Early Medieval Research Articles

Instances of Interactions and Conflicts in the North Sea in Medieval Times, with an Emphasis on Frisia

In the Early Middle Ages, the North Sea region – particularly the Frisian territory – served as the arena for deep and requent contacts among the Germanic tribes settled on the coastal regions. This contribution aims to analyse samples of sources ranging from literary texts to runic inscriptions, which demonstrate that the nature of such interactions was neither distinctly peaceful nor warlike, but was rather marked by a degree of ambiguity and complexity.

At the Edge of the World. Geographical Location, Englishness and Monstrosity

Monstrosity is a constant presence in Old English literature. In particular, Wonders of the East depicts everything that was perceived as strange, significantly located in the East, displaying a Mediterranean-centric perspective where Europe works as the ideal centre of the cosmos. Early English Medieval people adopted this notion, which, however, seems to consign the island to the margins of civilization. This paper investigates how the position of Britain at the border of the map impacted the perceived degree of civilization of the Early Medieval English people and how their geographical location might have imbued the idea of Englishness with monstrosity.

A Connection Through Stucco Technique with Early Medieval Natural Lighting Systems in Rome and Emphasis on the Role of Light in Islamic Architecture Focusing on Khirbat al-Mafiar 7CE.

This article investigates how, since ancient times, building windows have had grids of stucco, stone, wood, or iron, as well as slabs of glass or other materials. They also appeared as simple apertures in the wall, the arrangement of which frequently served decorative functions. Following a classical tradition, the usage of shuttered windows with glass fixed on timber frames was known in late antiquity. The search for a peculiar architectural taste of the late antique and early mediaeval times is particularly appealing due to the light effects produced by shuttered windows made of translucent material, which provides a mystical and suggestive appearance.
 The light that transforms the decoration, using color combinations, sometimes occur in unexpected contexts or in an adjacent architectural form, such as the floor and vault of the royal apse in the bathroom of Khirbat al-Mafjar. The architectural element that includes the lozenges, closer to Khirbat al-Mafjar as a drawing and scheme, to create a particular visual effect, could be seen in three barriers of stucco windows found in situ in the windows of the central nave during the 1930 restorations to Bovino Cathedral. Presence of light during history and in various architectural oeuvres, in addition to functional aspect, as factor for illumination and life conferring to daily activities, it has been abundantly addressed from spiritual aspect and in doctrinal discussions of religions.

A new sedimentary and biostratigraphic framework for the Callovian-Oxfordian transition on the Atlantic margin of Morocco

A major global marine transgression occurred during the Callovian to Early Kimmeridgian, which was interrupted locally by a hiatus during the Late Callovian to Early Oxfordian. The transgression may have been a major driver for extensive coral buildup development in the Oxfordian. The depositional hiatus may be related to a combination of eustasy, local tectonic activity and hinterland movements, highlighting the potential influence of tectonism on sedimentary evolution in sedimentary basins. Whilst a regional Late Callovian-Early Oxfordian hiatus has been recorded extensively in the Tethys realm, this study has improved the biostratigraphic and sedimentary record from Morocco, and for the first time documents the Late Callovian-Early Oxfordian depositional hiatus in the Atlantic realm. Detailed sedimentary facies analysis of Callovian to Oxfordian carbonates and siliciclastics (Ouanamane Formation) demonstrates a major transgression from continental and coastal sediments, through oolitic mid-inner ramp deposits, brachiopod-rich middle ramp deposits, and ultimately to outer ramp marls, sharply overlain by Middle Oxfordian coral buildups across the basin. Repeated hard- and firmgrounds and bioturbated bed tops highlight transgressive surfaces traceable basinwide, which suggests low sedimentation rates in the upper Ouanamane Formation. Localized siliciclastic input is evidence for episodes of erosion in the same interval. Collection of new fossil specimens (ammonites, brachiopods, echinoderms, foraminifera) and revision of existing fossil material suggest this interval corresponds to a hiatus or condensed section in the Callovian-Oxfordian transition. The uppermost part of the Ouanamane Formation is of early Middle Oxfordian age and is directly overlain by Middle Oxfordian coral buildups. Onset of buildup construction is considered synchronous based on the new biostratigraphic data. Observations in Moroco compare with the sedimentary evolution around the Tethys, and in particular with the Arabian Plate. The Callovian-Oxfordian depositional hiatus corresponds to eustatic sea level changes, which were possibly driven by global cooling, and was likely overprinted by local tectonics.

