scholarly journals REGIONAL BIAS IN LATE ANTIQUE AND EARLY MEDIEVAL COIN FINDS AND ITS EFFECTS ON DATA: THREE CASE STUDIES

2021 ◽  
pp. 197-210
Author(s):  
Mark Pyzyk
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Digital Humanities ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Weak State ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Visualization Systems ◽  
Database Implementation

This paper discusses the role of bias and uncertainty in the FLAME project (Framing the Late Antique and Early Medieval Economy) at Princeton University. FLAME is a large Digital Humanities project focused on collecting and storing data on coin minting and circulation in west Afro-Eurasia from 325 to 750 CE, roughly coinciding with the period of transition between the late antique and early medieval periods. The overarching goal is historical – that is, we wish to be able to say something new about how the world of late antiquity and the medieval period really was. However, in the process of building this database, and its accompanying online tools, we have also observed that the data is difficult and problematic. This paper, then, is an account of some of these historiographical and methodological issues in the form of three case studies (Britain, France, and Ukraine) and a short discussion of strategies that FLAME employs to communicate these biases to users, who benefit from a transparent discussion of messiness and difficulty in the data. The paper proceeds in seven sections, of which the first is an introduction. Section Two presents basic technical details of the project, such as its database implementation (MySQL) and its online visualization systems (ArcGIS), access to which can be found at https://flame.princeton.edu. Section Three discusses the historiographic questions at stake, distinguishing between Primary Bias (inherent in materials themselves) and Secondary Bias (particular to national and political contexts). Section Four, Five, and Six are each devoted to a separate case study: Britain, France, and Ukraine. Each discusses FLAME's data on that region and briefly touches upon contextual factors that may bias regional data. Thus, Section Four discusses Britain, with much analysis focused on the role of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in incentivizing reporting of found antiquities, and its effects on coin data. Section Five discusses France, where FLAME records many coin finds, but from a limited time period (primarily from Merovingian states). Section Six discusses the situation in Ukraine, where we were helped by existing scholarly resources (such as the coin inventories of Kropotkin), but where cultural heritage preservation suffers from weak state enforcement and where much scholarship suffers from spotty recording practices, and often outright theft of national treasures, going back to the imperial Russian period. Section Seven concludes the paper, noting that such methodological and second-order discussion of bias is a critical desideratum for the Digital Humanities as it matures into its second decade.

Time

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garth Fowden
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Catalytic Role

This chapter examines the role that late antique scholarship has occasionally assigned to Islam, with particular emphasis on the work of Alois Riegl, Josef Strzygowski, Henri Pirenne, and Peter Brown. It begins with an overview of the roots of late antique studies on Islam, citing the impetus given by theological and philosophical concerns to interest in late Antiquity up to and including the nineteenth century. It also considers the catalytic role of art, architectural history, and archaeology in the “slow transformations” of the late antique world. It shows that questions about Islam were already present at the very birth of modern late antique studies.

Sickness and Healing

2020 ◽  
pp. 402-417
Author(s):  
Peregrine Horden
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The Individual

How should a medieval monk behave when sick? Must submission to divine test or judgement be the only response, or is resort to secular as well as spiritual medicine allowed? What is the role of the infirmary in a monastery and, for the individual monk, what are the benefits and disadvantages of staying in it? The chapter traces medieval answers to such questions through case studies drawn from the earliest phase of monasticism in late antiquity, from Carolingian Europe, from the twelfth century, and from the later Middle Ages, concluding with an outline of a set of topics for further research.

Writing as Devotion: Hagiographical Composition and the Cult of the Saints in Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Cyril of Scythopolis

1997 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 707-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Krueger
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Social History ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Religious Dimensions

The period from the fourth through the seventh century witnessed the elaboration of Christian cults of saints with a particular interest in the ascetic labors and miraculous powers of holy men and women. Although much evidence for these cults derives from literary saints' lives, a genre that emerged simultaneously with the cults, scholars have overlooked the role of the hagiographer as devotee. Previous studies have tended to view an author's piety as a barrier to historical inquiry, dismissing miracle accounts (among other hagiographical elements) as pious fictions. Neglect of the religious dimensions of the activity of writing arises in part from the confluence of two trends. First, renewed interest in late antique popular culture highlights the affinities between the religious life of elites and nonelites. Despite the refreshing aspects of this approach, the distinctly literary contributions to the formation of piety have been overlooked. Second, traditional divisions between patristics and social history continue to exclude theology and religious composition from discussions of piety on the assumption that thought and action are separable. Thanks to the work of Catherine Bell and others, students of religion can appreciate that thinking is an activity, something obvious to Christians in late antiquity such as Gregory of Nyssa, for whom contemplation of God was virtuous motion.

