Eleventh Twelfth Centuries Research Articles

The secret is quartz: technology of production of an eleventh-twelfth century western Mediterranean polychrome glazed ware

A group of a well-known polychrome glazed ceramic, widespread in the western Mediterranean in the eleventh and first half of the twelfth centuries, has been analysed for the first time using Optical Microscopy (OM) and a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) with Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), in order to shed some light on the materials, production technology and provenance, about which there are various hypotheses. This ware is characterised by a perfectly drawn and varied iconography, with often stylised zoomorphic and anthropomorphic and nautical motifs. It was produced in an as yet unidentified workshop in North Africa or the Iberian Peninsula. The pottery analysed was found in an archaeological excavation in the Barrio Andalusi of Almería (south-east of Spain). Technologically, the ceramics are fairly homogeneous, with copper-green and manganese-brown pigments applied over the raw tin glaze filled with large undissolved quartz particles. The use of quartz is consistent with a Fatimid-Zirid contribution from Ifriqiya, the use of tin is consistent with an Andalusi Umayyad-Taifas contribution, and the green and brown colours on a white ground to either Ifriqiya or Andalusi. Our study has shown that the use of quartz on the decorated glazed surface is not related to the need for an opacifier, but rather to the need for a highly viscous melt that limits the spread of the pigments during the firing allowing a finer and more detailed drawing. This fusion of different techniques has been identified for the first time. It is intriguing from the historical point of view of medieval technology, and provides the first insights into understanding the technological transfers and technical solutions that took place in the Mediterranean basin during this period.

Alexander the Great or Būrān-Dukht: who is the true hero of theDārāb-nāmaof Ṭarsūsī?

AbstractThis article presents a new reading of theDārāb-nāma(Book of Dārāb, ca. eleventh–twelfth century), a medieval popular narrative in prose (dāstān) ascribed to the storyteller Abū Ṭāhir Ṭarsūsī. While the narrative belongs to the Persian tradition of the Alexander romance, the Alexander figure it depicts bears little resemblance to that presented in high classical verse-forms by the likes of Firdawsī, Niẓāmī, Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī, or Jāmī. Although still a conqueror, legitimate ruler, and champion of Islam, the Alexander of theDārāb-nāmaappears in a strongly negative light: he is lame, cowardly, and sly. In fact, most of his success he owes to his once opponent and later wife, Būrān-dukht: could she be the true hero in the story? Drawing on a critical examination of characters based on Greimas's actantial model, this study probes the authorial program and intended audience of theDārāb-nāma, and suggests the work can be read as mock-epic, possibly to cater to a Zoroastrian audience.

Marianne Sághy and Robert G. Ousterhout, eds. Piroska and the Pantokrator: Dynastic Memory, Healing, and Salvation in Komnenian Constantinople

Marianne Sághy and Robert G. Ousterhout, eds. <i>Piroska and the Pantokrator: Dynastic Memory, Healing, and Salvation in Komnenian Constantinople</i>

Miro, King of the Suevi (d. 583), and ecclesiastical identities in northwestern Hispania (eleventh-twelfth centuries)

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to reveal aspects of the process of the writing of history and the reinvention of the religious past which became crucial strategic elements in the legitimisation of some of the most important ecclesiastical institutions of medieval Iberia. Focusing on two texts, the Historia Compostellana and the Chronicon Iriense, both produced in the diocese of Santiago de Compostela, and each fundamental in defending the rights and authority of this powerful Galician see, we analyse their portrayal of Miro, king of the Suevi (r. 570–583), to whom is attributed the ecclesiastical organisation of northwestern Hispania. Both texts present this king as a central figure of Galician political and religious identity. The rewriting in medieval Compostela of Miro’s history is shown to be a key element in the disputes between that diocese and other Iberian episcopates, namely Braga, Toledo, Mondoñedo and Lugo.

