Western Roman Empire Research Articles

Novel application of SANS provides quantitative non-destructive identification of forming techniques in late Roman and early medieval pottery from Pannonia

Within archaeological studies of ancient pottery, understanding the techniques used to form vessels from unfired clay provides significant information on the history of technology and economic systems, as well as wider cultural practices and social interactions. We introduce here a new analytical methodology, using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) to investigate pottery forming techniques through the preferential orientation of nanoscale objects within pottery fabrics. Significantly, SANS is non-destructive, suitable for both coarse and fine-textured pottery fabrics, provides quantitative data, enables fast-throughput of samples, and is not significantly affected by surface modifications occurring after the primary forming stage. The use of SANS is systematically investigated through over 400 measurements of experimental vessels, and also compared with X-ray microtomography and neutron tomography. The results show that SANS can be used to differentiate wheel-throwing, coil-building, percussion-building, and coil-wheeling techniques. The archaeological application of SANS is demonstrated through a case study of 50 late Roman and early medieval (fourth–sixth century AD) pottery sherds from Hungary, spanning the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the arrival of Barbarian polities into the region. The findings show a transition in production from predominantly wheel-throwing to coil-wheeling, but also coil-building, percussion-building, percussion-wheeling, and drawing. Such changes appear to reflect the disintegration of large-scale centrally organised Roman economic systems, and the diversification of production, consistent with the more diversified technological and cultural backgrounds of the producers themselves.

The fall of the Western Roman Empire in the assessments of Soviet Antiquity in the 1970s and 1980s.

The study of new approaches to the interpretation of the theory of social revolution in relation to the fall of the Western Roman Empire after breaking the deadlock of the "slave revolution" serves as the basis for continuing scientific research on this problem in Russian antiquity. Methods. The content of the article was formed by a comparative review of the conclusions of historians who proposed new theoretical conclusions based on Marxist methodology in the period from the 1970s to the turn of the 1980s – early 1990s – V. I. Kuzishchin, E. M. Shtaerman, A. R. Korsunsky, R. Gunter. Results. Recognizing the transition to feudalism of the social revolution with a number of features and using the concept of "proto-feudal way of life", the authors differed in their assessment of how mature the prerequisites for the emergence of the feudal mode of production in the economy of Late Rome were. E. M. Shtaerman found them in the development of large extraurban magnate land ownership in the western provinces. In the assessments of A. R. Korsunsky and R. Gunther, the relations of exploitation of colonies did not turn into developed feudal relations. Therefore, if in the assessment of V. I. Kuzishchin and E. M. If the classes and strata of the emerging feudalizing way of life were recognized as the driving force of the social revolution, then according to A. R. Korsunsky and R. Gunther, this revolution developed only since the time of the barbarian kingdoms of the V–VII centuries, with which V. I. Kuzishchin subsequently agreed. Discussion of the results. By the end of the 1980s, the approach of V. I. Kuzishchin and E. M. Shtaerman was recognized as the leading one. But both concepts did not receive further development based on the material of the sources. Conclusion. The continuation of theoretical generalizations on the topic of the fall of the Western Roman Empire remains especially important against the background of innovations in foreign literature, which abandoned the "theory of collapse" of antiquity and switched to the point of view of its long rebirth in the III–VII centuries. Введение. Изучение новых подходов к толкованию теории социальной революции применительно к падению Западной Римской империи после выхода из тупика «революции рабов» служит основой к продолжению научных поисков по этой проблеме в российском антиковедении. Методы. Содержание статьи сложилось путем сравнительного обзора выводов историков, предложивших в отрезке времени от 1970-х гг. и до рубежа 1980-х – начала 1990-х гг. новые теоретические выводы на базе марксистской методологии – В. И. Кузищина, Е. М. Штаерман, А. Р. Корсунского, Р. Гюнтера. Результаты. Признавая переход к феодализму социальной революцией с рядом особенностей и используя понятие «протофеодальный уклад», авторы разошлись в оценке того, насколько зрелыми были предпосылки к возникновению феодального способа производства в экономике Позднего Рима. Е. М. Штаерман находила их в развитии крупного внегородского магнатского землевладения в западных провинциях. В оценках А. Р. Корсунского и Р. Гюнтера отношения эксплуатации колонов не превратились в развитые феодальные отношения. Поэтому если в оценке В. И. Кузищина и Е. М. Штаерман движущей силой социальной революции признавались классы и слои складывающегося феодализирующегося уклада, то по А. Р. Корсунскому и Р. Гюнтеру эта революция развивалась только со времени варварских королевств V–VII вв., с чем впоследствии согласился В. И. Кузищин. Обсуждение результатов. К концу 1980-х гг. подход В. И. Кузищина и Е. М. Штаерман был признан как ведущий. Но обе концепции не получили дальнейшей разработки на материале источников. Заключение. Продолжение теоретических обобщений по теме падения Западной Римской империи остается особо важным на фоне новаций зарубежной литературы, отказавшейся от «теории краха» античности и переходящей на точку зрения о ее длительном перерождении в III–VII вв.