scholarly journals TO THE QUESTION OF SPACE ORGANIZATION OF BOOK ILLUMINATION OF LATE ANTIQUITY AND EARLY MIDDLE AGES (IV – VII CENTURY)

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-48
Author(s):  
Mikhail S. Bankov
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
Space Organization ◽  
Miniature Painting

The article focuses on peculiarities of spatial organization of book miniature paintings of late antique and early medieval manuscripts (IV – VII centuries). The author analyses the problem of conveying illusion of depth in illustration in context of gradual transmission from roll to codex, which took place in antique book culture between the II and the V centuries. By analyzing survived fragments of illuminated rolls author displays characteristic features of their spatial organization and observes influence which had tradition of roll illustration on the development of codex. Nevertheless, precisely the miniatures of the codices that have come down to our time are in focus of the author’s attention. The stages of development of the text page, the peculiarities of interaction of text and images in codices are compared with the principles of space organization in miniatures. The article makes an attempt, relying on the monuments that have survived to our time, to consider the development of spatial constructions in the period of late Antiquity and early Middle Ages as a continuous process of evolution of the language of book painting. The author assumes that the development of spatial constructions in miniature painting does not imply sharp breaks or regression. Each new stage of the evolution arises from the previous one and makes it possible to expand the arsenal of artistic means which are necessary for solving artistic problems of the time. In accordance with this approach, the article concentrates not only on compositions in which a spatial illusion is created, but also miniatures that are in character more plane. As a result, the author reveals the main types of spatial constructions, considering all surviving monuments of miniature painting of that time. For each type of space organization, the author identifies the basic principles and artistic techniques that allow the artist to convey a sense of depth on the plane of page. The author pays special attention to the comparison of illusionistic tendencies in the late antique book miniature and “reverse perspective”, features of which are present in the monuments of the era. The author casts doubt on the need for a sharp contrast between these two approaches to space organization in the monuments of book miniatures of the era. He analyzes the reasons for the appearance of such features of space organization in miniature paintings of late antique and early medieval manuscripts, which are so important for the formation of artistic language of medieval book illumination.

Worshippers of the Gods

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias P. Gassman
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Religious History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Changing Attitudes

Worshippers of the Gods Worshippers of the Gods tells how the Latin writers who witnessed the political and social rise of Christianity rethought the role of traditional religion in the empire and city of Rome. In parallel with the empire’s legal Christianisation, it traces changing attitudes toward paganism from the last empire-wide persecution of Christians under the Tetrarchy to the removal of state funds from the Roman cults in the early 380s. Influential recent scholarship has seen Christian polemical literature—a crucial body of evidence for late antique polytheism—as an exercise in Christian identity-making. In response, Worshippers of the Gods argues that Lactantius, Firmicus Maternus, Ambrosiaster, and Ambrose offered substantive critiques of traditional religion shaped to their political circumstances and to the preoccupations of contemporary polytheists. By bringing together this polemical literature with imperial laws, pagan inscriptions, and the letters and papers of the senator Symmachus, Worshippers of the Gods reveals the changing horizons of Roman thought on traditional religion in the fourth century. Through its five interlocking case studies, it shows how key episodes in the Empire’s religious history—the Tetrarchic persecution, Constantine’s adoption of Christianity, the altar of Victory affair, and the ‘disestablishment’ of the Roman cults—shaped contemporary conceptions of polytheism. It also argues that the idea of a unified ‘paganism’, often seen as a capricious invention by Christian polemicists, actually arose as a Christian response to the eclectic, philosophical polytheism in vogue at Rome.

Setting the Scene for an Environmental History of Late Antiquity

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-13
Author(s):  
Adam Izdebski
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Actual Experience ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
New Framework

Abstract Environmental history is a well-established discipline that until recently focused mainly on the modern era and was dominated by historians. Numerous scholars agree today that this needs to change: a focus on Late Antiquity can help this happen. To make it possible, we should concentrate our efforts on three parallel projects. First, make late antique studies more interdisciplinary, i.e. joining the efforts of historians, archaeologists and natural scientists. Second, look at Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages as a source of case studies that are relevant to the central themes of environmental history. Third, use environmental history as a new framework that has the potential to modify our vision of the 1st millennium AD, by getting us closer to the actual experience of the people who lived this past.

scholarly journals Análisis de la evolución constructiva de las estructuras excavadas en el yacimiento de A Cidadela (Sobrado dos Monxes, A Coruña) y propuestas interpretativas sobre sus "fases tardoantiguas"

