The Political Machine in the Late Bronze Age

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam T. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Joint Operation ◽  
Political Machine ◽  
Charismatic Authority ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
Active Commitment

In the Late Bronze Age, the polities in the South Caucasus developed a new assemblage directed toward transforming charismatic authority into formal sovereignty. This chapter examines the assembling of this political machine, which drew the civilization and war machines into an extensive apparatus of rule, one that resolved the paradox at the heart of the joint operation of both. This novel political machine did not supersede the war and civilization machines. Rather, the political machine cloaked their contradictions, allowing the relation of the one to the many to persist as a “mystery” of sovereignty. The political machine not only provided the instruments of judicial ordering and bureaucratic regulation but it also transformed the polity itself into an object of devotion, securing not simply the surrender of subjects but their active commitment to the reproduction of sovereignty.

The English Crisis of 1297 in the Light of French Experience

1979 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles T. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Good Deal ◽  
The Political ◽  
English History ◽  
French Experience ◽  
Political Principle ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
Remarkable Agreement ◽  
Edward I

Among the familiar sights crowding the landscape of English history from the dooms of Ine to that crown plucked from a hawthorn bush at Bosworth, none is more deeply cherished than the crisis of 1297 and the “Confirmation of the Charters” to which it gave rise. For, despite all the sharp differences over detail that the documentation for this crisis has engendered, scholars have shown remarkable agreement in seeing it as the one defeat suffered by Edward I in a long and notably successful reign. And to that defeat they have attributed great constitutional significance. Stubbs set the pattern, calling the “result singularly in harmony with what seems from history and experience to be the natural direction of English progress,” and Wilkinson is only one among the many who have recently elaborated on that theme:The crisis of 1297 … placed a definite check on the tendencies which Edward I had shown, to ignore the deep principles of the constitution under stress of the necessities which confronted the nation … It was a landmark in the advance of the knights … toward political maturity. It helped to establish the tradition of co-operation and political alliance between the knights and the magnates, on which a good deal of the political future of England was to depend …. What the opposition achieved, in 1297, was a great vindication of the ancient political principle of government by consent ….

Prehistoric Settlement at Virje–Volarski Breg/Sušine

2021 ◽  
pp. 122-145
Author(s):  
Marko Dizdar ◽  
Daria Ložnjak Dizdar
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Alpine Region ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Agricultural Communities ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
La Tène ◽  
Danube Region ◽  
La Tene ◽  
Rural Character ◽  
The One

Several years of excavations at the site of Virje–Volarski Breg/Sušine uncovered the remains of a settlement from the Late Bronze and Late Iron Ages. The finds of a bronze pin and potsherds from the Late Bronze Age enabled the dating of the settlement to the early and late phases of the Urnfield culture, with the settlement at Volarski Breg being older than the one at Sušine. The excavations revealed parts of La Tène settlement infrastructure, which indicated that it was a prominent lowland settlement from the Middle and Late La Tène. They included the exceptional discovery of a pit with the remains of a loom. Both for the organization of the La Tène culture settlement and for its pottery finds, there are parallels in the known settlements from the middle Drava valley and the neighbouring areas of north-eastern Slovenia and south-western Hungary. These settlements are considered to have a rural character and to be the result of the life needs of small agricultural communities integrated in the landscape. The explored parts of the infrastructure of these settlements show that they were organized around single households. The intensive habitation of the middle Drava valley in the Late Bronze and Late Iron Ages is not at all surprising, since the area was crossed by an important communication route between the south-eastern Alpine region and the Danube region.

Isotopic perspectives on pastoralist mobility in the Late Bronze Age South Caucasus

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 48-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Chazin ◽  
Gwyneth W. Gordon ◽  
Kelly J. Knudson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
South Caucasus

Lotman, Leibniz, and the semiospheric monad: Lost pages from the archives

Semiotica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (224) ◽  
pp. 313-336
Author(s):  
Pietro Restaneo
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Political Sciences ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
Intellectual Journey

