scholarly journals Weapon injuries in the crusader mass graves from a 13th century attack on the port city of Sidon (Lebanon)

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0256517
Author(s):  
Richard N. R. Mikulski ◽  
Holger Schutkowski ◽  
Martin J. Smith ◽  
Claude Doumet-Serhal ◽  
Piers D. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Port City ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Blunt Force Trauma ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Sharp Force ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

Archaeological excavations close to St Louis’ castle in Sidon, Lebanon have revealed two mass grave deposits containing partially articulated and disarticulated human skeletal remains. A minimum of 25 male individuals have been recovered, with no females or young children. Radiocarbon dating of the human remains, a crusader coin, and the design of Frankish belt buckles strongly indicate they belong to a single event in the mid-13th century CE. The skeletal remains demonstrate a high prevalence of unhealed sharp force, penetrating force and blunt force trauma consistent with medieval weaponry. Higher numbers of wounds on the back of individuals than the front suggests some were attacked from behind, possibly as they fled. The concentration of blade wounds to the back of the neck of others would be compatible with execution by decapitation following their capture. Taphonomic changes indicate the skeletal remains were left exposed for some weeks prior to being collected together and re-deposited in the defensive ditch by a fortified gateway within the town wall. Charring on some bones provides evidence of burning of the bodies. The findings imply the systematic clearance of partially decomposed corpses following an attack on the city, where adult and teenage males died as a result of weapon related trauma. The skeletons date from the second half of the Crusader period, when Christian-held Sidon came under direct assault from both the Mamluk Sultanate (1253 CE) and the Ilkhanate Mongols (1260 CE). It is likely that those in the mass graves died during one of these assaults.

scholarly journals Two “Identical” Freiburg Charters of 1275. Short Draft

2021 ◽  
pp. 56-67
Author(s):  
Pavel Blokhin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Historical Analysis ◽  
City Council ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Trade Law ◽  
Comparative Historical Analysis ◽  
Criminal Procedure Law ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

Introduction. In 1275, two drafts of town law of Freiburg im Breisgau were created. This article presents an analysis of one of these texts, namely the short draft. Methods and materials. The main research method is comparative historical analysis. The contents of two charters are compared, namely the 1218 Rodel draft and the short draft of 1275. Analysis. There are 6 thematic clusters uniting the laws by branches of law: 1) privileges of citizens and rights of the Town Lord; 2) criminal procedure law; 3) civil law; 4) town administration; 5) trade law; 6) various laws. The first part of the laws from the short draft is a translation of the Rodelian laws, the second one represents reformulated Rodelian norms, while the last one contains new laws in the legislation of Freiburg. Results. Though the document did not become an official town charter, it manifested the changes in the town law of the 13th century, compared to the previous 1218 Town Charter. In addition, the laws in the draft reflected the political struggle for power between the Town Lord of Freiburg, the City Council of 24 and the town community. The Town Lord regained his previously lost rights, in particular the legislative initiative. However, at the same time, the short draft significantly limited Lord’s arbitrariness towards the property of citizens as well as Freiburg citizens themselves. According to the short draft, the City Council of 24 strengthened and expanded its power in the town, becoming a full-fledged legislative and executive body of the town administration. The town community, on the other hand, was losing its privileges and rights, for example, it lost the opportunity to elect some of the civil servants and members of the Council of 24.

