Early Medieval Studies

Sídliská z 8. storočia na juhozápadnom Slovensku Šaľa III , Úľany nad Žitavou, Pavlová - Settlements from 8th Century in South-Western Slovakia – Šaľa III , Úľany nad Žitavou, Pavlová

by Martin Odler

Co-authored with Jozef Zábojník, published in the journal Študijné zvesti Archeologického ústavu SAV v Nitre 50, pp. 101-220.

The long-standing hypothesis about absence or low number of the settlements comparing them with burial grounds from... more The long-standing hypothesis about absence or low number of the settlements comparing them with burial grounds from the period of Avar Khaganate is no longer acceptable regarding the results of recent research and excavations. While the settlement of the Avar Khaganate period in Slovakia was the sole case in the 1930’s, number of new settlements has increased during the course of three or four decades by archaeological excavations. Ten settlement sites were known in 1988. Currently, the corpus of settlements from Slovakia contains 28 items with excavated features from the period of Avar Khaganate; other seven sites were found by surveys. Large corpuses are the most important. The aim of the present study is publication of features and material culture from the sites of Šaľa III (district of Šaľa), Úľany nad Žitavou and Pavlová (both in the Nové Zámky district). The study is also a general introduction to other two texts in the volume of Študijné zvesti AÚ SAV , focused on other two settlements of the Avar Khaganate period from Cífer, admin. part of Pác II and Kubáňovo II . The analysis and evaluation of the material is identical in all cases. Publication of the corpuses widens the archaeological sources for the period of 8th century AD. The settlements had no convincing traits of the status differences among the features or indications of their hierarchy, although the social stratification is observed in the Avar burial grounds. Sites with higher number of habitable features appear to be a dispersed form of settlement with several clusters of features. The thus far excavated settlements have shown that settlement forms in the period of Avar Khaganate do not differ significantly from Slavic rural settlements. This is not the evidence of the “Slavic ethnicity” of the forms of settlements (probably only the evidence of origin of some phenomena in Slavic milieu), but only a confirmation of similar or identical economic interrelations in the rural settlement structure. The traits from the settlement sites are evidence of the identical economic basis for the existence of Avar and Great Moravian ruling elite. The overview of other sites from the south-western Slovakia shows that there was no general rule for the establishment or abandonment of the settlements in the break of the 8th and 9th centuries. The diachronic differences between the horizons of the 8th and 9th century’s pottery are not yet well defined and regional differences possibly occur.

St. Eichert – M. Mehofer, Frühmittelalterliche Emailscheibenfibeln aus Villach, Archäometallurgie und experimentelle Archäologie, Neues aus Alt-Villach. Jahrbuch der Stadt Villach 48, 2011, 29–66

by Mathias Mehofer

Il Piceno nel racconto di Procopio durante le guerre gotiche

by Lorenzo Riccardi

in Rex Theodericus. Il Medaglione d’oro di Morro d’Alba, a cura di C. Barsanti, A. Paribeni, S. Pedone, Roma, E.E.S. 2008, pp. 55-65

Commodity Money, Silver and Coinage in Viking-Age Scandinavia

by Dagfinn Skre

Published in: J. Graham-Campbell, S. M. Sindbæk and G. Williams 2011 (eds.): Silver Economies, Monetisation and Society in Scandinavia, AD 800-1100, pp. 67-91. Aarhus University Press.

Centrality and places. The central place at Skiringssal in Vestfold, Norway

by Dagfinn Skre

Published in Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung, Vol. 1:220-231.

Das Ende des Monastischen Experiments. Liebe, Beichte und Schweigen in der Regula cuiusdam ad virgines (mit einer Übersetzung im Anhang)

by Albrecht Diem

in: Gert Melville and Anne Müller, Female vita religiosa between Late Antiquity and the High Middle Ages. Structures, developments and spatial contexts. Vita Regularis, Abhandlungen, vol. 47, Münster/Berlin 2011, pp. 81-136.

De Vikingen en de Zeeuwse ringwalburgen. Enkele vraagstukken.

by Letty ten Harkel

In Madoc 29 (3) pp. 161-72 (2011).

'Spolia' in contesto. Il riuso nell'episcopio medievale di Comacchio

by Diego Calaon

Co-authored with Gelichi S., Belcari R., Grandi E.;
Published in "Hortus Artium Medievalium", 17, 2011, 49-59.

The archaeological excavations carried out from 2006 until 2008 in Piazza XX Settembre in Comacchio allow us to... more The archaeological excavations carried out from 2006 until 2008 in Piazza XX Settembre in Comacchio allow us to comprehend relative phases of the medieval Episcopal complex. Investigated contexts can be dated from the 6th c. to the Modern Age. The archaeological data concerning the first Bishop's church refer to the mid-eight century, proven by excavated cemetery area and porch. Original chapel material, parts of the 8th and 9th century church, some reused in the later building. Different architectural elements of the first church (columns, capitals, marble slabs) were part of more ancient buildings, not necessarily of local origin. During the Carolingian period this early church was supplied with an altar screen. Between the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 12th century in front of the church new rectangular buildings was erected. By its shape, size and quality of used material, we can suggest that it corresponds to a part of the Romanesque Bishop's palace. Its walls were built with numerous spolia -parts of the earlier church. This demonstrates that the church itself has been completely reconstructed. The research of the architectural fragments and the data concerning some groups of architectural elements allows us to comprehend the quality of the early medieval church furniture. It is also possible to examine activities of re-use on aa Romanesque construction site.

