Eleventh Century Research Articles

Penance, Murder, and the Sanctity of Close Kinship in Early Medieval England and Francia

ABSTRACT Many secular and ecclesiastical texts from early medieval England and Francia between the ninth and eleventh centuries show that in these societies, the killing of kin was treated as a distinct, and far more severe, offence than the killing of non-relatives. This article explores the differences in the treatment of these offences, demonstrating that there was a substantial social aversion to the killing of relatives among contemporaries, and considers some of the reasons for this reaction. It is also argued that the example of killing one’s kin reveals important details about the conceptualisation of kinship in English and Frankish societies more widely: notably that bonds of close kinship were considered to possess a distinctly sacred element to them, and that this marked ties of close kinship out as different from other kinds of social bonds.

Fearsome Game, Popular Meat, Symbolic Wealth: Human-Pig Relations in Pre-Islamic Java

Abstract The Indonesian island of Java has been at the center of the world’s oldest interactions between humans and pigs. This article scrutinizes the complexities of human-pig relations through premodern texts. Philology remains uncommon in studying the past of nonhuman animals, yet its insights are highly relevant. Old Javanese poems and inscriptions differentiate two species: the Javan warty pig and the Eurasian wild pig. Both influenced human societies, including in the realm of religion, class, and gender. The textual record further reveals that pigs were regularly hunted and consumed by elites and commoners alike, and also played a role in rituals. Full domestication can be dated to the eleventh century and apparently coincided with urbanization and growing population density. By that time, pigs had come to symbolize wealth, as seen from Java’s unique piggybanks. Yet wild populations of pigs persisted and their aggression and fighting skills were both feared and respected.

INDIA FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BIRUNI AND V.S. NAIPAUL

This study is based on a comparison of two works on India, one by Biruni, who lived and wrote about India nearly a thousand years ago, and one by V.S. Naipaul, who lived in the twenty-first century. The first work, Kitâb’ut-Tahkîk ma li’l-Hind, written by Biruni, was written in Arabic in the first quarter of the eleventh century to help Muslims living among Hindus in different regions such as Sindh, Punjab, Kabul and Ghazni. The work was edited by Edward Sachau in the early 1880s and translated into German (1883-1884) and English (1887-1888) under the title Al-Beruni’s India; both the Arabic edition and the translations were published in the West in those years. An Arabic edition of the book, based on the copy in the Paris National Library, was published in Hyderabad in 1958 with the help of the Indian Ministry of Education. On September 30, 1932, Kıvameddin Burslan translated the work into Turkish, but due to various reasons, it was published only in 2015. Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul, on the other hand, has written three travel books on India and in these works, which are based on his travels to the country in 1964, 1977 and 1990, he refers to India as a dark, wounded and rebellious civilization respectively. With the publication of his books, Naipaul, himself of Hindu descent, was severely criticized for his views on India, Indians and non-Western societies and cultures, which went far beyond criticism, and caused intense debates. The most obvious conclusion that emerges from the comparative analysis of the works of both authors is that Biruni, despite being a Muslim, is extremely tolerant and objective in his approach to India, Hindu culture, traditions, and belief system, while Naipaul's approach, on the contrary, is far from tolerance and extremely biased.

Exploring the provenance of a Byzantine excavated assemblage of textile and leather finds by the application of instrumental analysis

Stereomicroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM–EDS), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy with Attenuated Total Reflectance probe (FTIR-ATR), High Performance Liquid Chromatography with a Photodiode Array system (HPLC–PDA), X-ray Fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), and 14C dating were applied to an assemblage of textile and leather fragments that belong to the collection of the Byzantine & Christian Museum of Athens in Greece and lacked inventory information.The analyses applied, along with bibliographical research, yielded information on the materials, techniques and provenance of the find. The assemblage of finds consists of a gold thread embroidered silk satin, dyed with shellfish-purple; a gold strip-drawn wire embroidered silk tabby; a gold strip-drawn wire and red silk thread tapestry; a gold-thread embroidery on a tabby background; fragments of braided cord; and leather fragments. The material components could have been produced locally, in the area of the Byzantine Empire, though some of them indicate connections with India and/or China. The assemblage, dated between the mid AD 10th and mid eleventh century, was probably found in 1924 by Andreas Xygopoulos during the excavation of a tomb inside the church of Agia Sophia in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Changing Jewish Pilgrimage Sites in the Galilee Region during the Medieval Period

