Becoming Messenian

2002 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 45-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nino Luraghi
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Significant Extent ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Westward Expansion ◽  
Dark Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will

AbstractThe article is an enquiry into the identity of two groups who called themselves Messenians: the Helots and perioikoi who revolted against Sparta after the earthquake in the 460s; and the citizens of the independent polity founded by Epameinondas in 370/69 bc in the Spartan territory west of the Taygetos. Based on the history of the Messenians in Pausanias Book 4, some scholars have thought that those two groups were simply the descendants of the free inhabitants of the region, subdued by the Spartans in the Archaic period and reduced to the condition of Helots. According to these scholars, the Helotized Messenians preserved a sense of their identity and a religious tradition of their own, which re-emerged when they regained freedom. One objection to this thesis is that there is no clear archaeological evidence of regional cohesiveness in the area in the late Dark Ages, while the very concept of Messenia as a unified region extending from the river Neda to the Taygetos does not seem to exist prior to the Spartan conquest. Furthermore, evidence from sanctuaries dating to the Archaic and Early Classical periods shows that Messenia was to a significant extent populated by perioikoi whose material culture, cults and language were thoroughly indistinguishable from those documented in Lakonia. Even the site where Epameinondas later founded the central settlement of the new Messenian polity was apparently occupied since the late seventh century at the latest by a perioikic settlement. Some of these perioikoi participated with the Helots in the revolt after the earthquake, and the suggestion is advanced, based on research on processes of ethnogenesis, that they played a key role in the emergence of the Messenian identity of the rebels. For them, identifying themselves as Messenians was an implicit claim to the land west of the Taygetos; therefore the Spartans consistently refused to consider the rebels Messenians, just as they refused to consider Messenians – that is, descendants of the ‘old Messenians’ – the citizens of Epameinondas' polity. Interestingly, the Spartan and the Theban-Messenian views on the identity of these people agreed in denying that the ‘old Messenians’ had remained in Messenia as Helots. Messenian ethnicity is explained as the manifestation of the will of perioikoi and Helots living west of the Taygetos to be independent from Sparta. The fact that most Messenian cults attested from the fourth century onwards were typical Spartan cults does not encourage the assumption that there was any continuity in a Messenian tradition going back to the period before the Spartan westward expansion.

The hidden material culture of the Dark Ages. Early medieval ceramics at Sagalassos (Turkey): new evidence (ca AD 650–800)

2009 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 147-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athanasios K. Vionis ◽  
Jeroen Poblome ◽  
Marc Waelkens
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Dark Ages ◽  
General Decline

AbstractOn the basis of recent archaeological evidence unearthed in the course of systematic excavations by the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) in southwestern Turkey, this paper attempts to pull together different strings of ceramic data in order to bridge the era between late antiquity and the Middle Ages (mid seventh century to ninth century AD). Our aim is to present samples of the ceramic assemblages excavated at the site of ancient Sagalassos from layers that are most probably dated to the late seventh and eighth centuries. An attempt has been made to examine rigorously the stratigraphy and its contents that are admittedly completely different to the known ceramic forms of the late Roman/early Byzantine (fourth century to mid seventh century) and middle Byzantine (early tenth century to mid 13th century) periods at Sagalassos. Five different pottery types are presented, both kitchenwares and tablewares. The fact that all the ware types presented here are local products should not be seen necessarily as a result of a general decline in trade, rural and/or urban life, but rather as a local response to a generally changing economic system and an emerging local pottery tradition based on household-organised production. The shift from the Roman mass-produced and customised wares (that started to disappear from the market) to non-specialised local/regional production (that started to satisfy basic household needs) need not have been a sudden one. Our ultimate aim is to contribute to recent attempts to throw more light on the archaeologically ‘hidden’ material culture of the so-called ‘Dark Ages’.