The role of emerging elites in the formation and development of communities after the fall of the Roman Empire

Elites played a pivotal role in the formation of post-Roman Europe on both macro- and microlevels during the Early Medieval period. History and archaeology have long focused on their description and identification based on written sources or through their archaeological record. We provide a different perspective on this topic by integrating paleogenomic, archaeological, and isotopic data to gain insights into the role of one such elite group in a Langobard period community near Collegno, Italy dated to the 6-8th centuries CE. Our analysis of 28 newly sequenced genomes together with 24 previously published ones combined with isotope (Sr, C, N) measurements revealed that this community was established by and organized around a network of biologically and socially related individuals likely composed of multiple elite families that over time developed into a single extended pedigree. The community also included individuals with diverse genetic ancestries, maintaining its diversity by integrating newcomers and groups in later stages of its existence. This study highlights how shifts in political power and migration impacted the formation and development of a small rural community within a key region of the former Western Roman Empire after its dissolution and the emergence of a new kingdom. Furthermore, it suggests that Early Medieval elites had the capacity to incorporate individuals from varied backgrounds and that these elites were the result of (political) agency rather than belonging to biologically homogeneous groups.

Eastern Mediterranean Fineware Imports to the Iberian Peninsula, 300–700 ce , and the Economic Impact of the Justinianic Pandemic

Abstract: Recent excavations in Spain and Portugal have recovered abundant fineware ceramics imported from the eastern Mediterranean and dating to the period after the fall of the western Roman Empire. The date of the latest sherds has been interpreted as showing the survival of trans-Mediterranean trade into the seventh century. However, archaeologists have tended to minimize a collapse in the volume of these imports around 550 ce. This article seeks to adjudicate between a survivalist interpretation (based on the continuity of some trade) and a catastrophist interpretation (based on decreased volume of trade). It analyzes the import volume and geographic distribution of ceramics at over 4,000 Iberian sites, 202 of which contain late Roman fineware imported from the eastern Mediterranean. The data suggest a steady increase in imports beginning by 450 ce, followed by a rapid drop in both import volume and network participation around 550 ce, with no observed recovery. This drop's magnitude has not yet been fully analyzed, and recent excavations in the eastern Mediterranean have allowed it to be fixed with greater chronological precision. Four causes are considered, three (warfare, shifting fiscal obligations, and changing tastes) that have been already proposed, and a fourth (pandemic disease) that has not.

