Byzantine history and archaeology

Taft R. F. The Great Entrance. A History of the Transfer of Gifts and other Preanaphoral Rites of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. [A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, vol. II]. Roma, 1975. (Orientalia Christiana Analecta; 200).

"Words and Phrases, Unchanged for Centuries.

Containing a rich glossary and in excess of 300 words and phrases, the texts demonstrate the strength of the Macedonian language through preservation.

Following is a comparison of sentences between the texts and the Macedonian
dialect of Bitola as spoken today.

16th cent., Kostur dialect
21st cent., Bitola dialect

Gospodine, brate, da si zdrav, da si prost, ostavi ni da spime, ela da jame, i da pieme, dol da pojdime, da rabotime.
Gospodine, brate, da si zdrav, da si prost, ostai ne da spiame, ela da jaime, i da piame, dolu da pojdime, da rabotime.

Imate hljap-o da kupime, imate vino da kupime, ot koja strana da pojdime vo
Bogasko.
Imate lep da kupime, imate vino da kupime, od koja strana da pojdime vo
Bogatsko.

As can be clearly noticed, most of the vocabulary and grammar is identical.
All of the elements that would later be required to rejuvinate the Macedonian people as they were shaking off centuries of subjugation, were present during this period. The language of the people had solidified, a tradition of heraldry and symbolism had developed which incorporated the emblem of a rapant lion and historical figures from Macedonia's past, and the churches continued preserve the local customs and serve as cultural centres for the population. The significance of all these elements together cannot be overstated, the language of medieval Macedonia is the same as the language of the Macedonians today. Unfortunately, only a small portion of the larger amount of Macedonian literature from the Middle Ages has survived, much of it being looted and destroyed by Greek-speaking officials, clerics and teachers. Nevertheless, Macedonian as a language reached its current form centuries before the creation of the Balkan states in the 19th and 20th centuries. "

Conclusions about the duration of participation in the circulation of the
coins from the 6th–7th centuries are presented by analysing the coin composition of the collective finds from the studied period. The results show that the life span of specimens from this period is 60–80 years, even up to 100 years, as other researchers have also concluded. However, it was established that the coins minted between 527 and 602 AD circulated for half this time (i.e. 30–60 years) and dropped out of circulation within the same period (ca. 602 to ca. 629 AD). This time coincides with some administrative reforms in the organisation of the
production of coins, but also with the production and distribution of an extremely large number of newly minted coins of gold, silver and bronze. These observations allow us to argue that, after 602 AD, a new monetary policy was formed in Byzantium, which had two main goals. Firstly, to increase the revenues from the production of coins and their subsequent
distribution (by increasing the volume of coins produced and putting them in circulation, which necessitated the withdrawal from circulation of the ‘old’ coins). And, secondly, to optimise the production costs (by overstriking old coins, reducing the volume of bronze coinage, closing of mints and concentrating the production in Constantinople).

The surveys conducted show a pattern of dense settlement
in the Troad, which far exceeds the number of settlements
today. In Late Antiquity and early Byzantine times, many of
the settlements were located along the coast. Of these, the
villages were abandoned from the 7th century onwards and
the inhabitants preferred peripheral locations in the fertile
river valleys of the interior. In Late Antiquity and the early
Byzantine era, the livelihood of the inhabitants consisted of
fishing, agriculture, quarrying and trade. In the late Byzantine
period, in addition to livestock farming and agriculture, there
was also the mining of ore.

The attached is the abstract, handout and bibliography for my presentation at the Classical Association conference, 10-13 April 2015, Bristol University
Panel: Homer II (Wills Memorial Building) 1 p.m., Sunday 12th April
Title: “Procopius' sense of land and seascapes in Homer's Odyssey and his symbolism of Athena?”

Wstęp Mirosław J. Leszka, Kirił Marinow................................................... 1

I
Konstantynopolitańskie porty IV–XII w. [Constantinopolitan harbours in the 4th–12th centuries] Mirosław J. Leszka......... 5

II
Wszystkie okręty cesarza. Rozważania nad stanem rzymskiej marynarki wojennej za panowania cesarza Maurycjusza (582–602) [All ships of the emperor: Roman Navy during the reign of emperor Maurice (582–602)] Łukasz Różycki........................................................................................... 17

III
Konstantynopolitańska eskadra cesarska w dobie panowania Komnenów (1081–1185) [Constantinopolitan squadron in the era of imperial reign of Comnenian dynasty (1081–1185)]
Marcin Böhm....................................................................................... 47