2015 ◽  
pp. 69-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebeca Blanco-Rotea ◽  
José Manuel Costa García ◽  
José Carlos Sánchez Pardo
Keyword(s):  
Sequence Analysis ◽  
Global Assessment ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Marie Curie ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
First Time

Se presentan los resultados del estudio llevado a cabo en el yacimiento de A Cidadela (Sobrado dos Monxes, A Coruña) en el marco del proyecto Marie Curie Early Medieval Churches: History, Archaeology and Heritage (EMCHAHE). Este yacimiento comprende los restos de un recinto militar romano de los siglos II-III d.C. y sucesivas ocupaciones de épocas tardoantigua y altomedieval, todavía poco conocidas. El estudio presentado se basa en un enfoque interdisciplinar que combina por primera vez una revisión de todo el material generado a partir de las distintas excavaciones arqueológicas pre-estratigráficas y estratigráficas llevadas a cabo en el yacimiento, con la lectura estratigráfica de paramentos. En esta revisión se ha hecho especial hincapié en la reocupación del fuerte en época tardoantigua y especialmente en una serie de estructuras identificadas como posible iglesia. Pese a que se trata de resultados preliminares, los datos obtenidos permiten hablar de una fase de reocupación mucho más importante en todo este recinto de lo pensado hasta el momento. En base a estos resultados, se realiza una valoración del papel de este yacimiento en el contexto del conocimiento actual sobre la Tardoantigüedad en Galicia. Constructive sequence analysis of the excavated structures of A Cidadela site (Sobrado dos Monxes, A Coruña) and interpretative proposals on its "late antique phases" - This paper presents the research carried out at the archaeological site of A Cidadela (Sobrado dos Monxes, A Coruña) in the framework of the Marie Curie Early Medieval Churches: History, Archaeology and Heritage (EMCHAHE) project. This site, excavated through several campaigns since 1934 comprises the remains of a Roman Camp of the 2nd-3rd centuries AD as well as a series of further late antique and early medieval reoccu-pations. The study is based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines a review, for the first time, of all the excavations at the site with the stratigraphical analyisis of the standing walls. Special emphasis has been placed on the late antique phases and, mainly, on some structures interpreted as a possible church. Although these are preliminary results, the data already available indicates a more intense reoccupation of the whole site in this period than traditionally considered. Basing on these results, a global assessment of the role of this site in the context of Late Antique Galicia is presented in the final section.

History, Eschatology, and the Development of the Six Ages of the World

Augustinianum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-206
Author(s):  
John Joseph Gallagher ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The World ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Church

The sex aetates mundi constituted the defining framework for understanding biblical and salvation history in the Early Christian and Late Antique worlds. The origins of the idea that history can be divided into six epochs, each lasting roughly a thousand years, are commonly attributed to Augustine of Hippo. Although Augustine’s engagement with this notion significantly influenced its later popularity due to the prolific circulation of his works, he was by no means the sole progenitor of this concept. This bipartite study undertakes the first conspectus in English-speaking scholarship to date of the origins and evolution of the sex aetates mundi. Part I of this study traces the early origins of historiographical periodisation in writings from classical and biblical antiquity, taking account in particular of the role of numerology and notions of historical eras that are present in biblical texts. Expressions of the world ages in the writings of the Church Fathers are then traced in detail. Due consideration is afforded to attendant issues that influenced the six ages, including calendrical debates concerning the age of the world and the evolution of eschatological, apocalyptic, and millenarian thought. Overall, this article surveys the myriad intellectual and exegetical currents that converged in Early Christianity and Late Antiquity to create this sixfold historiographical and theological framework. The first instalment of this study lays the groundwork for understanding Augustine’s engagement with this motif in his writings, which is treated in Part II.

Iconography and Archaeology

2021 ◽  
pp. 91-113
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Marlowe
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Physical Strength ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman Villa ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Art Historians

This chapter critically examines how scholars have interpreted Roman portraits of the third century ce. It focuses on two case studies. The first is a famous portrait of Maximinus Thrax from the Albani collection and now in the Capitoline Museum. Read through the lens of late antique literary sources, the portrait has been seen by art historians as portraying Maximinus’ ferocity, physical strength, and low class, barbarian origins. The second case study is a far less well-known pair of portraits excavated at the Roman villa of Lullingstone, south of London, which became the object of a highly unusual domestic cult in late antiquity. These case studies are used to argue that the heavy reliance on iconography and literary sources required to interpret portraits lacking archaeological context is less reliable and less informative than interpretations derived from a combination of iconography and archaeology.

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