Wools from textiles in the Wasa, a seventeenth-century Swedish warship

Wool fibre measurements defining fleece type are described from cloth remains found in the seventeenth century wreck of the Wasa in Stockholm harbour. Half the fleeces were from the primitive type known as the hairy medium, and the remainder were distributed over the hairy, generalized medium and medium types, with a few short and fine types. The wools were similar to medieval Swedish wools, being coarser than Viking examples, but finer than the fleeces of living, primitive Swedish Goth breed.     

Santo Domingo de Talaje: resurrecting a seventeenth-century Spanish mission at Darien Bluff,Georgia

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an overview of archaeological investigations conducted at Darien Bluff, McIntosh County, Georgia, over the past 75 years. The discovery of lost artifacts, missing excavation records, and several draft reports provided an opportunity to obtain a comprehensive overview of Spanish Mission period activity at the site of Mission Santo Domingo de Talaje, a primarily seventeenth-century mission that once stood on the banks of the Altamaha River. Included are archaeological and historical perspectives of the researchers who excavated the site and new interpretations by the authors that draw on recently relocated artifacts and excavation records.     

Fire,Smoke, and Judah in Judges: A Response to Gregory Wong

Abstract

In a recent SJOT article, Gregory Wong set out to “[reexamine] the evidence for the alleged pro-Judah polemic in Judges.” His conclusion is that “even though the body of evidence commonly cited in support of a direct pro-Judah polemic [in Judges] seems impressive at first glance, a case-by-case examination seems to suggest that it is, unfortunately, a case of all smoke but no fire.” As a member of the rapidly growing group of scholars who believe otherwise, I would like, in my turn, to examine the arguments presented by Wong in support of this conclusion. I will demonstrate that although some of these arguments, mainly those having to do with Judah’s presentation in Judges 1, are valid and rightfully refute certain vulnerable interpretations, overall Wong’s case against seeing Judges as a profoundly pro-Judah text is extremely weak.     

The haunting of Susan Lay: servants and mistresses in seventeenth-century England

At Easter 1650, Susan Lay, a servant in an Essex alehouse, saw the ghost of her mistress, who had been buried three days before. This article explores the history that lay behind her experience: of sexual relationships with both her master and his son, the births and deaths of two bastard children, and beneath it all, a relationship of antagonism, competition, and intimacy with her mistress. It uses this and other legal records to examine the relationship between women in early modern households, arguing that, while antagonisms between women are typically part of effective patriarchies, the domestic life and social structures of mid seventeenth-century England bound servants and mistresses peculiarly tightly together, giving servants licence to dream of replacing their mistresses and mistresses cause to feel threatened by their servants, and making the competitive relations between women functional to patriarchal order. It suggests, finally, that at this moment in time and in this context, seeing a ghost was the best, perhaps the only, way this servant had to tell a suppressed story and stake a claim to a household that had excluded her.     

Roses in January: a neglected dimension in Gregory of Tour's historiae

Gregory of Tours was a sixth-century bishop who wrote Ten books of histories, our only detailed source of information for that period in Gaul. A great deal of attention has been paid to his vivid portrayal of Merovingian society and politics. Apart from his often obscure Latin, the strictly chronological composition and the absence of clear co-ordinating statements give his work the appearance of a jumbled, if lively, mosaic. The following study is an attempt to follow one strand through the many-coloured texture of the Histories, that of extraordinary natural events and the context in which Gregory places them, since this seemed to reveal an up to now not so apparent dimension of his thinking about time and, history: his concept of contemporaneity.     

Confrontation and conciliation: the sami,the crown and the court in seventeenth-century swedish lapland1

This article aims to discover in what kind of legal cases conflicts may be traced between the Sami and representatives of the Crown, and in which situations conciliation is apparent; and it also answers the questions of how and why this happened. It is evident, from the court rolls from the court district of Jukkasjärvi (one of the two northernmost lappmarker in Sweden at this time), that the Crown prosecuted the Sami for sexual offences and crimes against religion. This was due to the prevailing ideology of the seventeenth century, in which Lutheran Christianity prevailed, and because the court was the arena for a power discourse: there was a “right” way to live and behave. This came into conflict with Sami tradition. The Sami themselves pursued a desire and need for conciliation, which becomes apparent in cases of crimes such as murder, manslaughter and grand theft, but also in civil cases, e.g. inheritance. This was due to the fact that the population was quite small, bound together in different relations, and because large-scale conflicts were not beneficial to Sami communities. Even though the Crown Court was an arena of power, it was also used by the Sami for their own ends, and thus we can see an interactive Sami society, independent of the prevailing political Lutheran Christian ideology and its discourse.     

Through the eyes of rural notaries: business, community and confessional divisions in seventeenth-century poitou

Historians have often reflected upon the relations between Catholicsand Protestants in the small towns of seventeenth-century France.Using the recorded information on the lives and business dealingsof notaries, this article looks at how they integrated intoand dealt with both confessional groups in the small Poitoutown of Chef-Boutonne. Of the twenty-one men who listed themselvesas notaries in the parish registers, seven left records of theacts they drew up. Using their papers as well as parish registersthe article follows up on these men, their religious affiliation,families, marriages, training as notaries, business dealingsand their selection as godparents for town children. It thenreflects back upon the role of these men and their respectiveconfessional groups in the crucial years between the end ofthe Wars of Religion and the lead-up to the revocation of theEdict of Nantes.     

Identity and borders: seventeenth-century Hungarian travellers in the West and the East

The survey discusses the identity and self-image of seventeenth-century Hungarian and Transylvanian travellers as conveyed through their travel texts. The cultural borders in the mental map of the travellers coincided with the eastern and south-eastern borders of Transylvania. They placed themselves in the same position as their Western European contemporaries. Although the general tone of their diaries was one of admiration, they did not make explicit comparisons to the disadvantages of their home. There are also some cases of criticism on a civilisational basis towards the West, which shows that the travellers felt that they were on equal grounds to the West. The few cases of auto-stereotypes also show that some travellers tended to reinforce even the negative stereotypes attributed to Hungarians in order to question the Western discourse which placed them on a lower grade on a scale of civilisation. Towards their Eastern neighbours, the travellers tended to use a condescending tone: qualities such as boorishness, lack of education and barbarity were attributed to Russians, Wallachians and Moldavians. The worst reputation belonged to the Ottomans: in their case, even if – in a very few cases – tolerance and understanding came into picture, there was no possibility of acceptance. Hungarian travellers only used the discourse of their own inferiority towards Western Europeans when it was a part of their political agenda – otherwise, they included themselves in the concept of the region, imagined on the basis of erudition and Latin education – which they more and more often called Europe.