Early Medieval Archaeology

Some years ago a revolution took place in Early Medieval history in Scotland. The Pictish heartland of Fortriu, previously thought to be centred on Perthshire and the Tay found itself relocated through the forensic work of Alex Woolf to the shores of the Moray Firth. The implications for our understanding of this period and for the formation of Scotland are unprecedented and still being worked through.

This is the first account of this northern heartland of Pictavia for a more general audience to take in the full implications of this and of the substantial recent archaeological work that has been undertaken in recent years. Part of the The Northern Picts project at Aberdeen University, this book represents an exciting cross disciplinary approach to the study of this still too little understood yet formative period in Scotland’s history.
Available 23 May 2019

In 2016, an Early Medieval sword scabbard chape was handed over to the Museum of Kostrzyn Fortress. According to the person submitting it, it was found about 5-6 years earlier in the northern part of Kostrzyn nad Odrą. The main decorative motif of the openwork field is a heraldically arranged bird. The closest analogies to the chape in question are dated to the second half of the 10th and 11th century. Artefacts of this type could have been produced in Scandinavia, but also in the Rus and Baltic areas. Unfortunately, we are not able to say what raw material was used to cast the artefact in question. An analysis of the metal composition of the find carried out on the surface of the artefact demonstrated that a very heterogeneous lead alloy was used, which could have also been a result of lead-bleaching. The same technology was also observed on the chapes from Ruthenia. Scholars have explained the presence of an ornithomorphic motif on the surface of the artefact in various ways.

Decentralization of the Caliphate power early in the 11th century fostered the appearance of multiple local powers on the head of new independent states, which were ruled by different ethnicities. This political configuration of the Taifas had remarkable consequences in the architecture aesthetic. Taking the Caliphal art as a base, they diversified the artistic language of that time.
From a synthetic and comparative study it will be considered why some taifa kingdoms fully assumed the ancient heritage and others, conversely, re-formulated this art language with solutions unseen in the Iberian Peninsula. Consequently, our target is to understand the role played by the art during the 11th century in al-Andalus as a generator of not only legitimizing, but also ideological and identity discourses.

Recapitulation of results of archaeological investigation on the site 2/32 in Czekanov showed it as a place of sacral-funerary-manistic function, which had been living in the tradition of local community during around the 1000 years. The sacral space was created approximately in the 2nd half of the 8th century. Its material demonstration was little, ceremonial stronghold probably surrounded by flat cemetery with cremation pit-graves. Main features of spatial development of the stronghold suggest, that archaeologically recognized cultural elements as: the presence and shape of wooden construction interpreted as symbolic “House of the Deads” and barrow in the “Sopka” type, were adopted from the Upper Wolga and Eastern Part of Upper Dneper Regions, where till the 10th century they functioned as determinants of Novgorod and Romen’-Borshev cultural acreages. It shows, that in the earlier medieval period, the middle Bug area (where the Czekanov is situated) had living, long-distance contacts with North-Eastern part of Slavonic and Baltic-Slavonic World, proven by presence of archaeological structures in their characteristic forms, possibly transposed on local, cultural background by a group of foreign settlers.
In the next period, from the 1st half of the 11th century till the 2nd half of the 13th century, the cultural landscape of the place changed. Earlier ceremony stronghold was converted into the barrow of typical Eastern Slavonic form, probably staying the initial grave for the whole cemetery consisted of around 12 mounds. The only funeral rite, still had been stayed cremation, but except of barrows, few different forms of burials were registered as distinctive for that time. From archeo-anthropological point, it suggests, that the foreign origins of the sacral tradition had not been lost: for the traditional content, the new form was given and ritual character of the place preserved as adopted to new cultural (political?, ethnic?) conditions, offered by geopolitical changes, connected to the regional process of forming the frontier between Piast and Rus’ States.  Pagan character of the place had been kept, despite of local presence of “semi-Christians”, using in the same time another cemetery with stony-kerbed graves, situated in the closest vicinity.
In Late Medieval and Early Modern Period the cemetery stayed the place of manistic rituals, what was confirmed by finds of offering relics: pots and animal bones scattered on and around early medieval structures. The special position of the place in local tradition is certified also by double inhumation burial of new-borns discovered in the earthwork of the “initial” barrow (earlier ceremonial stronghold). It probably means, that children died before the formal community reception, symbolized by baptism. Supposedly, it was a reason to bury them in the space protected by mythic, “pagan antecessors” of the whole community. The clear reference to the pagan tradition was the new cemetery arranged in the centre of early medieval cemetery probably in the 17th century. Its base was large, earthen, barrow-like platform of rectangular shape. On the plateau, 44 inhumation burials were excavated. Differentiation of the age and sex suggests, that it was a place of regular burials of local residents.
The collective memory connected to the cemeteries started to disappear probably in the 2nd quarter of the 18th century, when the shrine of Uniate Church was built in the village. Constant presence of Christian clergymen: firstly Uniates, secondly Orthodox was probably also connected funeral places, which were taken under official control. The living tradition, based on ritual activity, was reduced to oral, intergenerational transfer. This last stage was in turn stopped by thirty years of religious repressions of Uniats, culturally and physically exterimined by Tsar Russia in the 2nd half of the 19th century. This process, understood in the category of collective trauma, can be seen as sociologic phenomenon known as cultural oblivion, which is readable in contemporary culture of locals.

