HISTORY,AFRICA, AND DEFAMILIARIZATION: A COMMENT

After initially identifying defamiliarization as a central aspect of Nancy Rose Hunt's essay “History as Form,” this comment reflects on the implications that her reading of Georg Simmel and her emphasis on objects and materiality have for the writing of history. If Hunt suggests, with Simmel, that the form of history is autonomous from history as it unfolds, the claim here is rather that there is no necessary relationship between writing and its topic. Considering how earlier European historiography excluded Africa (in particular) from the domain of history, it is no coincidence that this contingent relation between form and history has been particularly energizing for Africanist historiography—leading to innovations both in practice and theory. The comment concludes by briefly discussing three concepts that have informed such innovation: the vernacular, suturing, and multiple temporalities.     

Introduction: people,places and possessions in late medieval England

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the rising interest in materiality and its impact on late medieval scholarship. Presenting an overview of the field, it considers how recent attention to physical spaces and objects has shed new light on the lives and experiences of late medieval men and women, and explores the sources and agendas driving new research. In particular, it evaluates the use of written evidence for accessing and investigating material culture, considering the types of documents informing material approaches, and the questions being asked of them. The analysis also reflects upon the distinct scholarly trajectories of building and landscape studies, and the disjuncture between medieval and early modern scholarship in this area. Providing an introduction to this special issue, it shows how the six contributors collectively address these lacunae to offer holistic readings of the relationships between people, places and possessions in late medieval England.     

PROVENANCE STUDY OF MARBLE ARTEFACTS FROM THE ROMAN BURIAL AREA OF FASCHENDORF (CARINTHIA,AUSTRIA)*

Numerous marble artefacts were among the extraordinary findings excavated at the Roman burial area of Faschendorf (Carinthia, Austria). The provenance of marble objects, particularly in the Roman provinces, is mostly unclear. Predominantly Mediterranean marbles have been used, but there are also some marble occurrences in the eastern Alpine regions that were exploited in those times. Besides a mineralogical–petrographic analysis, grain‐size evaluation in particular, and the determination of carbon and oxygen isotopes allow an effective characterization of the Faschendorf materials. Their provenance from the Gummern Marble complex in Carinthia is very likely.     

The Queen as ‘social mannequin’. Consumerism and expenditure at the Court of Isabeau of Bavaria, 1393–1422

Unjustifiably, but often, dismissed as the driest of sources, medieval accounts can be a mine of historical and social information, and those of Isabeau of Bavaria, queen of Charles VI of France, are particularly fascinating. One of the many consequences of the king's lifelong mental instability was the development of an entirely separate financial administration for his wife and children, and this combination of radical innovation and unprecedented levels of expenditure has meant that scrutiny of Isabeau's accounts — the best preserved and most extensive of any medieval queen of France — has been considered fundamental in almost all biographical works. Although this paper looks at what could be regarded as a frivolous topic in Isabeau's wardrobe, the social concept of the royal lady as decorative fashion-plate has been particularly pertinent in recent years, but also has a long-standing pedigree. The necessity and public display of wealth were always an intrinsic element of medieval queenship, and a number of these wider themes will be explored alongside detailed analysis of two example accounts.     

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Flinders Petrie was one of the earliest excavators to recognise that all archaeological material had research potential, and pursued a whole range of artefact types as the key to understanding past cultures. But what impact did the way in which he excavated have on the rate at which objects were discovered, and the condition in which they were found? And how important was it to him that the objects he acquired were closely linked to the physical and chronological landscape of his sites? This article looks at Petrie's field practices to try and answer some of these questions, with particular attention being paid to the relationship between Petrie and his workforce, his object collection policies, and some of the failings experienced in recording object provenance. These issues are critical to those who wish to make use of these objects to answer current questions about the ancient Near East—because it is only by understanding the way in which this material was recovered that we can begin to judge how it should be used in the present day.     