The Creation of a Fourth-Century Witness to the Andreas Text Type: A Misreading in the Apocalypse's Textual History

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Type A ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Text Type ◽  
Close Resemblance ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Codex Sinaiticus

The publication of Josef Schmid's landmark work on the textual history of the Apocalypse seemingly established the Andreas Text Type as a fourth-century product. The primary evidence for Schmid's claim came from the fourth-century corrections of the Apocalypse in Codex Sinaiticus, corrections which bore a close resemblance to the Andreas text of the Apocalypse. Schmid's reconstruction, however, is flawed. The fourth-century corrections he identified are actually from the seventh century. The data supporting a fourth-century Andreas text type does not exist. Schmid's widely influential error appears to have been based on a misreading of Milne and Skeat'sScribes and Correctors of the Codex Sinaiticus.

King Wamba’s Campaign against dux Paulus (673)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Steinbach
Keyword(s):  
Seventh Century ◽  
Military Power ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Royal Power ◽  
Isidore Of Seville ◽  
History Of ◽  
Military Campaign

Following the death of Isidore of Seville (636), Julian of Toledo’s Historia Wambae regis is the only contemporary narrative source for the history of the late Visigothic kingdom. It mainly focuses on the rebellion of the dux Paulus within the province of the Narbonensis. Apart from that, it is the only detailed description of the election and unction of a Visigothic king, as well as that of an extensive military campaign during the seventh century. This chapter analyses the narration of military power and the implementation of warlike undertakings in this barbaric reign. It reveals the interconnection between the divine legitimation of royal power and military success in Julian’s Historia, and examines the archaeological evidence of the equipment and arming of Visigothic warriors, as well as reference to a Visigothic fleet.

Britain and Ireland, 100–700 CE

2019 ◽  
pp. 601-622
Author(s):  
David Petts
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
Stone Carving ◽  
Church Structures ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter reviews the evidence for the archaeology of early Christianity in Britain and Ireland. Here, the church had its origins in the areas that lay within the Roman Empire in the fourth century but rapidly expanded north and west in the early fifth century following the end of Roman rule. The evidence for church structures is limited and often ambiguous, with securely identifiable sites not appearing to any extent until the seventh century. There is a range of material culture that can be linked to the early church from the fourth to the seventh centuries; in particular, there are strong traditions of epigraphy and increasingly decorative stone carving from most areas. The conversion to Christianity also impacted burial rites, although the relationship between belief and mortuary traditions is not a simple one.

The Primary History of Armenia: An Examination of the Validity of an Immemorially Transmitted Historical Tradition

1975 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Robert H. Hewson
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Alexander The Great ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
Historical Memories

Few peoples of the Middle East have produced as many historical works as the Armenians: their historiography dates back at least to the fifth century A.D. While most medieval Armenian historians have concerned themselves with contemporary history and the immediate past, there have been some who have attempted to trace Armenian history from the earliest times. It is to two of these, Pseudo-Sebeos and Pseudo-Moses of Khoren, that we owe the survival of the body of historical memories now generally referred to as the Primary History of Armenia.This Primary History has come to us in two redactions, a long and a short. The shorter version is attributed to the earliest known Armenian historian, Agathangelos (fourth century A.D.?) and is presented in the opening section of a seventh-century work ascribed-probably wrongly-to a certain bishop named Sebeos. The longer version, much expanded and edited, is contained in Book One of the compilation of Armenian antiquities known as the History of Armenia by Pseudo-Moses of Khoren. While the date of this work has been much disputed, it appears now to be a product of the late eighth or early ninth century.According to Pseudo-Sebeos the short redaction of the Primary History was a work originally written by Agathangelos, secretary to Tiridates HI (298–330), the first Christian king of Armenia, and was based on information contained in a book written by a certain Marab the Philosopher from Mtsurn, a town in western Armenia. Pseudo-Moses, on the other hand, claims that the parallel material in his history (I. 9–32 and II. 1–9) is an extract by Marabas Katiba from a Greek translation of a Chaldean history of Armenia made by order of Alexander the Great.

scholarly journals Beowulf and Archaeology: Megaliths Imagined and Encountered in Early Medieval Europe

