The Safavid-Qizilbash Ecumene and the Formation of the Qizilbash-Alevi Community in the Ottoman Empire,c. 1500–c. 1700

Alevis, the largest religious minority of Turkey, also living in Europe and the Balkans, are distinguished from both Sunnis and Shi?ites by their latitudinarian attitude toward Islamic Law. Conceptualizing this feature as “heterodoxy,” earlier Turkish scholarship sought the roots of Alevi religiosity in Turkish traditions which traced back to Central Asia, on the one hand, and in medieval Anatolian Sufi orders such as the Yasawi, Bektashi, Qalandari, and Wafa?i, on the other. A new line of scholarship has critiqued the earlier conceptualization of Alevis as “heterodox” as well as the assumption of Central Asian connections. In the meantime, the new scholarship too has focused on medieval Anatolian Sufi orders, especially the Bektashi and Wafa?i, as the fountainhead of Alevi tradition. Critically engaging with both scholarships, this paper argues that it was the Safavid-Qizilbash movement in Anatolia, Azerbaijan, and Iran rather than medieval Sufi orders, that gave birth to Alevi religiosity.     

Seeking Horses: Allies,Clients and Exchanges in the Zhou Period (1045–221 BC)

Journal of World Prehistory - Horses and chariots—and the associated technology and expertise—derived from the steppe contributed to the success of the Zhou conquest of the Shang in c....     

Coffin furniture in London c. 1700–1850: the establishment of tradition in the material culture of the grave

SUMMARY: This article explores the development of coffin furniture in 18th- and early 19th-century London through analysis of the styles and motifs of items in contemporary trade catalogues and excavated assemblages. Developments in coffin furniture were compared with styles of headstones and monuments of the same period. This study confirmed and added detail to the disjunction between below- and above-ground funerary material culture, showing that coffin furniture was stylistically distinct from contemporary funerary monuments and developed at a slower rate. It is suggested that this was influenced by the development of undertaking and the mediated relationship between producers and consumers.     

Establishing the Middle Sea: The Late Bronze Age of Mediterranean Europe (1700–900 BC)

Journal of Archaeological Research - The Late Bronze Age (1700–900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe. Here, we provide a comparative survey of the...     

Exploitation of wild mammals in South-west Ethiopia during the Holocene (4000 BC–500 AD): the finds from Moche Borago shelter (Wolayta)

Abstract

The rock shelter of Moche Borago in Wolayta Province, South-west Ethiopia, has provided evidence of human occupation during part of the Holocene. Recovery of more than 30,000 animal bones has allowed reconstruction of the exploitation of animals by humans from the 4th millennium BC until the first half of the 1st millennium AD. It could be demonstrated that humans exploited (mainly for food) a great diversity of mammals, especially bovids, and that there were very few diachronic changes observed in the fauna during the occupation. Remains of domestic animals have not been found, even in the most recent part of this period, suggesting that animal husbandry was a late introduction into this mountainous and isolated part of Ethiopia. The human inhabitants of the shelter appear to have exploited the surrounding environment, using its favourable position at the end of a stepped valley for mass killing of African buffaloes (Syncerus caffer). The rich and diverse environments of Wolayta favoured the development of a specialised society that mastered the exploitation of wild animals throughout much of the Holocene.     

The Development of Ancient States in the Northern Horn of Africa,c. 3000 BC–AD 1000: An Archaeological Outline

Beginning in the 3rd millennium BC, complex societies and states arose in the northern Horn of Africa. This process culminated with the development of the Kingdom of Aksum in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea in the 1st millennium AD. The development of these polities can be outlined in principle on the basis of the archaeological evidence. The process consisted of at least two distinct trajectories to social complexity, indirectly related to each other in the Eritrean–Sudanese lowlands and the Eritrean–Ethiopian highlands, respectively, with a shift in the location of complex societies from the lowlands to the highlands in the early 1st millennium BC. This shift was due to changes in the general pattern of interregional contacts between the regions facing the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean along the Nile Valley, Red Sea and western Arabia from the 4th millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD.     

The business of human trafficking: slaves and money between Western Italy and the House of Islam before the crusades (c.900–c.1100)

ABSTRACT

Before the First Crusade, the maritime cities of Italy imported precious objects from Islamic regions. The question of what they exported in return has long occupied historians. Due to the large economic disparity between Latin Italy and the wealthier House of Islam, human trafficking offered a strong profit opportunity to merchants from Amalfi, Pisa and other ports. This was because the price of a slave in Egypt or North Africa, at around 20 gold dinars, represented a large sum in the silver currency zones of Latin Europe, especially compared to low prices in Italy. Even moderate numbers of trafficked humans may therefore have provided the capital for further maritime economic expansion. Moreover, slaves offered a commodity with low infrastructure and transportation requirements, unlike bulk agricultural products, as well as unique advantages in market access, which suggests that slave trading preceded investment in other branches of commerce.     

The smelting quarter of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville,Spain): the specialised copper industry in a political centre of the Guadalquivir Valley during the Third millennium BC (2750–2500 BC)

The first specialized copper industry of the Iberian Peninsula was developed at the start of the Third millennium BC with the appearance of mining-metallurgical settlements in its main mining district (the Pyrite Belt of the south-western). Between 2750 and 2500 BC, however, and right at the centre of the Guadalquivir Valley, the great farming settlements that ranked the territory developed a new level of metallurgic intensification with the creation of the first industrial quarters. As a way of explaining this new situation, we present the results of the systematic research (microspatial analysis; radiocarbon dating; petrologic, geochemical, metallographic and isotopic study of minerals, slag and products, …) carried out in one of them, the one developed in the main and largest political centre of the Guadalquivir Valley during the first half of the Third millennium BC: Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain).     

Providence,punishment and identity formation in the late-Stuart Quaker community,c.1650–1700

For centuries, Englishmen and women believed that any misfortune, from the smallest malady to a natural catastrophe, signified divine “justice.” Scholarship on providence and miracles has shown that beliefs in divine intervention were enhanced by the political and religious conflicts of the mid-seventeenth century. This article seeks to refine our understanding of the role of providence in confessional identity formation through an examination of Quaker providential interpretation between 1650 and c.1700. It explores the ways in which Quakers appropriated accounts of divine judgement, circulated them within their community and memorialised them for the benefit of future generations. The discovery of an attempt to create a nationwide record of judgements to befall Quaker persecutors shows that providential stories had a significant role in uniting, and ensuring the survival of a disparate and heavily persecuted religious community.     

Made in China: import,distribution and consumption of Chinese porcelain in Copenhagen c. 1600–1760

Excavations in a refuse dump area in Copenhagen, dated c. 1650–1760, have produced large quantities of Chinese porcelain which reveal considerable consumption of Oriental porcelain in the city, pre-dating the establishment of direct trade with China. The character of the porcelain dated to the first 30 years of the Danish China trade may indicate a socially wider consumption of Chinese porcelain than has been generally assumed. When comparing archaeological and documentary data, a differentiated picture of the import, distribution and consumption of Chinese porcelain in the Danish capital emerges.