Ritual and interpretation: the early medieval case

In dealing with early medieval ‘rituals’ (whatever this category may mean), historians have to take into account that they were written about, staged, and participated in by members of a culture that was steeped in interpretation, and especially by the exegetical dialectic between letter and spirit. The consequences for narrative techniques, and therefore for our approach to the sources depicting ‘rituals’ are plural. The narratives can heighten or de‐emphasize the ‘ritualness’ of an event, as well as heighten or hide conflict (or consensus) within the ritual event, regardless of what actually happened. Rituals in texts, therefore, should seldom be taken at face value. Such techniques suggest that often enough the textual rendition (or even imagination) of a solemnity had more political impact than its performance.     

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.     

Experimental series and use-wear in bone tools

This paper presents an experimental program and microscopic patterns identified in the analysis of five worked bone morpho-functional groups: harpoon heads, drilled points, bipoints, awls and smoothers.