Caričin Grad and the Changes in the Nature of Urbanism in the Central Balkans in the Sixth Century

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. BAVANT
Keyword(s):  
Residential Area ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Floor Level ◽  
Ground Floor ◽  
Timber Frame ◽  
Original Plan ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
The Church ◽  
Early Byzantine

Caričin Grad (Justiniana Prima) is an ideal site for studying urbanism in the early Byzantine period. Amongst the numerous early Byzantine sites in the central Balkans, Caričin Grad is one of the very few that was a city and was founded in the sixth century. Its fortifications include three separate walled areas (the Acropolis, the Upper City, and the Lower City). Contrary to the traditional view, this chapter argues that the walls of the Acropolis were not part of the original plan and that the Upper and Lower Cities were established at the same time. The Church and the army occupied more than two-thirds of the Upper City and the Lower Town contained mainly public buildings. The only known intramural residential area lies in the south-west corner of the Lower City. Houses here were built of stone bonded with clay at ground-floor level, and the upper floor was constructed with a timber frame and cob walls and had tile roofs. It is also very likely that there was an extramural population, protected by a ditch and palisades.

scholarly journals The Early Byzantine and Khazar Periods in the Evolution of the Towns on the Inner Mountain Ridge in the Crimea

2021 ◽  
pp. 475-497
Author(s):  
Alexander I. Aibabin
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Mountain Ridge ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Crimea ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
The One ◽  
Early Byzantine

From the large-scale archaeological researches of individual urban centres located on the Inner Mountain Ridge of the Crimea, atop of the plateaus of Mangup, Eski-Kermen, and Bakla, there are enough reasons to identify and reconstruct the Early Byzantine and Khazar Periods in the evolution of these towns. The analysis of written sources and materials of archaeological excavations allows the one to substantiate the chronology of the two initial periods in the history of the evolution of the towns located on the Inner Mountain Ridge as: 1 – Early Byzantine, from 582 AD to the early eighth century; 2 – Khazar, from the early eighth century to 841 AD. In the early sixth century, there was the only oppidum or civitatium Dory known in the region in question. Obviously, its fortifications were built by the Goths living atop of the plateau of Mangup from the mid-third century on. In the Early Byzantine Period, in the late sixth century, when the region of Dory was incorporated into the Empire’s borderland province, military engineers realised the state-sponsored program and constructed fortifications and a church in the castle (κάστρον) of Δόροϛ and fortified towns of various types (πόλισμα) atop of the mountains of Eski-Kermen and Bakla. Although the engineers immediately planned and constructed fortifications, access roads, gates, sally ports, a church, streets, and other objects on a greater part of the uninhabited plateau of Eski-Kermen, only the citadel was built on the already inhabited terrace of the plateau of Bakla. In the Khazar Period, Δόροϛ kept the status of the capital of Gothia and the bishop’s see. At Eski-Kermen there probably was an archon supervising the building of the town according to a single plan, while at Bakla there appeared suburban area covered by residential houses. The archontes of the towns located atop of Eski-Kermen and Bakla were civil and church governors of the klimata, just as their predecessors had done earlier.

A Theotokos lamp from Antioch in the Hatay Archaeology Museum (southeastern Turkey)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ergun Lafli ◽  
Maurizio Buora
Keyword(s):  
Sixth Century ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
Specific Formula ◽  
Early Byzantine

During the early Byzantine period numerous objects with sacred inscriptions became souvenirs in the hands of pilgrims, returning to their homes. Particularly in Jerusalem - or in Syria - were made terracotta oil lamps with a specific formula of blessing. It mentions both the Blessed Virgin as “Theotokos” and a certain John, who we do not know whether he was a saint or the manufacturer of these lamps. The archaeological museum of Hatay in southeastern Turkey preserves a lamp of this type, probably dating to the sixth century AD or shortly afterwards

Secular Architecture: Domestic

2021 ◽  
pp. 350-362
Author(s):  
Carolyn S. Snively
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Industrial Products ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
Early Byzantine ◽  
Courtyard House

Byzantine domestic housing of the fourth–fifteenth centuries is preserved predominantly in the Balkans and Asia Minor. Peristyle houses dominate in the Early Byzantine period and continue later: their construction and decoration, subdivision, and disappearance in the sixth century have been studied. The Middle Byzantine courtyard house was a typically urban form, centrally located in towns with Classical predecessors; it provided privacy for the residents who may have been merchants dealing in agricultural or industrial products. Most people in the Byzantine period, however, probably lived in variations of the “longhouse,” in agriculturally based small towns and villages, where they shared living quarters with livestock. Houses in Late Byzantine/Frankish centers such as Mystras were large and elaborate longhouses in an urban setting.

scholarly journals Turbulent Ethnopolitical Processes in the Eastern Taurica in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-89
Author(s):  
Viktor N. Zin’ko ◽  
Alexey V., Zin’ko
Keyword(s):  
Seventh Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Urban Buildings ◽  
Seasonal Migrations ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
Scanty Information ◽  
The One ◽  
Early Byzantine

