Medieval East-Central Europe Research Articles

Small Lead Seals And Sealing In Early Medieval East-Central Europe

Artykuł zawiera analizę stosowania plomb ołowianych we wczesnośredniowiecznej Polsce, jako metody kontroli handlowej i celnej w sytuacji kryzysu gospodarczego. Zwyczaj plombowania towarόw przez Piastów jest postrzegany jako transfer kulturowy z Rusi. Polskie plomby handlowe były używane równolegle z brakteatami guziczkowymi w okresie od połowy XIII do połowy XIV w. Wyobrażone na nich przedstawienia nawiązywały do znaków na brakteatach i znacznie różniły się od plomb typu drohiczyńskiego z terenów Rusi. Nadzwyczajna liczba odnalezionych w Drohiczynie plomb może być odzwierciedleniem przesunięcia szlaków handlowych wskutek konfliktów zbrojnych.

Rulership in Medieval East Central Europe: Power, Rituals and Legitimacy in Bohemia, Hungary and Poland. Edited by Grischa Vercamer and Dušan Zupka.

Rulership in Medieval East Central Europe: Power, Rituals and Legitimacy in Bohemia, Hungary and Poland. Edited by Grischa Vercamer and Dušan Zupka.

Iure Theutonico? German settlers and legal frameworks for immigration to Hungary in an East-Central European perspective

ABSTRACTThe article discusses the strongly disputed and over-politicised presence of the Germans, the single most populous minority ethnic group in medieval East-Central Europe, and their impact on their host societies, notably the kingdoms of Hungary, Poland and Bohemia, and the duchy of Silesia. It examines the routes and reasons for the arrival of the immigrant population, the topography of settlement and the activities pursued; and it discusses the legal background to the arrival of immigrants and their co-existence with the majority society. In most of East-Central Europe, the arrival of the German settlers led to the adaptation of ius Theutonicum, a framework created by sovereigns to accommodate the immunities and obligations of the newcomers. In Hungary, it never took root. Instead, settlers were accommodated legally by means of the liberties of hospites, until this stratum of external and internal migrants was absorbed into peasantry and bourgeoisie, respectively.

History of the Research Project: "Women and Power in Medieval East Central Europe"

History of the Research Project: "Women and Power in Medieval East Central Europe"

History of the Research Project: "Women and Power in Medieval East Central Europe"

AbstractWomen have been generally relegated to the margins of traditional historiography. They have often been presented as romantic heroines - good or bad - but most of the time they were utterly neglected as historical actors. A prevalent tendency of the nouvelle histoire is the revision of these inherited and by now strongly dated approaches. Modern histori ans try to reconstruct how women lived and worked in the past; they analyze women's roles and functions as integral parts of larger socio-historical structures. While in Western Europe and in the United States women's history has become a research field on its own and produced remarkable results, in East Central Europe this change of attitude towards women in history has not yet happened. By launching a research project on "Women and Power in East Central Europe," the Central European University's Department of Medieval Studies sought to encourage young scholars of the region to study and to reevaluate the roles and positions of women in medieval history. We aimed at making the medieval experience of the region a little less "tiresome" and more interesting by including women's political and cultural presence - the role and function of queens, princesses, and aristocratic women - into the sphere of exploranda and explananda.