A hillfort with an area of 12 ha is situated on the top and slopes of the high hill called Veľký vrch with relative elevation of 200 m above the river Váh. Individual functional parts of the hillfort (acropolis, peak area and suburbium) are separated by ramparts. The oldest written source concerning the locality is from the first half of the 18th century, and first detailed description is
from the second half of the 19th century. Small archaeological excavations in this area were made at the beginning of the 1970s and proved the settlement of the Lusatian culture from the late Bronze Age, of the Púchov culture from the late La Tène period, as well
as of Early Medieval times from the Great Moravian period. In the last four decades the hillfort was intensively looted by amateurs using metal detectors. The subject of this paper is the recent excavations and finds from the Early Medieval period.

Per molto tempo, nelle Marche, gli interessi prevalenti nel campo della ricerca archeologica sono stati quelli pre-protostorici e classici, eccezion fatta per alcuni importanti ma limitati contributi, come quelli offerti negli anni Settanta da Liliana Mercando e da Gabriella Maetzke.
Con il passare degli anni, tuttavia, gli scenari sono lentamente mutati grazie al concorso di vari fattori: l’attività della Soprintendenza Archeologica delle Marche, l’attenzione di cui è stato oggetto l’importante contesto longobardo di Castel Trosino, alcuni recenti scavi condotti dalla SABAP di Ancona nel quadro della propria attività istituzionale e infine, in misura consistente in questo ultimo quindicennio, le sistematiche campagne di ricognizione e scavo organizzate delle Università di Urbino e Macerata.
I dati che sono stati raccolti e si vanno raccogliendo, pur con notevoli difficoltà per alcune fasi cronologiche, contribuiscono a una migliore definizione delle dinamiche relative al popolamento urbano e territoriale, aprendo nuove prospettive da confrontare con le acquisizioni derivanti da scavi e ricognizioni in contesti, più o meno estesi, di età romana e condotti/e da altri team di ricerca italiani e stranieri.
Siamo pertanto convinti che i tempi siano maturi per un primo incontro tra gli studiosi che a diverso titolo operano nel campo dell’archeologia medievale nelle Marche. Tale incontro, ideato e condiviso in seno agli Atenei di Macerata e Urbino, verrà organizzato dalla sezione Beni Culturali del Dipartimento di scienze della formazione, dei beni culturali e del turismo dell’Università di Macerata e sarà patrocinato dalla SAMI – Società degli archeologi medievisti italiani.

V posameznih okostnih grobovih na zgodnjesrednjeveških grobiščih slovenskega Podravja so poleg drugih pridatkov bile najdene tudi ostroge. Na grobišču Ptuj - Grad je bil po par ostrog najden v štirih grobovih, tri ostroge pa so bile med izkopavanjem najdene zunaj grobov. V po enem grobu pa so bile najdene tudi na grobiščih Stari trg pri Slovenj Gradcu - Puščava (par ostrog) in Brezje pri Oplotnici - Gorenjakova domačija (ena ostroga). Na podlagi tipološko-kronološke analize posameznih grobov in grobišč je bilo ugotovljeno, da se na prostoru slovenskega Podravja ostroge pojavljajo med drugo polovico 8. in prvimi desetletji 9. stoletja. Pri pokopih gre za posameznike, ki so bili med pogrebnim obredom opremljeni z ostrogami, atributom, ki je označeval njihov poseben družbeni položaj v skupnosti.