Conclusion to Part I

2020 ◽  
pp. 99-100
Author(s):  
Fanny Bessard
Keyword(s):  
Urban Economy ◽  
Near East ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Investment Policy ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
Trading Zones ◽  
Urban Market ◽  
Late Roman

In certain respects, the development of urban retailing and crafts in the Near East from 700 to 950 was a natural response to the Muslim conquests, which joined up the late Roman and Persian trading zones. Still, it was not a self-generated process. Archaeological and textual sources reveal the prominent role that Muslim imperial authority played in the patronage of urban market and production spaces, possibly from as early as the late seventh century. While literary testimonies unanimously depict ‘Abbāsid sovereigns as more coercive in provincial life and the patronage of urban economy to support imperial propaganda, we can extrapolate from earlier accounts orally transmitted that caliphs and governors pursued an active investment policy as early as the rule of ‘Abd al-Malik in the late seventh and early eighth centuries....

Secular Monograms, Social Status, and Authority in the Late Roman World and Early Byzantium

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
Noble Identity ◽  
Late Roman

This chapter examines the use of monograms as graphic signs of imperial authority in the late Roman and early Byzantine empire, from its appropriation on imperial coinage in the mid-fifth century to its employment in other material media in the following centuries. It also overviews the use of monograms by imperial officials and aristocrats as visible signs of social power and noble identity on mass-produced objects, dress accessories, and luxury items. The concluding section discusses a new social function for late antique monograms as visible tokens of a new Christian paideia and of elevated social status, related to ennobling calligraphic skills. This transformation of monograms into an attribute of visual Christian culture became especially apparent in sixth-century Byzantium, with the cruciform monograms appearing in the second quarter of the sixth century and becoming a default monogrammatic form from the seventh century onwards.

Money Supply and Currency

2020 ◽  
pp. 179-196
Author(s):  
Fanny Bessard
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Money Supply ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Precious Metal ◽  
Near East ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
East Central ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
Velocity Of Money ◽  
Money Circulation

In the Middle Ages, Arab-Muslims inherited the massive coin stocks struck by Byzantium and Iran to support their war efforts in the sixth and early seventh centuries. Up to the late seventh century, solidi and drachms continued to circulate, Arab-Muslims making use of the available stocks. The situation changed from the reign of ‘Abd al-Malik (685–705) and the second fitna. With the rise of the ‘counter-caliph’ Ibn al-Zubayr, ‘Abd al-Malik felt the need to assert the Umayyad’s imperial authority to keep the unity of the umma. His famous reform of coinage was used to impose the Umayyads’ ideology through the use of new Islamic currencies. This chapter examines how Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik’s monetary reforms in the late seventh century played a fundamental role in triggering exchange and increasing the velocity of money circulation. It also explores how, in the late eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, influxes of precious metal from the release of antique treasuries, the intensified exploitation of existing mines, and the discovery of ore veins and deposits in the Near East, Central Asia, and Africa, helped to sustain a developing culture of consumption.

Fortresses of the Tur Abdin and the confrontation between Rome and Persia

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 181-229
Author(s):  
Anthony Comfort
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Satellite Imagery ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Substantial Risk ◽  
Urgent Necessity ◽  
Late Roman

AbstractAlthough research is currently impossible on the ground, satellite photographs allow some further information to be gleaned concerning the region of the Tur Abdin, of crucial importance during the wars between the late Roman Empire and Sassanian Persia in the fourth to seventh century AD. This article examines the ancient sources and the reports of visitors to the area in the light of what is now visible to all via Google Earth and other suppliers of free satellite imagery. Apart from describing the remains of the fortresses and their role in defending an important redoubt against Persian attacks, it draws attention to the urgent necessity for proper ground surveys of what remains of the fortifications of various periods before these are completely destroyed by looting and reuse of building materials. Dams also present a substantial risk to some of the monuments discussed here.

Adapting to Life Without the Legions

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Hinton
Keyword(s):  
High Order ◽  
East Side ◽  
The West ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
The North ◽  
Hadrian's Wall ◽  
Gold Coins ◽  
Subsequent Failure ◽  
Late Roman

