Fourteenth Fifteenth Centuries Research Articles

О некоторых особенностях конструкции и покроя хулагуидских, чагатайских и тимуридских пластинчато-нашивных и пластинчато-клепанных доспехов XIV–XV вв.

Introduction. The paper considers body armor patterns with hidden plates worn by warriors of Hulaguid Iran, Chagatai Ulus, and the Timurid Empire. In contemporary weapon studies, such armor is known as ‘kuyak’ or ‘brigandine’. Goals. The study aims at identifying features of design and cut inherent to some types of Hulaguid, Chagatai and Timurid ‘kuyaks’ from the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries. Results. Comparative insights into archaeological and graphic materials yield a hypothesis there may have existed a special variety of combined ‘kuyaks’ with some plates riveted and some sewn to an organic backing on the inside. Such armor garments could have been used by warriors of Hulaguid Iran in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth centuries. From a historical perspective, such armors could be a variation between thirteenth-century armor garments with sewn-in plates and — ‘brigandines’ with riveted-in plates of the subsequent era. Our comprehensive analysis of written and graphic data also concludes that the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Transoxiana, Khorasan and adjacent territories were characterized by a widespread occurrence of special plated-and-riveted armors combining an armored torso part and a long unarmored skirt. The unusual design resulted from the appearance and spread of a new mail-and-plate hip defense element referred to as ‘dyzlyq-butluq’, which made the heavy armored Central Asian skirts not that relevant. In view of the armors’ distribution area, they can be labeled as ‘Timurid-type kuyaks’. Conclusions. The replacement of ‘Timurid-type’ armors (with riveted-in plates) from combat practices of Central Asian peoples was caused by a change in the local military-cultural tradition in the aftermath of collapses of the Timurid states throughout the early sixteenth century.

A Reappraisal of the Genoese Walls of Galata (Fourteenth–Fifteenth Centuries) in Terms of Medieval Building Techniques and Masonry Traditions

A Reappraisal of the Genoese Walls of Galata (Fourteenth–Fifteenth Centuries) in Terms of Medieval Building Techniques and Masonry Traditions

Caffa as Thalassopoliteia: The Genesis of the Civic “Maritime Identity” in a Late Medieval City

In this article, the author deals with the formation of Caffa by the end of the fourteenth century as the leading thalassopoliteia in the Black Sea region, when the head of the city of Caffa became “the ruler of the whole Black Sea” at the same time. The author refers to Liber Gazariae (1341), Caffa’s Statuta (1316, 1449), Caffa’s notarial acts from the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries, Massaria Caffae 1381, 1424, Italian pilot charts, Byzantine periploi from the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries, Italian nautical charts from the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries, and materials of archaeological excavations in Feodosia port. Following the study, the author reveals the essence of the thalassopoliteia of Caffa in the pre-modern world which involved the establishment of Caffa’s territorial power over the entire coastline of the Crimean Peninsula in the form of the “Great Chora”; control over maritime communications, requirements of obligatory calls to the port of Caffa for all vessels sailing the Black Sea; creation of a maritime logistics network in the form of ports, harbours, berths, and anchorages for the export of local products, which was served by ships, loaders, and the metrological service of Caffa’s port; introduction of the semaphore signaling system within the “Great Chora” of Caffa ensuring safety of navigation in the Black Sea; neutralisation of piracy, corsairing, and maritime actions of hostile countries, reimbursement of damages to affected citizens of Caffa; creation of a naval chain of fortresses and fortifications with locations of fast-moving battle triremes; development of shipbuilding and ship repair infrastructure both in the port of Caffa and in its subordinate ports; formation of the institution of Caffa’s thalassopoliteia, a special “maritime identity”, the birth of the idea of “contract with the sea”.

Heinrich Wittenwilers ›Ring‹ als Krisenexperiment: Erwartung und Störung didaktischer Kommunikation

Heinrich Wittenwilers ›Ring‹ als Krisenexperiment: Erwartung und Störung didaktischer Kommunikation

The Water-Use of Mining Towns and Their Villages in Medieval Hungary: The Example of Kremnica

The paper addresses the long-term impact of mining towns and the villages under the authority of these towns on the waterscapes in the northern mining area of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary (presentday Slovakia). The paper focuses on the privileging practices of the settlers of villages founded by burghers of a medieval mining town, Kremnica. The paper argues that analysing Kremnica’s practice in settling the towns’ surroundings may on the one hand shed light on the privileges of the settlers of the town itself, and on the other, be crucial to understanding a previously neglected environmental impact of mining in pre-modern times. The paper argues that while charters of privilege provided to mining towns seldom refer to the freedom to exploit water, the towns’ settlers did use the waterways to their benefit. In arguing for this the paper discusses the freedoms of the settlers’ villages of Kremnica in the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries. The freedom of settlers – or the leading of the settling process – led to an increased pressure on waterways in mining town areas that had lasting consequences on the landscapes of these regions.