Changes in Christian Monastic Poverty of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th and 6th Centuries: Focusing on the Monastic Literature of John Cassian and the Rule of Benedict

Changes in Christian Monastic Poverty of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th and 6th Centuries: Focusing on the Monastic Literature of John Cassian and the Rule of Benedict

«Великое переселение народов» в раннем средневековье в истории Евразии. IV–V века

The article describes the events during the Great Migration of Peoples. In particular, the Xunnu tribe, known as the Huns in Europe, was emphasized. Sima Qian, Ammianus Marcellinus, Dionysius, Priscus of Panii, Iordan, Claudius Claudian and other famous historians of the Ancient and Middle Ages gave information about the Huns. The social structure and legal system, economic base and anthropological and cultural features of the Huns are described in detail. The complex relations with the Iranian-speaking Alans, the Germanic Visigoths and the conflict with the Western Roman Empire are described

Some Thoughts on Archaeology and Slavs

Early medieval history and archaeology (ca. 7th – 11th centuries) is bursting with migrating groups, warfare, Christianization, and polities rising and falling. Many 19th- and 20th-century Europeans turned to early medieval history and archaeology in a search for identity, exclusive characteristics, roots or sentiments about their intrinsic values, a process that continues today. The ascribed task of early medieval archaeology was to create an association between us and the material remains of our direct ancestors and to provide candidates for national and other symbols. Moreover, it also seems that protecting heritage is easier if the heritage is ours, and almost genetically connected with us. In many Slavic-speaking countries, early medieval archaeology became simply the archaeology of the Slavs. However, by doing this we renounce a rich and colourful past and many other reasons to be proud of the heritage within Slovenia. Can we leave aside such requirements and look at the period after the fall of the Western Roman Empire from a wider perspective, including many non-Slavic accents? Can we face the limitations of archaeology when studying the identity of objects, dwellings and graves? Can we look for a way out from the antiquated service to the nation in such efforts?

Learning from history in the midst of the COVID-19: epidemics/pandemics of antiquity up to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

When humans discovered agriculture and livestock, they ceased to be nomads and began to settle in towns until they created large cities. From the first human settlements in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Anatolian Peninsula, populations were exposed and susceptible to new infectious agents, leading to epidemics and pandemics. Great civilizations emerged, such as Egypt, the land of Hatti, Israel, Greece, Carthage, and Rome, among others. Contact between different populations through wars or maritime trade is well documented and has been described as a source of epidemics throughout history. Epidemics described as plagues or pestilences, such as those of Egypt, the Hebrews, or the Hittites, are based on biblical texts or evidence such as tablets or hieroglyphic writings. We also reviewed classical books by authors such as Homer, Aeschylus, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Thucydides, Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Titus Livius, Suetonius, and others; and described all epidemics/pandemics chronologically. This article describes the epidemics/pandemics for which there is written evidence from ancient Egypt to the fall of the Roman Empire. We should not be surprised when new epidemics/pandemics appear as causes of political and economic collapse, as this has been common throughout history, decimating, blocking, or even destroying cultures and civilizations repeatedly.

Вклад В. Г. Васильевского в изучение «Германии» Тацита в российском антиковедении

The research aims to deepen the understanding of the views of the famous Byzantinist V. G. Vasilevsky on the possibility of involving the work “Germania” by Tacitus (56-120 AD) to consider the causes of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire on the basis of Vasilevsky’s previously unused reports on research trips to Europe, lecture courses, as well as his handwritten biography by his student I. M. Grevs. The objectives of the research are to scientifically substantiate the significance of V. G. Vasilevsky’s contribution to the study of Tacitus in Russian classics. The paper examines how the works by the famous Russian Byzantinist and academician of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences V. G. Vasilevsky developed approaches to the study of the works by the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus, which had a significant impact on the interpretation of this author in the national historical tradition. It is shown that the Russian scientist was able to find new approaches to the source. He drew attention to the fact that one can find an indication of the disintegration of the agricultural community and the formation of an extremely unstable society of small family land ownership in Tacitus’ writings. Thus, V. G. Vasilevsky was one of the first to notice that we find the theme of the economic crisis as early as the beginning of the 2nd century AD. Scientific novelty consists in providing a new holistic picture of V. G. Vasilevsky’s activities as an expert in the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and, in particular, in the interpretation of Tacitus’ “Germania”. As a result, it has been found that despite the fact that V. G. Vasilevsky gained fame as a Byzantinist by the end of his life, the issues of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire interested him during his studies and he addressed them in his lecture activities. Thus, V. G. Vasilevsky’s scientific legacy can be supplemented by the theme of a new approach to Tacitus’ “Germania” as a source that marked the beginning of the social and economic crisis in the Western Roman Empire.