This paper presents the results of archaeological researches allowing the one to reconstruct ethnopolitical processes in the eastern Taurica in the sixth and seventh centuries. By the sixth century, the eastern Crimean steppes were depopulated and used for seasonal migrations of the Hunnic tribes. The Byzantine Empire made a significant influence on the ethnopolitical processes in the Bosporos in the sixth and seventh centuries when annexed this country in 527/528. Archaeological researches supply scanty information about the urban buildings of the Bosporan capital in the sixth century. Alternative archaeological situation developed with the preserved Early Byzantine layers of the Bosporan town of Tyritake, where continuous many-year-long archaeological research uncovered large areas. According to the archaeological materials and a few epigraphic finds, Bosporan Greeks constituted the overwhelming majority of the population of Tyritake in the sixth century as before, being mostly the persons of moderate means, engaged in fishing and agricultural production, crafts and petty trade. After the raid of the Turks in 576, Bosporos and Tyritake declined, with only isolated residential houses reconstructed in certain areas in these towns; these houses lived to the third quarter of the seventh century when they were burned down by the Khazars. Bosporos constantly experienced the pressure from nomadic hordes, which, over the centuries, moved here and there, replacing each other, along the great tract of the steppes. The turbulence of ethnopolitical processes in the Eastern Taurica especially intensified in the Early Byzantine Period. Following the Khazar devastation, all the Bosporan settlements were depopulated, and the insignificant remnants of the former population concentrated in the fire-ravaged town of Bosporos, which for centuries became an out-of-the-way provincial town forming a part of different polities.

Book Burning as Purification in Early Byzantium

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Herrin
Keyword(s):  
Sixth Century ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
State Office ◽  
The Status ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Early Byzantine ◽  
Ancient Texts

This chapter examines book burning as a form of purification, designed to protect readers and listeners from inaccurate or downright misleading material, during the early Byzantine period. Throughout the fourth and fifth centuries, when Christianity was struggling to define its theology more closely, every official condemnation was followed by ritual destruction. Decades after the decree of AD 528 that barred pagans from state office, Justinian ordered a persecution of surviving Hellenes, accompanied by the burning of pagan books, pictures, and statues. In the mid-sixth century, active persecution in Constantinople probably destroyed many ancient texts. The chapter considers two canons, issued by the Council in Trullo in AD 692, that shed light on book burning and destruction, purification, and the status of written texts in early Byzantium.

scholarly journals Obsidian and Obsidian-like Glass Tesserae: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Study the Dedication Wall Mosaic in the Church of St. Mary of the Admiral in Palermo (12th Century)

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 403-416
Author(s):  
Valentina Cantone ◽  
Rita Deiana ◽  
Alberta Silvestri ◽  
Ivana Angelini
Keyword(s):  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Multispectral Imaging ◽  
Volcanic Glass ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Multidisciplinary Study ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Challenging Research ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
Dark Glass ◽  
The Church

AbstractPliny the Elder testifies that roman workshops used volcanic glass (obsidian), but also produced and used a dark glass (obsidian-like glass) quite similar to the natural one. In the context of the study on medieval mosaics, the use of the obsidian and obsidian-like tesserae is a challenging research topic. In this paper, we present the results of a multidisciplinary study carried out on the Dedication wall mosaic, realized by a byzantine workshop in the 12th century in the Church of St. Mary of the Admiral in Palermo, and where numerous black-appearing tesserae, supposed to be composed of obsidian by naked-eyes observation, are present. Historical documents, multispectral imaging of the wall mosaic, and some analytical methods (SEM-EDS and XRPD) applied to a sample of black tesserae, concur in identifying here the presence of obsidian and different obsidian-like glass tesserae. This evidence, although related to the apparent tampering and restoration, could open a new scenario in the use of obsidian and obsidian-like glass tesserae during the Byzantine period in Sicily and in the reconstruction of multiple restoration phases carried out between 12th and 20th century AD on the mosaics of St. Mary of the Admiral.

Transformation of legal language – Early Byzantine legal discourse

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaakko Husa
Keyword(s):  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Legal Culture ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Early Byzantine

AbstractThis article examines the complicated legal-cultural process in which Roman law became Byzantine law and Roman legal discourse altered into Byzantine legal discourse. Roman law’s transformation into Early Byzantine law is analysed from the point of view of legal language which mutated from Latin to Greek. The approach is legal cultural and legal linguistic and focuses on the overall shape and general patterns. The goal is to highlight how legal-cultural transformation was incremental, language-bound and that there was no radical or sudden culmination point. Moreover, the analysis answers generally to the question of why sixth-century Byzantine legislative Greek contained frequent Latin loans, expressions, phrases and distortions. The discussion concentrates on the Novellae as an integral part of the process of legal cultural and linguistic change from Roman to Byzantine. Instead of going into detailed linguistic analysis, this article underlines generally the contextuality of law and the importance of legal culture

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