Abstract: Four reasons led to the change of the main Jewish pilgrimage sites in Galilee from ʿAraba and Dalata to Meron during the twelfth century. The Jewish population abandoned ʿAraba and the community of Dalata declined. During the eleventh century, pilgrims from the Diaspora preferred to participate in a central annual event on the Mount of Olives, organized by the Yeshiva of the Land of Israel, which simulated pilgrimage to the temple. During the twelfth century, the Jewish regional center in the Upper Galilee region had shifted from Jish to Safed. Consequently, the main regional pilgrimage shrine changed from Dalata to Meron. The pilgrimage to Meron was a result of the Frankish ban on Jewish presence in Jerusalem and the Frankish takeover of important shrines venerated by Jews outside the Galilee region. Abstract: Four reasons led to the change of the main Jewish pilgrimage sites in Galilee from ʿAraba and Dalata to Meron during the twelfth century. The Jewish population abandoned ʿAraba and the community of Dalata declined. During the eleventh century, pilgrims from the Diaspora preferred to participate in a central annual event on the Mount of Olives, organized by the Yeshiva of the Land of Israel, which simulated pilgrimage to the Temple. During the twelfth century, the Jewish regional center in the Upper Galilee region had shifted from Jish to Safed. Consequently, the main regional pilgrimage shrine changed from Dalata to Meron. The pilgrimage to Meron was a result of the Frankish ban on Jewish presence in Jerusalem and the Frankish takeover of important shrines venerated by Jews outside the Galilee region.

Consecrating the Peripheral: On the Ritual, Iconographic, and Spatial Construction of Sui-Tang Buddhist Corridors

The corridor-enclosed cloister characterized Buddhist monasteries during the Sui and Tang periods. This architectural form was first introduced by Emperor Liang Wudi from the palace and continued to prevail until the eleventh century, when a gradual transformation occurred, resulting in the corridor evolving into a long, narrow image hall. This paper examines the ritual and pictorial programs of the Sui-Tang Buddhist corridor to gain insight into this transformation and its ceremonial significance. Specifically, it explores how the corridor was empowered by the state-sponsored maigre feast as a place of worship and how the monastic community of a particular school appropriated the space to celebrate an unbroken dharma-transmission lineage from the Buddha to a specific group of Chinese patriarchs. Lastly, the paper aims to comprehend the adaptation of the corridor into an image hall, which was influenced by political and religious shifts in the eleventh century when Buddhist monasteries were no longer designated as the ritual arena for the state-sponsored maigre feast.

Os documentos do palimpsesto de Santa Sofia di Benevento (século XI) estudados através da técnica de “imagem multiespectral”

Although the palimpsests codes are not longer a rarity, the rescripti documents are still very rare. It was the practice of reusing parchments already written, then erased and subjected to a particular treatment, for the purpose of recycling for the preparation of a new document. The study in question examines the parchments of Santa Sofia di Benevento and the conspicuous dossier consisting of documents concerning the monastery of Sant’Angelo di Ariano. The membranes examined for this study are twenty-two (twenty-one have double palimpsests, while one is triple), for a total of forty-five documents, all relating to the eleventh century. The new multispectral imaging technique has allowed the identification of new occurrences relating to the sofiano parchment background, through the experimentation of multispectral digital photography and the digital manipulation of dissected images, able to bring out, in their clarity, the traces of the writings no longer visible either to the naked eye, or through the classic use of the Wood Lamp; this new photographic technique allows the isolation and separation of one or more levels of writing.

Carolingian After-Images: Hariulf’s History of St Riquier and Its Context

ABSTRACT Hariulf’s History of St Riquier is usually consulted for detail on liturgical, architectural and political history, but is rarely considered in its entirety. It was written in the changing and competitive world of the late eleventh century, when there were challenges for established communities, both in terms of innovative approaches to monasticism and the emergence of new political entities and potential patrons. In the past that Hariulf creates St Riquier had been the focal point of Ponthieu for generations and had stood the test of time as the conduit of royal patronage and liberality, symbolised by its great Carolingian church built by Abbot Angilbert. It remained, in Hariulf’s view, a centre of monastic excellence, whose abbots responded to and practised contemporary spirituality, and it had adopted strategies to strengthen its position, including care for its patrimony, securing new relics and memorialising its past.

