Publisher: Издательский дом Stratum, Университет «Высшая антропологическая школа»

Stratum plus. Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology

Stratum plus. Археология и культурная антропология

Frequency: 6 issues / Country: Moldova, Republic of

Stratum plus. Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology (abridged as Stratum plus) is an international peer-reviewed academic journal covering topical issues of archaeology and cultural anthropology.
Published by the High Anthropological School University since 1999.
Stratum plus comes out six times a year in the Russian language. All papers are supplemented by abstracts in English, Russian and Moldovan languages.

Academic Scope and Subjects covered by the Journal
Since its appearance, the journal has been positioning itself as supranational and interstate one.
Its goal is to establish links and unite academic activities in archaeology and cultural anthropology in the whole world and, specifically, in the post-Soviet space.
Stratum plus facilitates professional communication between a wide circle of specialists in archaeology, anthropology and other auxiliary historical disciplines, as well as enables familiarization of readers worldwide with recent academic research and developments.
Subjects are not limited either regionally or chronologically. They include results of analytical research, interpretations and high-quality publication of new sources. Contributions on history, ethnology, numismatics, epigraphics and other auxiliary historical disciplines are accepted along with papers on archaeology and cultural anthropology.

Journal's Unique Structure
The Journal comes out six times a year in 200x290 mm format, in subject-oriented volumes dedicated to a specific historical age. The last, the sixth issue includes papers on numismatics and epigraphics of different periods, as well as papers on cultural anthropology, ethnology, history of late Middle Ages and early New Time. Each volume has its own unique title relevant to its content.
Owing to this structure, a professional in a certain field can get one volume, which is a full collection of papers, sources, interpretations and researchers’ opinions on the relevant historical subject, covering the post-Soviet space and other territories. Having one or more monographs in each volume, groups of articles and other thematically and chronologically relevant stuff make it a self-sustained, integral and monographic journal. As a rule, each volume is dedicated to an outstanding researcher of world acclaim.

Stratum plus editors are located in four cities: St.-Petersburg (Russia), Kishinev (Moldova), Odessa (Ukraine) and Bucharest (Romania), with the central editorial board at the High Anthropological School University in Kishinev, where all contributions are collected.

Synergetics in Anthropological Studies: pragmatic aspects

Синергетика в науках о человеке: прагматические аспекты

Author(s): Leonid A. Mosionjnic / Language(s): Russian

Keywords: synergetics; anthropology; history

The book studies different aspects of how synergetics is applied in anthropological studies. Within less than fifty years of its existence, synergetics passed from being “a new word” in science to being a post-modernist fashion, to provoke an avalanche of severe and – in many ways – justified criticisms. It is now time to contemplate the content of this ‘new word’ and the scope within which synergetics can be applied in a justified and productive manner. A historian himself, the author focuses on the humanities, recurring to the mathematics only to the extent normally understood by majority of the humanities students.First, the author addresses a retrospection of alternating worldviews in mass consciousness and in science. He demonstrates how and why science arrived to a state when synergetic ideas became necessary and demanded. He then briefly explains main concepts of the synergetics, mainly focusing on their clear definitions and applicability. His special concern is with the problem of time, mainly how it is perceived by humans and reflected in social processes (‘the time for history’) and in disciplines that study these processes (‘the time for historians’). Also here, he raises the problem of ‘fact as a construct’, not in the sense of voluntary construction of facts, but rather in the sense of inherent complexity of ‘fact’ as a concept, its dependence on the point of view chosen by the researcher and the associated problems.Then the author addresses application of synergetics in particular research fields and uses the nomogenesis theory advanced by L.S. Berg in 1920s to demonstrate that application of synergetic ideas could save this theory from accusations in teleology and allow it to protect its scientific status. He then pays special attention to the attempts to use synergetics in historical studies (mainly in post-soviet space). Unfortunately, it has been a bitter experience, mainly, with many authors regarding this ‘new science’ as a new ideology or a post-modernist jargon. Such attempts have been critically analyzed. At the same time, there are also works demonstrating substantiated and productive application of synergetic ideas, such as works by A.P. Nazaretyan and M.E. Tkachuk, or by E.S. Kulpin-Gubaidullin, in general (although not without objections), etc. These authors and their ideas enjoy a special attention in this book. P. Teilhard de Chardin’s works have received a special recognition: he expressed many synergetic ideas well before I.P. Prigozhin and G. Hacken.A special chapter is dedicated to the problem advanced in the mid 1990s: can elaboration of functional models replace search of truth in science? Even those authors who insisted on this possibility, try to avoid post-modernism and transformation of science into a form of modern mythology. Polemic debates on this issue generated a thesis that pursuance of truth and construction of models, in fact, are not in confrontation to each other.Generally, the author draws the following conclusions. Synergetics, essentially, is a methodology, rather than a science, which further develops Hegel’s and Marx’s traditional dialectics (some Russian researchers have also made a similar conclusion). It can get rid of both too rigid cause-and-effect explanations in historical sciences and historical fatalism, while at the same time, preserve the scientific character. At the same time, it focuses on multivariance of historical and cultural process and allows distinguishing possible versions of further development in each particular case and capturing such factors (insignificant, sometimes), which may force social system to follow a certain way out of a number of potential choices. At the same time, the synergetic approach allows demonstrating the futility of social ideologies which regard a return to ‘simplicity’ – already unattainable in reality – as a panacea for all modern calamities. Moreover, as it is neutral towards religion, synergetics allows substantiating the new evolutionary theories that cover the inorganic nature and biological and social processes. At last, synergetic ideas have a great educational potential, which is proven by years of teaching.