IV
Wygnani biskupi Konstantynopola w późnej starożytności i ich kontakty ze stolicą nad Bosforem [The Exiled Bishops of Constantinople from the Fourth to the Late Sixth Century] Rafał Kosiński................63

V
Chazarowie w Konstantynopolu (VII–XI w.) [The Khazars in Constantinople] Jarosław Dudek …........ 79

VI
Miejsce portu w fabule dwunastowiecznego romansu bizantyńskiego [The port in the plot of the twelfth-century Byzantine romance] Anna Kotłowska . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

VII
Winieta Konstantynopola na mapie z Ebstorf [Vignette of Constantinople on the Ebstorf Map] Piotr Kochanek……………………. . . 113

VIII
Hodegon – z rozważań nad pierwotną lokalizacją konstantynopolitańskiego sanktuarium [The Hodegon. Considerations on the location of the Hodegetria sanctuary in Constantinople]
Piotr Łukasz Grotowski . ……………………………. . . . . 137

IX
Pogańskie prywatne uroczystości kommemoratywne w okresie wczesnobizantyńskim [Pagan Private Commemorative Rites in the Early Byzantine Period] Ireneusz Milewski . . . .  . ……………... . . . . . . . . . 215

Aneks [Annex]
Itinerarium Stefana z Nowogrodu z opisem konstantynopolitańskiego portu Kontoskalion (1348/1349). Przekład i opracowanie [The Itinerary of Stephen of Novgorod: Containing a Description of Kontoskalion Harbour in Constantinople (1348/1349).] Zofia Brzozowska .. . . . . . 227

Summary. . . . . . . ………………………………………. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Wykaz skrótów [List of Abbreviations]. …. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Bibliografia [Bibliography]……… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Źródła [Sources]. . … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Opracowania [Secondary Literature]..  . ……. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Indeks osobowy [Index]. ……………. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Indeks nazw geograficznych i etnicznych [Index of geographical and ethnical names]. . …. . . . . . . . . 328

Indeks nazw konstantynopolitańskich [Index of Constantinopolitan names]….. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

There are 38 specialized winemaking complexes in the Syuyren Fortress area. Two wineries are located under the eastern cliffs of the Tapchan-Kaia mountain range, 23 — under the northern, north-eastern and eastern cliffs of cape Dzheniche-Burun, six — under the north-western cliff of cape Kulle-Burun, and seven more — under the northern and north-eastern cliffs of the same cape. Grape press are winemaking complexes, carved into the rock surface, consisting of a pressure platform, a wort receiver, a wort channel and slots for the construction of a lever press. Presumably, the vine-pressing districts of the Syuyren Fortress can be dated to the second half of the 9th — 10th centuries, but the possibility of their earlier functioning, in the 8th-9th centuries, is not excluded.

Mordoğan is a sea-side township in the district of Karaburun in Izmir, western Turkey. It is situated on the eastern shoreline of Karaburun Peninsula within the Gulf of Izmir at about 20 km to the south of the district center of Karaburun. In a close distant of Mordoğan there was a Greek village1920s that was called as "Tekke Köy". In this short article in Turkish language this small rural church of 19th cent. is being presented.

Abstract
This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in 53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

Julian the Apostate in Johannes Antiochenus.
Uncorrected draft of a paper forthcoming in A. Marcone (ed.), L'imperatore Giuliano.  Realtà storica e rappresentazione. Firenze: Le Monnier, 2015. This paper anticipates a few conclusions of the book "Antieroe dai molti volti: Giuliano l'Apostata nel Medioevo bizantino", published in 2014.

This paper addresses the archaeological evidence of the development of viticulture in the mediaeval Crimea as a specialized branch of agriculture. Although the scholarship mentions the areas where vines were planted (Dimitraki hollow, the vicinity of the castle of Siuiren’, Mangup, etc.), these publications do not provide any appropriate descriptions or illustrations. Therefore, reliable archaeological sources include primarily the finds of special winegrower’s knives with a curved (crescentshaped) blade. There are three zones of their distribution in the south-western (vicinity of Cherson, Eski-Kermen, Mangup, and the vicinity of the castle of Siuiren’), southeastern (Tepsen’ and Kordon-Oba), and southern Crimea (Isar-Kaia and the vicinity of the castle of Funa). Their chronology covers the period from the eighth to thirteenth centuries. There are two main groups of winegrower’s knives determined according to their morphological features: group 1 comprises tanged knives and group 2 socketed knives. Each group is divided into two subgroups, depending on the presence or absence
of a special trapezoidal protrusion, or “axe”, on the back of the blade. The iconographic materials demonstrate that winegrower’s knives of subgroup 1B occurred in the Late Byzantine Period (tanged winegrower’s knife with a sub-rectangular “axe” on the back of the blade). Western European Late Mediaeval miniatures demonstrate the functional use of winegrower’s knives of subgroup 1A (small tanged knives with no “axe”) intended for cutting bunches of grapes.