Storehouse of Stimulants: Opium in the Market of al-Mukhâ at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century: Statements by Dutch Eyewitnesses

Itinerario ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.G. Brouwer
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Research Report ◽  
Port City ◽  
Travel Guide ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

Around the Yemeni port city of al-Mukhâ hangs the intoxicating smell of coffee. Almost no publication can be pointed out, from popularising travel guide to elaborate research report, in which mocha is not considered the export item par excellence, or rather the icon of the city. Only during the Montpellier conference on coffee, held in October 1997, was it concluded, in a contribution devoted to the emergence of the town in the early seventeenth century, that al-Mukhâ had been neither exclusively or mainly a coffee port, nor the sole one, or even the most important one. Mocha, in fact, “was not at all synonymous with al-Mukhâ”. In subsequent years, it could be demonstrated on the basis of abundant source material that spices, textiles, minerals, porcelains and aromatics were sold in the Mukhâwi market as well.

scholarly journals The Sunni Tragedy in the Middle East

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-126
Author(s):  
Christopher Anzalone
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Mountainous Terrain ◽  
Port City ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
The North ◽  
Southern City ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

Northern Lebanon, the mountainous terrain bordering Syria and the coastalplain centered on the city of Tripoli with its nearly 130,000 residents, has longbeen the heartland of the country’s Sunni Arabs, along with the old scholasticand population hub in the southern city of Sidon. The outbreak of mass popularprotests and eventually armed rebellion in neighboring Syria againstBashar al-Asad’s government in the spring of 2011, and that country’s continuingdescent into an increasingly violent and sectarian civil war, has had aprofound effect upon Lebanon, particularly in the north, for both geographicaland demographic reasons. First, northern Lebanon borders strategic areas ofcentral-western Syria (e.g., the town of al-Qusayr) and is located just south ofthe major Syrian port city of Tartus. Second, the north’s population includessignificant minority communities of Christians and Alawis, the latter of whichare largely aligned politically with Damascus. These factors have made theborder regions particularly dangerous, for while the Lebanese army attemptsto maintain control of the country’s territory, Iran-aligned Hizbullah poursfighters and military supplies into Syria and militant Sunni groups (e.g., ISISand Jabhat Fath al-Sham [JFS]) seek to establish a foothold in Lebanon fromwhich they can pursue their anti-Asad campaign.Bernard Rougier is uniquely placed to write about the contemporary historyand complex web of politics among Lebanon’s Sunni factions and particularlythe rise of jihadi militancy among some of its segments. The bookunder review, like Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam among Palestiniansin Lebanon (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), isbased upon extensive in-country fieldwork and interviews beginning in theearly 2000s and ending in 2014. It provides a fascinating and nuancedoverview of jihadism’s rise as a viable avenue of political frustration and expressionin the wider milieu of Lebanon’s intra-Sunni socio-political competitionand a fast-changing regional situation.Rougier argues that the contentious political disputes and competitionamong the country’s mainstream Sunni political figures (e.g., the al-Haririfamily), as well as the impact of Syrian control of large parts of Lebanon between1976 and 2005 and ensuing power vacuum after its withdrawal, enabledthe emergence of jihadi militancy. Northern Lebanon also became a center ofcompetition among regional actors through their local allies, which pitted ...

scholarly journals Maribor v 13. stoletju. 2. del: cerkvene institucije v mestu in okoli njega

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2021) (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tone Ravnikar
Keyword(s):  
Great Influence ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Parish Church ◽  
John The Baptist ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

In the second part of the discussion on the history of the city of Maribor in the 13th century, the author focused on the presentation of the activities of the ecclesiastical institutions that were created and/or operated in the city. The reflection began with questions connected with the origin and fate of the parish church of St. John the Baptist and St. Thomas in Maribor. In Maribor and its surroundings many monasteries from Carinthia and Styria as well as some dioceses also had their own administrative and economic courts. An overview of the number and nature of the various ecclesiastical institutions shows that they had a great interest in the town and its surroundings and thus undoubtedly had a great influence on life in the town.

scholarly journals INFLUENCE OF SOVIETIZATION AND DECOMMUNISATION ON THE ARCHITECTURAL LOOK OF CITIES AND TOWNS IN TERNOPIL REGION (ON THE EXAMPLE CITY OF TERNOPIL, AND ZALISHCHYKY, TOWN OF SKALA-PODILSKA) IN 1939 – THE BEGINNING OF XXI CENTURY