Michał Masłowski, Myths and Political Symbols of Central and Eastern Europe

This text is a review article of Michał Masłowski’s monograph “Myths and political symbols of Central and Eastern Europe”. Masłowski’s publication presents the most widespread myths, political and national symbols of Central and Eastern Europe, along with an explanation of their origin and influence over the often turbulent centuries from the early Middle Ages to the present day. The author approaches this topic in an interdisciplinary way, trying to present what shaped nations and their culture in this part of Europe.

The evolution of Arabic historical literature and its current trends: canons and invariants

The study is devoted to the peculiarities of the development of the Arabic historical novel, the consistent transformation and “erosion” of its canons within the framework of the literary trends of the 20th and 21st centuries. The relevance of the topic, on the one hand, is due to the fact that the historical novel has not lost its significance in Arabic national literature. The share of works of this genre is still high, they occupy the first lines in the distribution of literary prizes. On the other hand, against the background of the general process of globalization, it is interesting to trace the trajectory of the development of the genre in the so-called “lagging” literature, to which many researchers rank Arabic literature. Some works of the genre fell into the focus of both Arabic, Western, as well as domestic orientalist-literary critics and were subjected to deep comprehensive consideration. Today, however, the novels of recent decades also require analysis. The purpose of the study was not just to identify the works of Arab authors that have received wide recognition in recent years, but to fit them into the paradigm of the development of the historical genre and thereby determine its direction in the near future. To do this, the authors tried to compare classical historical novels with modern ones, characterizing their heroes, describing the periods in the history of the Arab world that Arab authors addressed and continue to address within the genre, determining the degree of epic, historical authenticity, etc., in modern examples of the genre. It was found out, that classical heroes with a standard set of heroic qualities that influence the course of history are replaced by thinkers, scientists, dervishes, ordinary observers, and critical epochs and specific historical events are replaced by troubles periods - before or after a catastrophe, major transformations. Conclusions were drawn about the historicity of Arabic literature back in the pre-Islamic era, the long-term preservation of the canons of the Early Middle Ages in the genre, the sharp transformation of the genre and the refusal from the canons under the influence of postmodernism that penetration into Arabic soil in the mid 1960s coincided with the military and social upheavals of the history of Arabs. The direction of the genre, which is pronounced today towards ethnoliterature, is emphasized.

Absolute dating of construction materials and petrological characterisation of mortars from the Santalla de Bóveda Monument (Lugo, Spain)

The construction materials of the Santalla de Bóveda Monument, one of the most studied buildings in Galicia (Spain), are analysed to date the mortars and bricks of walls and vaults by combining three dating techniques: optically stimulated luminescence, radiocarbon and thermoluminescence. Petrological characterisation of the mortars themselves is carried out. Until now, the paintings on the vault have been interpreted as Roman, early Christian or Pre-Romanesque, depending on the interpretative framework used by the researcher who studied them. There is also no consensus on their functionality. A total of 21 samples were collected, and 39 datings were made. The results are conclusive: the original building dates from the second half of the fourth century AD, the paintings date from the beginning of the seventh century or the upper floor from the tenth to twelfth centuries. These results make it necessary to review the history of Galician architecture between Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval Ages.

Muszle – zawieszki – amulety we wczesnym średniowieczu z terenu Polski na przykładzie znalezisk z Kruszwicy

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.

The origins of saddles and riding technology in East Asia: discoveries from the Mongolian Altai

Innovations in horse equipment during the early Middle Ages provided advantages to societies from the steppes, reshaping the social landscape of Eurasia. Comparatively little is known about the precise origin of these crucial advances, although the available evidence points to early adoption in East Asia. The authors present new archaeological discoveries from western and northern Mongolia, dating to the fourth and fifth centuries AD, including a wooden frame saddle with horse hide components from Urd Ulaan Uneet and an iron stirrup from Khukh Nuur. Together, these finds suggest that Mongolian groups were early adopters of stirrups and saddles, facilitating the expansion of nomadic hegemony across Eurasia and shaping the conduct of medieval mounted warfare.

