Encroachment in the Eastern Mediterranean between the Fourth and the Seventh Century AD

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.

Download Full-text

Islamisation in the Southern Levant after the End of Frankish Rule: Some General Considerations and a Short Case Study

Islamisation ◽

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474417129.003.0009 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 156-186

Author(s):

Reuven Amitai

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Middle East ◽

Mediterranean Basin ◽

Eastern Mediterranean ◽

Seventh Century ◽

Traditional Religion ◽

Southern Levant ◽

The Balkans ◽

Eastern Mediterranean Basin

Two major trends in the development of the lands of the Eastern Mediterranean basin since the Islamic conquests of the mid-seventh century have been Arabisation and Islamisation. This is neither a trivial statement nor a tautology. History is full of examples of invaders who left little or no linguistic or religious impact on the conquered peoples: one need only think of the various Germanic peoples who invaded the Roman Empire, many of whom were eventually Latinised while accepting Christianity. The Bulghars coming into the Balkans in the seventh and eighth centuries soon lost their Turkic language and accepted Christianity in its Greek guise. The Mongols left a great impact on the Middle East in the thirteenth century, but neither their language nor their traditional religion survived in the region (although many words from Mongolian can still be found in Turkish, Persian and occasionally even Arabic). The Franks ruled much of the Levant for almost two centuries, but left the country with little religious and even less linguistic impact. Thus the linguistic and religious success of the Arabs might be considered something of a historical exception.

Download Full-text

A Byzantine Lamp Hoard from Anamur (Cilicia)

Anatolian Studies ◽

10.2307/3642575 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 25 ◽

pp. 77-84 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hector Williams ◽

Peter Taylor

Keyword(s):

Eastern Mediterranean ◽

Seventh Century ◽

Coastal Cities ◽

The City ◽

Early Islamic ◽

Considerable Body ◽

Late Roman

In the course of excavating a well-preserved late Roman bath building at Anemurium (modern Eski Anamur) during the summer of 1968 a large hoard of some six hundred and fifty whole terracotta lamps plus fragments were found stacked in a disused hypocaust system. Since that time many fragments of similar lamps and a mould have also been discovered in other parts of the site in mixed fills containing pottery of the fifth to mid-seventh centuries A.D. As few lamps of similar types have been published from the eastern Mediterranean from datable contexts the value of the Anamur hoard both as a chronological indicator and as a stage in the development of late Byzantine and early Islamic lamps is evident.Although no datable material was found with the lamps themselves the abandonment of such a considerable body of material may perhaps be best explained by events at the site in the mid-seventh century. At this time the city seems to have been deserted, probably as a result of Arab raids on the coastal cities of Cilicia, and was only briefly reoccupied six centuries later. As there are no marks of burning on any of the lamps and as some filling and wick holes are incompletely punched through, the hoard may well be the stock of a shop or merchant hastily put away at some moment of danger and never reclaimed.

Download Full-text

Sidi Khrebish - A Note on the Coarse Pottery

Annual report - Society for Libyan Studies ◽

10.1017/s0263718900009274 ◽

1973 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 18-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J. A. Riley

Keyword(s):

Eastern Mediterranean ◽

The Body ◽

Roman Period ◽

Second Century ◽

Seventh Century ◽

First Century ◽

Third Century ◽

Byzantine Period ◽

Preliminary Study ◽

The Church

The quantity of stratified coarse pottery from Sidi Khrebish has been considerable and preliminary study has of necessity been concentrated on important groups from sealed contexts which span the period from the second century B.C. to the seventh century A.D.The earliest group is from a cistern of second century B.C. date; the next is from excavation underneath Roman period concrete floors which produced mid-first century A.D. material, while the largest group is from the infill of Roman period cisterns and destruction levels and can be dated to the mid-third century A.D. Information is somewhat scanty for the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. but groups of pottery representing the Byzantine period were recovered in some quantity from the destruction levels of the church and its cistern. A good group of Islamic glazed fine ware and coarse ware was associated with late occupation within the church.Space does not permit more than a brief survey of the most common and distinctive coarse ware forms from the excavation.In general, throughout the period of Berenice, the locally made coarse ware form shapes seem to have been influenced from the Eastern Mediterranean, especially in the second and third centuries A.D.The commonest form of second century B.C. cooking pot is rounded, having a short neck with two vertical ‘strap’ handles from the shoulder merging with the rim (fig. 1). Another distinguishing feature of pottery from this period is a semicircular handle from the body with an indentation at the top where it has been pressed to the rim (fig. 2). Both types are of the distinctive local ‘fossil gritted ware’, the fabric of which ranges from orange brown to dark pink. The clay contains fairly large roughly circular flat flakes of bluish-grey grit, which, when split open, reveal segmented spiral fossil remains. This fabric is very common in all periods.

