Monetary Practices in Early Medieval Western Scandinavia (5th–10th Centuries ad)

A SOCIAL APPROACH TO MONETISATION shifts the attention from the classic money media — gold and silver — to the dissemination of two social practices: valuing and paying. When these two monetary practices first became widespread in western Scandinavia during the gold rich migration period (in the 5th to 6th centuries ad), they were not introduced in the sphere of trade, but instead were features of traditional or customary payments, such as weregeld (atonements for murder or offences against the person) or marriage dowries. By the Viking Age, in the late 8th to 10th centuries ad, despite flourishing commodity production, precious metals were used as payment in trade solely in towns. Even in towns, this commercial use seems to have been adopted late, and was employed only occasionally. This paper reviews the changing approaches to money and monetisation, and draws attention to the potential for regarding monetisation as the spread of a set of social practices.     

Criminalization of Homicide in Early Modern Denmark (16th–17th Centuries)

This article explores the criminalization of homicide in early modern Denmark, 16th–17th centuries. Criminalization is here defined, primarily, as the harshening of penalties for homicide in law and practice. The article shows that a process of criminalization took place that contributed to a pacification of the population (demonstrated by a decrease in homicides) but also engendered practices of resistance and evasion which were reminiscent of a medieval feud culture. The attitude towards homicide was for a long time ambivalent, not just among the lower classes but at all levels of society. Criminalization and pacification were mainly products of state-building through harsher punishment and the formation of a more reliable legal system. This top-down process meshed with the broader population’s demands for justice and security.     

Paleopathology of The Population of Krasnoyarsk,Central Siberia (Pokrovskiy and Voskresensko-Preobrazhenskiy Cemeteries of the 17th– Early 20th Centuries)

Published data on the paleopathology of Siberian populations are scarce. However, two samples of adult and non- adult skeletons taken from excavations at the Pokrovskiy (17th–18th centuries) and Voskresensko-Preobrazhenskiy (17th–early 20th century) cemeteries in Krasnoyarsk (123 and 204; 101 and 81, respectively) revealed cases of rickets, tuberculosis, and congenital syphilis in children, and vertebral tuberculosis and tertiary syphilis in adults. Trauma areas included ribs, hands, forearms, and tibiae. These two samples provide evidence on which to base an assessment of the health of the Krasnoyarsk population from 1628 to the early 1900s.     

Chinese Objects in Eurasian Empire: On the Cultural Meaning of Chinese Art in Russia in the Late 17th–Early 18th Centuries

This article examines special features of “Chinoiserie” or “Chinese fashion” (“Kitaischina”) in Russia from the late 17th to the early 18th century: The reign of Peter the First. It discusses this cultural phenomenon’s historical origins, demonstrates the role of Chinese luxury goods and art objects in the era’s Russo-Chinese cultural exchange, and illustrates how Chinese decorative arts were used in Russian palaces. While Chinoiserie in Russia was influenced by similar trends in Western Europe, it was rooted in the unique history of regular contacts between Russia and the Qing Empire. Chinese objects not only appeared as commodities in the higher levels of Russian society, they also contributed to the prestige of the Russian state. Peter the First had a political purpose behind the collection, display and imitation of Chinese art objects in Russian palaces, as these practices demonstrated the growing wealth and power of newly established Russian Empire, which enjoyed trade connections with the Qing Empire. While contemporary perceptions of China in Russia were derived mostly by the exotic images of export art, ethnographic collections of genuine Chinese utensils, which were founded during that period, also contributed to Russian views of China. This research uses a comprehensive methodology, combining studies of material objects preserved in Russian museums and written sources, including archival records.     

Early Middle Ages Houses of Gien (France) from the Inside: Geoarchaeology and Archaeobotany of 9th–11th c. Floors

ABSTRACT

At Gien (France), indoor floors from early Middle Ages occupation (8th–10th c. AD) are very well preserved, providing a new reference for archaeological investigation in northern France. This site is located on an outcrop, 20 m above the Loire valley, where a 15th c. castle stands now. The medieval occupation combines high-status houses with crafting and agricultural areas. They constitute a new urban nucleus, which grew 2?km east from an ancient Roman settlement. During the rescue excavation, four buildings of different status were sampled and studied using an integrated approach, combining stratigraphy, micromorphology, chemical, macro-remain and phytolith analyses. Micromorphological investigations helped to identify 74 built floors, from 0.5 to 150?mm thick, made with transformed local clay or imported silty earth. Mineral floors were covered by vegetal ones, consisting of crop processing refuse. These litters include an abundance of phytoliths and some seeds, both produced by cultivated cereals, which were processed in situ, such as Triticum durum, Secale cereale and Hordeum vulgare. The refuse above the mineral and vegetal floors were trampled. They were produced not only by domestic activities, such as cooking and eating, but also by metallurgic activities and animal husbandry. The investigation of a contemporary pit indicated that, despite the large amount of refuse, floors were well maintained and regularly rebuilt. The spatial distribution of waste indicated that a single space could be dedicated to several activities, which were not necessarily separated by new floors. Moreover, the total absence of bioturbation allowed the study of a stage of dark earth formation, by comparing it to the contemporaneous mechanical disturbance of a part of the strata which occurred when building new floors. All these results give new evidence of the richness and the complexity of the early Middle Ages town, in addition to help identifying the activities which could take place in early castral areas.     