Modelling the progression of illicit substance use patterns from real-world evidence.

To investigate an innovative pharmacometrics approach that addresses the challenges of using real-world evidence to model the progression of illicit substance use. The modelling strategy analysed real-world data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (AddHealth) survey using survival analyses and differential equations. Respondents were categorized into drug-naïve, active users and nonusers. The transitions between categories were modelled using interval-censored parametric survival analysis. The resulting hazard rate functions were used as time-dependent rate constants in a differential equation system. Covariate models for sex and depression status were assessed. AddHealth enrolled 6504 American teenagers (median age 16 years, range 11-21 years); this cohort was followed with five interviews over a 22-year period; the median age at the last interview was 38 years (range 34-45 years). The percentages of illicit drug users at Interviews 1-5 were 7.7%, 5.9%, 15.8%, 21.4% and 0.98%, respectively. The generalized gamma distribution emerged as the preferred model for the survival functions for transitions between categories. Age-dependent prevalence was obtained from the differential equation system. Active drug use was more prevalent in males, increased in adolescence and college years, peaked at 24 years, and decreased to low levels by 35 years. Depression, which was more frequent in females, increased the drug-naïve-active user transition rates but not the active user-nonuser and nonuser-active user transition rates. The evidence did not support an interaction between sex and depression. The model provided a satisfactory approximation for the age-dependent progression of illicit substance use from preadolescence to early middle age.

Britons in blue: A contextual analysis of corporeal painting in Great Britain, from the Iron Age to the early Middle Ages

Ancient sources frequently mention body painting as a practice in Great Britain. This custom, which is mentioned in continuity from the days of Julius Caesar to the Anglo-Saxon era, has not yet been confirmed by archaeological and iconographic evidence, but there are enough indicators to promote continued research. Textual and archaeological analysis shows there may have been an evolution in the practice between the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages, when new religious and cultural spheres would have led to eventual extinction. Although presented by Caesar as a military practice, corporeal painting may have extended to other spheres of ancient societies, including aesthetic purposes and religious rites.

Folding Time: Honorius Augustodunensis' 'Imago Mundi'

The Imago mundi or "Image of the World" was composed around 1110 by Honorius Augustodunensis, one of the most prolific authors of his age. Presented in the form of a mappa mundi, the Imago offers its reader a verbal 'image' of the cosmos, covering topics ranging from the atom to the heavenly spheres. Despite being one of the most popular works of the central Middle Ages, scholars rarely regard the Imago as a text possessing serious literary merit, dismissing it instead as a derivative exercise in compilation. This essay argues that the Imago is in fact an ambitious literary undertaking with a coherent spiritual agenda. While Honorius recycles (like many of his peers) earlier medieval and especially Neoplatonic cosmological ideas, his text shapes that material in new ways – into a spiritually transformative journey through and above the cosmos, and into the self. At the same time, throughout the work Honorius deploys a range of strikingly material metaphors to describe the world from the perspective of eternity – most notably, the rope of time. In this further literary sense, the ascent to eternity entails a recognition that we dwell in images.

Metallic Idiophones 800 BCE–800 CE in Central Europe: Function and Acoustic Influence

Our project is focused on metal sound objects of the Early Iron Age (Hallstatt Culture), the Romanperiod, and the period of the Avar Khanate in the Carpathian Basin (Early Middle Ages). The idiophonesoriginate from burial and settlement contexts. Our goal is to gain new information on their function, on tonal influence on ancient peoples’ daily lives, and their impact on society. This interdisciplinary project combines archaeological, metallurgical, acoustical, psychoacoustical, ethnomusicological, and psychological methods supported by experimental archaeology and handcraft experience, as well as by ancient written and iconographic sources. In this article we report on the status of our current results. We present three case studies, one for each period, and an acoustic and psychoacoustic overview of all currently investigated sound objects. Analyses of textile remains adhering to pellet bells complete this paper.

Cities, Saints, and Communities in Early Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Alan Thacker. Edited by Scott DeGregorio and Paul Kershaw. Studies in the Early Middle Ages 46. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2020. 408 pp. €105 hardback and ebook.

Cities, Saints, and Communities in Early Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Alan Thacker. Edited by Scott DeGregorio and Paul Kershaw. Studies in the Early Middle Ages 46. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2020. 408 pp. €105 hardback and ebook.

