Turning Latin into Greek: Anna Komnene and the Gesta Roberti Wiscardi

This article examines the relationship between one of the most famous Byzantine sources, the Alexiad of Anna Komnene, and the Gesta Roberti Wiscardi, written by William of Apulia at the end of the eleventh century. It shows that Anna not only had access to a substantial archive of material relating to the Normans of southern Italy, but also that the author drew extensively on William of Apulia's account of the attacks of Robert Guiscard on Epirus in 1081–5. Multiple borrowings are identified, including a crucial case of mistranslation from the Latin into Greek, demonstrating that the Gesta lay at the heart of the Alexiad's coverage of the Normans. It argues that Anna Komnene makes carefully judged variations from the southern Italian text, before suggesting that the latter was composed shortly before the Council of Bari (1098). It concludes with a suggestion that the contribution of William of Apulia is surreptitiously acknowledged by the Byzantine author.     

Rewriting Merovingian history in the tenth century: Aimoin of Fleury's Gesta Francorum

Aimoin of Fleury's Gesta Francorum has mostly been ignored apart from its importance as a source for the Grandes Chroniques de France. Aimoin's editorial techniques in reworking his Merovingian‐era sources deserve more attention, however. Through a process of selective editing, strategic silence, and rhetorical invention he compiled a history that would appeal to its probable target audience, King Robert II of West Francia. The most noteworthy changes wrought by Aimoin are the assignment of a divinely appointed imperial and evangelizing mission to the Franks and the transformation of Clovis into an exemplary Christian king.     

Ideas and narrative in Otto of Freising's Gesta Frederici

This article discusses the inner coherence of Otto of Freising's Gesta Frederici and, by implication, the wider question of the ‘mode of perception’ in medieval historiography. Is there any connection between the philosophical and theological reflections expressed in digressions and explicit statements, and the apparently scattered and disconnected entries in his narrative? The answer to this question is positive. Gesta Frederici is carefully composed around a number of key episodes, connected to one another on the allegorical and typological level, which bring out Otto's central message about Frederick restoring the right order of the world. Book I describes the crisis in Church and Empire while Book II shows how Frederick heals this crisis by bringing peace in the Empire, governing in close cooperation with the princes, and uniting pope and emperor in close friendship for the benefit of the Church.     

风雪约会

<正>"南极洲的原著居民是企鹅、海豹等动物,它们不会领着你去喝茶,不会邀请你去它们家中做客,甚至你还要给他们让路,但瞬间的回忆即成永恒,两次的南极之旅没有让我厌倦,如果可以,我还期待下一次的旅程。"——郎晓光     

风雪约会

<正>"南极洲的原著居民是企鹅、海豹等动物,它们不会领着你去喝茶,不会邀请你去它们家中做客,甚至你还要给他们让路,但瞬间的回忆即成永恒,两次的南极之旅没有让我厌倦,如果可以,我还期待下一次的旅程。"——郎晓光     

Dating the A Cemetery at Kish: A Reconsideration

Abstract

The site of ancient Kish consists of a series of mounds about eight miles east of Babylon in the flood plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. On several of the eastern mounds extensive remains of the Sumerian (Early Dynastic = ED) period in the early 3rd millenium B.C. were excavated in the 1920s. Among these remains was a cemetery in which were found many examples of a distinctive kind of pottery, the so-called “goddess-handled jars,” which have come to be associated with the last phase of the period and thus to serve as a criterion for dating sites where these occur.

It will be argued here that such jars were actually manufactured over a longer span of time within the Early Dynastic period and that they are therefore a less precise instrument for dating than has been believed. In my view their absence from some sites is to be explained not by chronology but by regional differences. If this argument is correct, then the dating of a number of Early Dynastic sites will have to be re-examined with greater attention to regional considerations that have often been overlooked in the past.     

关于上山文化年代的讨论

学界对上山文化的年代存有争议,《浦江上山》断定其年代上限超过万年,但是根据上山文化分期和其他遗址测年数据来分析,上山文化的年代上限有可能落在距今9400—9134年之间。同时,无论是测年数据和陶器类型学,都不能确定上山文化比彭头山文化更早,二者同时的可能性亦不能排除。     

Archaeological Tree-Ring Dating at the Millennium

Tree-ring analysis provides chronological, environmental, and behavioral data to a wide variety of disciplines related to archaeology including architectural analysis, climatology, ecology, history, hydrology, resource economics, volcanology, and others. The pace of worldwide archaeological tree-ring research has accelerated in the last two decades, and significant contributions have recently been made in archaeological chronology and chronometry, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and the study of human behavior in both the Old and New Worlds. This paper reviews a sample of recent contributions to tree-ring method, theory, and data, and makes some suggestions for future lines of research.     

克孜尔石窟分期年代研究综述

位于拜城县克孜尔乡东南7公里的克孜尔石窟是古龟兹(今库车、拜城、新和县境)境内规模最大的一处石窟群。现已编号洞窟是269个(1953年编号235个;1973年新发现一个;后来为了配合谷西区维修工程,于1989年和1990年两次共清理出33个洞窟。);现暴露在地面上的未编号洞窟有60余个;再加上一批埋藏在地下的洞窟,克孜尔石窟洞窟数近400个。     

敦煌文献断代方法综述

本文从纸张、书法、文字、正背面、形制、品相、写卷内容、出土地等八个要素考察了敦煌文献的断代,并解释了敦煌文献断代不能唯一的某些原因。     

拍鸟自由行:从北海道到东京

<正>第一次去日本自由行,首选目的地是日本的北海道。北海道四季如画,而冬季的二月最唯美,最梦幻。这次行程8晚9天,重点是拍鸟,另一个心愿是欣赏莽莽雪域的壮丽,感受渗透着古典韵味的日本现代文化。2019年2月19日,我们搭乘全日空航班从上海出发,经东京转机,下午抵达北海道北部的中标津机场。机场有两路大巴,一路发往知床,一路发往根室,知床和根室为南北方向,两地均是拍鸟的胜地。我选择了走根室,因为这条线路拍鸟相对容易。     