A Medieval Islamic Astrolabe with Hebrew Inscriptions in Verona

Abstract This article presents a hitherto unknown remarkable astrolabe from Al-Andalus which likely belonged to the collection of Ludovico Moscardo (1611–1681) assembled in Verona in the seventeenth century. The astrolabe is datable to the eleventh century and features added Hebrew and Latin inscriptions. It underwent many modifications, additions, and adaptations as it changed hands and owners over time thus becoming a palimpsest object. With its added translations from Arabic into Hebrew, the astrolabe closely recalls the recommendations prescribed by the Spanish Jewish polymath Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089–1167) in the earliest surviving treatise on the astrolabe in the Hebrew language written in 1146 precisely in Verona. The astrolabe—today preserved in the Fondazione Museo Miniscalchi-Erizzo—stands out as a testimony to the contacts and exchanges among Arabs, Jews and Europeans in the medieval and early modern periods.

A socio-environmental analysis of contemporary modifications to Algerian Mzab traditional houses

ABSTRACT Algerian Mzab traditional houses, using passive techniques since the eleventh century (from 1012 to 1882), have seen recent modifications. Analysis of 612 questionnaires and interviews with Mzab residents reveals 81.2% of these houses have been modified. Modifications include adding floors, thinning walls, and replacing lime with cement, driven by the need for space, ventilation, and modernisation. However, such modifications often increase energy consumption, with residents requiring more heating in winter and air conditioning in summer. This reliance on fossil fuels exacerbates regional climate insecurity. Planting roof terraces and using high-insulation building materials can reduce energy consumption in modified Mzab houses.

Comparative study: enhancing legibility of ancient Indian script images from diverse stone background structures using 34 different pre-processing methods

In recent times, there has been a proactive effort by various institutions and organizations to preserve historic manuscripts as repositories of traditional knowledge and cultural heritage. Leveraging digital media and emerging technologies has proven to be an efficient way to safeguard these invaluable documents. Such technologies not only facilitate the extraction of knowledge from historic manuscripts but also hold promise for global applications. However, transforming inscribed stone artifacts into binary formats presents significant challenges due to angle distortion, subtle differences between foreground and background, background noise, variations in text size, and related issues. A pivotal aspect of effective image processing in preserving the rich information and wisdom encoded in stone inscriptions lies in employing appropriate pre-processing methods and techniques. This research paper places a special focus on elucidating various preprocessing techniques, encompassing resizing, grayscale conversion, enhancement of brightness and contrast, smoothening, noise removal, morphological operations, and thresholding. To comprehensively assess these techniques, we undertake a study involving stone inscription images extracted from the Tanjore Brihadeeswar Temple, dating back to the eleventh century during the reign of Raja Raja Chola. This choice is informed by the manifold challenges associated with image correction, such as distortion and blurring. We undertake an evaluation encompassing a diverse array of stone background structures, including types like flawless-bright-moderately legible, dark-illegible, flawless-bright-illegible, flawless-dull, flawless-irregular-moderate, highly impaired-dark-legible, highly impaired-irregular-illegible, impaired-dark-moderate, impaired-dull-moderately legible, impaired-dusky dark-moderate, and very impaired-dusky dark-legible. Subsequently, the processed outputs are subjected to character recognition and information extraction, with a focus on comparing the outcomes of various pre-processing methods, including binarization and grayscale conversion. This study seeks to contribute insights into the most effective pre-processing strategies for enhancing the legibility and preservation of ancient Indian script images etched onto diverse stone background structures.

NONREDUCTIVE THEORIES OF SENSE-PERCEPTION IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF KALĀM

AbstractIn this article, I will argue that various scholars of kalām unanimously agree that sense-perception is something beyond the physical processes in the sense organs. There may be something happening in our eyes when we see a red apple, but seeing a red apple is not tantamount to it. We will see that some scholars of kalām argue that sense-perception is akin to being aware or conscious of the object of perception, and, hence, distinct from the physical process in the sense organs. One group will go so far as to accept that sense-perception is not even dependent on any physical processes in the body. Another group will accept that sense-perception presupposes that various physical conditions obtain, yet still regard sense-perception as something distinct from the occurrence of those conditions. I am suggesting that these nonreductive theories of sense-perception are the reason why Arabic-Islamic philosophers, starting from the eleventh century CE, consistently reject the Aristotelian-Avicennian theory of sense-perception.

