Finger Ring Amulets with the Image of the Holy Rider of the 7th Century from the Crimea

Introduction. The group of jewelry with Christian symbols that existed in the Crimea in the early Middle Ages includes cast bronze rings, on a flat shield of which the image of a holy rider with a cross in his hands is engraved. The rings were found in the South-West Crimea in the burial grounds near the village of Luchistoe, Skalistoe and EskiKermen, as well as in Kerch at the early medieval necropolis of the Bosporus, in the burials of the 7th century. Methods. For the attribution of published products, a circle of analogies is identified, findings from the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire are analyzed. The iconography of the holy rider is compared on various subjects. In the Crimea, three of the published finger rings were found in in situ burials, as part of a closed complex, together with tools with a narrow dating, which makes it possible to clarify the time of existence of this type of products in the region and to determine the method of wearing it. Analysis. The plot depicted on the finger rings has an undeniable resemblance to the scene of the solemn entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, described in all four Gospels and well known from the numerous pictorial monuments of the early medieval period. The iconography of that scene originated in the era of Constantine the Great, under the influence of imperial art and in many ways corresponded to the Triumphal entry of the emperor to Rome or any large city of the empire. The image of Christ the rider on the Crimean finger rings belongs to the iconographic type, which became widespread in the 6th–7th centuries, mainly in Egypt, the Syro-Palestinian region and Asia Minor. The quality of execution of the published rings from the Crimea allows us to speak about their local production. Byzantine products that came to the peninsula thanks to stable trade relations with the empire or were brought by pilgrims from holy places served as models for the Crimean artisans. In the minds of ancient Christians, the image of Christ the rider had a powerful protective power. Placed on the shield of the ring, it endowed the decoration with the properties of an amulet, protecting the person wearing it from all troubles. The rings originating from Crimea belonged to a teenage girl and young women who wore them on their hands – on the right index or ring finger, or in special belt bags, in which, in addition to utilitarian items, various amulets were also put. Results. The study of rings makes it possible not only to expand knowledge about jewelry that existed in the early medieval times, but also to replenish our information about the daily life of the Christian population of the early medieval Crimea.

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Public Powers, Private Powers, and the Exploitation of Metals for Coinage

10.1093/oso/9780198777601.003.0029 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Giovanna Bianchi

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Field Research ◽

Mineral Resources ◽

Medieval Period ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Medieval Period ◽

Italian Journal ◽

Open Questions ◽

And Control ◽

The Relationship

In 1994, an article appeared in the Italian journal Archeologia Medievale, written by Chris Wickham and Riccardo Francovich, entitled ‘Uno scavo archeologico ed il problema dello sviluppo della signoria territoriale: Rocca San Silvestro e i rapporti di produzione minerari’. It marked a breakthrough in the study of the exploitation of mineral resources (especially silver) in relation to forms of power, and the associated economic structure, and control of production between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. On the basis of the data available to archeological research at the time, the article ended with a series of open questions, especially relating to the early medieval period. The new campaign of field research, focused on the mining landscape of the Colline Metallifere in southern Tuscany, has made it possible to gather more information. While the data that has now been gathered are not yet sufficient to give definite and complete answers to those questions, they nevertheless allow us to now formulate some hypotheses which may serve as the foundations for broader considerations as regards the relationship between the exploitation of a fundamental resource for the economy of the time, and the main players and agents in that system of exploitation, within a landscape that was undergoing transformation in the period between the early medieval period and the middle centuries of the Middle Ages.

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STUDIES FOR THE CONSERVATION AND VALORISATION OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL ROCK HERITAGE OF CALASCIBETTA IN SICILY, ITALY

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-archives-xliv-m-1-2020-311-2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol XLIV-M-1-2020 ◽

pp. 311-318

Author(s):

A. Versaci ◽

A. Lo Cascio ◽

L. R. Fauzìa ◽

A. Cardaci

Keyword(s):

Rural Communities ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Medieval Period ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Christian ◽