РОЛЯТА НА БЪЛГАРИТЕ В ХУНСКАТА СТЕПНА ИМПЕРИЯ. ОПИТ ЗА ПРЕОЦЕНКА

The article provides a brief overview of the most important aspects of the development of the Hunnic theory of the origin of the Bulgars in modern Bulgarian medieval studies, and examines the situation on the Balkan Peninsula immediately after Attila's death.The popular theories about the leading role of climatic factors in causing nomadic migrations, about the key importance of the Huns for the destruction of the Western Roman Empire, and about the large-scale influence of the Bulgars in the Hunnic Steppe Empire in the 5thcentury, have been disputed.

Representation of the Legitimacy of Imperial Power in the Roman Empire

This article is devoted to the analysis of ideas about the legitimacy of imperial power in the Roman Empire. Particular attention is paid to the understanding of legitimacy in the imperial period of Roman history and, in particular, Late Antiquity. The conclusion is made about the "broad" and somewhat "blurred" idea of the legitimacy of the imperial power in the Roman Empire, about the discrepancy between the modern term "legitimacy" and the ancient understanding. The elements and components of legitimacy, its main sources, institutions and ways of giving legitimacy to the new emperor who ascended the throne are presented. It is shown how the image of the legitimate emperor was inscribed in the image of the empire. Of the institutions, special attention is paid to the army as one of the most significant institutions in the election and approval of the new emperor. Methods for recognizing imperial power by referring to the "divine" principle: pagan gods, and, subsequently, to Christianity, are also considered. The reasons for the process of loss of legitimacy by the rulers of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD are analyzed. The transfer of legitimacy from political institutions and the empire to a single emperor, characteristic of the Roman political consciousness, is shown.

Fine-scale sampling uncovers the complexity of migrations in 5th–6th century Pannonia

As the collapse of the Western Roman Empire accelerated during the 4th and 5th centuries, arriving "barbarian" groups began to establish new communities in the border provinces of the declining (and eventually former) empire. This was a time of significant cultural and political change throughout not only these border regions but Europe as a whole.1,2 To better understand post-Roman community formation in one of these key frontier zones after the collapse of the Hunnic movement, we generated new paleogenomic data for a set of 38 burials from a time series of three 5th century cemeteries3,4,5 at Lake Balaton, Hungary. We utilized a comprehensive sampling approach to characterize these cemeteries along with data from 38 additional burials from a previously published mid-6th century site6 and analyzed them alongside data from over 550 penecontemporaneous individuals.7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19 The range of genetic diversity in all four of these local burial communities is extensive and wider ranging than penecontemporaneous Europeans sequenced to date. Despite many commonalities in burial customs and demography, we find that there were substantial differences in genetic ancestry between the sites. We detect evidence of northern European gene flow into the Lake Balaton region. Additionally, we observe a statistically significant association between dress artifacts and genetic ancestry among 5th century genetically female burials. Our analysis shows that the formation of early Medieval communities was a multifarious process even at a local level, consisting of genetically heterogeneous groups.