AbstractThroughout his life, Jurij Lotman lived at the crossroad between different worlds, ages, and cultures. The many authors, cultures, and ideas that shaped his thought and influenced his theories are scattered at either side of countless geographical, political, and cultural borders, beginning with the one that separates “Russian culture” from “European culture,” porous and ambiguous as any boundary.The task of reconstructing how Lotman’s ideas came to being, how they shifted their meaning as their context shifted, is more and more a crucial task not only for the historian. Many Lotmanian concepts, first and foremost that of semiosphere, are acquiring major relevance not only for semiotics itself and its branches, such as the rising political semiotics, but also for many neighboring disciplines, such as cultural studies and political sciences. Therefore, gaining a better understanding of the meaning of Lotman’s ideas could be of value also for the applied semiotician or the political analyst.The present paper is the result of research started in the Lotman Archives in Tallin, Estonia. Through an analysis of archival material, it aims at reconstructing the origins and meaning of the most political tropes of Lotman’s theories, especially what I will call his theory of the political subject. In the first part, I will argue that, in order to understand this political aspect of Lotman, it is necessary to take into consideration the intellectual debates inside which the author started his intellectual journey in 1930s–1940s Soviet Russia, and how he sought answers to those debates in the works of G. W. Leibniz.In the final part of the paper, I will try to show how this reconstruction of Lotman’s history could contribute to the contemporary debate in semiotics and other connected disciplines.

scholarly journals Re-Evaluation of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Chronology of the Western Belgian Urnfields Based on 14C Dating of Cremated Bones

Radiocarbon ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 499-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy De Mulder ◽  
Mark van Strydonck ◽  
Mathieu Boudin ◽  
Walter Leclercq ◽  
Nicolas Paridaens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
14C Dating ◽  
Occupational History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

The urnfields in western Belgium have been studied since the second half of the 20th century. Most of these studies, as well as the excavations themselves, date from before the last quarter of the 20th century, except for the urnfields at Velzeke and Blicquy, which were excavated recently. The chronology of these cemeteries was largely based on typochronological studies of pottery. Other funeral gifts, like bronze objects in the graves, are rather exceptional. The typochronology was worked out in a comparison with the framework of neighboring regions and central Europe. There was a need, then, for a chronology based on absolute dates. This was only possible by radiocarbon dating of the cremated bones. Tests on duplicate samples, like cremated bone in context with charcoal or 2 depositions of cremated bones within 1 urn, have shown that the results are reproducible and that there is no discrepancy between the charcoal and the cremated bone dates.The results of the 14C dating project on the cremated bones of the 2 urnfields at Velzeke and the one at Blicquy are promising. The interpretation of the occupational history of both sites at Velzeke can be revised, and the currently accepted ceramic sequence for this period needs reworking. In addition, the chronological framework of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age is open for discussion. It seems plausible that the urnfield phenomenon starts earlier in western Belgium than previously expected. These dates can also contribute to the discussion about the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age.

scholarly journals SETinSTONE: an impact assessment of the human and environmental resource requirements of Late Bronze Age Mycenaean monumental architecture

Antiquity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (358) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Brysbaert
Keyword(s):  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Field Data ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Resource Requirements ◽  
Actual Field ◽  
Building Activities

Mycenaean monumental architecture has been well studied. Yet the extent to which large-scale building programmes may have contributed to change and crises in Late Bronze Age Greece (c. 1600–1100/1070 BC) has never been investigated using actual field data. The aim of the SETinSTONE project is to assess if and how monumental building activities in Late Bronze Age Greece affected the political and socio-economic structures of Mycenaean polities, and how people may have responded to these changes (Brysbaert 2013).

A Digital Investigation Manifesting use of Geometric Stencils for the Drawing of Akrotiri Thera Prehistoric Wall Paintings

2011 ◽  
pp. 64-145
Author(s):  
Panayiotis Rousospoulos ◽  
Dimitris Arabadjis ◽  
Mihalis Exarhos ◽  
Michail Panagopoulos ◽  
Georgios Galanopoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Curve Fitting ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Fitting Method ◽  
Digital Investigation ◽  
Curve Fitting Method ◽  
The One

The present chapter deals with the problem of determining the method used to draw several celebrated and beautiful wall-paintings belonging to the Late Bronze Age (c. 1630 B.C.), that were excavated at Akrotiri, Thera, Hellas (Greece). First, the authors process the wall paintings’ digital images in order to extract the contour of their main thematic entities. Subsequently, a number of fundamental definitions are given and the main hypothesis is stated, namely that geometrical stencils were used for the drawing of the considered wall paintings. A first estimation of the probable one stoke parts of the contour is undertaken, based on curvature considerations and minimization of corresponding error functions. Next, they select families of geometrical curves as potential prototypes of the employed stencils. The selection is based on archaeological and historical criteria. A novel exhaustive curve fitting method is introduced that offers unambiguously optimal matching of two digital curves. Taking into consideration the previous stages, the exact values of the stencils’ parameters are determined. Finally, the hypothesis that stencils were used for the drawing of the considered wall paintings is supported substantially by a visual representation of the one stroke parts together with the corresponding stencil segments that generated them.

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