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One of the most important directions of studying of history of the medieval Crimea is research of cult constructions. The "cave" monastery found in the district of Bakhchisarai became object of studying.
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On the occasion of archaeological assistance carried out in Iaşi – Tg. Cucu, “Palace of Justice”, from October to December 2011, there were discovered a number of seven basements of the houses with one or more floors, dating back from the 17th–19th centuries. Modern interventions have displaced the older levels, so that medieval complexes of habitation (16th–17th centuries) were completely destroyed. The archaeological material is composed of fragments of pottery, decorative ceramics (wall- and stove-tiles, clay pipes), a pipe, a jewellery stone mould, glass pieces, iron objects, from 16th, 17th–18th, and 19th–20th centuries. The fragmentary state of pottery did not allow us to completely restore any vessel, but that did not prevent us from identifying the types and various variants as presented in the inventory of medieval Moldavian pottery. All the pottery items were systematized in three categories: 1. reddish pottery, glazed and plain; 2. black and grey pottery; 3. kaolin and porcelain. The stratigraphic and planimetric observations, the corroborations of historical data by the results of practical archaeological research, but also the analysis of the entire artefacts, lead to the conclusions that, despite repeated modern actions, which displaced the layers of previous habitation, the area under investigation has been in constant habitation as far back as 16th century.
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The authors present a small ceramic collection sheltered by the archaeological museum of Mangalia. The large variety of wine, olive oil, and fish product amphorae suggested by this modest pottery collection confirms the extensive trade network established by this city not only with Pontic centres but also with many eastern Mediterranean areas during early and late Roman times. The kitchen ware also displays a large variety of pots, casseroles, and frying pans. They attest to the advanced level in cookery reached by the Callatian society and the diversified trade connections that allowed it to import Aegean and west Anatolian cooking vessels, while others were locally or provincially made.
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The paper publishes those fourteenth–sixteenth-century stove tiles from the Benedictine abbey at Pécsvárad that were excavated in the 1960s–1980s, with the exception of the material from a single stove built from tiles featuring mixed (tin and lead) glaze. Conspicuous among the pieces recovered are fragments of the Ernuszt stove, so called because it bears the coat of arms of Zsigmond Ernuszt, bishop of Pécs from 1473 until 1505. In actual fact, this stove was a variant of the so-called knight-figure stove (Ofen mit Ritterfiguren). According to our present knowledge, fragments of stoves similar to the Ernuszt one have come to light not just in Pécsvárad, but in Pécs, in Vokány-Trinitáspuszta, and even at Raholca Castle (Grad Ružica, near Orahovica in Croatia). The stoves were probably all made in one workshop in Pécs, although at different times.
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A depot find of stone tool preforms and ground stone tools was uncovered at Gelemér–Ráchalála near Veszprém in 2010. The author describes the objects and tries to identify the methods of manufacturing and use.
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Funeral bed or cabin? On the structure of Lengyel graves with posts in South Transdanubia. The authors analyse the shapes and the structures of the graves of the Late Neolithic – Early Copper Age (Lengyel culture) cemetery of AlsónyékBátaszék (South Transdanubia) with the help of trait analysis (“Merkmalanalyse”). The primary aim of the analysis is to examine the evolution and the origin of the uncovered post structure graves, a new phenomenon in the Central and SE European Neolithic and Copper Age. A hundred and twenty-three graves (7.72% of all the graves) had an interior posthole in each corner of the shaft. Several types and versions of this grave structure could be distinguished based on metric and morphological traits. Beside the typology of the grave shafts, the authors examine the social status of the persons who were often buried in these graves with especially rare and unique grave furniture. According to the final conclusions, they were not immigrants but the members of the local Lengyel population. The data shed light on both the social and the hierarchical changes that took place in the life of the Lengyel communities at the end of the Late Neolithic and in the initial phase of the Early Copper Age.
