Review article: Early Medieval Hungary in English

Books reviewed in this article:
Bak, J.M., Bónis, G., and Sweeney, J.R., (eds.) Decreta Regni Mediaevalis Hungariae
Veszprémy, L. and Schaer, F., (eds.) Simonis de Kéza, Gesta Hungarorum
Csernus, S. and Korompay, K., (eds) Les Hongrois et l'Europe: Conquête et Intégration
Kristó, Gyula, Hungarian History in the Ninth Century
Róna-Tas, András, The Hungarians and Early Medieval Europe. An Introduction to Early Medieval Hungarian History.     

Burial in Early Medieval Scotland: New Questions

Abstract

THIS ARTICLE presents a summary and interpretation of burial practices in Scotland in ad 400–650. Due to the dearth of documentary sources, mortuary archaeology provides a window on the changes occurring at the juncture between prehistory and history. Yet previous work has generally approached burial as evidence for a single aspect of this transition: the conversion to Christianity. Rather than signalling ethnic or religious affiliation, it is argued that graves should be understood as acts of structured deposition which enabled new relationships to be forged between the living and the dead at a local level. The composition of the grave with stone, sand, timber and earth can be seen as a form of furnishing cognate with the use of grave goods elsewhere in Britain and the continent.     

Male Saints and Devotional Masculinity in Late Medieval England

This article considers the ways in which the lives of male monastic saints circulating in late medieval England (and the cults of male saints more widely) were underpinned by certain ideas and ideals of masculinity and the functions which these performed. It argues for the significance of male saints serving as devotional models for the lay audience of these texts (both men and women). The two main sources are William Caxton's Golden Legend (published in 1483) and his Vitas Patrum (published after his death by Wynkyn de Worde in 1495). It therefore seeks to make a contribution to our understanding of the ways in which piety was used to assess masculinity, but also the extent to which piety as a social identity (both public and private in nature) was informed by notions of manliness.     

Early Medieval Settlement in Southern Russia: Changing Directions

Abstract

THIS ARTICLE CONCERNS the evolution of approaches to the archaeology of early medieval settlements in southern Russia. Over the last 70 years, a large amount of data have been collected, especially from sites related to the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture on the Middle Don river. In this region, large-scale excavations since the 1930s have produced information about the types of settlements and dwellings, making it possible to suggest what the overall settlement pattern may have looked like. By way of contrast, the early medieval settlement archaeology in the North Caucasus is less developed even though its beginnings go back further. Sufficient data exist only about a few areas of the region, in particular Dagestan, the Taman’ peninsula, and the Kislovodsk basin. In the latter area, a new systematic approach to surveys of, and trial excavations on, early medieval settlements have led to the reconstruction of the complex settlement hierarchy of the 5th to 8th centuries AD involving central fortifications, enclosed villages and a system of watch-towers.     

Archaeology and Myth in Early Medieval Europe: Making the Gods of Early Ireland

THIS ARTICLE CRITICALLY EXAMINES medieval¹1 Archaeology and Palaeoecology, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK. p.gleeson@qub.ac.uk archaeology’s relationship with myth. A surge of research examining pre-Christian belief has seen mythology, place names and folklore increasingly utilised to reconstruct mentalities and cosmologies. As a wider global phenomenon, this trend comes with pitfalls that must be addressed more systematically. This article examines these issues through early medieval Ireland, beginning with an overview of recent trends in cognate disciplines, before proceeding through case studies of Tara, Brú na Bóinne (both Co Meath), and Nenagh (Co Tipperary). Far from being relics of prehistoric cult practices, many deities populating these landscapes may have been consciously invented for political, allegorical and exegetical reasons during the medieval period. This creative process had a marked 8th-century monumental dimension, contemporary with the floruit of saga literature. This precludes such evidence being utilised to reconstruct pre-Christian cosmologies. This has broad implications for research across European medieval archaeology that would seek to access ritual, belief and religion.     

Virile Turks and Maiden Ireland: Gender and National Identity in Early Modern English Travel Literature

This article examines the role of gender in depictions of national identity in early modern English travel literature. I show that human sexual relationships were believed to be echoed in relations between territories, which were often represented as masculine or feminine. Travellers used metaphors representing marriage, seduction and rape to describe geopolitical relationships, including colonialism, tribute payments and rebellion. Representations of Ireland and the Irish, and the Ottoman Empire and the Turks are among the most revealing. I argue that such metaphors were especially favoured by travel writers because gender was believed to be inherently mutable, thus providing a variety of easily understood and mutually accepted narratives to describe international political relationships.     

Mann and Men in a Medieval State: The Geographies of Power in the Middle Ages

The state-making process represented a major institutional change, as societies moved from being organized according to notions of kinship to being ordered around the power exercised by kings over defined territories. The paper focuses on the medieval state-making process, primarily in a Welsh context; building on Michael Mann's notion of power networks, it is suggested that the mapping of the geographies of power within a society may offer a powerful tool for demonstrating the tentative and gradual nature of this process. Such a methodology also stresses the importance of geography in such a major change in human history.     

英国中世纪及近代早期的家产分配方案

在中世纪及近代早期的英国,家产继承主要依据普通法继承规则.在当时的生产关系下,这一规则主要是维护封建主阶层的整体利益,而较少顾及亲情.但人毕竟是有感情的,封建主在分配家产时常常综合考虑,以限嗣继承(Entail)、托管(Uses)、家产析分契约(Strict Settlement)等变通手段对普通法继承规则加以修正.这些变通手段反映了封建主在情感与理智之间摇摆不定的心态,地产继承制度也在这种摇摆中曲折发展.一部继承法变迁史表明,制度的变迁常常是人们心理冲突的外化形式.