2017 ◽  
pp. 166-195
Author(s):  
Serhiy Humennyi
Keyword(s):  
Human Factor ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Architectural Form ◽  
Personal Initiative ◽  
Garment Factory ◽  
Religious Cult ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

The article deals with the problem of the influence of Sovietization and decommunization on the urban environment of modern Ternopil region: the cities of Ternopil and Zalishchyky and the town of Skala-Podilska. The author gives a detailed analysis of the changes that took place in 1939-1991 in their architectural form. It is stated that if Zalishchyky and Skala-Podilska have preserved to some extent the unique, pre-war building of the centre, having lost some primary monuments, logical city planning, sculpting and decor on the facades, then Ternopil has lost its historical heart almost wholly, becoming a typical socialist city. The reasons that caused the destruction, redevelopment or reconstruction of architectural ensembles and religious-cult objects in Ternopil territory were determined: 1. ideological (ideological opponents and the soviet regime became statues of saints, memorials and graves of participants of Ukrainian liberation competitions, etc; they were destroyed as monuments of national cultural or religious load); 2. Communist regime crackdowns and efforts to conceal their results (entrances to separate, underground premises of Ternopil have been destroyed since they became the mass graves of prisoners in the city prison (1941); 3. impossibility of further exploitation due to “irreparable damage” caused by military actions, lack of funds for reconstruction or absence of economically justified need for operation of the object (yes, in Ternopil a department store destroyed during the war); 4. adaptation of the object for the fulfilment of new functions (the Jesuit church in Ternopil in the postwar period was rebuilt in the premises of a garment factory); 5. human factor when the destruction of memorials occurred as a result of the personal initiative or passive position of party functionaries, “labour collectives” and the population of cities in general.Particular attention was paid to the restoration or reconstruction of architectural monuments and the elimination of totalitarian symbols in the process of decommunization in 1991 - the beginning of the 21st century. It was noted that as of 2016, there were virtually no monuments in Ternopil that had a communist ideological load.

scholarly journals THE EXCAVATION IN VYSHGOROD IN 1936

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-151
Author(s):  
K. M. Kapustin
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Significant Development ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Cultural Layers ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town ◽  
The Church

The archives and archaeological materials from excavations in Vyshgorod in 1936 are analysed in the paper. This year the large-scale excavations were conducted on the territory of the old city: near the church of st. Borys and Hlib, two sites in the northeast part of the hillfort and few trenches in different parts of the town. The obtained results correlate with the reports of the narrative sources and indicate the significant development of the city in the period from the 11th to the mid-13th century. The rapid development of the city occurs at that time: the mausoleum of Sts. Borys and Hlib (explored in 1935—1936) becomes the main architectural dominant of the city area. A city square with dwellings and outbuildings were located around the church. The analysis of the archival materials and artefacts from the excavations in 1936 made it possible to clarify and re-examine the allegations established in the works of the mid-20th century. The author proves that discovered objects have different chronology. For example, dwellings, outbuilding, pits and sacral building of the 11th—13th centuries are pit 1 (site 1), the foundations and remains of the walls of the church of Sts. Borys and Hlib (site 1; site W) and oven 1 (site 4). The ones dated by the middle of the 11th and the 12th centuries are building 1 (site 1) and pit 1 (site 4). Structures of the 12th and 13th centuries are pit 2 (site 1) and oven 1 (site 4); of the second half of the 13th—14th centuries are building 1 (site «W»), building 1, pit 2 (site 4). Finally, dated by the 17th—19th centuries are building 2, burials 1, 2 (site 1) and burials 1—19 (site 4). The cultural layers and objects exclusively of Kyiv Rus time were found on the territory of suburbs (pottery furnaces 1 and 2 in a trench at the south of the hillfort; burials 1—3 in trenches on the territory of the Doroshenko estate). In general, the obtained results confirm and at some moments substantially detail our knowledge on the historical development of the city during the Middle Ages and Modern times.

