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The article aims to introduce palaeodemography, the study of the demography of ancient populations based on information estimated from human remains. The article is composed of four parts. First, the basics of demography are briefly described, giving the methodological background of palaeodemography and a couple of examples to illustrate that interest in demography has very deep roots in the study of prehistoric and historic human populations. Next, it defines the concepts of palaeodemography and closely related disciplines. Third, it describes the main developmental stages of paleodemographic studies from their origin to the present, focusing mainly on the scientific experience of Western countries. Finally, it presents the main issues, possible solutions, and research trends in modern palaeodemography.
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The article analyses the problem of how representative is the map of Lithuanian archaeological sites. It distinguishes the main factors affecting this representativity: the disappearance of archaeological sites, the methods and intensity of the conducted searches, and the principles used in the creation of the maps (or lists). The conclusion is drawn that the general representativity of the Lithuanian archaeological map is currently very low, the main reason for this being the failure to conduct systematic surveys in the search for new sites. The representativity of various types of sites differs. The representativity of settlements is currently the lowest, but it is also not satisfactory for other types of sites. At the present level of representativity, in analysing questions connected with the systems, density, and evenness of the territory’s habitation, it is essential to take this into consideration. Many questions in general cannot be analysed very well owing to the lack of data. Therefore at the present time, the orientation should be more towards the systematic search for new archaeological sites.
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The activities of Bosnian Church members are important for the understanding of their place and role in Bosnian society as well as their position in the eyes of Ragusan cotemporaries. The character of Ragusan reports is specific and offers only certain types of information that refer to the secular activities of Bosnian Christians (krstjani). It is always emphasized in the documents that it is about Patarenes or Bosnian Christians. There is no difference between these two terms, at least regarding Ragusan documents which refer to the territory of medieval Bosnia. The term heretics should not be considered, since this expression appears only in times of conflict and it refers more to certain Bosnian magnates than to the members of the Bosnian Church. Ragusans were well informed about the Bosnian Church, they were familiar with its structure and in certain cases individuals were always mentioned with their clerical title. Whether it was the title djed (grandfather), gost (guest) or starac (elder), it was always clearly emphasized in the documents. The activities of Christians in the service of Bosnian nobility were well known for the individuals who were mentioned as diplomats and mediators in certain businesses. Vlatko Tumurlić, Dmitar the Christian and guest Radin Butković stand out as the ones who had a significant career in the secular service for some magnates. The Christians acted in times of particularly tense relations, and were often the power that managed to mediate and reconcile the two battling parties. Their services were also required by Ragusans and several instances were noted when they asked for help and advice of the members of the Bosnian Church. They especially respected Radin Butković and we are best informed about his relations with Ragusa. Upon the trips to Ragusa, the members of the Bosnian Church sometimes used their affection and were often permitted to export certain kinds of goods with significant custom exception or were on different occasions rewarded, especially if the business was finished in favour of Ragusa. In exceptional circumstances Christians were portrayed negatively, but only in the cases when they performed tasks in the service of feudal lords which had nothing to do with their religious beliefs. This article is about the events from the beginning of the 1440-ies when servants of Duke Stjepan, including certain Bosnian Christians took away goods from Ragusan merchants in the region of Goražde.
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Despite the fact that study of toponomastic material on the territory covered by the medieval Bosnian state has continually been carried out for longer than a century, the research has not yet offered a detailed and serious description in the form of a special monograph. The conducted research whose results are presented on preceding pages indicates a complexity of this thematic frame. Medieval toponyms represent an important source for the research of past, however they do not represent a conserved type of information that has maintained its primary form until modern times. With the use of toponomastic material it is possible to view the various segments of medieval Bosnian history. The transformation of medieval settlement has left its traces on toponomastics, and therefore the village as the most frequent and basic form of settlement, with a completely agrarian character was marked with the toponym “vas”. The need for storage of goods was the reason why merchants spent more time on the places where a bazaar day was held once a week thus creating market places which were named after the days of the week when the sales were made. In the next phase, the need to preserve the goods and more frequent trading caused the stay of greater number of people on the squares which resulted with the development of the settlement of a higher level. The part of the settlement where permanent trading and crafting was performed was called varoš (town), a term which would later on be applied to the whole settlement and which has become a toponym. The long connection of one kindred to a certain geographic region inevitably brought to the instituting of personal or family names and rarely nicknames as toponym tags for a narrow or wide land area i.e. for the name of the whole settled place. The names of medieval settlements in many cases derived from vocations or activities which the population of the area performed. In toponomastic material the elements of all three churches the Bosnian, Catholic and Orthodox are present, but also the elements which with certain modifications represent pre-Christian Slav heritage. The folk tales often attempt to construct an image about the name of the settlement as the name given by a famous person in fatal times and put the name of the settlement in the same plain with some supernatural phenomena.
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In this commentary the author brings a few notes about the atmosphere that existed in Tuzla, on the eve of and during the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina, and provides some explanation that could serve the better understanding of the context and background of certain events, opinions and statements which marked the social and political life of Tuzla in the first half of the nineties. After the first multiparty elections in Yugoslavia in 1990 one could witness the commotion and turmoil of old and new, the clashing of ideas and projects, identities and differences, skills and ambitions, without the possibility of consideration of the final outcome and consequences of these movements for the lives of the people in this region. The author also expresses his personal reflections on some aspects of historical heritage and the realities of social life in Tuzla, as well as notes on political and intellectual developments in the city in which he himself participated.
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