Дюрбе конца XIV – на­чала XV вв. в Солхате (новые материалы)

Research objectives: To present data about a newly discovered architectural monument of the Golden Horde’s Solkhat/Krym. Research materials: As the result of excavations of the medieval settlement of Solkhat in 2018–2019, we have revealed an unknown archaeological object – a türbe (mausoleum) belonging to the Islamic community of the town. The research materials contain architectural measurements and plans, a description and analysis of the burial structures, along with data on coins and other finds, including female jewelry found in one of the burials. Results and novelty of the research: During archaeological surveys in 2018 in the southeastern part of the Golden Horde’s Solkhat, not far from the modern reservoir, a new archaeological object was discovered and identified as a medieval Muslim mausoleum (türbe). As a result of the 2018–2019 excavations, it was found that it is a ruined structure, preserved at the level of the lower rows of the foundation. The plan of the mausoleum is based on a rectangle oriented to the cardinal directions. The structure consists of two parts – the southern which is the entrance and the northern which contains the actual tombs (gurkhan). In the northern part of the türbe at the floor level, two burial underground chambers were discovered: burial 1, constructed of square Golden Horde bricks, and burial 2, constructed of rubble stones. The first female burial contained fragments of architectural details and a pair of golden earrings with a translucent sub-square inlay. The design features of the earrings indicate a style distinctive to Central Asia and China. The gender of the buried individual is confirmed by anthropological analysis. The second burial is a collective one, with bone remains of at least three individuals, two of them being males. According to the numismatic finds, the mausoleum dates to the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. The presence of female jewelry among the funeral inventory of burial 1 formally contradicts the traditions of Islamic funeral rites. Apparently, gold earrings, mar­king the social status of the deceased (among other details of clothing that have not reached us), indicate the persistent preservation of traces of steppe traditions.

Construire une mémoire urbaine : Les cartulaires municipaux bordelais et libournais (xive-xve siècle)

The elaboration of the Bordeaux and Libourne cartularies (Livre des Bouillons, ms. AA3 - Livre des Coutumes, Livre Velu) converged with the desire to build an urban memory enhancing community identity and emphasizing the relationship of these municipalities with the English Crown, whose codices legally and historically justify the power over Guyenne, with a view to legitimize the source of the rights and privileges obtained. The turn of the fourteenth-fifteenth century, the period when the Bordeaux cartularies were created, seems to have been the time of communal affirmation in Guyenne, concomitant with memory construction. The Libourne Livre Velu belongs to a second phase of this movement, to be compared with the tensions following the French victory of 1453. Strategies were developped to implement the memory construction, touching, first, on the content of the collections : insertion of the History of Cenebrun in each of them, construction of a textual historical-memorial set in the ms. AA3, Livre des Coutumes, sacralizing and juristic ensemble in the Livre Velu, account of the transmission of Guyenne in the Livre des Bouillons. In addition, it appeared necessary for the sponsoring aldermen to mark, by different means, the status of community monument and memorial of these codices, thus differentiating them from the other urban books that they could produce (account books, aldermen register, etc.). To do this, they gave them an imposing materiality, in size or in volume, and sometimes original (hairy cover, broths), coupled with great care taken in their realization, which reads in homogeneity, real or apparent, their form (notebooks, layout, ceremonial letters, etc.). Their structures, finally, were intensely thought through upstream of the design, in order to consolidate their documentary content (thematic, geographic - even political, concentric organization). Among the diversity of the acts and collections kept in these communes, the cartularies are thus distinguished mainly by the strategies implemented in order to confer them a statute of community monument vector of the municipal memory, as well in legal matter (ms. AA3), that political (Livre des Bouillons and Livre Velu), based in part on selected historical arguments, sometimes mythical, serving the municipal objectives. If loyalty to England, the source of municipal power and community rights, is common, Bordeaux and Libourne are attached to distinct identities, which are their own : city of merchands origin became capital of the duchy for one, town of merchands, sacred for its relation to religion for the second. The emphasis was thus placed, in Bordeaux, on the political power of the commune (and its hierarchical superiority in the duchy), while Libourne, without excluding the political aspect of its cartulary, endeavored to defend its economic prosperity and focused more on defining his community.

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.

Soap Bars and Silk Cocoons: Microecologies of Connectivity in Late Medieval Mediterranean Architecture

Abstract This article discusses connectivity in late medieval Mediterranean architecture from a microecological point of view, as initially formulated by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell. Combining their approach with Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, it argues that Ottoman multipurpose buildings of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries operated as architectures of governmentality on a microecological level. Their composite architectures became relevant and meaningful through their penetrations into everyday experiences, and through their management of a multitude of relationships. On the one hand, this made them world-making institutions in their own localities, and on the other, imperceptibly connected them to distant corners of the Mediterranean, and to different but comparable experiences.

