The Maghrib and the Medieval Mediterranean

According to traditional medieval histories—those that focus on the European West as a distinct civilization from North Africa and the Middle East—the advent of Islam in the 7th century was the final blow to the hope of a restored Rome, one that split the Mediterranean in two. In this version of the past, the Muslim conquests of the 7th century permanently divided Islamic North Africa and the Maghrib from the culture, society, and thinking of Christian Western Europe. In fact, the Maghrib was a major port of the culture, architecture, society, religious development, commerce, and politics of a common, medieval western Mediterranean zone. It is true that Christian and Muslim dynasties and states on both sides of the Mediterranean regularly saw themselves as enemies and rivals. The dogmatic and violent use of religion to justify enslavement, forced conversion, and conquest was common practice throughout this period. It is also true, however, that infidel Christian kings and unholy Muslim warriors formed alliances with one another, both across the sea and across faiths.1 The existence of a “convenient enemy” was often used as a means of gaining political or military advantage within Muslim or Christian lands. Popes and kings signed agreements with Muslim caliphs and Muslim sultans sought protection of Christian kings. In addition to high-level political alliances, ties between the Maghrib and Western Europe ran deep through the medieval economy. Commerce and business partnerships prospered and the 12th-century Commercial Renaissance lifted all boats. Christian, Muslim, and Jewish merchants took advantage of flows of trade and gold from Africa to the Mediterranean and into Europe. Dreams of conversion fostered unintended cultural interactions and exchanges, as was the case with the Franciscans and Christian mercenaries who journeyed deep into the Maghrib during this period. More than religion or politics, common artistic and architectural styles make perhaps the most compelling argument for a common, trans-Mediterranean culture.

Iberian inscriptions in Sahara Desert rocks (Ti-m Missaou, Ahaggar Mts. area, Algeria): first evidence of incise Iberian rock scripts in continental North Africa

In the present paper, we show Iberian or Iberian-Guanche scripts found in the Middle of Sahara Desert, Ti-m Missaou (Tim Missao, Tim Missaw), 270 km SouthWest of Tamanrasset on Ahaggar or Hoggar Mountains (Mts.) area (Algeria). More Iberian scripts may be earthed beneath Sahara Desert sands or have been neglected by observers. We also put forward that Iberian semi-syllabary may have its origin in the Neolithic Saharo-Canarian Circle, the same as other Mediterranean, Atlantic and European lineal scripts (apart from Berber/Tuareg) like Etruscan, Runes, Old Italian languages, Minoan Lineal A, Sitovo and Gradeshnitsa (Bulgaria) writings (6,000 yearsBC) and others. In fact, Strabo wrote that Iberians had written language before since 6,000 BC. On the other hand, Sahara Desert was green and populated since before 5,000 years BC and we had proposed that most of Mediterranean culture, languages and writing, had a Saharan origin. Ti-m Missaou Sahara Iberian inscriptions, together with our previous and others researches on Canary Islands, further support this proposal, i.e.: rock scripts, Gimbutas-like Paleolithic figurines and unusual artifacts, like a lunisolar Egyptian-like calendar (“Cheeseboard/Quesera” at Lanzarote) carved in a Megalithic stone, do no support that Phoenicians and Romans carried Canarian ancient Guanche culture. Finally, a continuous lineal writing systems developing seems to have occurred during Paleolithic and Neolithic Epochs, which also harbor the related incise Lineal Megalithic Scripts that could have given rise to Iberian development and other lineal African, European and Mediterranean lineal language scripts. Our present new data is interpreted in the context of the Sahara people migration which occurred when hyperarid conditions started establishing about 6,000 years BC. Keywords: Iberian, Iberian-Guanche, Scripts, Canary Islands, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Prehistory, Saharo-Canarian Circle, Genetics, Megaliths, Iberia, Sahara, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Lineal Scripts, Neolithic, Tamanrasset, Hoggar, Ahaggar, Usko-Mediterranean,Etruscan, Tuareg, Berber, Lineal A.

Iberian inscriptions in Sahara Desert rocks (Ti-m Missaou, Ahaggar Mts. area, Algeria): first evidence of incise Iberian rock scripts in continental North Africa

In the present paper, we show Iberian or Iberian-Guanche scripts found in the Middle of Sahara Desert, Ti-m Missaou (Tim Missao, Tim Missaw), 270 km SouthWest of Tamanrasset on Ahaggar or Hoggar Mountains (Mts.) area (Algeria). More Iberian scripts may be earthed beneath Sahara Desert sands or have been neglected by observers. We also put forward that Iberian semi-syllabary may have its origin in the Neolithic Saharo-Canarian Circle, the same as other Mediterranean, Atlantic and European lineal scripts (apart from Berber/Tuareg) like Etruscan, Runes, Old Italian languages, Minoan Lineal A, Sitovo and Gradeshnitsa (Bulgaria) writings (6,000 yearsBC) and others. In fact, Strabo wrote that Iberians had written language before since 6,000 BC. On the other hand, Sahara Desert was green and populated since before 5,000 years BC and we had proposed that most of Mediterranean culture, languages and writing, had a Saharan origin. Ti-m Missaou Sahara Iberian inscriptions, together with our previous and others researches on Canary Islands, further support this proposal, i.e.: rock scripts, Gimbutas-like Paleolithic figurines and unusual artifacts, like a lunisolar Egyptian-like calendar (“Cheeseboard/Quesera” at Lanzarote) carved in a Megalithic stone, do no support that Phoenicians and Romans carried Canarian ancient Guanche culture. Finally, a continuous lineal writing systems developing seems to have occurred during Paleolithic and Neolithic Epochs, which also harbor the related incise Lineal Megalithic Scripts that could have given rise to Iberian development and other lineal African, European and Mediterranean lineal language scripts. Our present new data is interpreted in the context of the Sahara people migration which occurred when hyperarid conditions started establishing about 6,000 years BC. Keywords: Iberian, Iberian-Guanche, Scripts, Canary Islands, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Prehistory, Saharo-Canarian Circle, Genetics, Megaliths, Iberia, Sahara, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Lineal Scripts, Neolithic, Tamanrasset, Hoggar, Ahaggar, Usko-Mediterranean,Etruscan, Tuareg, Berber, Lineal A.