Myra

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clyde E. Fant ◽  
Mitchell G. Reddish
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Coast ◽  
Port City ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Road Signs ◽  
Santa Claus ◽  
The People ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town

At one time one of the most important cities in Lycia, Myra almost has passed into obscurity. In addition to some interesting tombs and a theater, the most enduring legacy of ancient Myra is the tradition that developed around its most famous resident and bishop, St. Nicholas, who was the historical person behind the legend of Santa Claus. Popular etymology explained the name of the city as being derived from the Greek word for myrrh, an aromatic spice, but this is unlikely. Myra was a city in the Lycian region of Anatolia, along the Mediterranean coast approximately 85 miles southeast of modern Antalya. The ruins of ancient Myra lie about a mile north of Demre (or Kale), a small town along highway 400, the coastal road. Signs in the town point the way to Myra. The ancient city was considered a port city, even though it was about 3.5 miles from the coast. Its port was actually Andriace, but the name Myra often included the city proper and its port at Andriace. Thus, for example, when Acts 27:5 states that the ship carrying Paul landed at Myra, the actual port would likely have been Andriace. Whether Paul and the others with him went to Myra after disembarking from the ship is not known. The Myrus, or Andracus, River (Demre Çayï) flowed past the city on its way to the Mediterranean. Settled probably as early as the 5th century B.C.E., Myra became one of the leading cities of the Lycian League by the 2nd century B.C.E. Myra was one of the six most important members of the league, which consisted of twenty-three cities. As such, it was entitled to three votes in the league (the maximum allowed). In spite of its importance, the city does not seem to have played a major role in ancient history. During Roman times the city apparently enjoyed good relations with Rome. Augustus (and after him, Tiberius as well) was honored by the people of Myra by their bestowing on him the title of “imperator of land and sea, benefactor and savior of the whole universe.”

scholarly journals Ascalona spoliata. The dismantling of the Roman city and the reuse in Late and post-classical eras through archaeological and literary evidence

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-98
Author(s):  
Antonio Dell’Acqua
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Port City ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Geographical Spread ◽  
The City ◽  
The Bronze Age

The city of Ashqelon lies on the southern part of the Israeli coast, 50 km south of Jaffa, and 13 km north of Gaza. It was a relevant port city during Antiquity, until the Crusaders and the Arab conquest in the 13th century when it was destroyed and abandoned. The continuity of the settlement resulted in a rich archaeological deposit, spanning from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period. Still, at the same time, it also caused the dismantling of several buildings and the reuse of architectural debris in the city itself or elsewhere, mostly in other sites along the coast. This paper deals with the spolia of the Roman town, and aims to evaluate the management of the dismantling process in the post-Classical era, the purposes and dynamics of the reuse as well as its geographical spread.

The Buhl Burial: A Paleoindian Woman from Southern Idaho

1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Green ◽  
Bruce Cochran ◽  
Todd W. Fenton ◽  
James C. Woods ◽  
Gene L. Titmus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Asian ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Time Of Death ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
Asian Populations ◽  
South Central ◽  
Minimum Age ◽  
North American Indian ◽  
The Town

In January 1989 highway workers encountered human skeletal remains in a gravel quarry in south-central Idaho near the town of Buhl. Excavation revealed the remains of a young Paleoindian woman, 17–21 years of age at the time of death, with craniofacial attributes similar to other North American Indian and East Asian populations. She was buried in windblown and colluvial sediments immediately overlying Bonneville flood gravel. Grave goods include a large stemmed biface, an eyed needle, and a bone implement of unknown function. Isotopic analysis suggests a diet of meat and fish, including anadromous fish. Radiographs show numerous periods of dietary stress throughout the woman's childhood. AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) dating indicates an age of 10,675±95 B.P., and geomorphological studies verify this single radiocarbon date suggesting it is the burial's minimum age. Following Idaho State law, the skeleton was claimed by the Shoshone-Bannock tribes of Idaho and reburied.

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