MEDIEVAL MERCHANTS’ LETTERS IN NORTHERN EUROPE

This article is concerned with the characteristic features that define medieval merchants’ letters. It explores systematically a collection of merchants’ letters from early 16th-century Finland, the so-called Scheel’s collection, which is unique in medieval northern Europe. Scheel’s letters show surprising conformity. They followed the conventions of letter writing, including their content, form, and style. Scheel’s letters were employed primarily as operative instruments in the organizing and controlling of transactions, reflecting similar functions to other European merchants’ letters. In line with other European correspondences, they also included most of the components of the rules of letter writing.     

浅析中世纪晚期西欧官吏阶层的产生

中世纪晚期西欧人身依附关系逐渐松弛,人们在城市生活中建立起以利益为核心的社会秩序。对构建公共权力的需要促使西欧各国开始通过议会走上建立统一的、中央集权国家的道路。官吏阶层的产生正是这一进程的产物。这些人不同于以往向领主个人效忠的封臣,他们接受过大学教育并领取薪俸,而且担负起由公共权力赋予的事务。官吏阶层在法律秩序的统一、国家公共职能的确立等方面发挥了重要作用,成为西欧社会结构变革的重要组成部分。     

Birds in the medieval culture and economy of the East Slavs in the 10–13th centuries AD

The paper is devoted to a re-examination of the bird remains from the numerous East Slavic settlements (10–13th centuries AD). Species diversity suggests that medieval people in the Eastern Europe used birds for food, falconry, in ritual and, possibly, for aviary specimens and pets. Furthermore, bird feathers were used for preparing arrows. The most popular bird of prey was goshawk. Primary game birds were ducks, geese, swans, common crane and corvids along with black grouse and capercaillie in forest zones. The archaeological data present evidence for the use of wild birds (e.g., hooded crow) in funeral ceremonies for the first time. The majority of the identified birds have not changed their distribution, but in recent times some of these taxa have become rarer. Red-breasted goose is now extant in the area but its remains were found in the medieval layers, although this species could have been an occasional visitor in the Ukraine. Archaeological data and historical sources prove that white stork has lived in the territory of Ukraine since the Middle Ages or even earlier. The most common domestic poultry for the East Slavs was chicken. Domestic ducks and geese were much rarer. Historical documents were also consulted in this study and these also contribute to our understanding of the role of birds in the life of the East Slavs.     

The changing identity of the Central European city: the case of Katowice

The issue of diverse identities imprinted on the urban landscape as the result of political changes and the struggle for power between different social and ethnic groups is analysed here using the example of Katowice, the capital and largest urban centre in Upper Silesia, Poland. Basing their conclusions on systematic investigation of the most important changes and features in the cityscape in five clearly distinct historical periods, the authors explore the conditions and mechanisms of the creation of the city’s symbolic landscape and its links with urban identity. They argue that Katowice represents a peculiar model of urban identity formation in Central and Eastern Europe that has to date not been researched in any depth, in which each successive historical period represents a rupture with the foregoing values and ideas and an attempt to make a new, lasting imprint on the material outlook of the city. The development of such a model of identity is the result of the complex interplay between the city’s changing geopolitical context and its economic and functional development path.     

近代欧洲早期农业革命考察

在17、18世纪之际的“农业革命”发生之前,欧洲农业生产就已出现了许多关键性的技术进步,可把16、17世纪的这种进步称为“早期农业革命”,而14、15世纪则可视为早期农业革命的准备阶段。通过对中世纪欧洲农业的低技术起点,14、15世纪的农业技术进步,16、17世纪的早期农业革命等三方面的考察,我们发现欧洲农业技术进步中的连续性特点远超过其突变性。     

中世纪晚期和近代早期欧洲的寡妇改嫁

在中世纪晚期和近代早期的欧洲 ,寡妇较多 ,她们改嫁的比率较高 ,再嫁者守寡时间较短。历史事实表明 ,寡妇对于是否改嫁的选择 ,不仅仅是个人行为 ,而且受客观条件的制约。当时欧洲较为开放的文化和舆论氛围 ,寡妇自身的财产和处置财产的权利 ,为她们改嫁提供了可能。而传统时代的经济体制和现实生活的艰辛也要求她们重组家庭。     

Touchstones of archaeology

European archaeological collections record hundreds of thousands of stone artefacts from the Early Middle Ages described as whetstones. However, traces of non-ferrous metals, including precious metals preserved on a number of such artefacts. Many of the finds served in fact as touchstones – tools to test the quality of a particular metal. These artefacts are concentrated mainly in Vendel and Viking Age and Slavic coastal settlements and trade centres in the Baltic Sea basin, the coast and islands of Northwestern Europe, at Central and Eastern European fortresses and suburbia. Many finds also come from rural settings. In early medieval graves the touchstones join balance scales and weights as a sign of the buried individual’s access to precious metals. Especially the rural finds with traces of precious metal provide a strong reason for a revision of present views on the social stratification of the early medieval society in Europe. Chemical microanalysis allows identifying the composition of the alloys. Besides new perspectives on the fields of the social history and the circulation of precious metals, the method also provides new information for the field of archaeometallurgy.     

Detecting the medieval cod trade: a new method and first results

This paper explores the potential of stable isotope analysis to identify the approximate region of catch of cod by analysing bones from medieval settlements in northern and western Europe. It measures the δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of cod bone collagen from medieval control samples collected from sites around Arctic Norway, the North Sea, the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea. These data were considered likely to differ by region due to, for example, variation in the length of the food chain, water temperature and salinity. We find that geographical structuring is indeed evident, making it possible to identify bones from cod caught in distant waters. These results provide a new methodology for studying the growth of long-range trade in dried cod and the related expansion of fishing effort—important aspects of the development of commercialisation in medieval Europe. As a first test of the method, we analyse three collections of cod bones tentatively interpreted as imported dried fish based on a priori zooarchaeological criteria. The results tentatively suggest that cod were being transported or traded over very long distances since the end of the first millennium AD.     

Bakal Culture Dwelling At Settlement Ust-Tersyuk-1

The study attempts to reconstruct the Bakal culture dwelling at fortifi ed settlement Ust-Tersyuk-1, introducing new data on house-building among the medieval population of the forest-steppe Trans-Urals region. It has been established that in addition to well-known, light frame buildings such as chums and yurts, the Bakal population also built stationary, semiunderground dwellings suitable for habitation throughout the year. These dwellings had a frame and pillar structure, inclined walls made of poles and twigs and a slightly sloping roof. The walls were plastered with clay on the inside and covered with sod on the outside. The remains of the dwelling, a hearth and a sleeping platform, have made it possible to reconstruct the dwelling's interior furnishing.     

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.     

A resampling approach to gender relations: the Rebešovice cemetery

Early Bronze Age society in Central Europe is often depicted as a society dominated by males. It is suggested that archaeological evidence is not always in agreement with this view. This study reports the analysis of mortuary variability at the Early Bronze cemetery Rebešovice in Moravia (Czech Republic) that uses computer-intensive resampling techniques. The results indicate that there are only minor differences in the mortuary treatment of females and males. There is neither a qualitative restriction of body treatment and objects buried with males, nor a quantitative emphasis on burials of males. In fact, burials of females are equipped with a higher number of bronze artifacts. Funerals of females were at least as significant social events as the funerals of males. We argue that the model of a male dominated community that used this cemetery is unwarranted. These findings do not refute the existence of gender-specific activities and roles that may be valued differently, but instead suggest that both females and males had access to resources from which they could draw power.