The conservation of medieval manuscript illuminations: A chemical perspective

Abstract Illuminated manuscripts are the most abundant and well-preserved surviving medieval cultural artefacts. Created to contain sacred texts, their visual structure allows the reader to identify divisions and delight in their beautiful ornamentation and iconography. Western European manuscripts were written on parchment, which was the main writing support in the Middle Ages prior to the rise of paper production in the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries. Highly functional, durable animal skins were also used in medieval bookbinding (covers) and have been crucial in the preservation of the illuminations. These illuminations make wonderful use of form and colour. This chapter focuses on recent advances in the molecular characterization of these colours, used in medieval manuscripts produced by Western Europeans, and the challenges inherent in analysing materials that are intrinsically heterogeneous. We then discuss how molecular characterization may reveal conservation conditions and extend our analysis to parchment and iron gall inks. Finally, we address the challenges and possibilities for this flourishing field of research. In short, we show in this chapter how analytical methods are used: – To understand how medieval illumination colours were made and what palette defines them; – To predict original colours and to understand why certain colours have remained in excellent condition, preserving both adherence and luminosity, while others have changed over the centuries; – To assess deterioration (paints, parchment, writing inks) with the goal of determining what potential restoration measures could be taken, after careful consideration.

The “Chaucerian” Astrolabe in the British Museum: A Reassessment of Its Dating and Ownership

An undated medieval Latin astrolabe in the British Museum has many of the design features shown in manuscripts of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Treatise on the Astrolabe and is thus one of a group of astrolabes often described as “Chaucerian.” Although traditionally dated to the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries, it has recently been suggested that it is a later copy made by using the Treatise illustrations as a pattern. The close examination of the astrolabe in this article shows that the original dating is correct. It also produces the hypothesis that it was made for Bishop Henry Beaufort, one of John of Gaunt’s extended family who was educated as a part the group which included Chaucer’s son Thomas.

‘Grant me Grace’: Alternative Visions for Vernacular Theology and Lay Devotion in Richard Caister and Nicholas Love

Richard Caister is an important but unstudied example of vernacular theology in England in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Himself a priest, Caister’s extant work indicates a figure who departed from the conservative instutionalism of Thomas Arundel’s regime on two very important points: the suitability of the vernacular for theological and spiritual discourse and the necessity of auricular confession. The distinctive position Caister takes on these points can be observed best by a comparative analysis to Nicholas Love’s theological work which provided a theological rationale for Arundel’s restrictive legislation, articulating a negative view of the vernacular and of the capacity of the laity which endorsed lay dependence upon their Latinate clergy. This article argues that Caister provides an important alternative vision for vernacular theology and the laity predicated upon a thorough Christocentrism.

Food and tension: feasting as means to alleviate social tension in the fourteenth–fifteenth century trading places of the Bothnian Bay region

ABSTRACTThis paper examines three medieval trading places in the Bothnian Bay region in northern Fennoscandia. As these sites were meeting places between overseas and local traders, they were sites of cross-cultural encounters, social tension and potential danger. By examining the archaeological evidence of the sites, it is suggested that in order to facilitate safe and predictable trading relations, feasting was used to lessen tensions and avoid potentially dangerous situations.

Zwei Kirchen aus dem 9. Jahrhundert in Lobor und ihr Inventar

With its church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the settlement of Lobor was one of the most important ecclesiastic and political centres of Pannonia between the ninth and eleventh centuries. An early Christian church was erected in the later fifth or early sixth century in the hilltop settlement. The pre-Romanesque (ninth century), Romanesque (twelfth–thirteenth centuries) and the Gothic church (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries) that was finally rebuilt in the Baroque style was built over this early church. The excavations in the area brought to light numerous earlier carved stone relics originating from the interior of the pre-Romanesque church that had been incorporated into the later church’s walls. The fragments do not all date from the same period: the stylistic traits indicate that pre-Romanesque and early Romanesque remains are both represented, although it is possible that the differences can be attributed to the re-use and re-carving of the abundant marble fragments by the masons working on the church.

LORDS AT THE END OF THE EMPIRE: NEGOTIATING POWER IN THE LATE BYZANTINE FRONTIERS (FOURTEENTH–FIFTEENTH CENTURIES)

The defence of Late Byzantine (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries) frontier zones frequently became the responsibility of military elites, borderlords, who enjoyed absolute power in these areas and immunity from any fiscal or other obligation towards the Byzantine state. In this article I present the case studies of two borderlord families: the brothers and military officials Alexios and John, and the Genoese family of the Gattilusi, who ruled large areas around the Northern Aegean in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and participated actively in their defence at a time when they were surrounded by enemies and plagued by piracy. The aim of the article is twofold. First, I consider the borderlords’ building activities, modes of self-representation and the creation of new geographies as strategies for establishing control and legitimising their power. Second, I explore how the rise of these borderlords fits with Byzantine imperial policies and corresponds to changes in the character of Late Byzantine imperial authority and the role of the Byzantine emperor within and beyond the empire. Over the course of this article I hope to highlight the complexity of the political and economic situation in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and contribute to an understanding of modes of Late Byzantine government and power that move beyond simplistic frameworks of decline and fall.

