The North-Eastern Caucasus, which includes the territories of the modern Chechen Republic and the Republic of Dagestan, is one of the oldest centers of the manufacturing economy in the Old World. The ...development of productive forces and production relations over several millennia, expressed in vivid monuments of material culture, starting from the Kura-Araxes Eneolithic culture, inevitably led to the socio-political evolution of society, the emergence of early forms of statehood or the inclusion of these societies in various kinds of military-political alliances. Numerous Nakh (ancestors of modern Chechens, Ingush and Batsbi) and Dagestan tribes were actively involved in such unions, and the territory of their settlement was partly or completely included at different times in the early state associations that arose in adjacent territories. Such early polities include the Ancient Georgian Kingdom (Iberia) and Caucasian Albania of the late antiquity, the Alanian Kingdom and the Khazar Khaganate of the early Middle Ages, known from written sources.
The considerable breadth of Leonese documentation in the early Middle Ages has made it possible to test the hypothesis of whether the mpn sequence is a Caroline feature or whether it is one shared by ...both the Visigothic and the Caroline scripts. The analysis of the data indicates that the mpn sequence appears in the Leonese Visigothic documents beginning in the mid eleventh century as a result of the introduction of the Caroline script. Additionally, by reviewing the published collections examined in this article, many transcription errors in the edition of several documents have been pointed out, and several documents, previously considered as tenth-century originals, have been classified as late eleventh-century copies. The results of this research contribute to the description of the substitution process of the Visigothic script by the Caroline script in the Iberian Peninsula. En el caso de aquellas copias que llegaron a formar parte de un cartulario, su carácter de copia es evidente para el investigador actual y no suponen grandes dificultades para ser catalogadas diplomáticamente como tales; sin embargo, aquellas otras copias que han permanecido como documentos sueltos individuales pueden llegar a plantear serios problemas para el investigador actual a la hora de determinar su naturaleza, muy especialmente si fueron realizadas también en escritura visigótica.
The lack of metal lorinery in the archaeological record of early medieval Ireland is addressed through a hypothesis that post-Iron Age bridles were made of straw and rushes, which did not survive ...deposition. Reconstruction and testing of a straw bridle show the material to be strong and quite suitable for vernacular use. It also raises questions as to the agency of using straw instead of leather, and what this may tell us of the techno-cultural transitions each side of Ireland's Iron Age.
In this article, the author takes a closer look at the finds of sea shell ornaments in the early Middle Ages, based on artefacts discovered at two sites (Nos. 2 and 4) in Kruszwica. The four pendants ...in question come from settlement levels dating from the 11th to the 12th centuries. A malacological analysis suggests that the ornaments reached Kruszwica from the Mediterranean area (Acanthocardia tuberculata and Bolinus brandaris), and probably the Red Sea (Monetaria moneta), and from southern Poland (Turritella sp). These objects had been in use for a long time, as evidenced by the microtraces and damage visible on their surface. During the early medieval period, among the various species of shells that were ‘imports’, money cowrie shell ornaments with the most ‘exotic’ origins were the most common in Europe. It is highly probable that during this period of time, they were used in the exchange/trade and their value as a female symbol object and an amulet. Most likely, the shell pendants reached Kruszwica via trade routes that have been previously documented, alongside other artifacts. These ornaments provide additional evidence of long-distance trade.
This article deals with the interpretation of toponyms and archaeological materials from early medieval Lesser Poland that may be associated with the Hungarians or the Khazar Kabars. So far, they ...have most often been interpreted as traces of invasions by Hungarians – nomads (single monuments) or the operations of watchtowers they established to control the passes through the Carpathians and subjugated the local Slavic population (the so-called Old Magyar cemetery in Przemyśl) in the late 9th and1st half of the 10th century. It could have been related to their participation in the armed squads of the Piasts or the Rurikiviks, the activities of Hungarian merchants or prisoner-of-war settlements. The dating and interpreting the so-called Old Magyar cemetery in Przemyśl remains an open issue until it is fully developed and the results published.
The article presents considerations on the role of single and mass monetary finds in exploring the changes in early medieval settlement structures related to Kalisz and the region. Archaeological ...excavations has so far been conducted mainly in Kalisz. Other sources of knowledge about the settlement network: fieldwalking surveys carried out as part of the Polish Archaeological Record (AZP) and the few historical sources from the early Middle Ages made it possible to create only a preliminary reconstruction showing the historical, cultural and settlement processes taking place in the region. The 2020 discovery of the second silver hoard in Słuszków and the subsequent excavations provided interesting material for the assessment of the settlement structures of the Kalisz region and their evolution in each distinct phase of early medieval habitation.
Languages are central to the creation and expression of identities and cultures, as well as to life itself, yet the linguistic variegation of the later-Roman and post-imperial period in the Roman ...West is remarkably understudied. A deeper understanding of this important issue is crucial to any reconstruction of the broader story of linguistic continuity and change in Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as to the history of the communities who wrote, read, and spoke Latin and other languages. In spite of intensive study of culture and ethnic identity in late antiquity, language has often been neglected, a neglect encouraged by the disciplinary boundaries between linguists and historians, Romanists, and medievalists. There is no single volume that sets out the main developments, key features, and debates of the later-Roman and post-imperial linguistic environment. The linguistic landscapes of the late-Roman and post-imperial West are difficult to uncover and describe, while attempts to speak across disciplinary divides are challenging. The contributors have tackled this subject by offering detailed coverage of the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, Gaul, the Germanies, Britain, and Ireland. This volume, the third in the LatinNow series, helps readers to understand better the embeddedness, or not, of Latin, at different social levels and across provinces, to consider (socio)linguistic variegation, bilingualism and multilingualism, and attitudes towards languages, and to confront the complex role of language in the communities, identities, and cultures of the later and post-imperial Roman West.
The problem of fraternal relations in the early Middle Ages has not been hitherto studied in detail, especially in comparison with the multitude of studies dealing with the models of marriage, ...gender-based social roles, or the relations between generations. Historians have been often prone to assume that relations between siblings in European culture were naturally constant, based on loyalty, solidarity, and readiness to act in the common interest, stemming from blood ties. However, this conviction equates the category of brotherhood/fraternitas used by medieval authors with concepts associated with sources from later periods. This study does not concern narrowly defined family history, but is an attempt to examine fraternal relations in the early Middle Ages as a multidimensional cultural phenomenon. As the author seeks to demonstrate, it is difficult to speak of kinship in the ninth century and later without being aware of the religious and ideological implications of the transformations taking place at the time, even if direct traces of the impact of moralizing and theological teachings on the conduct of individuals are hard to capture in the sources.
