scholarly journals Different Approach to Horses—The Use of Equid Remains in the Early Middle Ages on the Example of Ostrów Tumski in Wroclaw

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 2294
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Jaworski ◽  
Aleksandra Pankiewicz ◽  
Aleksander Chrószcz ◽  
Dominik Poradowski

The following article concerns the functional use of horse bones in the early Middle Ages (mainly in the period from the mid of the 10th to the 12th/13th century). The authors try to explain how such remains were used and how common it was. It is also discussed whether the special role of the horse in medieval societies somehow restricted its post-mortem usage, or perhaps there was no difference between the skeletal remains of horses and other species in this regard. For this purpose, statistical calculations on the use of the bones of various mammals were made. Only the remains of the species determined during the archaeozoological analysis were taken into account. The specific use of individual parts of a horse skeleton was also noted. In addition, the analysis also encompasses all other types of horse remains that could be used by humans (hide, hair, etc.). The consumption of horse meat was discussed separately: on the basis of the preserved traces, an attempt was made to determine whether it had happened, and if so, how popular it had been. Overall, such comprehensive analysis aims to show the various roles of the horse. It was not only a mount, but also a beast of burden, a source of food and raw material as well. The main purpose of this study is to describe the role of horses in human medieval societies of Ostrów Tumski on the basis of accessible equid remains. The highlighting of the human–horse relationship in the past allows us to understand the importance and value of the horse both as a life companion and the source of food or leather and bone tools.

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Farkas

Constructing history – constructing names. Personal names of early Hungarian history and the posterity The topic of the paper is how people of modern times attempt to approach the onomasticon of personal names of the past, of which they lack sufficient knowledge; and how they create a picture of it for themselves and their peers. The paper presents the topic with the help of examples from different eras and genres of cultural history. The paper is based on sources, originating from centuries later, of personal names of the Hungarian Middle Ages, especially the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin (the end of the 9th century). In the case of the 13th-century Gesta Hungarorum, the intentions of the author and the methods he applied to create and give personal names to narrate the events of the Conquest, of which he had little knowledge, can be easily identified. The writers and poets of the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century – which was the era of national awakening, language reform and romanticism – also exemplify how authors could use old or create new personal names in their historical works influenced by the conditions of their era. Continuing the topic, the paper discusses the process and methods of renewing the onomasticon of first names in national contexts, the role of first names registries from this point of view, and how these often paint a misleading picture of their subject, and thus Hungarian history. Finally, the paper deals not only with the laic considerations of our oldest personal names, but also with the problems of their discussion from a historical point of view, emphasizing the need to involve not only historical onomastics but also the approaches of literary onomastics, folk and applied onomastics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-348
Author(s):  
Martin Ježek

Archaeology has a great deal of experience with how the misinterpretation of finds creates a false image of the past. The main reason for this is down to ideologically-conditioned stereotypes. The paper describes one such case involving hundreds of thousands of finds of one type of artefact, commonly classified as whetstones, pendants, amulets, etc., from the Chalcolithic up to the Early Middle Ages. The article emphasises that although touchstones from ancient burials had already been identified using an electron microscopy half a century ago, the interpretation of these finds corresponding to the paradigm from the early 19th century remains popular to this day. For the chemical microanalysis of metal traces preserved on the surface of these stone artefacts, samples were selected from Russian, Slovakian, Swedish and Ukrainian sites, from the Hallstatt period up to the Early Middle Ages, with special regard for their previous interpretation history. However, the main aim is to point out the symbolic role of tools used to test the value of precious metals outside the grave context. Finds from wet environments in particular reveal the continuity of the behaviour of European over the millennia, regardless of the current ideology or cult, and the diversity of artefacts that were, and still are, chosen as a medium for votive behaviour.


Author(s):  
Eduardo Manzano Moreno

This chapter addresses a very simple question: is it possible to frame coinage in the Early Middle Ages? The answer will be certainly yes, but will also acknowledge that we lack considerable amounts of relevant data potentially available through state-of-the-art methodologies. One problem is, though, that many times we do not really know the relevant questions we can pose on coins; another is that we still have not figured out the social role of coinage in the aftermath of the Roman Empire. This chapter shows a number of things that could only be known thanks to the analysis of coins. And as its title suggests it will also include some reflections on greed and generosity.


Author(s):  
Anatoly I. Kotov ◽  

Recognizing the special role of innovations in ensuring the economic development of Russia, the state authorities have been intensively looking for ways and means to strengthen innovation activity in Russia over the past decade. The main document proclaiming the goals and main directions of innovation policy is the Strategy of innovative development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020. Due to the fact that the implementation period has expired, the author analyzes the achievement of the goals and indicators defined in the strategy, and also draws some conclusions about the outcomes obtained by the analysis of the development of innovation activity in Russia.


2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-232
Author(s):  
Patricia Debeljuh

This paper is directed towards providing an Argentine perspective on the role of ethics in the business world. Although in the past several countries have investigated the institutionalization of ethics within corporate life, a concrete study into that field has never been properly undertaken in Argentina. However, a bird’s eye view of the ethics policies currently enforced in companies operating in Argentina creates an adequate context for understanding the ethics phenomenon as it has emerged in that country. To that effect, the major companies conducting business activities in Argentina were questioned on various subjects, ranging from company size to motivation behind providing an ethical background from which to do business, in order to allow a comprehensive analysis on company life in Argentina, as related to ethics. The survey conducted presented evidence that a wide sector of the Argentine business world believe ethics to be a factor of ever-growing importance, which would explain the relatively recent measures taken to instill ethical standards of conduct within corporations.


Author(s):  
Hrvoje Gračanin

The paper endeavours to discuss anew a scholarly puzzle related to the Croatian early Middle Ages and centred on a few lines from Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos’s De administrando imperio, which in English translation are as follows: And of the Croats who arrived to Dalmatia one part separated and ruled Illyricum and Pannonia. And they also had an independent ruler who was sending envoys, though only to the ruler of Croatia from friendship. Taking a different approach from the complete dismissal of the two sentences as a pure fiction or a mere literary device, the paper instead attempts to trace the concept behind this account as well as its underlying meaning. On the one hand, it seeks to detect the methods or strategies used by the royal compiler in trying to elucidate the past. On the other hand, it aims to provide a thorough historical analysis and offer a possible interpretation in opposition to the view, still largely extant in the Croatian scholarship, that this account is an evidence for an early presence of the group called Croats in southern Pannonia.


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1001
Author(s):  
Zuzana Zlámalová Cílová ◽  
Michal Gelnar ◽  
Simona Randáková

The study deals with the development of the chemical composition of blue glass from the 13th to the 19th century in the region of Bohemia (Central Europe). Nearly 100 glass samples (colourless, greenish, and blue) were evaluated by an XRF method to distinguish the colouring components of blue glass. As early as in the 13th century, blue glass based on ash containing colouring ions of Co and Cu was produced here. To achieve the blue colour of glass, a copper-rich raw material was most likely applied. This information significantly complements the existing knowledge about glass colouring in the Middle Ages, as the glass of later periods was typically coloured with raw materials containing cobalt.


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