Unity from disunity: law,rhetoric and power in the Visigothic kingdom

This paper explores the relationship between the ‘Church’ and the ‘State’ in the Visigothic kingdom of sixth- and seventh-century Spain. The authors examine the copious legal material from this period – both church council records and royal legislation – to see what it reveals about the significant degree of interpenetration of the two spheres. For example, the royal laws gave bishops an important role in the supervision of judges, while a church council could not be called without the permission of the king, who often attended along with his officials and set the agenda for the meetings. There has been significant debate on this issue over the past two centuries, and the authors' analysis will be situated accordingly. The extent to which the Visigothic evidence emerges out of late Roman practices and precedents or is independent of it will also be addressed.     

Urban geo-archaeology in medieval alzira (Prov. Valencia,Spain)

Alzira is situated in a cut-off meander loop of the Rio Júcar. Geo-archaeological study shows that the Islamic city wall was built during the second quarter of the 11th century AD, at a time when the river had a low-amplitude and low-energy flood regime. After mid-century, overbank silts began to invade the city as peak flood discharge increased, with a spate of destructive floods reflected by high-energy deposits during the late 11th century. Urban expansion within the city wall is dated to the later 11th or early 12th century, interrupted by local abandonment and moderate-energy flood silts. Major construction during the mid-12th century was followed by protracted abandonment (after a siege in AD 1171?) and further, moderate-energy flood silts that redistributed occupation and collapse debris. Reoccupation, during the late 14th century, was terminated by catastrophic floods in 1517 and 1571, after which much of the western end of Alzira was not rebuilt. Following further flood catastrophes during the 17th century, parts of the central walled city remained abandoned until the 19th century. with new occupation atop flood sands of yet another disaster in 1864. The change in flood regime after 1150 was a result of deforestation of the watershed, but progradation of a downstream tributary fan after 1517 created an unstable, aggrading floodplain increasingly prone to severe flooding. Climatic anomalies were responsible for periods of recurrent severe floods, archaeologically verified during the 11th and 12th centuries, and historically documented, beginning in 1318. The geo-archaeological methodology illuminates the constructional and settlement history of Alzira, allows distinction of fluvial and cultural components, and provides the necessary microstratigraphic detail and dating control to document the true complexity of alluvial processes during the last 1000 years.     

A 13th-Century Shipyard at Alanya (Alaiyye), on the Mediterranean Coast of Turkey

Anatolian Seljuks, a territorially-powerful medieval government, held their fleet at bases on the Black Sea and Mediterranean coasts, and constructed permanent stone buildings to protect their navy. Although most of these buildings have disappeared, 13th-century defended shipyard buildings have survived at Alanya, on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. These buildings are not only important architecturally, but can give clues to the types of warships used by the Anatolian Seljuk navy, of which little is known. The dimensions of the shipsheds help us to analyse the construction of these naval vessels.
© 2009 The Author     

Limits to interpretation of skeletal trauma — Two case studies from Medieval Abingdon,England

Two adult male skeletons from the Medieval lay cemetery at Abingdon show multiple trauma to the upper limbs and torso. Although this in itself is not uncommon in this cemetery the two skeletons in question stand out by virtue of the near-identical distribution of their injuries. The skeletons are used as examples to discuss the difficulties facing the palaeopathologist in deciding whether to attribute particular examples of trauma to violence. This is particularly relevant to Abingdon, where at least one major episode of civil conflict is documented historically. It was concluded that although the number of skeletons displaying signs of trauma may show the level of violence and high-risk occupations in a society, skeletal evidence rarely can distinguish between the two in individual cases.     

A Possible Case of Hydrocephalus in a Medieval Child from Doonbought Fort,Co. Antrim,Northern Ireland

Hydrocephalus is a condition that is rarely found in the palaeopathological record. It has been demonstrated in a modern study of untreated cases of hydrocephalus that 50 per cent of children suffering from the disease die within the first 18 months of life. It is probable that the situation was the same in archaeological populations and that the delicate nature of neonatal and infant crania accounts for the paucity of palaeopathological evidence. As far as the author is aware there are approximately 30 possible cases of hydrocephalus known in the archaeological record throughout the world and only two of these cases originated in the British Isles. The following report presents evidence of a case of possible hydrocephalus in a 6–7-year-old juvenile from Northern Ireland. The skeleton was recovered from a post-thirteenth century context during excavations at the secular medieval fort of Doonbought, Co. Antrim. The diagnosis of hydrocephalus has been made on the basis of the abnormal and enlarged morphology and increased cranial capacity of the cranium. The only other palaeopathological lesion present in the remains was cribra orbitalia.     

The consilience of historical and isotopic approaches in reconstructing the medieval Mediterranean diet

During the Middle Ages, the economies of Europe, the religious directives involving dietary requirements, and the general human subsistence base were transformed. These complicated and intertwined issues are starkly revealed in an isotopic study of two inland Italian human populations that are separated by approximately 850 years in time. Stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotopic values observed in human dentin and bone collagen from the sites of early medieval Castro dei Volsci and late medieval Rome are consistent with diets that differed substantially. As the North Atlantic opened to fishing and food preservations methods improved, Mediterranean peoples increased their fish consumption dramatically, and in doing so, met the religious directives of the Catholic Church. By analyzing both teeth and bone collagen within individuals, long-term feeding behaviors are documented, and the utility of last erupted teeth collagen as sources of adult dietary information is established. This study offers the first physical evidence of this new economic reality linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean economies at the end of the Middle Ages.     

Age-dependent cortical bone loss in a medieval population

Age-dependent cortical bone loss was studied in a skeletal assemblage from a British medieval site using metacarpal radiogrammetry. Significant loss of bone was found in the females but not in the males. The magnitude of bone loss in the older females relative to their younger counterparts was found to be similar to that reported for modern European subjects. Low cortical bone was associated with healed fractures of the highly trabecular bone of the axial skeleton, and this observation is suggestive that weakening of the skeleton due to loss of bone substance precipitated such fractures, as it does in modern Western women. The broad similarities between the medieval and modern data may call into question the importance of lifestyle factors in influencing the severity of osteoporosis, at least as far as loss of cortical bone is concerned.