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Williams
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Manuscript Illustrations ◽  
Ancient Monuments ◽  
Social Memories

Since the mid nineteenth century AD, the poem Beowulf has long been a quarry for inspiration, analogy and insight for those exploring the archaeology of Early Medieval Britain and Scandinavia (Cramp 1957; Hills 1997; Webster 1998; Owen-Crocker 2000). The dialogue of archaeology and poem has been employed to explore a range of Early Medieval social practices and structures: the production and circulation of weapons and armour through inheritance and gift-giving, the role of vessels and feasting practices, hall-building and ceremony, the hoarding of treasure, and various dimensions of funerary practice including barrow-burial, boat-burial, and cremation. In discussing many of these practices, scholars have recently pointed to the sense of the past in the poem as a practice-orientated form of social memory. Synergies have been identified between heroic poetry and the ceremonial use of material culture, monuments, architectures, and landscapes identified in poetry and archaeological evidence as distinct but related technologies of remembrance within the hierarchical Christian Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that emerge during the mid to late seventh century AD (Williams 1998; 2006; 2011a; 2011b; Owen-Crocker 2000; Semple 2013). In this fashion, the assertions of legitimacy and identities by Early Medieval elites, including their claims to land, power and people, were performed through the ritualized reuse, appropriation and naming of ancient monuments and their deployment within rituals and oral performances, including poetry (Semple 2013; see also Price 2010). The locations and immediate environs of major later Anglo-Saxon churches and elite residences, and the maritime and land routes connecting them, provided the dramaturgical and ritualized settings and media by which social memories were transmitted and reproduced. Landmarks such as ancient monuments were actively integrated through reuse for a variety of functions from burial to assembly (Williams 2006; Reynolds and Langlands 2011; Semple 2013). In particular, Sarah Semple’s (2013) important interdisciplinary survey and analysis of Anglo-Saxon perceptions and reuse of prehistoric monuments from the fifth to the eleventh centuries AD, identifies the variegated and shifting perceptions of prehistoric monuments revealed by later Anglo-Saxon texts, manuscript illustrations, place-names and archaeological evidence (see also Semple 1998; 2004).

On Christianization and Grave-Finds

1999 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Almut Schülke
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contextual Archaeology ◽  
Written Sources

There are hardly any written sources on Christianization in southwestern Germany during early Medieval times. From its beginning in the nineteenth century, archaeological research was concerned with the question of whether the interpretation of material culture is helpful in the study of Christianization. This article first deals with the history of research. It focuses on the question of how the main archaeological sources of Merovingian times – the Reihengräberfelder – were interpreted in terms of Christianization. Obviously several aspects were and still are the main focus of research: special objects with Christian symbols (brooches, belt buckles or the so-called Goldblattkreuze) are often vaguely interpreted as symbols of early Christianity or in some cases as a sign for the buried person being Christian. This results in the process of Christianization being dated to the seventh century. These explanations are influenced by a direct social-historical interpretation of the Reihengräberfelder. They are strongly influenced by the results of historical research. A basic discussion about the character and the significance of objects from graves in the context of debates about Christianization has not yet taken place. Thus, in the second part of the article, questions derived from contextual archaeology are raised which may enrich the discussion about the interpretation of Christianization on the basis of graves: what importance may objects with Christian symbols have, if considered in the context of their ritual deposition and their associated finds? Do the Medieval graves provide information about the world of the living at all? Or how is ideology manifested within them? Is it at all, therefore, possible to describe them as testimonies of a process of Christianization? The use of carefully chosen sociological, ethnographical or historical analogies is crucial for the future development of the discussion. Furthermore, it is important to view the topic from the perspective of two analogies: analogies of the archaeological context as well as of processes of Christianization.

scholarly journals La perichoresis e la grammatica teologica dei primi sette Concili ecumenici

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulio Maspero
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Hypostatic Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Theological Thought ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Maximus The Confessor