An archaeometric study of the bulk and surface weathering characteristics of Early Medieval (5th–7th century) glass from the Po valley,northern Italy

Compositional and structural characterisation was carried out on Early Medieval (5th–7th century) fragments of glass goblets excavated from the archaeological sites of Monte Barro, Brescia and Monselice (northern Italy) with the aim of identifying raw materials, glass-working techniques, and surface weathering characteristics. Optical analyses and X-ray spectrometry were used for bulk, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning and transmission electron microscopy for surfaces. The samples of each area were produced using siliceous–lime sands, with natron as flux. The differences observed in chemical composition allow to subdivide the samples from Monte Barro and Brescia from those of Monselice, the latter generally show higher silicon, calcium and aluminium and lower sodium contents than the others. By plotting reduced base glass compositions in soda–lime silica phase diagrams, melting temperatures varying from 900 °C for Monte Barro and Brescia samples to 1000 °C and more for those from Monselice were estimated. Differing Fe₂O₃, Sb₂O₅and MnO₂contents are related to the different colours of the samples, Monselice samples being blue–green and Monte Barro and Brescia samples green and yellow–green. The chemical differences may be interpreted as related to different provenance and/or glass-working techniques. Surfaces are depleted in alkaline and alkaline-earth elements due to weathering process. Alteration lamellae show a nanostructure, similar to that of opal.     

Consumption Strategies and Social Implications in Two Danish Towns in the 13th–16th Centuries

THIS ARTICLE PRESENTS a new contextual model to study the social implications of consumption strategies in an archaeological context. The model can be used to establish a baseline of consumption, against which other consumption strategies can be measured. By analysing and comparing finds from two different urban locations in medieval Denmark, we examine how these urban environments facilitated different consumption strategies, and how these strategies changed over time. We also discuss how the archaeological record can contribute to analysing the negotiation of social identities through consumption patterns and consumer choices as reflected in artefact assemblages. The analysis demonstrates that consumption strategies depend on and are related to the characteristics and social complexity of the town in terms of demographics and networks.     

Plant Based Subsistence Strategy of the Medieval Ishmaelite (12th–13th c.) Population in the Carpathian Basin (NE-Hungary)

During the excavation carried out at the outskirts of Hajdúböszörmény (NE-Hungary) in 2011, the remains of a 12–13th century settlement were brought to light. Linguistic and historical research has previously presumed that one of the main centres of medieval Hungary’s Muslim (Ishmaelites) population is located in the northern-eastern part of the Great Hungarian Plain. At Hajdúböszörmény–Téglagyár ‘2’ archaeological site several household units were systematically sampled for archaeobotanical analysis. The recovered ceramics differ from the known ceramic production of the Árpád Age, whereas significant differences were detected in the zooarchaeological assemblage, too. The archaeobotanical record, representing 23 features, consists of 2679 items of charred macro-botanical remains that belong to 54 taxa. The record is predominated by the presence of cereals among which rye (Secale cereale L. subsp. cereale) and common barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) are the most frequent. Besides the dominance of cereals, pulses and vegetables, as well as gathered fruit remains were identified. By the comparison of results to other Árpád Age sites, we assume that the revealed ethno-archaeobotanical information identifies a population that used similar plant resources, but in a different way and strategy than the known Christian population of the Carpathian Basin.     

From First Reich to Third Reich: German Imperialism and Early Medieval Scholarship in the Southeastern Alpine Region (c. 1919–1945)

This article explores how the early medieval past was used to justify Germanic political and cultural hegemony across East Central Europe during the first half of the 20th century. It highlights the ways in which medieval historians and archaeologists contributed to, and were influenced by, the program of ??Ostforschung?? (Eastern Research). A close reading of the work of two prominent German archaeologists during the interwar and National Socialist periods suggests that their conception of the early medieval eastern Alps was not only influenced by national chauvinism, but also reveals striking parallels with Western imperial ideologies typical of overseas colonial contexts.     