The Genoese Gazaria and the Golden Horde

Генуэзская Газария и Золотая Орда

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Russian

Keywords: Glazed Pottery; Mediterrean; Black Sea; Middle Ages; history; archeology; ethnography; museology; glazed dishes;

The second volume of academic papers “The Genoese Gazaria and the Golden Horde” is dedicated to the memory of an outstanding scholar, archaeologist, historian and numismatic, founder of the Russian School of Golden Horde archaeology, Professor of Moscow State University G. A. Fedorov-Davydov.By this volume, we wanted to address a few key issues raised in historical and archaeological studies of Byzantium, Genoese Gazaria and Golden Horde. Issue number one: we want to demonstrate possibilities for integration of different types of sources while studying broad historical problems through archaeological methods; number two — searching new ways to elucidation and understanding of different narratives of Eurasian medieval history through material culture; and number three — identification of specific features in material manifestations of vital activities by states, as a whole, and by their local regions, in particular.The articles collected in the second volume mainly address historical, geographical and archaeological studies of the vast Mongol Empire, which functioned across Eurasia in 12th—14th centuries. Having appeared in the 12th century, it then got divided into a number of new states, which, in their turn, were to cardinally change the political map of the Old World.

Glazed Pottery of the Mediterranean and Pontic Regions in the 10th—18th Centuries

Поливная керамика Средиземноморья и Причерноморья X—XVIII вв.

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Bulgarian,French,Russian,Italian

Keywords: history; archaeology; glazed pottery; Middle Ages; Modern Age; Mediterranian; Golden Horde;

The second volume of this specialized continued collection of research papers “Glazed Pottery of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea Region, 10th – 18th Centuries” contains studies of mass archaeological materials — glazed pottery — from a vast region encompassing countries from the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Far East and Eurasian steppes, dated by the High and Late Middle Ages. The goal of this continued edition is to attract the attention of the medievalists to glazed pottery and, particularly, to introduce earlier unknown archaeological complexes with glazed pottery and results of various physical-chemical studies of ceramic clays and glazes for scientific discussion. The volume includes contributions from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, USA, Uzbekistan and is meant for specialists in history, archaeology, ceramic studies, ethnography, museum studies, history students and all those interested in medieval material culture.

In Search of the Essence

В поисках сущности

Author(s): / Language(s): Bulgarian,Russian

Keywords: history; archaeology; Middle Ages; numismatic; epigraphy; Bulgarian studies; Moldova; Golden Horde;

Elsewhere, not in Moldova, Nikolai D. Russev would have been long ago recognized an outstanding contemporary, a kind of Jacques Le Goff from the Balkans, a kind of Nicolae Iorga from the Danube and Dniester, an active and cheerful chronicler, keeper and — in a certain sense — an eyewitness of the region’s five hundred years of history. The kind of history nobody else can tell here, unfortunately. The kind of history he is writing every day, having hardly anyone to tell it to. The historical activity is disappearing here. Storytellers are not wanted. No one is tempted by the lessons of the past. Mistakes are not learnt from, personalities are not respected. Moldova, this “borderland between worlds and times”, turns into an intellectual and human desert.

Antiquities. Studies. Issues

Древности. Исследования. Проблемы

Author(s): / Language(s): Russian

Keywords: archaeology; history; Middle Ages;Early Slavs;Cucuteni-Tripolie Culture;Early Iron Age;

This volume has been prepared quickly, smoothly and cheerfully. This is, perhaps, because it is dedicated to the 70th birthday anniversary of a person who is always cheerful himself, an archaeologist, zealous and lucky researcher, a radiant personality and a very kind man, as well as a wonderful colleague and true friend of all good people – Nicolai Telnov.His journey in science has been long and fruitful: from Belgorod to Bucovina, from the Crimea to the Carpathians; expeditions and field surveys, libraries and museums; with shovel and satchel; with fantastic patience and sensational results, with vast experience and rich knowledge ready to share with his colleagues and disciples. Telnov’s realm is Tripolye and Scythians, Dacians and Slavs, medieval nomads and the old letters of the sad Lay of Igor’s Warfare. His inquisitive mind knows no limits, and we will be more than glad if this volume can serve him and other readers as a trigger to follow the thorny path of science in search of new insights.