Новые данные о ландшафте северной части византийского города на плато Эски-Кермен

Introduction. At the end of the 6th century in the South-Western Crimea, on the Eski-Kermen plateau, Byzantine engineers built a fortress to protect the local Goto-Alan population as well as to protect the approaches to Cherson, the main outpost of the empire on the peninsula. Methods. In 2022, during archaeological work in the northern part of the Eski-Kermen plateau, which was considered by researchers to be an undeveloped territory, a Christian church was opened, which made it possible to reconstruct the urban landscape of this part of the city in a new way. Analysis. The southeastern part of the church with a semicircular apse, sections of the southern wall, and the naos were excavated. In the center of the apse in situ, there is an altar made in the form of a table on a faceted pillar. Crosses are carved on the western and eastern sides of the pillar, and depressions are made for two relics. The base of the altar was cut into a rock monolith during the preparation of the site for the construction of the church, when the surface of the rock was leveled and cramped. The walls of the church were already being built around the base made for the altar. Results. Thus, a Christian church functioned in the northern part of the city on the Eski-Kermen plateau from the early medieval period until the death of the city at the end of the 13th century. It was the second-largest building in the city after the main basilica. The church was built for the residents of the neighborhoods located nearby, along the eastern edge of the plateau. Throughout its existence, the church was renovated, as evidenced by a small reconstruction in the apse and an opening for an additional relic on the western side of the altar. In the 10th century, after the city necropolis on the southeastern slope of the plateau ceased to exist, and chapels for burials began to be built in the quarters on the plateau, a necropolis appeared next to the “Northern” church where residents of the northern quarters buried their dead.

Changing human-cattle relationships in Ireland: a 6000-year isotopic perspective

Domesticated cattle were brought to Ireland during the Neolithic. By the early medieval period, 4000 years later, these animals were central to social and economic status in Irish communities and the landscape was organised around cattle husbandry to a degree unattested elsewhere in Europe. How this socio-economic importance developed is unclear. Here, using isotope data spanning six millennia, the authors identify a culturally driven shift towards the creation and management of open pastures, which began in the Iron Age, eventually supplanting woodland grazing. Cattle continued to dominate the economy until the later medieval period when a shift to participate in silver-based trade led to a reassessment of Ireland's unique human-cattle relationship.

Історія формування лікарень у Середні століття: ідеологія та економіка

The article shows that the creation of public hospitals in the early Middle Ages in Europe was the first time in the history of medicine. It was a consequence of the establishment of Christian values in society regarding caring for those who need help. It has been proven that as the institution of the state medieval church in Western Europe was formed and its organization and teaching departed from evangelical principles, the provision of medical care became its full commitment and was used by it as one of the tools of influence on society. It has been established that equating medieval hospitals with the concept of modern hospitals is fundamentally incorrect and unfounded, because medieval hospitals were almshouses for care, and not actual medical institutions. Such a development was impossible in principle at that time. The Church actually forbade its monks to practice medicine. In addition, the level of medical knowledge of that time about diseases made it impossible for the very appearance of hospitals, where the concepts of diagnosis, methods of dynamic observation and treatment would be recognized and available. The appearance of the first hospitals in the medical sense of the word is not related to the activity of the church, but to the development of city self-government and the departure of university education from the control of the church, which allowed city hospitals to introduce medical technologies and become medical institutions. Hospitals of monastic orders during the time of the Crusades show the influence of function on the structure of such organizations, when, on the one hand, the need to provide assistance to wounded soldiers and knights prompted them to have a medical component in their composition, and on the other hand, their further development became impossible, because the activities of their founders changed: monks the orders turned into feudal military and commercial organizations, far from mercy and compassion. The study of the development of the establishment of hospitals clearly illustrates the close relationship between, on the one hand, the need for proper spiritual development and education of society with its understanding of moral criteria and principles, and on the other, the development of a scientific and technical base based on university education. The evolution of the formation of hospitals illustrates the close relationship between the need for proper spiritual development of society, its understanding of moral criteria and principles, and the development of their scientific and technical base based on university education.