Dating problems in Icelandic archaeology

For many decades tephrochronology has been used as a scientific method for dating archaeological as well as geological remains in Iceland. Recently, parts of the tephrochronology for the eruptions of the famous volcano Hekla have been questioned by the author. This is due to obvious differences in dating results of archaeological artefacts from the valley of Thjórsárdalur in southern Iceland and the current tephrochronological dating of its devastation. While the devastation of the valley has been dated to AD 1104 and is thought to have been caused by a huge eruption of mount Hekla in that year, the artefacts from excavations and stray finds, as well as new ¹⁴C results, show somewhat later 12th‐13th century dates. The paper deals with this obvious discrepancy, which has hitherto been ignored, together with the results of archaeological excavations in 1983–86 at Stóng in Thjórsárdalur; it also gives a critical analysis of the historical methodology of the tephrochronologists.     

A Stamford Ware Pottery Kiln in Pontefract: A Geographical Enigma and a Dating Dilemma

Abstract

THIS REPORT PRESENTS the results of analyses carried out following the discovery and excavation of a medieval pottery kiln in Pontefract, a discovery which featured in the ‘Fieldwork Highlights’ section of Medieval Archaeology 53 (2009). The kiln is remarkable for having produced vessels previously only associated with the Stamford ware industry of the late 11th and 12th centuries and demonstrates the existence of at least one northern production site, the likely existence of which was first mooted in the 1950s. As both radiocarbon and archaeomagnetic dating methods indicate a last firing of the Pontefract kiln in the late pre-Conquest period, the discovery also poses questions about the chronology of Stamford ware production.     

Crannogs and Island Duns: Classification, Dating and Function

A recent paper, Islets through Time (OJA 17, 2, 227--44) , by Jon Henderson highlighted the fact that the majority of dated crannogs were occupied in the later prehistoric or early historic period, and offered a new classification of artificial islets. This paper addresses consequential issues of definition and classification and urges that artificial islets, whether classed hitherto as crannogs or island duns, should be seen as complementary elements within a spectrum of settlement types, in particular for the Early Iron Age and the early historic periods. Comparison shows that studies of crannogs and their land-based counterparts have faced similar problems of interpretation and that typological compartmentalization has acted to the detriment of a proper understanding of both.     

Qumran Textiles in the Palestine Exploration Fund,London: Radiocarbon Dating Results

Abstract

Three pieces of fabric from Qumran's Cave 1 have been stored in the Palestine Exploration Fund collection since the 1960s but have hitherto never been tested or re-examined. The fabric is made of linen, and was probably used for wrapping or packing scrolls, or sealing jars. New radiocarbon dating on one piece of fabric indicated a probability of 55% for it being made between 1 and 55 A.D., and a probability of 95.4% that it was made between 50 cal B.C.–80 cal A.D.     

Dating the baptism of Clovis: the bishop of Vienne vs the bishop of Tours

This article reexamines the text and interpretation of three crucial passages in Avitus of Vienne's Ep. 46, the only contemporary document attesting the baptism of Clovis, and one passage in Gregory of Tours' Decem Libri Historiarum . The following conclusions relative to the date and circumstances of the baptism can be drawn. A. Avitus addresses Clovis not as if he was a pagan convert, but as if he was a recent Arian sympathiser, possibly even a catechumen. 2. There is no allusion to Clovis's honorary consulship in Ep. 46, hence no terminus post quem of 508. 3. The populus adhue nuper captivus cannot be the Alamans or the newly-converted Franks. Clovis's letter to the Bishops of Aquitaine and Avitus's known involvement in the ransoming of prisoners-of-war are adduced to suggest that the populus may most plausibly be identified with Catholic Gallo-Roman captives taken in the Franco-Visigothic war of 507. If this is right, it provides a terminus post quem , of 507 and suggests a baptism in Christmas 508. 4. Gregory of Tours' account of the Alamannic war is reexamined, and the following conclusions reached: the account fuses a "Clotilde-spool" and a "Constantinian-spool;" the battle against the Alamanni must date to late 506 (evidence from Cassiodorus and Ennodius); but Gregory himself did not know when it took place in absolute terms, and his relative chronology may well be unreliable. Thus the date of the battle and the date of conversion can be uncoupled. The most probable terminus post quem remains the freeing of the populus captivus , probably after the war of 507. The article ends by reexamining the implications of Clovis's and Avitus's relationship and correspondence.     

Dating mortar by optically stimulated luminescence: A feasibility study

Quartz is the datable component in mortar. Although its luminescence properties are very well studied, the problem of mortar dating arises from a low level of optical bleaching. In order to reduce the time consuming efforts for dating lime mortar in monuments by optically stimulated luminescence, we investigated the most suitable methods of dose and dose rate determination, and we explored tests which are suitable to predict the datability of a given material. Reverting to the large number of publications on sedimentary partially bleached quartz we found linear modulation techniques especially useful, equally we also recommend the determination of the level of optical depletion before starting analyses. Single grain analysis is regarded as an ultimate but infallible tool to date very poorly bleached quartz from mortar. Dose rate measurements need to take into account the radioactive equilibrium of the uranium decay and the short range inhomogeneity of the environmental gamma radiation field: gamma spectrometry and on-site TLD measurements are best suited.