Interactions, Changes and Meanings

Культурные взаимодействия. Динамика и смыслы

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Russian,German,Moldavian

Keywords: archaeology; Neolithic; Bronze Age; Cucuteni-Tripolie Culture; Linearbandkeramik (LBK); archaeological theory;

This volume is dedicated to the 60th birthday anniversary of Igor Vasilyevich Manzura, leading Moldovan archaeologist and specialist in prehistory of South-Eastern Europe, Professor of the High Anthropological School University, member correspondent of the German Archaeological Institute, grantee of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany) and IREX (USA). The articles in this volume cover a wide range of topics to match Igor Manzura's scientific interests — from Neolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze Age of our region to archaeological theory and anthropology. This publication is meant for archaeologists, anthropologists, historians of culture, students and wider circles of readers.

The Genoese Gazaria and the Golden Horde

Генуэзская Газария и Золотая Орда

Author(s): / Language(s): Russian

Keywords: history; archaeology; Middle Ages; Genoese colonies; Golden Horde; Mongol Conquest; cultural history;

We hope our volume will be seen as the first step towards an overarching summarized work on history and archaeology of South-Eastern Europe in 13th—14th cc. in view of the now available sources. It contains articles prepared by nineteen researchers from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Kazakhstan on history and archaeology of Byzantium, the Golden Horde and the Genoese Gazaria in 13th—15th cc. and their successors in 16th—18th cc.The present volume is an attempt to address three major objectives of the historical study of Byzantium, the Genoese Gazaria and the Golden Horde. Number one: a vast territorial coverage of the articles in the historical-topographic block enables us to find specific functions of the Golden Horde as such and its local provinces, while putting them in a broad historiographic context. The second objective addressed in this volume is about showing new approaches to historical subjects and sources on history of Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages. The third objective is to demonstrate how different types of sources can be integrated into research of extensive historical problems.We hope that the suggested format and topics of this volume will be useful to our colleagues and enjoy their approval. We also hope to make it a serial publication.

Dialogue of Urban and Steppe Cultures in the Eurasian Space. Historical Geography of the Golden Horde

Диалог городской и степной культур на Евразийском пространстве. Историческая география Золотой Орды

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Russian

Keywords: history; archaeology; historical geography; urban culture; nomadic culture; Golden Horde;Middle Ages;

The VII International Conference in memoriam German Fyodorov-Davydov (November 8—12, Yalta, Crimea) will be attended by 95 researchers from 6 countries with reports covering the entire territory of the Mongol Empire from the Pacific Ocean to the Danube. The seven panels of the scientific forum — the Far East; Siberia and the Trans-Baikal area; Central Asia; the Middle Volga; the Lower Volga; North Caucasus and Transcaucasia; the Northern Black Sea area, and the Crimea — are based on the geographical principle, so as to clearly illustrate the extension of the Mongol Empire from East to West, as well as the diversity of archaeological studies of the Golden Horde.The proposed publication is aimed at elucidating the issues related to the study of historical geography of the regions dominated by the Golden Horde and other states formed by the Mongols, and territories adjacent to them, as well as their role and place in the medieval world. An important role in the framework of this scientifi c publication is played by the materials associated with the multidisciplinary approach and scientific methods of archaeological research in order to determine major trade routes and commodity flows through the Golden Horde territory, the extent of home handicraft and agricultural products distribution, life support systems within the huge medieval cities, and involvement of the steppe nomadic sub culture in the processes mentioned above. In line with these objectives, materials on historical topography of separate archaeological sites in the territorial and chronological framework under study are offered for a scientific discussion.

Saint-Petersburg Apocrypha. Epistle of Mark

Петербургский апокриф. Послание от Марка

Author(s): / Language(s): Russian

Keywords: history;archaeology;Great Migrations;Chernyakhov Culture;Goths;Late Antiquity;Early Middle Ages;

‘One Her Wing is Silver, the Other One is Made of Gold…’ - Selected papers in memory of Svetlana Ryabtseva

«На одно крыло — серебряная, На другое — золотая...» - Памяти Светланы Рябцевой

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Russian

Keywords: archaeology; history; jewelry; female clothing; history of arts; scientific life

This collection of selected papers is dedicated to the memory of Svetlana S. Ryabtseva (1966—2019), a very pure soul, scholar, archaeologist, leading student of the history of medieval gold-work, costume and jewelry set of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. As both Russian and Moldovan researcher, she took a unique place in science: her stuides became a ‘bridge between East and West’, i.e. between studies of Eastern, South-Eastern and Central Europe. Her life was short, but she left a very good heritage. It consists not only of her outstanding academic writings, but also her true and positive inspiration, which emanated from her and was shared between her family, friends and colleagues. The volume contains papers written by researchers from Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, France and the United Kingdom.