Early Medieval Period ◽

Progressive Loss ◽

3D Documentation ◽

Archaeological Areas ◽

The Town

Abstract. The rock settlement of Vallone Canalotto, which stands in the valleys surrounding the town of Calascibetta – about three kilometres north from Enna, Sicily, Italy – testify to a widespread population of the area from prehistoric times up to the Middle Ages, probably linked to the agricultural and pastoral exploitation of its fertile land. This valuable heritage, dug into very soft limestone banks, is now threatened by significant erosion and disruption phenomena, which, in the absence of adequate safeguarding and maintenance actions, will lead to a progressive loss of material and the consequent collapse of some portions, making the documentable traces more and more paltry. The archaeological complex demonstrates the continuity of the funerary use from the remotest ages to the early Christian era, as testified by the excavation of rupestrian columbaria. In the early medieval period, small rural communities used the hypogeal structures for residential and religious purposes. In the present work, integrated procedures have been put in place for the 3D documentation of these artefacts, whose effectiveness has already been tested by the same team in other Sicilian rock sites. The research aims at the knowledge and cataloguing of places, which are important for the Island’s history but to date only marginally explored. It intends to stimulate and plan adequate conservation and enhancement activities. To improve the attendance of the sites, design proposals have been developed to guarantee greater accessibility to the archaeological areas and their understanding by visitors.

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THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE INTERCIVILIZATION DIALOGUE IN SOUTHERN UKRAINE. THOUGHTS ON THE NEW APPROACHES TO TURKISH HISTORIOGRAPHY

South Archive (Historical Sciences) ◽

10.32999/ksu2786-5118/2021-33-3 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 15-20

Author(s):

Vodotyka S. ◽

Robak I.

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Ottoman Empire ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Black Sea ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

The Black Sea ◽

Black Sea Region ◽

The Crimea ◽

History Of ◽

Primary Basis

The article is devoted to reviewing the book by the well-known Turkish historian İlber Ortaylı "Ottomans on Three Continents". The authors consistently analyze the main postulates of the work in the history of Ottoman possessions in the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region, focusing on the role of the Ottoman Empire in the interaction of Black Sea civilizations in the late Middle Ages and early modern times.The authors prove that the history of the Ottoman Empire is essential for understanding the history of Ukraine. Ottoman influences significantly impacted the history of the Ukrainian people and other indigenous peoples of Ukraine – Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks, Crimean Greeks.The authors agree with the thesis of the Turkish researcher about the significant and sometimes decisive influence of the Ottomans on the situation in the Black Sea region in the XV–XVIII centuries. Furthermore, the authors express their views on certain statements of the book. In particular, İlber Ortaylı proves that the Ottoman Empire was a "state of the Middle Eastern Islamic type". Its presence in the Black Sea resulted in the interaction of Islamic Mediterranean civilization with Eastern European Orthodoxy and Ukraine were at the centre of this interaction. However, the authors cannot agree with the historian's statement about the primary basis of the empire – the system of the state, especially military, slavery (devshirme). It allowed to creation of a vast empire, The Sublime or Ottoman Porte. However, slavery could not create social mechanisms of progress. The civilizational basis of the Ottoman Empire was its steppe, Turkic-steppe, essence.In the Ottoman Empire, Western modernization borrowings were superficial, served utilitarian-pragmatic purposes, and did not change the foundations of civilization. Such selectable reforms were the reason why the Omans lost their possessions in the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region to the Russian Empire in the eighteenth century. Significantly, both empires claim the imperial, not civilizational, heritage of the Roman Empire. The intelligence emphasizes that these claims are not sufficiently substantiated.Key words: İlber Ortaylı, Ottoman Empire, heritage, history of Ukraine, Northern Black Sea Coast, Crimea. Стаття присвячена огляду-рецензії книги відомого турецького історика Ільбера Ортайли «Османи на трьох континентах». Автори послідовно проаналізували основні постулати праці в координатах історії османських володінь в Криму і Північному Причорномор’ї, приділивши головну увагу ролі Османської імперії у взаємодії цивілізацій Чорномор’я у періоди пізнього середньовіччя і раннього модерного часу.Доведено, що історія Османської імперії має важливе значення для розуміння історії України. Османські впливи відіграли значну роль в історії українського народу та інших корінних народів України – кримських татар, караїмів і кримчаків, кримських греків.Автори погоджуються з тезою турецького дослідника про значний, а часом визначальний, вплив Османів на ситуацію у Чорномор’ї у ХV–ХVІІІ ст. та висловлюють свої міркування щодо окремих положень праці. Зокрема, І. Ортайли кваліфіковано доводить, що Османська імперія була «державою близькосхідно-ісламського типу» і її присутність у Чорномор’ї мала наслідком взаємодію ісламської середземноморської цивілізації зі східноєвропейською православною, причому Україна знаходилась у центрі цієї взаємодії. Однак, не можна погодитись з твердженням історика щодо головної основи імперії – системи державного, передусім військового, рабства (девшірме). Вона дозволило створити величезну імперію, Сяючу Порту, але рабство не може створити суспільних механізмів поступу. Цивілізаційною основою Османської імперії стала її степова, тюрксько-степова, сутність. В Османській імперії західні модернізаційні запозичення були поверховими, служили утилітарно-прагматичним цілям і не змінювали цивілізаційних основ. Власне це і стало основною причиною того, що у ХVІІІ ст. Омани втратили свої володіння в Криму і Північному Причорномор’ї, які дістались Російській імперії. Показово, що обидві імперії висувають претензії на імперську, а не цивілізаційну, спадщину Римської імперії. У розвідці наголошується, що ці претензії не є достатньо обґрунтованими. Ключові слова: І. Ортайли, Османська імперія, спадщина, історія України, Північне Причорномор’я, Крим.