Regional and interregional trading networks and commercial practices at the port of Antwerp in the 14th and 15

In the 14th and 15th centuries Antwerp was a port of considerable dimensions and commercial importance. The Brabant fairs of Bergen op Zoom and Antwerp were a major meeting point for merchants from the Low Countries, the Rhineland and England from the fourteenth century onwards. This article gives a short synthesis of the existing literature on the earliest period of the commercial history of Antwerp, little of which has been published in English so far, and map the commercial activity in Antwerp in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. It focuses on the trade with the staple goods grain, fish and salt. The testimonies related to the litigation concerning the staple between Antwerp and the towns of Brussels and Mechlin in the early fifteenth century provide detailed information concerning the destinations, traded products as well as trading practices and strategies, so that a picture of the commercial networks and practices of Antwerp during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century can be established which is complementary to the older historiography concerning the international trade at the Antwerp fairs.

Hebrew-Catalan Medieval Wedding Songs: Satirical Functions of the Hebrew Component and Other Linguistic Aspects

The Hebrew-Catalan documents of the Jews of medieval Catalonia have not been thoroughly analyzed thus far. The present article analyzes five unique wedding songs of the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries written in Catalan using Hebrew characters (edited in 1970 and 1974). In this study special attention is given to the humorous and satirical functions of the Hebrew component. This sophisticated use of the Hebrew component may imply more widespread oral traditions of parodic character related to the wedding ceremony among the Jews of Catalonia and the Iberian Peninsula. The notion of “Judeo-Catalan” is discussed in the framework of linguistic repertoire while demonstrating undocumented or rarely documented phonetic, semantic, and lexical features of medieval Catalan. The use of a different orthographic system allows for a written representation of the pronunciation of medieval Catalan, whereby the boundaries between the spoken and the written are blurred, creating a sort of a “written-spoken language.”

A noble diet at the Hof van Leugenhaeghe (Steendorp, Belgium): pig skulls as a fourteenth–fifteenth century delicacy?

The animal remains found at the fourteenth-fifteenth century Hof van Leugenhaeghe are crucial to reconstruct the life of the noble inhabitants, as all buildings were destroyed with the construction of a later estate on the property called the Blauwhof. The diet confirms the high social status of this nobility with the suspected consumption of pig skulls, a possible sign of wealth in late-medieval Flanders. Other signs of a noble diet are found as well: juvenile cattle, a diverse spectrum of game, partridge and grey heron. The observed pattern of a wealthy diet is consistent with the zooarchaeological assemblages found at other noble sites in late-medieval Flanders.

The Middle English Sir Degrevant and the Scottish Border

This article recovers the Scottish context of the Middle English Sir Degrevant, reading the main conflict of the poem against the backdrop of the Scottish Wars of Independence, which dominated life in the northern counties throughout the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, when the poem was written. It explores the Scottish cultural identities of all three of the main characters of the poem, Degrevant, the earl, and Melidor through the material culture and custom of the poem, and reads the central conflict of the poem in light of the border raids. It argues that Degrevant is a latter-day incarnation of the Arthurian knight Agravain, a Scottish knight fighting for the English crown, while the earl is a Scottish border lord. Melidor’s own Scottish identity finds expression in her name as well as in her adherence to Scottish social custom.

Pre-Columbian tuberculosis in Tierra del Fuego? Discussion of the paleopathological and molecular evidence

This work contributes to ongoing discussions about the nature of tuberculosis in the Western Hemisphere prior to the time of European contact. Our example, from the extreme south of South America was, at the time of our study, without firm temporal association or molecular characterization. In Tierra del Fuego, Constantinescu (1999) briefly described vertebral bone lesions compatible with TB in an undated skeleton from Myren 1 site (Chile). The remains of Myren are estimated to represent a man between 18 and 23 years old at the time of death. The objectives of this research are to extend this description, to present molecular results, to establish a radiocarbon date, and to report stable isotopic values for the remains. We provide further description of the remains, including tuberculosis-like skeletal pathology. Radiocarbon dating of 640±20 years BP attributes this individual to the precontact fourteenth-fifteenth centuries. Isotopic ratios for nitrogen and carbon from bone collagen suggest a mixed diet. Molecular results were positive for the rpoB quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays but negative for two independent IS6110 and IS1081 qPCR assays. Further testing using genomic methods to target any mycobacteria for specific identification are needed.