Download Full-text

Knowing the Unknown

Strange and Wonderful ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190672539.003.0004 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 49-76

Author(s):

Karen Polinger Foster

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Human Activities ◽

Eastern Mediterranean ◽

Seventh Century ◽

The Self ◽

Wall Paintings ◽

Early Date ◽

Imperial Rome ◽

Self Image ◽

Informal Settings

This chapter looks at the various existence of exotica in the Classical, Byzantine, and Islamic periods. Through Egyptian intermediaries, monkeys from elsewhere in Africa reached Minoan Crete and the Cyclades during the first half of the second millennium B.C.E. Dozens of them appear thereafter in wall paintings, seals, and jewelry, engaging in animal and human activities in formal and informal settings. From the seventh century on, gradually expanding colonial and commercial contacts—especially in the eastern Mediterranean—brought exotic experiences back to the Greeks. This gave rise to Greek writing on natural history. Meanwhile, the rise of imperial Rome meant that exotic fauna found themselves inextricably linked with the self-image of the state; any exceptional creatures were reserved as gifts for the emperors. Menageries also existed throughout the Arab/Islamic world from an early date.

Download Full-text

Excavations at Tintagel Castle, Cornwall, 1990-1999

10.26530/20.500.12657/50366 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Rachel C. Barrowman ◽

Colleen E. Batey ◽

Christopher D. Morris

Keyword(s):

Eastern Mediterranean ◽

Roman Period ◽

Seventh Century ◽

High Status ◽

Late Antique ◽

North African ◽

Ceramic Assemblage ◽

Unpublished Work

Romantic rock-perched sea-girt Tintagel is a magical place that resonates with Arthurian associations - and the archaeological reality is no less intriguing than the legend. Investigation of the site began in the 1930s, when Dr Ralegh Radford uncovered remains of buildings with significant volumes of eastern Mediterranean and North African pottery of fifth- to seventh-century date, suggesting a western British site of iconic importance in the economy of the late Antique and Byzantine world. The research presented in this book comes from renewed fieldwork carried out at this promontory site over several seasons between April 1990 and July 1999, using modern archaeological techniques, together with previously unpublished work from Radford's private archive, along with that of his architect, J A Wright. This work has demonstrated the complexity and variability of building forms and associated occupation at the site and the wide-ranging connections of Tintagel during the fifth to seventh centuries, as reflected in the extensive ceramic assemblage, while re-examination of the 'Great Ditch' has established that this is the largest promontory or hill-top site of its period. A unique glass assemblage and a stone with a probable imperial inscription to Honorius – later the object of graffiti from three post-Roman personages, Paternus, Coliavus and Artognou – serve as dramatic testimony to the cultural and literary milieu of high-status Dumnonian society in the post-Roman period.

Download Full-text

Prophetic Intermediation in the Ancient Near East

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199859559.013.1 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Martti Nissinen

Keyword(s):

Political Institutions ◽

Near East ◽

Eastern Mediterranean ◽

Seventh Century ◽

Ancient Near East ◽

Literary Interpretation ◽

Near Eastern ◽

Divine Knowledge ◽

Historical Phenomenon ◽

The Many

The chapter serves as an introduction to the written evidence of the historical phenomenon of prophecy in the ancient Near East. Prophecy is understood as intermediation of divine knowledge by non-technical means, constituting one of the many modes of divination. The documents of ancient Near Eastern prophecy are scarce and their chronological or geographical distribution is uneven, the majority of texts deriving from Mari (seventeenth century B.C.E.) and Assyria (seventh century B.C.E.). Nevertheless, the phenomenon can be observed across the Near East, allowing a historical and phenomenological comparison with the later evidence of Greek oracles. The chapter surveys the prophetic phenomenon from the perspectives of writing and literary interpretation, spirit possession, gender, and the relationships of prophets with religious and political institutions. Enough commonalities are found in the Near Eastern, Greek, and biblical texts to warrant the assumption of the existence of a common ancient Eastern Mediterranean prophetic phenomenon.

Download Full-text