Between Medieval Continuities and Early Modern Change: Proto-industrialization and Consumption in the Southern Low Countries (1300–1800)

Abstract

This essay discusses two interrelated questions about historical change: in what sense did early modern industries differ from their medieval predecessors; and which elements explain the diverging historical dynamics of European proto-industrial regions? Also considered is the issue of how and why some regions succeeded in selling their products in growing markets, while others apparently failed. This essay also assesses four aspects which have influenced regional success or failure, and which at the same time differentiated seventeenth- and eighteenth-century production and consumption from the late medieval world: the new role of the state, the world economy, rural consumption, and the challenge of fashion. It examines the main changes occurring in these fields between roughly 1650 and 1800, distinguishing between different phases of development for different regions and arguing that some of the success or the failure of a region, and thus their developmental capacities, lay in the interaction with these four fields. Textile industries serve as case studies, with a focus on the Southern Netherlands and comparisons from France, the Dutch Republic, Germany and England.     

Filling a Gap in the Ife–Benin Interaction Field (Thirteenth–Sixteenth Centuries AD): Excavations in Iloyi Settlement, Ijesaland

Previous archaeological studies have indicated that the Yoruba polity of Ile–Ife and the Edo polity of Benin, both in southwest Nigeria, belonged to the same sphere of sociocultural interactions before the nineteenth century AD. The spatial and temporal dimensions of this interaction sphere have not, however, been understood, because the archaeological sequences of the areas between the two polities are largely unknown. One of these intervening areas is Ijesaland. The excavations conducted in Iloyi settlement, northern Ijesaland, provide a new set of data that not only fills a gap in the Ife–Benin interaction sphere but also offers new perspectives on the process of material culture homogenization in the Yoruba–Edo region during the first half of the second millennium. Calibrated radiocarbon dates show that Iloyi was occupied during the thirteenth–sixteenth centuries AD. Using the stylistic and iconographic characteristics of ceramics and the patterns of burial and sacrificial rituals as evidence, it is demonstrated that Iloyi was a sociopolitical and cultural frontier of Ile–Ife, and that Ijesaland was part of the Ife–Benin cultural corridor. The paper strengthens the earlier suggestions that the development of a kingship institution at Ile–Ife helped to widen the interaction networks in the region, an historical process that culminated in the trend toward regional cultural homogenization between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries.Des études archéologiques antérieures ont indiqué que l'état Yoruba de Ile-Ife et l'état Edo du Benin, les deux dans le sud ouest du Nigeria, appartenaient à la même sphére socio-culturelle avant le dix-neuvième siècle après J.-C. Pourtant, les dimensions spacio-temporelles de cette interaction n'ont pas encore été entièrement comprises, car les séquences archéologiques des régions entre les deux états restent à découvrir. L'une de ces régions est Ijesaland. Les fouilles entreprises à Iloyi, situé au nord de Ijesaland, ont divulgué l'information nouvelle sur la sphére d'interaction entre Ife et Benin ainsi que révélé des nouvelles interprétations du développement de l'homogéneisation de la culture matérielle dans la région de Yoruba-Edo durant la premiére partie du deuxiéme millénaire. Sur la base de tests de carbone, on sait que Iloyi fut occupé de treizième au seizième siècle AD. Les caractéristiques stylistiques et iconographiques de la céramique ainsi que les procédés d'enterrement et les rites de sacrifices laissent à penser que Iloyi était situé à la frontiére socio-politique et culturelle de Ile-Ife et que Ijesaland faisait partie de la zone culturelle de Ife-Benin. Ceci renforce l'hypothése que le développement d'une institution royaliste à Ile-Ife à étendu les réseaux d'interaction de cette région—un processus historique qui culmina avec la tendance à l'homogéneisation régionale culturelle du treizième au seizième siécles.     

Palynology and natural environment in the Pannonian to Holocene sediments of the Early Medieval centre Pohansko near Břeclav (Czech Republic)

Pohansko (Czech Republic) is an important Early Medieval centre of the Great Moravian Empire (9th century AD). The locality has a settlement with archaeological findings from Mesolithic to the modern times.     

Impact of Salmon Fishing on Livelihood and Social Relations Among the Ulchi and the Amur Nanai (Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century)

Drawing on an analysis of literary sources, 1897 Census data, and the author's ?eld materials, the study examines the impact of salmon ?shing on the economic and social structures of the Tungus-Manchu ethnic groups – the Ulchi and Nanai people. Speci?c features of the spawning migration of various species of Paci?c salmon formed the regional basis of livelihoods in the Lower Amur region. These same features determined the economic character and structure of settlements as well as impacting social relations among the Amur Nanai and the Ulchi.