A germán férji Munt és az egyházatyák házasságfelfogása

From the age of the unfolding of feminist movements, the claim that the patriarchal concept of Christianity is responsible for the oppression of women in Europe has reappeared in the legal literature, too. It is a fact that natural law codes have not been able to ensure gender equality consistently either and it was not until the second half of the 20th century that the law of marriage was reformed in European states based on the principle of partnership. However, it is far from a fact that Christianity is to blame for the problems generally. In the following study, I present the concept of marriage that emerges from the writings of the Church Fathers (1st-8th centuries) in the light of the legal culture that provided the background for this. The examination covers how the marriage took place, the elements of the personal legal relationship between the husband and wife in the marriage, the issue of divorce and the matrimonial property law in force at that age. The study is divided into several stages according to the following time periods: The movement of the followers of Jesus in the second century moved away from Jewish legal culture, which not only manifested itself in the so-called substitutionary theory, but also influenced the understanding of marriage. Before 312, in the church of the age of persecution, the law of marriage remained within Roman private law, and at the time of marriage, the blessing was only a Christian custom which had no private legal effect. From 380 onwards, a state-church system developed bot in the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire, in which state legislation (in the form of royal provisions) began in accordance with ecclesiastical expectations and principles. Although matrimonial legislation and jurisdiction were transferred to the state church, there was no mandatory external form for marriage until 1215 (Later Synod IV), and canon law could not be considered uniform throughout Western Christianity. It was clear from the writings of the Church Fathers that, because of the fact of creation, man (that is, both man and woman) was considered to be a dignified being, to the same extent. This approach, in which a husband raises his wife with love in a family under the husband, has not necessarily prevailed. On the one hand, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the conversion to Christianity in the Germanic tribal kingdoms was of the will of the rulers and did not necessarily conform to the personal convictions of the subjects, who therefore retained many elements of their pagan customs. This religious syncretism was further strengthened, on the other hand, by the fact that ecclesiastical teaching did not necessarily reach those who were otherwise open to receiving it. As a result, the Christian concept of marriage was in practice mixed with elements of the legal culture in which church members lived, and this resulted in several distortions. The survival of Germanic male power (Munt) may have been unbroken for centuries because it was justified by a distortion of the Christian concept of marriage.

A high-resolution record of landscape changes and land use over the last 5000 years in western Calabria (S. Eufemia Gulf, southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy)

Pollen analysis of a marine core collected in the Gulf of S. Eufemia (Tyrrhenian Calabria, Italy) allowed reconstructing the regional changes in vegetation and land use over the last 5000 years. Pollen diagram zonation through Constrained Cluster Analysis highlighted three compositional zones whose boundaries mark the major changes that affected the vegetation structure. A dense forest cover with a few signs of human activities characterized the wide pollen source area from 5055 to 2700 BP (Zone 1). In this period, the Pre-Protohistoric communities were mainly concentrated on the Tropea Promontory where they had a significant local impact. Minor forest rarefactions at 5000–4800 BP, ca. 4400–4000 BP, ca. 3450–3150 BP were correlated to phases of climatic shifts toward aridity. From 2700 to 2000 BP (Zone 2a), a longer and more incisive period of forest decline was connected to a time of aridity that favored the intense activities of an increasing anthropogenic pressure. Indeed, important urban centers developed in the area during the Greek and Roman colonization. Diffuse deforestation and cultivation occurred from 790 BP (Zone 3), enhancing soil erosion and fluvial discharge as testified by the sudden increase in sedimentation rates. This disruption of the slope morphodynamics was connected to the collapse of territorial management following the end of the Western Roman Empire. Compositional Data Analysis, applied to a simplified pollen dataset, highlighted both a negative correlation between Abies and Fagus and a close similarity between the AP/NAP curve and the Axis 1 scores of the Relative Variation Biplot.

The Jewish ‘monopoly’ of the slave trade in the early Middle Ages: the origins of an enduring historical motif

ABSTRACT Phelan examines the evidence to support the claim that the assertion that Jews played a leading role in the slave trade in the period following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire originated with the work of a number of late nineteenth-century historians, particularly Heinrich Graetz and Wilhelm Roscher. He finds prior examples of this historical motif in the work of several earlier historians, and traces its origins back to the Henry Hart Milman’s History of the Jews published in 1829. His article demonstrates that Milman’s work was widely known and used throughout the nineteenth century, and examines the reasons behind the emphasis in his work on the mutual antagonism between Christians and Jews. Phelan then goes on to examine the adoption of this motif by late nineteenth-century Jewish writers, including the historian and folklorist Joseph Jacobs, and its appearance in standard reference works like The Jewish Encyclopaedia. He concludes with some reflections on the reasons for this surprising development, as well as some suggestions about the reasons for the renewed interest in this topic among historians in recent years.