Three Early Islamic Stelae Found in the Malay Archipelago and Its Artistic Relation with the Eastern Islamic World

This study examined the decorative elements present on three early Islamic stelae – the Champa Pillar (1035CE), Putri Makhdarah’s tombstone (1048CE) and Fatimah’s tombstone (1082CE) – which were found in the Malay Archipelago and dated to the eleventh century CE. These objects are of tremendous significance as they are the earliest Islamic evidence in Southeast Asia that indicates Muslim presence in the region. Regrettably, although is it acknowledged that one of the earliest cultural influences that spread towards the Malay Archipelago is Persian, the artistic dimensions of the stelae are rarely discussed in terms of its influence and connection with the eastern Islamic lands after the Muslim conquest in the seventh century CE. This is because previous studies are more concerned with the inscription and material from the archaeological, historical and palaeographic approach rather than art history. Therefore, this study adopted the art historical method where the analysis concerned the development and influence of the Islamic art in the region. Based on the analysis, it was discovered that these stelae have connections in terms of their artistic repertoire, format, type and context of certain motifs used with the ones found in the eastern Islamic lands, namely Iran and Transoxiana. This connection is particularly evident in the type of calligraphy used, involving round script and foliated Kufic, as well as the use of lamp motif (misbah) in mihrab images. Both have been found to be extensively used in Iran and Transoxiana for tombstones, gravestones, mausoleums, commemorative texts and Quranic manuscripts, contemporary with the development of Islamic art in the region. Hence, the findings from this analysis indicate that the source of Islamic decorative elements used by the Malays in their Islamic art stemmed from Iran and Transoxiana and was heavily rooted in the Turco-Persian influence since the coming of Islam to Southeast Asia.

Presunta "chiesa biabsidata" nel monastero di San Venerio sull’isola del Tino (SP)

The origin of medieval churches with two apses has long been a matter of investigation. Upon the rocky isle of Tino, emerging from the gulf of Spezia, once a monastery under the title of San Venerio did stand. Today, its area preserves ruins believed to belong to a double-apse church. Previous studies had possibly detected a single-hall church, dating back to the sixth or seventh century, to which a second nave should have been added during the ninth century. In consideration of such early dates, it was claimed that the monument was the prototype of double-apse churches across the old diocese of Luni. New excavations carried out in 2021 and 2022 by the Archaeological Superintendence of Genoa and La Spezia have led to a significant revision of the Tino’s complex. First, the architectural plan does not provide evidence of any double-apse church. Furthermore, the masonry suggests the first half of the eleventh century. Remarkably enough, in that period, some descendants of the Marquis Obertus invited a monastic community to settle on the renewed island. Therefore, the structure in question may have been a commemorative chapel (memoria), erected by the Benedictines to mark the supposed place of hermitage and death of Venerius: a respected Saint whose cult the monks wanted to be revived in the interest of themselves and their supporters.

Добыча и обработка камня в средневековом городе на плато Эски-Кермен

Archaeological researches at the plateau of Eski-Kermen has recorded the traces of large-scale construction works carried out when the castle was built in the late sixth century and later, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, when several homesteads in the town quarters were demolished and small aisleless churches were erected at their places. The urban building was directly connected with stone-mining and stone-working. The most noticeable traces of ashlar-mining on the plateau appear in the sites between the three marches of the ascension road to the main gate of the town, which is carved into the bedrock of the south-western slope of the table mountain. The traces of work on the ashlars from the ruined buildings suggest the use of a pick, adze, simple and toothed chisel by local stonemasons. Mediaeval stonemasons also put special cross-shaped marks on the stones to indicate the batch of building materials prepared for the church construction. The living conditions in the castle and, later, in the town at the rocky plateau forced the local inhabitants to learn the skills of stone-working, as the mining and working of stone was in permanent need for the building and reconstruction of economic rooms, artificial caves, carving of graves, and making of household implements, such as the lids for pythoi and water-trough for livestock. Centuries-long life on the rocks probably developed a guild of professional stonemasons, or λάτομοι, in the town, who mined and dressed stone and passed on their skills from generation to generation. More complex work with stone, such as the making of architectural details and carving of decorations, wee plausibly done in specialised workshops (έργαλεΐον τους πελεκάνους) located outside the town, most likely near the quarries. The identification of the sites of these workshops in the south-western Crimea is a subject for the future research.

‘From all quarters of the Indian world’: the temple at Rameshvaram, Hindu kings, and Dutch merchants

AbstractOn Rameshvaram island in the south-east corner of India lies one of Hinduism's most important temples—the Rāmanāthasvāmi, one of the four dhams (‘holy abodes’) and the site of two Śiva-liṅgas said to have been consecrated by Rāma himself. A temple has existed here since at least the eleventh century, although most of the present temple dates to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the island was protected by the Setupati rulers of nearby Ramnad. In several of the long corridors and halls for which this temple is famous are brightly painted life-sized standing images of over 100 male figures attached to columns. Though such images are characteristic of many south Indian temples from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there are far more at Rameshvaram than at any other south Indian temple. This article examines the number, location, and significance of these numerous standing images within this temple. By exploring the significance of the temple as a long-standing site for the royal performance of devotion, this article seeks to address whether the great number and identity of the life-sized donor images can be explained by both Purāṇic ideas of kingship and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch observations of the pan-Indian status of the temple.