‘A separate people’? Some directions for comparative research on medieval women

Research to date has often positioned women of minority cultures as a separate group. They were, in many cases, twice removed — both from the men in their communities and from the majority communities within which they lived. This essay discusses the benefits of including these women, both as separate groups and as part of cross cultural comparison and points to the possible contribution of such studies. In the three parts of this article I propose different strategies for studying minority and majority women using examples from the sources on Jews in medieval Europe. In the first section, the article explores how to learn from similarities and differences between majority and minority practices, focusing on wet-nursing practices and medical care. The second part of the article proposes examining how ordinary people themselves perceived the ‘religiousness’ of certain everyday practices and set their own boundaries to what they were and were not willing to do. In this case, I suggest that more attention be paid to the way medieval women (and men) turned daily actions into religious proclamations and how in some cases they involved members of other religions in what seem to be internal affairs. This, in turn, leads to a final, larger comparative question taken up in the final part of the article: how do the larger trajectories of transformations in women's roles and rights compare across different religious cultural traditions.     

Prison and sacrament in the cult of saints: images of St Barbara in late medieval art

This article analyses the changing visual representation of St Barbara during the later middle ages. The article identifies a shift in St Barbara's iconography: whereas earlier medieval representations of the saint almost always show her with her prison tower, a number of fifteenth-century representations show the saint holding a chalice and host. The article traces how and why this shift occurred. In particular, the article explores the ways in which medieval thinking linking incarceration and liberation were integrated into new representations of St Barbara to stress her intercessionary, sacramental functions. Overall, the article argues that the visual transformation of St Barbara's prison tower into a liturgical vessel reveals how saints like Barbara were increasingly viewed as conduits to the inclusive sort of freedom that participation in Christianity's sacramental economy invited.     

Functional,symbolic or ritual?

Tools for determining the value of metal appear as symbols among grave goods in prehistoric and early medieval Europe and the Near East. Also, five boat burials excavated in eponymous Vendel contained touchstones. This article presents the results of chemical microanalyses of metal traces preserved on them and discusses the linear streaks of zinc in light of extraordinary ore deposits in central Sweden, exploited as early as the Early Middle Ages. In addition, forging tools found in four boat burials in Vendel are interpreted as symbols belonging to the funerary assemblages of ancient leaders. However, although both forging tools and tools for determining the value of metal were used in the treatment of metal, it would be misleading to search for their functional connection. They are linked in prehistoric and early medieval graves exclusively by their function as a symbol, one which they share with other objects, regardless whether exclusive or common.     

Leonor of England,Plantagenet queen of King Alfonso VIII of Castile,and her foundation of the Cistercian abbey of Las Huelgas. In imitation of Fontevraud?

In 1187 Alfonso VIII of Castile and his queen, Leonor of England, founded a Cistercian nunnery, Santa Maria Regalis de Las Huelgas, on the outskirts of Burgos. Despite the clear allegiance of the foundation to the Cistercians from the outset, the idea that the abbey was inspired by and even modelled on the nunnery of Fontevraud in Anjou is an encroaching commonplace in accounts of medieval Spanish history and art history around 1200. This study re-evaluates the arguments for that perception and puts forward a different reading of the early years of Las Huelgas, not as a foreign importation but as a peculiarly Iberian, even Castilian, institution.     

The Bruce dynasty,Becket and Scottish pilgrimage to Canterbury,c.1178-c.1404

In 1187 Alfonso VIII of Castile and his queen, Leonor of England, founded a Cistercian nunnery, Santa Maria Regalis de Las Huelgas, on the outskirts of Burgos. Despite the clear allegiance of the foundation to the Cistercians from the outset, the idea that the abbey was inspired by and even modelled on the nunnery of Fontevraud in Anjou is an encroaching commonplace in accounts of medieval Spanish history and art history around 1200. This study re-evaluates the arguments for that perception and puts forward a different reading of the early years of Las Huelgas, not as a foreign importation but as a peculiarly Iberian, even Castilian, institution.     

Calcareous nannofossils in medieval mortar and mortar‐based materials: A powerful tool for provenance analysis

Calcareous nannofossils—very small‐scaled marine microfossils—occur in many archaeological materials. Foremost, these include limestones used in masonry, material which has not experienced significant modification by humans. Poorly documented are nannofossils in mortars, because the burning process of quicklime requires the heating of the raw material to > 800°C. Here we focus on calcareous nannofossils in mortar and mortar‐based samples of four medieval buildings in northern Germany. The study documents the presence of nannofossils in historic mortars. It supplies evidence for the provenance of the mortars used, thereby introducing a new tool for mortar provenance studies.     