:La villa dopo la villa 2: Trasformazione di un sistema insediativo ed economico nell’Italia centrale tra tarda Antichità e Medioevo

:<i>La villa dopo la villa 2: Trasformazione di un sistema insediativo ed economico nell’Italia centrale tra tarda Antichità e Medioevo</i>

Justinian und die Armee des frühen Byzanz by Clemens Koehn

Reviewed by: Justinian und die Armee des frühen Byzanz by Clemens Koehn Christian Michel Justinian und die Armee des frühen Byzanz Clemens Koehn Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2018. Pp. viii + 309. ISBN: 978-3-11-059701-1 The emperor Justinian I is perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of Late Antiquity. In more than 38 years of rule (from 527 to 565), he managed to recapture great parts of the former western Roman Empire, even if it were only to last for his reign. It is therefore not surprising that he has gained much scholarly attention in recent years. While the emperor can therefore be seen as well studied, the army that was the main guarantor of the great successes in Africa and Italy, as well as Justinian's relationship to it, has been somewhat neglected. This gap in the research defines the starting point for Clemens Koehn's Justinian und die Armee des frühen Byzanz. In a very short introduction (1–7) Koehn sums up the content to follow and proposes that the emperor was more of a military man than many think today, and that he followed the idea of "lean warfare" to achieve big strategic goals with small amounts of resources. The first part, titled "Die Armee als militärisches Instrument" ("The Army as a Military Instrument" 8–145), deals with the military reforms of the emperor. It analyzes the changes undertaken by Justinian regarding the different troops and contingents, as well as tactical aspects and the armament of the soldiers. Koehn identifies the increase in the number of the comitatenses (in part by incorporating the limitanei into them) as the biggest change because it enabled the [End Page 254] emperor to react more quickly to outside attacks (25–27). Another important aspect was the reformation of the funding of the army. The emperor cut payments to inactive soldiers and stopped the automatic promotion of young ones to redistribute the financial savings to the new troops (48–53). Koehn identifies the reason for these substantial changes in the military background of Justinian. The author can demonstrate that he was already involved in a restructuring of the military and military activities during the reign of his predecessor Justin (56–67). After dealing with the emperor and his reforms, Koehn looks at the structure of the army itself. He highlights the role of the foederati and shows that the emperor increased the numbers of barbarians (67–114). Another chapter concentrates on one special form of troops: the hippotoxotai. (115–145). As the name shows, the hippotoxotai were mounted archers. For Koehn, the use and further development of those cavalry units started with the conquest of Africa in the years 533/534. After the defeat of the vandal rulers, the Romans had to face the Moorish people, who were specialized in using throwing spears against their enemies, posing great problems for the Roman army and its tactics. The Romans reacted by equipping their mounted bowman with throwing spears—the idea of the hippotoxotai was born. Under Justinian, the number of hippotoxotai was therefore increased, but it was not before the end of the sixth century that the cavalry consisted of those troops exclusively. After analyzing the military function of the army, Koehn deals with "Die Armee als politisches Instrument" ("The Army as a Political Instrument" 146–274). He examines how Justinian used the army to pursue his political aims. Koehn starts by dealing with the idea of restauratio imperii. He states that the reconquest of the former parts of the Western Roman Empire was not—in contrast to the early and in accordance with the new literature—the result of a large plan but rather of contingent circumstances that the emperor was able to use wisely. While the recapture of Africa was the starting point for the restauratio of the empire, the emperor seems to have already developed the idea of universal rule earlier. This fact is shown in the imperial propaganda that exhibits clear parallels to the imperial self-representation of former centuries. An instructive example that Koehn presents is the defeat of the Tzanoi in 528 (148–156). While they...