The Eleventh-Twelfth Century Silver Medallion from Nizhnii Arkhyz

This article analyses one of the few items of fine Christian plastic art originating from the territory of Alania. This round medallion with side loops and two-side image of saints was found in 1986 in Nizhnii Arkhyz, the capital of the Alan bishopric, in the area of the Northern Zelenchuk Church, in one of the four burials in cists. Currently, the medallion resides in the State Karachay-­Cherkessia Historical, Cultural, and Natural Museum Preserve (Cherkessk). The article supplies the description of the medallion and suggests that the images on its sides belong to SS Theodore Stratelates and Theodore Teron. This assumption seems preferable especially if one assumes that the person who ordered this medallion was called Theodore. This medallion was secondary used as pectoral pendant; it is more likely that initially it formed a part of wrist bracelet. Presumably, the medallion in the bracelet was made in a provincial city of the Byzantine Empire, whence it was delivered to Alania. Since direct parallels to the medallion in question are absent, only its large dating is possible as the eleventh or twelfth century.

How long and how strong must a climatic anomaly be in order to evoke a social transformation? Historical and contemporaneous case studies

In recent years, scholarly interest in the nexus between climate change and human societies has risen dramatically, and many researchers from different disciplines have begun studying the possible effects of climate change and climate anomalies on past and present societies. In this article, we join this lively debate, seeking to extend it by raising, and providing possible answers to, two fundamental questions: what type of climatic anomalies can undermine social stability? What duration and intensity are necessary to instigate structural change? When attempting to answer these questions, researchers tend to view short-term climatic events, such as storms or mudslides, as “unusual” events that instigate an “unusual” reality for temporary, and measurable, time periods. We argue, instead, that gradual and more “usual” climatic events, such as prolonged droughts or extended periods of untimely rains, impact societies in a more profound and “extraordinary” manner, and it is here that our paper meets the theme of the extraordinary and the usual, the axes of the current collection of essays. Based on qualitative examination of collapse periods in western Asia and northern China during the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, and a high-resolution re-examination of the crisis in Mali at the beginning of 2010, we argue that extended climate anomalies that cause decreases in the amount of available food are the anomalies that most affect the fate of human civilizations. While people can cope with short-term climate anomalies that cause periodical food crises, lasting a year or two, extended climate anomalies that affect the availability of food, like droughts, cold spells or untimely rains, can have disastrous, long-term effects: they accelerate decisive processes, push people to migrate outside their regions of residence, increase violence and religious extremism, and, ultimately, lead to structural changes in the societies that are affected by the crises.

The Early Judeo-Persian Manuscripts in the British Library and in the National Library of Russia

Abstract This article concerns a textual corpus of nine manuscripts written in Early Judeo-Persian. These manuscripts, which are preserved in the British Library and in the National Library of Russia, contain various exegetical works copied by the same group of scribes during the eleventh-twelfth centuries. This article attempts to demonstrate that these manuscripts were also composed in the same possibly-Karaite intellectual milieu, and not merely copied by the same scribes, using two criteria: similar exegetical explanations of the same biblical passages and the employment of Karaite-Hebrew terminology. Furthermore, the examination of these criteria reveals yet another common feature—the manuscripts’ affinity to the works of the tenth-century Karaite scholar Yefet ben ʿEli, which suggests either reliance on Karaite exegetical works written in Judeo-Arabic or a shared background.

Veche and the terms “All Pskov” and “Pskov Men”: The Russian Medieval City Assembly as a Communal Structure

The article focuses on the collective political institution, the veche, of the Russian medieval city of Pskov. The author argues that the horizontal political ties within that city prevailed over the vertical ones in the period before its subjugation to the Muscovite State in 1510. Pskov is put into a broad comparative perspective which results in the conclusion by the author that the development of Pskov in the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries very closely resembled that kind of urban synoecism which was practiced by Western European communes in their early stage of development (eleventh–twelfth centuries). It means, first, that the Russian Middle Ages repeated in some important features that which had occurred in Western Europe, and, second, that it happened not due to a borrowing of political institutions (as was the case with many East European countries) but independently because of similar conditions arising, albeit after a two-century delay.