If gold and silver are a measure of wealth, late Roman Britain was very rich. Hoards of coins, jewellery, and plate buried in the late fourth and early fifth centuries show that their owners’ lifestyle was coming to an end as central imperial authority broke down, troops were withdrawn from the island, villas fell into disuse, and towns lost their markets and trade. Raiders threatened by land and sea: Irish from the west, Pictish from the north, Frisian, Saxon, and others from the east; and as civic order broke down, the likelihood of robbery by people living south of Hadrian’s Wall grew worse. The hoards’ owners were right to worry, and their subsequent failure to retrieve their valuables must testify to many personal catastrophes. Hoards containing dishes, bowls, and spoons as well as coins and jewellery have been found on the east side of Roman Britain from Canterbury, Kent, in the south to Whorlton, Yorkshire, in the north. Further west, coin-hoards are quite plentiful, although none has any plate. Some contain jewellery, like one found in 1843 at Amesbury, Wiltshire, that included three silver finger-rings; in the same area, another hoard with eight gold coins and one of silver was found in 1990, apparently concealed in a pot around the year 405, to judge from the date of the latest coin. But as with plate so with jewellery, the contrast with the east is still considerable; Thetford, Norfolk, has gold finger-rings as well as ornamental chains, bracelets, and a buckle; Hoxne, Suffolk, has gold bracelets, and again chains, these with elaborate mounts. Some of the craftsmanship shown in these pieces is of a high order, that only well-off patrons could have afforded. The plate suggests displays of tableware by a society that set great store on being able to offer lavish feasts and entertainment. These late Roman treasures may be giving a slightly false impression of Britain’s prosperity. Silver was probably extracted from the same native deposits that yielded lead, so would have been more available than in most parts of the Empire. Some may also have entered Britain from Ireland, where evidence of Roman intervention is accumulating.

Transformation at the Edges of Empire

2019 ◽  
pp. 267-300
Author(s):  
Robert G. Ousterhout
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Architectural Production ◽  
New Religion

During the seventh century in the Caucasus, Armenia and Georgia witnessed a remarkable period of architectural production and creativity. The Ṭur ‘Abdin witnessed a flourishing at the same time, while architecture in other areas, such as Cyprus, Egypt, and Nubia, developed in relative isolation. With the emergence of Islam in the Near East, by the end of the seventh century, new architectural forms were developed to serve the new religion, dependent on the earlier Byzantine tradition and probably executed by Byzantine artisans.

The Origins of the Urartians in the light of the Van/Karagündüz excavations

1999 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 159-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veli Sevin
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Eastern Anatolia ◽  
State Structure ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Major Power ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
First Millennium Bc ◽  
Power Role

The Urartian Kingdom, as is well known, played a major power role on the stage of history in eastern Anatolia in the second half of the ninth century BC and remained powerful until the second half of the seventh century BC. With their highly advanced architectural traditions and organised state structure, the Urartians take their place among the most exciting civilisations of the first half of the first millennium BC in the Near East.Extensive detailed research and publication has been carried out on Urartian civilisation for over a hundred years, but the origin and dynamics of the development of this civilisation are still obscure. The Assyrian annals, which start from the 13th century BC, are at present the only source for understanding the early periods. These records were intended as propaganda and their accuracy is in many instances thus questionable.

Field survey at Louloudies: a new late Roman fortification in Pieria

1998 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 463-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Poulter
Keyword(s):  
Field Survey ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Secure Base ◽  
The North ◽  
Eastern Aegean ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
North Bank ◽  
North Western ◽  
Late Roman

A programme, combining a physical survey, intensive pick-up and geophysics, was carried out over 17 ha around the site of a small late Roman fortification, some 6 km south of ancient Pydna. Although the area is intensively farmed, the pick-up survey proved remarkably successful. Hellenistic occupation was identified and a restricted Roman settlement around the site of the quadriburgium. Surprisingly, a new and large late Roman fortification (c. 3–4 ha), equipped with towers, with a densely occupied interior and ‘extramural’ buildings was also found. The north-eastern curtain was discovered by resistivity surveying, the line of the north-western and south-western sides by intensive survey. Pottery and brick monograms from the new site suggests that it dates to the second half of the sixth or possibly early seventh century. It is argued that the quadriburgium may be the site of ancient Anamon, a station on the coastal road from Thessaloniki to Dion. The newly discovered site, clearly of considerable importance, lay on the north bank of the river Sourvala and probably had direct access to the sea, importing both local pottery and amphorae from the eastern Aegean. Its role may have been to protect the fertile coastline of the Pieria and to provide a secure base for the export of agricultural products to the beleaguered cities and settlements around the Thermaic Gulf.

A New Type of Early Christian Ampulla

1971 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 243-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
The Body ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
General Similarity ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Common ◽  
Shape And Size ◽  
Late Roman

A Type of small pottery flask which has so far received little attention from students of the Early Christian period appears regularly on sites of sixth- to seventh-century date throughout the eastern Mediterranean. It is fusiform in shape, with a short tubular mouth marked off from the body by a slight ridge, and tapers at the bottom to a roughly truncated point (Fig. I). In view of its general similarity in shape to the common fusiform unguentarium of Hellenistic times I have suggested elsewhere the name Late Roman Unguentarium for the type. The height of complete speciments may be estimated at c. 18–21 cm.; occasionally one meets larger examples (with small flat bases). Such a flask was obviously not meant to be stood up on its base, but is of a convenient shape and size to be clasped in the hand. One may assume that it was provided with a stopper to keep in the contents (presumably of some perishable material, since no examples survive); the ridge below the mouth may have served to secure this.

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