Archäologische Funde von Eisenfesseln aus den bulgarischen Siedlungsgebieten zwischen Wolga und Donau, in: Проблеми на прабългарската истoрия и култура 2 (София 1991) pp. 52-61.

by Joachim Henning

Железообработващи работилници в долната Дунавска област за времето между античност и ранното средновековие, in: Втори международен конгрес по Българистика, София 23. Маи / 3. Юни 1986, том 6 (доклади), (София 1987) pp. 177-186.

by Joachim Henning

Outlaws of Surtshellir Cave: The Underground Economy of Viking Age Iceland

by Kevin P. Smith

Co-authored with Guðmundur Ólafsson and Thomas H. McGovern. Published in "Dynamics of Northern Societies", edited by Jette Arneborg and Bjarni Grønnow, National Museum of Denmark, 2006.

Surtshellir: a fortified outlaw cave in West Iceland

by Kevin P. Smith

Co-authored with Guðmundur Ólafsson and Thomas H. McGovern, in "The Viking Age: Ireland and the West (Proceedings of the Fifteenth Viking Congress, Cork, 2005)", Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010.

Pliska, early medieval Bulgaria and the Hungarian raids at the Balkans: Some archaeological considerations

by Joachim Henning

presented at the 22nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Sofia; to be published in: Questiones Medii Aevi Novae 17, 2012

„L’archéologie des villes du moyen âge: Une nouvelle Europe urbaine“, in: Jean-Paul Demoule (ed.) L’Europe un continent redécuvert par l’archéologie (Paris: Éditions Gallimard 2009), pp. 168 – 179.

by Joachim Henning

Khan Omurtag’s stone palace of AD 822 - A “modernized” eighth century timber fort”, in: Joachim Henning (ed.), Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium, vol. 2: Byzantium, Pliska, and the Balkans, Berlin/New York: De Gruyter 2007, pp. 433-440.

by Joachim Henning

Co-authored with Todor Balabanov, Peter Milo & Daniel Ziemann

“Civilization versus Barbarians? Fortification Techniques and Politics in Carolingian and Ottonian Borderlands”, in: Florin Curta (Ed.), Borders, Barriers, and Ethnogenesis: Frontiers in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (=Studies in the Early Middle Ages 12) (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers 2005), pp. 23-34.

by Joachim Henning

„Frühmittelalterliche Burgwälle an der mittleren Donau im ostmitteleuropäischen Kontext“, in: Jirí Machaček / Šimon Ungerman (eds.), Frühgeschichtliche Zentralorte in Mitteleuropa (Studien zur Archäologie Europas 14), (Bonn: Habelt 2011), pp. 259-288.

by Joachim Henning

Co-authored with Matej Ruttkay

New dendrochronological and radiocarbon data change considerably our image of the historical context of the building... more New dendrochronological and radiocarbon data change considerably our image of the historical context of the building of early medieval hillforts connected with the rise and the decline of the Great Moravian principality. Between 2005 and 2010, the University of Frankfurt am Main and the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences jointly carried out excavations, geomagnetic prospecting and archaeometric investigations in nine strongholds of western Slovakia. Probably the biggest hillfort of Central Europe (diameter 1.7 km/1.2 miles), Bíňa on the Gran River was formerly considered a military encampment of the Hungarian King Stephen I (around 1000 AD). It now turns out to have been built in the decades around 800 AD. Its historical background is still unclear. On the Nitra castle hill, a palisade enclosure probably dates to the time when the first known local ruler, Pribina, was expulsed from his seat by his enemy Mojmir I. (833 AD). Three medium large hillforts (Majcichov, Bojná and very probably Pobedim) of the type traditionally dated to the pre-Great Moravian period turned out in fact to belong to the very end of the Great Moravian period and to the process of that realm’s destruction by Hungarian raids around 900 AD. In Bratislava, the fortress of Brezalauspurc, described as the site in whose vicinity Bavaria and the Hungarians fought a disastrous battle in 907 AD, was rebuilt or in large part reconstructed by the Polish ruler Bolesław Chrobry around 1000 AD.

Intorno a Salvàns e Pagàns in Friuli: buone vecchie cose o nuove cose buone

by Davide Ermacora

Published in «Atti dell'Accademia San Marco» 11 (2009), 477-502

M. Mehofer – V. Leusch – B. Bühler, Die Schmiedetechnik der „Heiligen Lanze“, in: Franz Kirchweger (ed.), Die Heilige Lanze in Wien, Schriften des Kunsthistorischen Museums 9, Wien – Mailand 2005, 168–189.

by Mathias Mehofer

E. Szameit - M. Mehofer, Technologische Untersuchungen an Waffen des Frühmittelalters, Jahrbuch des Oberösterreichischen Musealvereines 147/1, 2002, 127–168.

by Mathias Mehofer