Just a Song: Chinese Lyrics from the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries by Stephen Owen

Just a Song: Chinese Lyrics from the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries by Stephen Owen

ВІЧЕ У ПОМОРСЬКИХ СЛОВ’ЯН XI–XII ст. (до історіографії проблеми)

Background: The research on early medieval Pomerania (eleventh–twelfth centuries) and its assemblies discusses a variety of interpretations. Scholars explain veche and its place in the governance of the region based on their understanding of Slavic societies. Historians trace the development of Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages, analyze gradual transformation of its institutions. Recent studies use such concepts as segmentary structures and chiefdom as well as the newest archaeological material. Purpose: The goal of the article is to study the research on veche, particularly the most recent publications. Among them, the works of such historians and archaeologists as Piotr Boroс, Karol Modzelewski, Roman Zaroff, Michaі Tymowski, Michaі Kara, Przemysіaw Urbaсczyk, and others. The paper investigates their understanding of the place of assemblies in the governance of early medieval Pomerania as well as the appliance of such concepts as segmentary structures and chiefdom. Results: Pomeranian veche could be understood both as an element of the early medieval societies and as a way of collective decision-making. The article highlights various approaches to the study of veche, specifically the appliance of such concepts as segmentary structures and chiefdom. The paper investigates their usefulness for the research on early medieval Pomerania and its assemblies. The concepts of segmentary structures and chiefdom describe local communities and regional political formations, respectively. They help to distinguish a few levels of governance, to analyze relations between various parts of early medieval societies, and to trace integration as well as state formation processes. The future studies could continue the discussion about the appliance of different methodological approaches in research on well-known and fragmentary source material. Key words: veche, Pomerania, historiography, segmentary structures, chiefdom.

Local families, local allegiances: sigillography and autonomy in the eleventh-twelfth century Black Sea

Many studies of the medieval Black Sea address the importance of Byzantine imperial agency in facilitating economic and political exchange. However, few studies examine the limits of Byzantine statehood regarding trans-Black Sea local dynasts. This study, primarily utilizing sigillography, focuses on the eleventh-twelfth century notable families of Cherson and Trebizond in case studies, particularly the well-known Tzouloi and Gavrades: two cities and families famed for their respective local autonomies. How can seals uncover an otherwise hidden dimension of Byzantine sovereignty, or its contestation, which manifested itself across the Black Sea even before the emergence of the empire of Trebizond after 1204?

Salerno’s Lombard Prince: Johannes ‘Abbas de Curte’ as Medical Practitioner

Abstract This paper examines the state of medical learning and practitioner identity at the time Constantine the African arrived in Salerno, Italy. The author utilizes surviving early manuscripts of medical texts, documentary evidence, regional chronicles, and early Salernitan antidotaria to frame the identity and activity of a renowned practitioner, a member of the Lombard princely family, who continued after the Norman conquest to work as a practitioner and health administrator, and to serve both the region and the Norman-Lombard leadership. The author concludes that pharmacy, particularly interests in exotic substances from the East, was one of the driving forces behind the transformation of medicine in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries.

Just a Song: Chinese Lyrics from the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries by Stephen Owen

Just a Song: Chinese Lyrics from the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries by Stephen Owen

El imaginario de la repoblación de Ávila: la &lt;em&gt;Crónica de la Población&lt;/em&gt;, el &lt;em&gt;Epílogo&lt;/em&gt; y la &lt;em&gt;Segunda Leyenda&lt;/em&gt;

Esta contribución pretende mostrar e interpretar la imagen que ofrecieron acerca de la ciudad y sus habitantes las crónicas históricas de Ávila en los momentos clave de su repoblación por Alfonso VI y Raimundo de Borgoña a fines del siglo XI y principios del siglo XII. Específicamente interesa lo que se refiere a la instalación de colonos. Se analizan tres crónicas: la Crónica de la Población de Ávila, redactada en el siglo XIII; el Epílogo de Gonzalo de Ayora, escrito en la segunda década del siglo XVI; y la más tardía Segunda Leyenda. Los textos permiten descifrar los diferentes discursos sobre la organización de la sociedad pionera, el liderazgo de ciertos grupos sociales y su procedencia geográfica, así como valorar la orientación ideológica de las fuentes o los cambios derivados de haber incorporado recursos narrativos nuevos.

