One among many renegades: the Serb janissary Konstantin Mihailović and the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans

ABSTRACT

Konstantin Mihailovi?, a Serb born in Novo Brdo, was taken by the Ottomans and became a janissary in Mehmet II’s army. After he returned to the Christian side, he penned a report on Ottoman governance, religion, military structures and tactics. It explained by organisational advantages, fairness to subjects of all faiths coupled with deceit vis-à-vis enemies, divisions within Christendom, and providential history’s retributive measures, why the ‘heathen’ had the upper hand. But the author, Konstantin, remained discreet. Autobiographical details on his years as a janissary are scarce. He had risen high in the Ottoman system. While conveying his expertise about the enemy to Christian courts was his key to a further career, he also had to conceal that he had been an important member of the janissary corps, and probably had converted to Islam. The first imperative, sharing expertise, complicated the second, self-silencing, and made it impossible to dissimulate fully.     

Measuring the relative topographic position of archaeological sites in the landscape,a case study on the Bronze Age barrows in northwest Belgium

Local topography is an important parameter determining the erection of a certain type of site on a certain location in the landscape. Despite the importance of topography in archaeological landscape research, the role of local topography has remained rather unexplored compared to other specific topographic parameters such as slope, aspect, curvature or visibility. Therefore, three methods to assess the relative topographic position of sites are applied and discussed here. The Bronze Age barrow dataset of northwest Belgium acts as the subject for this methodological case study. First, elevation percentile calculates the area that is lower than the central point within a predetermined neighborhood. Secondly, difference from mean elevation measures the relative topographic position of the central point as the difference between the elevation of this central point and the mean elevation within a predetermined neighborhood. And finally, deviation from mean elevation calculates the relative topographic position of the central point as the difference from mean elevation divided by the standard deviation of elevation, within a predetermined neighborhood. These three methods, each with their advantages and disadvantages, prove to be an added value for archaeological landscape research.     

Models, Narratives, and French Ways off Doing

Books reviewed in this article:
Jean-Yves Grenier, Claude Grignon, and Pierre-Michel Menger, eds., Le Modèle et le récit     

A Raman spectroscopic study of glass trade beads excavated at Mapungubwe hill and K2, two archaeological sites in southern Africa,raises questions about the last occupation date of the hill

Thousands of glass trade beads were excavated over a 75 year period on Mapungubwe Hill and at K2, two archaeological sites in the Limpopo valley, South Africa. An assemblage of 175 beads that appeared to be different in shape, size and colour (red, yellow, green, blue, white, black, pink, plum) was studied with Raman scattering. At least seven different chromophores or pigments (lazurite, lead tin yellow type II, Ca/Pb arsenate, chromate, calcium antimonate, Fe–S “amber” and a spinel) have been identified. Pigment identification allows the recognition of specific productions and indicated that many of the pigments colouring the beads excavated on Mapungubwe hill were manufactured after the 13th century, confirming the presence of modern beads in the archaeological record, some dating from the 19th century. This date is in agreement with the last occupation date for the hill suggested by the earlier excavators and raises questions about the revision of this date to 1290 AD by archaeologists in the 1970’s.