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Early Medieval Missionary Activity: A Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Methods

Church History ◽

10.2307/3161180 ◽

1954 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 17-35 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Richard E. Sullivan

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Comparative Study ◽

Middle Ages ◽

“Let Them Make Him Duke to Rule that People”: TheLaw of the Bavariansand Regime Change in Early Medieval Europe

Law and History Review ◽

10.1017/s0738248012000272 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 865-899

Author(s):

Jonathan Couser

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Regime Change ◽

Vital Role ◽

Anglo Saxon ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Distinctive Features ◽

Medieval Europe ◽

The Subject ◽

The Law

The early Middle Ages produced a series of law codes for the new “barbarian” kingdoms of Europe, which succeeded the western Roman Empire. These law codes were often inspired by the precedent and sometimes the content of Roman vulgar law as well as the customs of the respective peoples for whom they were written and the interests of their rulers. The making of law could often play a vital role in the stabilization of kingdoms, especially under new rulers. Early medieval secular lawmaking falls into three broad periods: the early royal laws of the Frankish, Burgundian, and Visigothic peoples in the fifth and sixth centuries; the interrelated composition of Lombard, south German, and perhaps also early Anglo-Saxon law in the seventh and eighth centuries; and the writing up of the last “ethnic” laws for peoples subject to Charlemagne's empire, such as Frisians and Saxons, in order to accommodate them into a multiethnic empire committed to the principle of personality of the law. The subject of this article, the law of the Bavarians (Lex Baiuvariorum, hereafter abbreviated “Lb”), belongs to the second of these stages. However, scholars have never reached consensus as to the date of its composition nor where it was created. This has inhibited the use of the Lb for any but they most general discussion of Bavarian society. This article will review the evidence for the Lb's date and place of composition, to suggest that we can plausibly identify them more precisely than has been done, and therefore argue that the distinctive features of this text can be tied to specific political needs.

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Uz jedno kronološko pitanje starohrvatske arheologije (postavljeno od Ljube Karamana)

Archaeologia Adriatica ◽

10.15291/archeo.1026 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Mate Zekan

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Late Period ◽

Main Argument ◽

Medieval Period ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Medieval Period ◽

New Findings ◽

Archaeological Science ◽

Art Historians ◽

The Middle Ages

Referring to the hypothesis about the appearance of three-beaded earrings in Croatia only in the late period of the Middle Ages, which Stjepan Gunjača based on the hoard find of three-beaded earrings and coins of the Angevin king Louis I (1342-1382) in a closed grave unit found during excavations of the cemetery surrounding the ruined church of St. Michael at Brnaze near Sinj, Ljubo Karaman in his article "Two chronological questions of Early Croatian archaeology" in the first section on "The period of appearance three beaded earrings of the socalled Kiev type in Dalmatian Croatia" first questioned and then rejected Gunjača’s claim. As the main argument for confirmation of his opinion about the appearance of the three beaded earrings in the early medieval period, he presented a photograph from the archives of the Museum of Croatian Antiquities, where the grave unit included spurs of the Carolingian type that he dated to the 9th century, along with a three-beaded earring decorated with filigree. Faced with Karaman’s argument, for which he had no proper answer, Gunjača did not further enter into discussions about the chronology of these earrings. Although more than fifty years have passed since then, in which the science of archaeology has greatly evolved through new findings, the fact remains that numerous art historians and archaeologists involved in the typology and chronology of the Middle Ages of Croatia ignore this opinion of Karaman. In fact, they avoid mentioning this article by Karaman and the arguments set forth in it as if it had never even been written. However, until the dilemma presented by Karaman is not solved, all conjectures about the chronology of this type of jewelry are scientifically defective and inconsistent. The author of this contribution, dedicated to the meritorious archaeologist and professor J. Belošević, solves the problem of Karaman’s hypothesis, by discovering that the three-beaded earring should be removed from the grave unit on the archival photograph, as it was placed there by chance. In this manner a serious problem in archaeological science has been removed and a more justified dating of medieval three-beaded earrings is made possible.