The article analyzes the history of the term perichoresis in the space of time embraced by the first seven ecumenical councils. After the Christological debut of the terminology in the fourth century in the work of Gregory of Nazianzus to indicate the dynamism of the relationship of the two natures of Christ in the hypostatic union, the text shows how this theological transition was the basis of the development in Maximus the Confessor. In the seventh century he applied the theological gain of Gregory of Nazianzus to divinization, making explicit the Christological foundation of Christian salvation. The journey ends in the 8th century with John Damascene, who applies perichoresis to both Christology and divinization, as already seen before him, but extends the terminology to the Trinitarian dimension, thus sealing the parable of theological thought. This makes it possible to recognize a true theological grammar which, consistently with Timothy Pawl's studies, reveals the architectural value of a Conciliar Trinitarianism, as a Trinitarian epistemology based on a Trinitarian anthropology, in turn rooted in a Trinitarian ontology.  Abstract: L'articolo analizza la storia del termine perichoresis nello spazio di tempo abbracciato dai primi sette concili ecumenici. Dopo l'esordio cristologico nel IV secolo della terminologia nell'opera di Gregorio di Nazianzo per indicare la dinamicità del rapporto delle due nature del Cristo nell'unione ipostatica, si mostra come questo passo teologico sarà la base dello sviluppo in Massimo il Confessore. Questi nel VII seccolo applicherà il guadagno teologico del Nazianzeno alla divinizzazione, esplicitando il fondamento cristologico della salvezza cristiana. Il percorso si conclude nell'VIII secolo con Giovanni Damasceno, il quale applica perichoresis sia alla cristologia, sia alla divinizzazione, come già prima di lui, ma estende la terminologia anche alla dimensione trinitaria, sigillando così la parabola del pensiero teologico. Ciò permette di riconoscere una vera e propria grammatica teologica che, coerentemente con gli studi di Timothy Pawl, rivela il valore architettonico di un Conciliar Trinitarianism, come epistemologia trinitaria che si fonda su un'antropologia trinitaria, a sua volta radicata in una ontologia trinitaria. 

The Early Christian Archaeology of the Balkans

2019 ◽  
pp. 536-556
Author(s):  
William Bowden
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Balkan Region ◽  
New Religion

Textual sources attest to the early spread of Christianity across the Balkan region, and archaeological evidence demonstrates how the new religion transformed the built environment and material culture of the area in Late Antiquity, although dating and analysis of these buildings have tended to focus on stylistic and typological approaches. Prior to the late fourth century archaeological evidence of Christianity is mainly found in funerary contexts, but in the fifth and sixth centuries the urban and rural landscapes were transformed by the construction of Christian architecture, including the monumentalization of martyrs’ graves at towns such as Salona and the creation of major episcopal centers at provincial capitals such as Stobi and Nicopolis. These churches were funded by multiple individuals, evidenced by inscriptions that reference ecclesiastical and lay donors of both sexes. The location and design of many of the churches also reflect the increasingly militarized nature of the Late Antique Balkans.

Samaritan

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Hjelm
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Jewish Population ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
The Third ◽  
Shared Beliefs ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Literature

This chapter offers an introduction to the history of the Samaritans from their origin until the seventh century CE and gives detailed information on the Samaritan Literature in the Roman Period. The Samaritans formed the backbone of central and northern Palestine’s population and shared beliefs and traditions with southern Palestine’s Jewish population. However, their traditions developed differently in Samaritanism’s strong emphasis on a purely Mosaic Yahwism (as in the Five Books of Moses), which did not adopt the teachings of the larger Jewish canon (i.e. the Old Testament). Compared with Jewish and Christian literature, Samaritan literature is quite limited. It consists of the Samaritan Pentateuch, the SamaritanTargum of the Pentateuch in Aramaic, a midrashic compilation called Tibat or Memar Marqe, and the earliest prayer book called the Defter, which contains hymns from the third to fourth century CE. An additional paragraph deals with Samaritan use of biblical literature in inscriptions and artefacts.

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