В истории «даров волхвов» из монастыря святого Павла на Афоне можно проследить по историческим источникам следующие периоды: 1) «дароносивые златые сосуды, иже принесоша Христу с дары волсви» в XI-XII вв. хранились в ризнице св. Софии; 2) в 1470 г. Мара Бранкович, дочь сербского деспота Георгия Бранковича и Ирины Кантакузины, жена османского султана Мурата II, принесла «дароносивые златые сосуды, иже принесоша Христу с дары волсви» в дар сербскому монастырю св. Павла на Афоне, о чем гласил турецкий фирман, утраченный во время пожара 1902 г.; 3) в XVI-XVII вв. «дароносивые златые сосуды, иже принесоша Христу с дары волсви» были переделаны в золотой пояс, насчитывающий 9 золотых пластин и 69 бусин из смеси ладана и смирны; 4) после 1744 г., когда монастырь св. Павла вновь заселили греки, число пластин увеличилось до 28, а бусин убавилось на 7.

A biography of this eminent female scholar emphasizing her scholarship. Her life, after her early years on Constantinople, was spent between Paris and the United States.  A pioneer in Armenian studies especially Armenian art, she was author of a dozen books and hundreds of notes and monographs.

The Patria is a fascinating four-book collection of short historical notes, stories, and legends about the buildings and monuments of Constantinople, compiled in the late tenth century by an anonymous author who made ample use of older sources. It also describes the foundation and early (pre-Byzantine) history of the city, and includes the Narrative on the Construction of Hagia Sophia, a semi-legendary account of Emperor Justinian I’s patronage of this extraordinary church (built between 532 and 537). The Patria constitutes a unique record of popular traditions about the city, especially its pagan statues, held by its medieval inhabitants. At the same time it is the only Medieval Greek text to present a panorama of the city as it existed in the middle Byzantine period. Despite its problems of historical reliability, the Patria is still one of our main guides for the urban history of medieval Constantinople. This translation makes the entire text of the Patria accessible in English for the first time.

Доклад «’’Звенигородский чин” прп. Андрея Рублева: современные проблемы изучения» на III Чтениях памяти В.А. Плугина на историческом факультете МГУ 14 ноября 2017 г.  В докладе полностью доказана по данным всего комплекса источников неоспоримая принадлежность знаменитого «Звенигородского чина» кисти великого иконописца прп. Андрея Рублева († 17.10.1428). Тем самым начисто развенчаны легковесные мнения молодых сотрудников ГТГ Л.В. Нерсесяна и С.В. Свердловой (поддержанных только А.М. Лидовым), прозвучавшие на круглом столе в Третьяковской галерее 21 июня 2017 г., что «Звенигородский чин» 1396 г. якобы не был написан прп. Андреем Рублевым и отличается от его общепризнанных икон, таких, как чудотворная икона «Живоначальная Троица». Такие незрелые суждения не соответствуют уровню современного научного знания об этих шедеврах и обусловлены недостаточной осведомленностью авторов «сенсации» о творческой биографии всемирно известного иконописца Древней Руси, которая взята ими для корреляции: «получается, что Рублев, будучи еще совсем молодым мастером, создал одно из самых совершенных и сложных по технике произведений древнерусской живописи, но через четверть века по какой-то неизвестной причине радикальным образом изменил свою манеру» (Софья Свердлова).
Доклад проф. О.Г. Ульянова, заведующего Сектором церковной археологии ФГБУК «Центральный музей древнерусской культуры и искусства имени прп. Андрея Рублева», подготовлен на базе научно-исследовательского проекта «Преподобный Андрей Рублев в Спасо-Андрониковом монастыре».