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Exploring Linear Earthworks across Time and Space – Introducing the ‘Monumentality and Landscape: Linear Earthworks in Britain’ Project

Offa's Dyke Journal ◽

10.23914/odj.v3i0.316 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 129

Author(s):

Nicky Garland ◽

Barney Harris ◽

Tom Moore ◽

Andrew Reynolds

Keyword(s):

Comparative Study ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Iron Age ◽

First Year ◽

Medieval Period ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Preliminary Results ◽

Early Medieval Period ◽

Landscape Research

Linear earthworks of a monumental character are an enigmatic part of the British landscape. Research in Britain suggests that such features range in date from the early 1st millennium BC to the Early Middle Ages. While the roles of these monuments in past societies cannot be understated, they remain a relatively under-researched phenomenon. This article introduces the Leverhulme Trust-funded ‘Monumentality and Landscape: Linear Earthworks in Britain’ project, which aims to provide a comparative study of linear earthworks focusing on those dating to the Iron Age and early medieval period. This contribution reviews our approach and shares preliminary results from the project’s first year, identifying wider implications for the study of linear earthworks.

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Biblical Apocrypha as Medieval World Literature

The Medieval Globe ◽

10.17302/tmg.6-2.2 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 49-83

Author(s):

Brandon W. Hawk

Keyword(s):

Complex Network ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Literary History ◽

World Literature ◽

Medieval Period ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Medieval Period

This article examines biblical apocrypha as cases for reconsidering literary history concerning the wider scope of the global Middle Ages. The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and Fifteen Signs before Judgment show how apocrypha were dynamic in the early medieval period, as they participated in a complex network of transmission across Afro-Eurasia.

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Making of the Muslim World

Christian Martyrs under Islam ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691179100.003.0007 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 241-252

Author(s):

Christian C. Sahner

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Muslim World ◽

Community Formation ◽

Medieval Period ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Medieval Period ◽

First Time ◽

Shared Society ◽

The Middle Ages

This concluding chapter considers the chronology of the martyrdoms as a way of measuring the pace of Islamization and Arabization in the postconquest period. It suggests that the apparent surge in violence between 750 and 800 may have come about as Muslims and Christians began interacting with each other for the very first time as members of a shared society, rather than as rulers and subjects in a divided world, as they had done for much of the immediate postconquest period. This, in turn, destabilized relations between the two communities, giving rise to new anxieties about social and religious differentiation. The chapter also considers the legacy of the martyrs from the Middle Ages to the present, as well as the role martyrs played in the process of community formation for various emergent sects in the early medieval period, Christian and Muslim alike.

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The Transformation into the Early Middle Ages (Fourth to Eighth Centuries)

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Roman Germany ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199665730.013.19 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 490-519 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hubert Fehr

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Middle Ages ◽

River Rhine ◽

Late Antique ◽

Rural Settlements ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

Roman Provinces ◽

Roman Germany ◽

Medieval Archaeology

This chapter focuses on the transformation of Roman Germany into the early Middle Ages (fourth to eighth centuries). The final collapse of Roman rule in northern Gaul in the middle of the fifth century signalled the de facto end of the three Late Roman provinces: Germania Prima, Germania Secunda, and Maxima Sequanorum. The territories along the western bank of the River Rhine experienced quite different political destinies between the middle of the fifth and the middle of the sixth century. The chapter first looks at how migrations of peoples from Barbaricum into the Roman Empire caused the end of a Roman-style society and economy in former Roman Germany. It then discusses early medieval archaeology in Germany, with particular emphasis on cemeteries and churches. Finally, it analyses methodological developments in late antique and early medieval archaeology, along with the transformation of towns and landscape/rural settlements.

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