Buddhist Wall Paintings at Nako Monastery, North India: Changing of the Technology Throughout Centuries

ABSTRACTThe technical study of wall paintings from the Buddhist temple complex at Nako, Western Himalayas, was one of the basic preconditions required for designing an appropriate conservation strategy. The complex, composed of four temples from the eleventh–twelfth century, offered a unique possibility to carry out a comprehensive research of technology and painting materials used in early and later western Tibetan Buddhist wall paintings as well as a comparative assessment with murals from other sites in the Western Himalayas. The study was based on extensive fieldwork and an integrated analytical approach comprising a wide range of non-destructive and micro-destructive methods. Answering the question of the coevality of paintings in the smaller temples with other original murals, the precise characterisation of binding media, the detection of the yellow dye gamboge and natural minerals posnjakite and brochantite identified for the first time in Himalayan murals, the clarification of technology of metal decoration, and the making of raised elements are some of the most exciting results which emerged from the research.

Proprietary churches, episcopal authority and social relationships in the diocese of León (eleventh–twelfth centuries)

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the subordination of proprietary churches to the bishopric of León in the eleventh and twelfth centuries from a social perspective that considers the consolidation of episcopal authority in relation to the social dynamics operating at the local level. The transfer of proprietary churches to ecclesiastical authority was usually accomplished through donations that were part of a wider process of gift-giving and social bonding that in turn allowed the proprietors to obtain certain concessions. However, from the mid-eleventh century the emergence of a newly defined episcopal authority, in the context of the Gregorian Reform, gave new meaning to these practices and gave way to more coercive modalities of episcopal imposition over proprietary churches.

Livres de morale révélés par les dieux par Vincent Goossaert (review)

Livres de morale révélés par les dieux. Textes présentés, traduits et annotés par VINCENT GOOSSAERT. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2012. xliii, 200 pp. €29 (pb). ISBN 978-2-251-10011-1 This volume includes Vincent Goossaert’s French translations of eight “morality books” and a concise, but quite substantial, introduction. Morality books since early times have attracted the attention of sinologists, but they still remain understudied in China and abroad, despite their importance for the social, ethical, and religious life of this country from the twelfth century onwards. Livres de morale révélés par les dieux was published by the prestigious French publisher Les Belles Lettres in the series “Chinese Library” that consists of translations of Chinese classics. This book makes an important contribution to this corpus of translated sources, as morality books belong to the sphere of popular religiosity rather than elite literature and philosophy, mostly featured in this series. On the other hand, as morality books combine ethical values and concepts of all three major teachings of China, they contain rich material for the study of religious syncretism . Besides, they constituted an important part of popular religiosity in traditional China, as many these texts were distributed by educated philanthropists in the printed form among the broader public. As stated in the inscription of an illustration of Precious Manuscript of the Jade Registers (Yuli baochao 玉歷寶鈔), printed by Jinzhang Publishers in Shanghai (1920), reproduced in this volume (but not translated), dissemination of morality books was considered to be the supreme act of charity in China, as “distribution of food and clothes will save people only for a short time, while dissemination of morality books can give them salvation in this reincarnation” (p. 182, fig. 24). As noted by Goossaert, “morality books” denote a quite broad category of texts that are considerably different in terms of their form, language, and contents, their common feature being a special emphasis on the law of retribution and divine response to human behavior. This law is defined in the very first sentence of Treatise of the Exalted One on Response and Retribution (Taishang ganying pian 太上感應 篇, ca. eleventh–twelfth centuries), considered to be the earliest and the most often printed morality book: “Disaster and fortune do not appear on their own; they are provoked by men themselves. Retribution for good and bad deeds will follow just as shadows follow the figure” (p. 5). The texts selected by Goossaert for translation are quite varied in period of composition , volume, form, and contents; his goal was obviously to make this selection as representative as possible. These texts are the Treatise of the Exalted One on Response and Retribution; Text on Lord Wenchang’s Invisible Reward (Wenchang dijun yinzhiwen 文昌帝君陰騭文, ca. early seventeenth century); True Scripture of Sage Lord Guan that Awakens the World (Guan sheng dijun jueshi zhenjing 關聖 帝君覺世真經, ca. end of the seventeenth century); Ledger of Merits and Demerits of the Immortal Lord of Great Subtlety (Taiwei xianjun gongguoge 太微仙君功過 格, 1171); Exhortations Bequeathed by the Great Lord of Dark Heaven from Wudang Mountain (Wudangshan xuantian shangdi chui xunwen 武當山玄天上帝 垂訓文, dated to 1302); Text Exhorting the World by the Empress of the Bushel of Perfect Light (Yuanming doudi quanshiwen 圓明斗帝勸世文, ca. end of the seventeenth–early eighteenth century); True Scripture of the Patriarch Lü that Awakens the Heart (Lüzu xingxin zhenjing 呂祖醒心真經, preface dated to 1707); 204 REVIEWS and Precious Manuscript of the Jade Registers. The last text is claimed to be a revelation of the Song dynasty, but was dated to ca. sixteenth–seventeenth century by Japanese scholars; its earliest extant editions date back to the beginning of the nineteenth century (p. 102). The volume includes the original Chinese texts on facing pages, numerous comments, and introductions to each text that summarize the history of their creation, transmission, and social background. In spite of the numerous differences between these texts, there are certain common features that bring all of them together. Firstly, they are claimed to be revealed by popular deities of the Chinese pantheon and represent a common form of communication between deities and humans in Chinese popular religion. These texts contain many details of the cults of these deities. Secondly, there are...