Σχεδόν όλες οι πόλεις της Ελλάδας κρύβουν ένα βυζαντινό παρελθόν, το οποίο έπαιξε καθοριστικό ρόλο στη διαμόρφωση της οργάνωσης και της εικόνας τους, μέχρι και τις μέρες μας. Εντούτοις, στις περισσότερες το παρελθόν αυτό έχει αφήσει πολύ λίγα υλικά ίχνη –συνήθως ένα κάστρο– και έχει καταστεί εξαιρετικά δυσανάγνωστο. Χαρακτηριστική περίπτωση αποτελεί η Λαμία, το μεσαιωνικό Ζητούνι, μία μικρή βυζαντινή πόλη που για πάνω από μία χιλιετία υπήρξε στρατηγικός κόμβος στο δρόμο από και προς τη νότια Ελλάδα. Συνδυάζοντας τις πενιχρές αναφορές των γραπτών πηγών και τις αποσπασματικές αρχαιολογικές μαρτυρίες, στο παρόν βιβλίο επιχειρείται η ανασύνθεση της μορφής και της εξέλιξης της Λαμίας από τον 4ο ως τον 15ο αιώνα, και η αποτίμηση της σημασίας της ως τοπικού διοικητικού, στρατιωτικού και εκκλησιαστικού κέντρου. Παράλληλα, αναδεικνύονται οι δυνατότητες που προσφέρουν τα αποσπασματικά ιστορικά και αρχαιολογικά δεδομένα για την αποκατάσταση του βυζαντινού κρίκου της εξέλιξης των ελληνικών πόλεων.

"The Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, as we read it, is already the literary place of a cultural encounter
over centuries between an old Germanic heroic story and the Christian culture of the writer, a novel
of our days which re-uses the story is the continuation of a tradition already inscribed in the old
poem. But in the poem another main cultural encounter takes place. If a culture can, or can try to,
define itself and narrate its own survival through its hero, a hero needs an antagonist to define itself:
Beowulf’s antagonist is the well-known monster called Grendel. The article focuses on the
encounter with the otherness represented by Grendel in the original Beowulf and on how it changes
in its rewriting 'Eater of the Dead' by Michael Crichton (1997): from the threat morally and ethically
posed of the medieval poem to the contemporary anthropological threat revealing our fear for
previous stages of evolution. Crichton’s novel combines Beowulf’s story with Ibn Fadlan’s account
of his journey among the Bulghars, which gives the novel a geographical and multi-cultural
approach that was absent in the Anglo-Saxon poem. An epic poem is always a literary space where
cultural encounters take place, but these encounters have to change their features to be felt as
relevant in another time and in another culture."

The modelling and visualisation of networks is based on the material in: M. Mullett, Theophylact of Ochrid. Reading the Letters of a Byzantine Archbishop. Birmingham 1997.

The first graph is a visualisation of the connections between letters in localities between which these letters were exchanged (" 2mode network").

The second graph is a visualisation of the weighted network of localities on the basis of Theophylact´s correspondence; two localities are connected if letters of Theophylact were exchanged between them. Links are scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them.

The third graph visualises these connections between localities on a map. Links are again scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them. The size of nodes is scaled according to their number of connections within the network ("degree").

The fourth graph is a "zoom" into these geographical visualisation of the network for the Western Balkans; links are again scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them.

For the localisation of sites within the historical region of Macedonia cf. also the upcoming volumes on Macedonia (Southern Part) by Peter Soustal and on Macedonia (Northern Part) by Mihailo Popovic within the series "Tabula Imperii Byzantini" (http://www.oeaw.ac.at/imafo/die-abteilungen/byzanzforschung/communities-landscapes/historische-geographie/)

For any further questions, please contact [email protected].

A 12th-13th-century A.D. ceramic assemblage from Alexander’s Hill at Sagalassos in southwestern Turkey provides new evidence for the typo-chronological study of Byzantine pottery. A functional analysis of the assemblage, along with textual and iconographic evidence, archaeozoological and palynological analyses, and chemical analysis of cooking-pot residues, contributes to the reconstruction of diet and cooking practices in Anatolia. While baked fish, vegetables, pulses, and bread are usually regarded as the staples of Byzantine peasant cuisine, diners at Sagalassos were enjoying beef stews before the Fourth Crusade, when the technique of stewing meat was allegedly introduced to the eastern Mediterranean from the West.

The early 6th century parietal mosaics which decorate the interior
of the ravennate basilica of Sant Apollinare Nuovo tell a complex story. Religion, politics and ideology intertwine against a rich historical background, to form a layered visual text. I endeavor to decode and interpret this “text”, where East and West, Byzantium and the barbaricum collide. I do so by drawing, in part, on the conceptual framework of deconstructivist philosopher Jacques Derrida.