Battle as a sacred game


 In my research, I propose a linguistic approach to skaldic praise poetry pursued and explained in the framework of Eugeniu Coseriu´s text linguistics. My study aims to demonstrate the different degrees of integration of battle’s proper meaning, from a calculated strategy in pre-Christian poems, to performing a sacred game in later Christian skaldic poems and eventually to the insertion in a ready-made structure as a unit of repeated speech. Considering kenning metaphors as sequences of repeated speech, I will also investigate to what extent the idiocultural class of battle, employed in some biblical circumstances (1 Corinthians 9:24.26; 2 Timothy:2-5; 2 Timothy 4-7, etc.), suggests a cultural model engaged in a semantic tension with the old Norse setting of the eleventh century. In my study, I will identify and discuss the sequences of repeated speech (kennings) which designate the battle and I will clarify these tensions. Taking the theory of repeated speech as a point of departure, the discussion of these issues will be structured around three types of kennings for battle: battle is storm, battle is senna (fierce verbal duels), battle is a game to play.

Débats sur le filioque – « La pomme de la discorde » entre les traditions orientales et occidentales

"Debates on the Filioque - “The Apple of Discord” between Eastern and Western Traditions. The Filioque issue is still a major problem between East and West traditions on the path of ecumenism. Theologically speaking, the Filioque is the “iceberg” that rises in the rough seas of the Church of God – Εκκλησία του Θεού to slow down the initiatives for Christian unity. The Nicene-Constantinople Credo says: Καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον, τὸ κύριον, τὸ ζῳοποιόν, τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, formula defended in the East, in its most rigorous sense, by Gregory of Palamas, while from the eleventh century are emerging in the Western Creed the expression: et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum and vivificantem: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit, formula defended especially by Thomas Aquinas. The theme of this paper will focus on the reception of a text of Athanasius of Alexandria (298/299-373), which allows us to argue both positions biblically and theologically. Keywords: Athanase, Filioque, Trinite, œcuménisme, dogmatique, théologie, Symbole."

Investigating Antiquity

Abstract In China, antiquarianism or jinshixue, literally the “study of bronze and stone,” is first used to describe the activity of studying historical artifacts in texts of the eleventh century. The modern Chinese term for archaeology—kaoguxue, “investigating antiquity”—on the other hand, is a term borrowed from the title of a catalog of collectibles by Song scholar Lü Dalin (1046–1092). The aim of this article is to retrace the formation of the concept of archaeology that developed from antiquarian traditions to its reintroduction to China from Japan as an approximation to the phenomenon of modern field archaeology at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Przeklęty pastorał i błogosławiony habit, czyli dlaczego Anzelm z Lukki nie chciał być biskupem

Cursed crosier and blessed habit: why did Anselm of Lucca not want to be a bishop? Vita Anselmi is a hagiographic piece that presents the life of Anselm, Bishop of Lucca and close collaborator of Pope Gregory VII. The Vita was written shortly after the bishop’s death, probably in 1087, and serves as an important source of information about the Gregorian party in Tuscany and Lombardy. The author is anonymous, but we know that he lived at the court of Matilda of Canossa and was very familiar with the mentality and ideas of the countess’ entourage. In one of the most significant passages of the text the author writes that in 1075 Anselm, tormented by having received investiture with the ring and crosier from the king, left the Bishopric of Lucca and retired to a monastery. Historians who have studied the Vita (C. Violante, E. Pásztor, K. Cushing, P. Golinelli) believe in the veracity of this account; in their opinion Anselm realised that he would be unworthily elevated to episcopal office after the Lateran Synod of 1075, at which he had promulgated a decree against lay investiture. The research of some German scholars (R. Schieffer, J. Englberger) and the analysis of other sources make us understand, however, not only that the Roman Synod had not prohibited investiture “de manu regis” but also that it was by Gregory’s will that Anselm received the episcopacy from Henry IV. The Bishop of Lucca, therefore, must have renounced his office for other reasons. The aim of the paper is to find the real reason for his abdication. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to answer to a more general question: why did some reforming bishops of the eleventh century want to renounce episcopacy? The answer can be found in the letters of Peter Damian, who also asked the pope to be allowed to abandon his episcopal see.