The poetic specificity of Gilda's "On the Death of Britain" and the "Hesperica Famina": a pragmatic aspect and a dominant analysis. On the 135th anniversary of the birth of B. I. Yarkho (1889-1942)

Τhis article deals with the work of the British writer Gildas the Wise "On the Ruin of Britain" and the poetic text "Hisperica Famina", written in the British archipelago (presumably in Ireland). Both works are written in Latin and represent milestones in the history of the Hiberno-British literature of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. There is no consensus about dating to a year or at least a decade for both texts. "On the Ruin of Britain" was written presumably in the late V — early VI centuries; the Hisperica Famina are usually attributed to the second half of the VII century. "On the Ruin of Britain" contains a brief historical sketch and an protracted invective against the kings and clergy of Britons. The Hisperica Famina represent the Latin versification practice of Hibernian scribes. The methodological ideas of Boris I. Yarkho (1889-1942), set out in his fundamental work "A Methodology of Precise Literary Studies", serve as a conceptual basis for this research. On its basis, the author of the article identifies complexes of stylistic features and their compositional distribution which reflects poetic dominants common to Gildas and the author of the Hisperica Famina (so called faminator). The tendency of syntactic interlocking in the Hisperica Famina regularly prevails over the same tendency in "On the Ruin of Britain", it indicates that a specific attitude to the syntactical style, usual for the faminator and his poetic circle, began to form back in the Gildas's era. The common features of both texts show the prevalence of certain poetic dominants and can serve as a serious argument in defense of the thesis of the continuity from Gildas or writers of his circle to the faminator. The stylometry method may be very useful for comparing texts even if they they differ in genre and era.

The Vernacular Theology of the Old English Advent Lyrics: Monastic Devotion to Mary

Abstract The cult of the Virgin Mary in England is typically perceived as beginning in the High Middle Ages and blossoming during the late medieval and early modern periods. Any recognition of English interest in Mary before the Norman Conquest is pushed to the end of the early medieval period (c. 500–c. 1100), with advanced thinking about Mary confined to the mid-to-late tenth century, during the English Benedictine Reform (c. 960–c. 1000). However, material and historical evidence indicates that sophisticated English Mariology dates from much earlier. An important, overlooked, and distinctive piece of evidence is The Advent Lyrics, probably composed by a monastic poet for a monastic audience before the upsurge of writing in Old English prose during the reign of King Alfred the Great (871–99). The work we call The Advent Lyrics is formed of twelve Old English lyric meditations which scholars have considered disconnected and have interpreted within the context of Benedictine Reform; however, this article argues that they form a unified, early composition. The Advent Lyrics demonstrate the complexity and longevity of Mariology in early medieval English culture. By drawing attention to new analogues from diverse traditions such as Syriac, Greek, Irish and Germanic-heroic, this article demonstrates how The Advent Lyrics provide insight to the earliest English poetry as a medium of vibrant vernacular theology.

"Rihla" Genre Features in Youssef Zeidan’s Novel “Azazel”

The subject of the study is the genre of "rihla", that is, the Oriental person pilgrimage to various countries. The authors are interested in the elements of this style and their application in the novel "Azazel" by the Egyptian writer Youssef Zeidan. The main character, traveling along the Nile, Sinai and Asia Minor, learns the world around him. Through the eyes of a young man, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Damascus and other great cities of the early Middle Ages and their sights are described. Being in the midst of historical events, a young Egyptian acquires skills of a doctor. He witnesses the murder of a female philosopher Hypatia by Christian fanatics. Fleeing from painful memories, the healer flees Africa in search of true Christianity to the homeland of Jesus, where he becomes a monk Hypa. Mentors help him cope with doubts, advising him to write down everything he has experienced. This is how Gipa's guide to the countries of Africa and Asia is born, at the same time the confession of a reasonable person tempted by passions. The methods of historical and systemic analysis used make it possible to compare the lives of worshippers of the Hellenic gods and the first Christians. The author concludes that due to the traditional genre of "rihla" for Arabic literature, that is, the spiritual wanderings of the hero, Zeidan creates a reliable multifaceted picture of the life of people of the fifth century AD and tries to reveal the essence of the personality of the monk Hipa against the background of historical realities and characters. The format of diaries filled with experiences helps to delve into the inner world of the pilgrim and fully reveal the psychology of the pilgrim. This genre, in addition to cognitive and entertainment functions, has acquired historical and psychological features.