The Use of Persian in Monumental Epigraphy from Ghazni (Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries)

Archaeological investigations in Ghazni, the ancient capital city of the Ghaznavid dynasty (late 10th-12th c.), delivered a large corpus of monumental inscriptions. Official and religious texts are executed in Arabic, though many occurrences attest to the epigraphic use of Persian. Presented in this paper are some preliminary analyses concerning Ghaznavid inscriptions in Persian, their alleged chronology and function. This overview reveals that, in all likelihood, the tradition of decorating buildings with Persian epigraphy had developed in Ghazni since the early 11th century. Persian seems to be particularly used for inscribing poetic texts, which allow us to highlight the Ghaznavid contribution to the development of an artistic tradition destined to persist in the eastern Islamic lands.

Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary and Poland c.900--c.1300

1. Introduction 2. The history of the region and the question of origins 3. The formation of polities and Christianization 4. Political life and government c.1050-c.1200 5. Society and the economy, eleventh-twelfth centuries 6. Ecclesiastical history, eleventh-thirteenth centuries 7. New developments of the thirteenth century Select bibliography.

Глава 3. Консолидация новых политических систем: Государственное строительство в Северной Евразии (XI−XIII вв.)

Chapter 3 of the history course A New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia is titled “Consolidation of New Political Systems: State Building in Northern Eurasia, Eleventh–Twelfth Centuries.” It focuses on simultaneous developments in three regions of the continent. The Rous Land evolved into a loose commonwealth of principalities exploring different political strategies, and united just by a common religion, the language of high culture, and the legal norms. To the west, in the South Baltics, political self-organization of the Lithuanian land (a confederation of Slavic- and Baltic-speaking tribes) radically offset the existing balance of power. Lithuanians were drawn into the political system and culture of the Rous Land, gradually absorbing its western territories. The effect of Lithuanians’ raids against their pagan neighbors in the Baltic was the triggering of military colonization of the region by German pilgrims. Across the continent, the revolution of steppe politics by Genghis Khan brought about a new type of autochthonous polity built as an ultimate war machine. Both the emerging Mongol empire in the steppes and the rising Lithuanian “forest monarchy” succeeded in consolidating multicultural local populations, just as the Rous Land had done one or two centuries earlier.