The Influence of Mediterranean Culture on Polish Cuisine in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era

The article explores the Mediterranean influences on Polish cuisine in the centuries that followed the adoption of Christianity at the end of the 10th cen­tury. This memorable act brought Poland into the circle of Western culture anchored in the Greco-Roman tradition, which also heavily impacted the eve­ryday life of representatives of all strata of Polish society. The author draws attention to the variety of such contact, which includes the journeys of cler­gymen, diplomatic missions, and trips of young people to universities. Trade and economic exchange, as well as the activity of Italian merchants and crafts­men on the Vistula, also had a strong bearing on the refashioning of the culi­nary culture. The breakthrough moment was the arrival in Krakow in 1518 of Bona Sforza—who became the wife of the Polish king Sigismund I—and her many courtiers.

Screendance Narratives from around the Mediterranean Sea

The European Mediterranean appears to be an active key player for the production and circulation of screendance. Focusing this research on the pre-pandemic state of screendance in Italy, France, Greece and Spain and employing a methodology of one-to-one interviews, this text examines the art policies that have been in place for potentially supporting the production of screendance, the ways that spectatorship and social engagement kept on growing and the predictions for the yet-to-come evolution of the form in a context disassociated from, yet applicable to the on-going pandemic. Although screendance is understood differently among the interviewees – curators of major festivals such as DAN. CIN. LAB., Festival International De Vidéo Danse De Bourgogne, COORPI/La Danza in 1 minuto, Cinematica Festival, Stories We Dance International Videodance Contest, Choreoscope - The International Dance Film Festival of Barcelona and the formerly known Athens Video Dance Project – International Dance Film Festival – the aim of this research is to create knowledge regarding the heterogeneous landscape of screendance in the European Mediterranean as well as a broader understanding of the shifting Mediterranean culture.

Daughters in the Deuterocanonical Books of the Old Testament

The instances where daughters are mentioned in the Greek books of the Old Testament are not numerous. They are interesting, however, and deserving of exegesis and interpretation. In Tobit and Ben Sira their relationship to fathers are stressed and this aspect is of importance, whether those relationships are good or strained. If the texts are compared with the Hebrew Bible, more light is thrown on the personalities of the daughters, and they are valued more highly. Some influence of the Greek civilization can be presupposed here. A link with the Mediterranean culture of honor and shame can also be traced, especially in Ben Sira.

The Mediterranean culture of fishing: Continuity and change in the world of Jewish fishermen, 1500–1929

This essay discusses the maritime Jews and their changing role in the fishing occupation in the Mediterranean sea. The first part presents the trends in historiography regarding the Thessalonikian Jewish fishermen in Ottoman and Post Ottoman periods. The second section explores the maritime world of Jewish fishermen in Ottoman Thessaloniki between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries. We will establish the cultural identity of the Jewish fishermen, which expressed itself in Thermaikos Bay. The third part depicts the reasons for the collapse of the Jewish sea tenure in Greek Thessaloniki, especially between the years 1922-1924, and continues to describe one of the responses; the settlement of several fishing families in Acre (in Mandatory Palestine). Their experience in the new environment was short (1925-1929) and we will investigate the linkage between their cultural marginality in the core society to the failure of forming a Jewish maritime community in Acre.

„Epifanie w końcu muszą mieć jakiś sens”. Wokół ironii Juliusza Słowackiego i Zbigniewa Herberta

The article is devoted to irony as one of the common interpretative denominators of the works of Juliusz Słowacki and Zbigniew Herbert. Taking into account the fact that at least several types of irony are distinguished in literary studies (an elementary division includes rhetorical irony, socratic irony, and romantic irony), the author focuses on the linguistic element(s) of irony. The author sets out various functions of irony in Słowacki and Herbert, and with this procedure — presents the attitude of both poets to the heritage of Mediterranean culture as the eternal source of existential dilemmas. As the starting material for analysis and interpretation, two texts were used — Słowacki’s digression poem Podróż do Ziemi Świętej z Neapolu (read in the context of the genre) and a collec-tion of Herbert’s short narrative forms, Król mrówek.

Effect of Religious and Cultural Information of Olive Oil on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from Japan

The olive tree and oil are iconic in the Mediterranean culture and religions, and producers incorporate those associations into the packaging of olive oil products they distribute regionally. This study examines the impact of religious and cultural information about olive oil on consumer behavior. A choice experiment was conducted to survey Japanese consumers’ willingness to pay for olive oil products. Results show that consumers respond with varying degrees of favor to the characteristic of “produced in pilgrimage destination,” but if cultural and religious information related to olive is provided, their willingness to pay increases 6.7 times. Measurements of cross-effects show that consumers that are more educated respond favorably to cultural and religious imagery, whereas older consumers and those with more children respond less favorably. Empirical results imply those regional religious and cultural allusions could be used to differentiate and promote olive oil products in a culturally distinct market.