Social Mobility in the Western Roman Empire under Julian the Apostate

Tis article analyses several aspects of the administrative policy of Julian the Apostate in the western half of the Roman Empire (first as the сaesar under Constantius II, from 355 to 360 AD, and then as the augustus from 361 to 363). Taking the narrative, legislative, and epigraphic sources, analysed with the prosopographic method, into account, the author explores the relationship of Caesar Julian with the elites of the West and the features of social mobility in the West under Julian as independent ruler after 361. The author has run to conclusion that Julian the Apostate’s administrative policy in the promotion to senior positions divided into several stages. At the first stage, Julian tried just to strengthen his own position and not changed the existing order. In this period, he had to accept the orders from his cousin Constantius II. The second stage was under the preparation for the war with Constantius II, when Julian changed the military and civilian elite. In the third period, Julian tried to legitimize his power and reach an agreement with the Roman Senate. In social terms, most of Julian’s appointees were the “new people,” or the officials, persons of liberal professions, and military men of barbarian origin. The religion of the appointees did not matter. The suggestion of the Gauls dominating among Julian’s appointees does not work.

СТВОРЕННЯ І РОЗВИТОК СИСТЕМ ВАГОВИХ МІР НІМЕЧЧИНИ, АВСТРІЇ І КРАЇН СКАНДИНАВІЇ

The development of the economy in the territories of modern Germany, the peninsulas of Jutland and Scandinavia, inhabited since ancient times by tribes that spoke Germanic languages, required the use of various measures, the units of which must be related to each other. Since primitive times, the Germans, like other peoples of the world, used the so-called primitive natural measures, the standards of which were borrowed from nature itself. The political disunity of the Germanic tribes led to their lack of a single system of measures. However, a generally accepted standard of weight measures appeared with them. It was a mass of wheat or barley grain. When using units of measure in production and trade, the calculation was based on the numbers of ten and twenty adopted by the Indo-European peoples. In the II–I century B.C., the Romans conquered the territory of modern Germany to the west bank of the Rhine River. Roman colonies were founded there; the Roman system of measures and the monetary system were put into use. The Germanic lands to the east of the Rhine were not part of the Roman Empire. However, due to political ties and trade exchange with the Roman Empire, Roman monetary and weight measures gradually came into use in these lands. In the first centuries A.D., Germanic tribes attacked the Romans. In the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire fell. The territory of its provinces was conquered by Germanic tribes who created independent kingdoms here. In the 8th century, Charlemagne, the ruler of one of them, namely Frankish, united the former territories of the Western Roman Empire under his authority. In the empire of Charlemagne, a single system of measures was created, in which Roman and German measures were combined. In particular, instead of the Roman siliqua, which is a carob bean, the mass of a barley grain was adopted as the standard of weight. The calculation of units according to this system was conducted not only with the help of Roman numerals for 6 and 12, but also by dividing by the two system and using the decimal system. Charlemagne’s weight measures included units of coin and trade weight. Subsequently, as the analysis of the sources shows, it was on the basis of the Carolingian units of trade weight that systems of weight measures were created in the territories of Germany, Austria and the Scandinavian countries during the Middle Ages. In the 9th century, the Carolingian empire fell apart. In the 10th century, Otto I, the king of Germany, having united under his authority certain territories of Western Europe, announced the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. Later, this state gradually fell apart into separate possessions, the rulers of which introduced their own monetary and weight measures. They were based on the division into marks. Initially, this monetary weight unit was equal to 2/3 of a Roman pound. Subsequently, various stamp weight standards appeared in German lands. From the 15th century, the gold and silver mass standards of the Cologne mark are being distributed in Western Europe. In the second half of the XIX century, the political unification of Germany took place, which coincided with the introduction of the international metric system in the territories of Germany, Austria and the Scandinavian countries.

The Old Norse–Icelandic Hagiography of St Ambrose of Milan: Manuscript Tradition, Sources, and Composition

The Old Norse–Icelandic Hagiography of St Ambrose of Milan: Manuscript Tradition, Sources, and Composition