. Research has shown that dwelling had two periods of functioning. Traces of restructuring were confirmed, which led to a reduction of the area and changing of the shape – from rectangular to square. Evidence of the reconstruction was the remains of two clay ovens, the oldest of which was partially cut down by a later wall. Under the remains of this wall above the furnace a Roman denarius of the II century was found. Ovens are built on special sites made of compacted clay. The older oven has a dome lined with special rollers. Discovered material is represented mainly by handmade ceramic pots, some of them are reconstructed. Some of the forms of utensils were common during the late V – early VI centuries, and the other part – during the second half of VI – early VII century. This division corresponded to the periods of housing. An important find was the weights for the loom, which were reused to build the oven. An additional evidence of the development of weaving in the settlement is a bi-conical spinner with flat platforms, which comes from dwelling. The settlement on the outskirts of the annalistic Belz is characterized by permanence and genetic connection throughout the Middle Ages – from individual Slavic settlements in this region to the creation of a separate principality around the big city. Key words: Prague culture, Belz, Solokiya, dwelling, oven, ceramics, denarius.


Muzikologija ◽  
2006 ◽  
pp. 365-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Jovanovic

The founder of modern Serbian ethnomusicology, collector of folk songs ethnomusicologist, and music pedagogue, Miodrag A. Vasiljevic (1903?1963) was a younger contemporary of the famous Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist B?la Bart?k (1881?1945). Bart?k was the author of the first synthetic study of Serbian and Croatian vocal folk traditions, which was also the first such study in English. During the same period and immediately after Bart?k had completed his study, Miodrag Vasiljevic, along with other pioneers of modern ethnomusicology in former Yugoslavia, started to research musical folklore on field at home. Bart?k's study was published a year after Vasiljevic's first book; by 1965 Vasiljevic's other collections, studies and articles had been published (most of them in Yugoslavia, i.e. in Serbia). Independently of Bart?k, yet almost simultaneously, Vasiljevic had written down hundreds of melodies and studied some elements of Serbian and South Slavonic traditional culture: tonality, rhythm, melodic modes and terminology. This was in addition to his great work experience on field and his empirical insight into the fundamental characteristics of musical folklore in this area,. The final result that he wished for, but unfortunately, did not manage to complete, was a synthetic study of Serbian and South Slavonic musical folklore. Vasiljevic's margin notes, handwritten comments on Bart?k's findings, published here for the first time, are considered to be a source of information about his attitude towards Bart?k's assumptions and explanations, as well as showing the results of Vasiljevic's own work, and the ambit of his study focus. Bart?k's and Vasiljevic's primary motives in their approach to South Slavonic traditional music were different. While Bart?k was interested in features of South Slavonic tradition, so that he could note the particular features of the Hungarian music heritage more clearly, Vasiljevic studied the regularities of Serbian folk music approaching it in comparison with other South Slavonic traditions. This diversity determined their approach to the material. Bart?k often leaned on his excellent knowledge of other traditions and drew conclusions from facts that were familiar to him. In contrast, Miodrag Vasiljevic paid more attention to questions relating to the wider issue of the autochthonous development of Serbian musical folklore. Many of Vasiljevic's comments on Bart?k's study are classified here in the following categories: 1) comments in which he expresses agreement with Bart?k; 2) comments in which he gives precious supplements to Bart?k's observations; 3) comments in which he expresses disagreement with Bart?k: a) argument and b) with no evident arguments; 4) comments in which an incomplete understanding of Bart?k's findings is reflected; and 5) comments which indirectly refer to a professional aspect of Bart?k's work. Some of the comments, according to their wide, still unstudied subject matter, demand greater added elaboration and thus have not been covered in detail in this paper. Insight into Vasiljevic's comments on Bart?k's study is significant for experts outside Serbia who have little information on continuity in the development of the Serbian school of ethnomusicology, and are also important because of the huge degree of disproportion in the two scholars' work display.