Technologies of Appearance: Hair Behaviour in Early Medieval Europe

Personal appearance in general—and the grooming of hair in particular—has long held a position of interest in historical, art-historical, and literary scholarship. The same cannot be said of archaeology, and the material aspects of personal grooming in the construction and communication of identity have not been fully synthesized. As a result, little attempt has been made to understand the social role of hair in less well documented societies, such as those of early medieval northern and western Europe. This paper considers archaeological, iconographic and documentary evidence for the significance of, and physical engagement with hair in early medieval northern and western Europe, and offers a model for the interpretation of grooming as a social phenomenon. It is argued that grooming was a socially meaningful practice, and that it played a key role in the construction of early medieval identities, as well as in the maintenance and manipulation of boundaries and distinctions between individuals and groups.     

Astrology in the service of the crown: Bartomeu de Tresbens,physician and astrologer to King Pere the Ceremonious of Aragon

Bartomeu de Tresbens (fl. 1359–75) was a physician and astrologer in the service of King Pere the Ceremonious of Aragon and his son Joan, both of them keenly interested in providing patronage for astronomy-astrology. Tresbens dedicated a set of astrological treatises in Catalan to Pere. He was the author of the most outstanding body of astrological work written in the vernacular in the medieval West. However, it has scarcely been studied: only his longest treatise has been edited, though insufficiently analysed, whereas his other works remain to be researched. This paper outlines Tresbens’ life and his relationship with the monarchy, and presents an overview of his works. Tresbens is revealed to be a distinguished individual whose case can help us understand the role of astrologers in medieval European courts.     

Geological constraints on the use of lead isotopes for provenance in archaeometallurgy

The first part of this paper is a brief critical history of the use of Pb isotopes for inferring the geological provenance of archaeological materials, with an emphasis on non-ferrous metals. The second part examines variation in the Pb isotopic ratios of oxide and sulphide ore minerals in selected regions of the world, and relates these to the geological histories of ore formation in each region. This exercise shows that in regions where most ore deposits are of similar geological age—as in the Andes, Europe and the circum-Mediterranean—provenance analysis with Pb isotopes is inherently difficult because geographically distant sources often exhibit similar isotopic ratios. Conversely, regions with many periods of ore formation—such as southern Africa—appear to be very promising regions for future studies of provenance with Pb isotopes. The wider implication of this exploratory survey is that archaeologists should carefully consider the range and clustering of geological Pb isotopic ratios in their regions of interest before investing large sums of money into Pb isotopic analysis of artefacts.     

Noticeboard

Recent years have seen a marked growth of interest in Jewish medieval history. It is no longer considered tenable to study the history of the Latin West without taking some account of the place of the Jews in medieval Europe. This article explores different trends in recent research on medieval Jewish-Christian coexistence by examining a number of books and editions of texts which have been published in this field since 1990.     

Multiple Histories: Three Journeys through Academic Records,Medieval Yemen,and Current Anthropology's Encounters with the Past

This chapter sets out to reconsider the interrelation and non-identity between tribal and kinship relations in South-Western Arabia's history through three cumulative methodological steps that are in part inspired by renewed debates on kinship in anthropology, but also by the École des Annales and other historians such as David Sabaean. A first step identifies different legacies of interactions between history and anthropology in the Euro-American academic record after 1945, and specifies their relevance for today. In a next step, prevailing relations between tribal structures and kinship relations will be assessed through a long-distance comparison between the medieval constellations in the Zaydi highlands of Yemen and elsewhere in Asia for an eleventh century time horizon. Thirdly, the outcome of this comparative analysis should then provide some indicators for a fresh assessment of existing source materials through anthropological perspectives, with special emphasis on gender, kinship and hierarchies. The argument concludes with a discussion of “multiple histories”, and how to approach and write them.