Transilvania ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 43-58
Author(s):  
Maria Crîngaci-Țiplic

This paper presents an overview of the historiography that describes and investigates the components which compose the sacred spaces of Sibiu in the Middle Ages. It is well known that Sibiu had a preeminent position in the urban hierarchy of medieval Transylvania and of the south-eastern Europe. The city was attested for the first time in 1191 as an ecclesiastical center of the Transylvanian Saxons and was home to numerous places of worship and sacred sites (churches, monasteries, chapels, cemeteries, hospitals etc.). However, with the advent of the Reformation in the 16th century and the noticeable changes that occurred during the industrial age and the communist dictatorship (the 19th and 20th centuries), the medieval sacred building and their neighborhoods have been deeply transformed and medieval ecclesiastical topography became unrecognizable in modern day Sibiu. The recreation of the ecclesiastical topography and even more of the sacred spaces could be recreated through analyses and research of different type of sources from charters and town chronicles of the 16th-18th centuries to the most recent archaeological studies or papers on medieval art, architecture, or historical urban evolution. With this in mind, the study aims to provide references on the topic and establishes the main periods of the historiography and their relevant ideological and theoretical changes during over 400 hundred years of debates or research.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy D. Wilson ◽  
Michael G. Rix

The Australian golden trapdoor spiders of the tribe Euoplini (family Idiopidae) are among the most abundant and diverse of mygalomorph lineages in subtropical eastern Australia. Throughout this highly populated area, species in the monophyletic Euoplos variabilis-group are largely ubiquitous; however, species delimitation has long proven difficult in the group because species are morphologically very similar and have parapatric or even sympatric distributions. We address these challenges in the variabilis-group, and explore the phylogeny and taxonomy of species using an integrative systematic approach. In doing so, we apply a conservative, pragmatic methodology, naming only species for which adequate data are available (namely sequence data and unequivocally linked male specimens), and explicitly stating and mapping material that could not be linked to a species, to aid future research on the group. We describe five new species from south-eastern Queensland –E. booloumba sp. nov., E. jayneae sp. nov., E. raveni sp. nov., E. regalis sp. nov. and E. schmidti sp. nov.; we redescribe two previously named species – E. similaris (Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918) and E. variabilis (Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918); and we reillustrate the recently described E. grandis Wilson & Rix, 2019. The nominate species, E. variabilis, is shown to have a far smaller distribution than previously thought, and E. similaris is given a modern taxonomic description for the first time. A key to adult male specimens is also provided. This study further reveals a case of sympatry between two species within the variabilis-group; both E. raveni sp. nov. and E. schmidti sp. nov. occur in the Brisbane Valley, south of the Brisbane River – a notable result given that closely related mygalomorph species usually occur allopatrically. This work updates what is currently known of the phylogeny and diversity of one of the dominant mygalomorph lineages of subtropical eastern Australia, resolving a complex and highly endemic fauna. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A4FB92F6-EFFF-4468-B1D8-000D69923996


Author(s):  
Bettina Bildhauer

This chapter argues for the first time that Quentin Tarantino based his film Inglourious Basterds in part on the medieval tale of the Nibelungs, as mediated chiefly through Fritz Lang’s Nibelungen. Inglourious Basterds can therefore be fruitfully read as an instance of medievalism, perpetuating as well as re-evaluating the widespread association of the Middle Ages with violence. An awareness of this intertext allows a nuanced interpretation of Inglourious Basterds’ stance on the power as well as manipulability of visual signs, always seen in the context of their materiality. Tarantino’s adaptation also allows fresh perspectives on the medieval Song of the Nibelungs, especially on its depiction of violent revenge. These in turn throw into relief Tarantino’s interpellation of the viewer through violence and other techniques to prevent the passive spectator position that popular culture is often accused of demanding. The film succeeds in subtly altering the conventions of cinematic representations of premodernity, and in re-appropriating a tainted national origin myth for an international audience.


Author(s):  
Silvia Gullino

During the 9th century Aristotle’s Metaphysics was translated for the first time from Greek into Arabic by Ustâth, at the request of al-Kindî and, afterwards, the interest of the Arab world in this oeuvre grew with the production of several translations, comments and paraphrases of the work. Among the books which compose the Metaphysics, one of the most studied was book Epsilon. In particular Arab philosophers focused their interest on the passage of Ε1, which contains a classification of the theoretical sciences (1026a13-1026a16), founded on the degree of immateriality and of separation from the matter of their object. Aristotle states: “Natural science deals with things which are inseparable from matter but not immovable, and some parts of mathematics deal with things which are immovable, but probably not separable, but are embodied in matter; while the first science deals with things which are both separable and immovable”. According to the Arab exegetes, Aristotle introduces here the doctrine of the three degrees of abstraction, on the base of which the object of first philosophy is the most abstract among the beings, both from the conceptual point of view and from the real one. This interpretation of the Aristotelian text – already present in Avicenna – had a huge influence on the Latin Middle Ages and on modern philosophy.


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