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The most reliable accounts of the oldest part of Longobard history are provided by authors from both the classic (Strabo, Tacitus, Velleius Paterculus) and the Byzantine school of thought (Iordanes, Procopius of Caesariensis) even if a detailed analysis of such works reveals an extensive time gap between the early stages of the imperial period and the end of the 5th century. The Historia Langobardorum, written only in the second half of the 8th century by Paul the Deacon, provides the most important written evidence. Its complex narration, which is based however on a unified and ordered sequential logic, explains the origins behind the process of formation and detachment that differentiated the Longobard population from the other Germanic demographic units with which it shared a common history in the continental European areas for at least five centuries. Its author points out that most of the Germanic peoples (Vandals, Rugians, Heruls, Thuringians and Goths) shared a common homeland represented by the Scandinavian region from where they began a long period of migration toward the southern European areas. A summary of the oldest events is contained in the Origo Gentis Langobardorum, the preamble of the text recognised as Rotari’s Edict, although it was never attributed to any official author. A continuation of the Origo Gentis Langobardorum, known as Historia Langobardorum Codicis Gothani, further chronicles the history of the Longobard population up to the 8th century. In light of such considerations, the extended period of time between the presumed Scandinavian origins and this population’s appearance in northern Germany – during which the early medieval sources describe the very important changes in the social and cultural structure – is of fundamental importance in understanding how the subsequent events unfolded. As a result, the opportunity of studying the beginnings of Longobard history, and thus of analysing the formation of the process of ethnogenesis during its initial phases, can help identify the original socio-economic characteristics of this population, what social transformations took place and the reasons that affected or led to such changes.
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This article is on the presentation of an aspect of the Huno-Bulgarian shepherd’s title zhupan with it’s Chinese root (turk. Cuban, coming from the Chinese tsou-pan 'chanceller' and tsou 'municipality), where among the nomads it became to mean "shepherd" (Turk. çoban) in similarity to the Hun ethnonym (Chinese hun 'shepherd’). In this connection, there is the Hun family Chuban from the Dulo family clan and their state Chuban to the north of Tian-Shan Mountain. The Slavs adopted the Zhupan title and the title pan / ban associated with it, meaning 'Mister', from their Hun masters preceding their migration in the 6th century. The Zhupan title was first witnessed in the treasure of Asparuh from Banat (Nagy Sent Miklosh) in two configurations made up from two parts each - Greek and a pseudo-runic ones. The first variation is on Plate № 20: bouila zoapan "His highness the Zhupan" (from boi 'high' and -il 'knyaz, homeland’, comp. zoupanos megasis "great Jupan) and bataul zoapan "the elder son of the Zhupan” (from bat 'Great, big brother' and aul 'son', comp. the firstborn Bat Bayan). The ruler’s seal on plates № 9 and № 10, the cups with high stems and the rhyton, testify the second variation. The letter-symbols were inspired by old pictogram signs for different objects in the spirit of the Chinese writing tradition – for example, "o" is a half-moon; the Greek „п“ is a square, the Latin "c" is refracted to as a rhyton, the initial "E" of Espererich (Khan Asparuh in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans) has skew horizontal hinges like a horse-tail flag. The inscription is a title in two parts of khan-jupan and has not yet been registered, elsewhere: E (spererich) can jop(a)n. The letter "zh" in "zhopan" has been used for a long period of time as an initial-symbol of the zhupan until the reign of Khan Omurtag (814 - 831) – e.g. on the hips of the lions in Pliska and Chatalar, on a stone block from the pagan temple-nympheum at Madara and on tiles. Another variant of the letter "zh", adapted by the Glagolic letter and also used separately as a sign of the zhupan, is witnessed on a sword, the stone block from Byala, the rock of the nympheum at Madara. In terms of the Glagolic prototype of the letter testifies the star-shaped seal from Pliska with the formula of the Good Shepherd (IYI + ЖУБАНЪ) of the homeland (ЕАЛѢ- from Turk. il 'district, province, country, prince' with -ѣ for the possessive case) water and military constructor – СУ ѢѰ (Turk. su 'water' and sü 'army', comp. proto-Bulgarian subegi 'millitary beg’ and Turk. yap ‘set up’ with verbal adverb -s). The inscription is composed vertically in bustrophedoneon so that the first row is being read from top to bottom and from left to right, whereas the second row is read from bottom to top and from right to left. While some Cyrillic letters have a completed character (e.g. Ъ), others are still in the process of adjustment from the Glagolitic alphabet (e.g. Ж, А, Б, Ѣ). The runographical written tradition ends up with the dethronement of Prince Vladimir Rasate (890-893).
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The present paper deals with the bath gymnasion (probably the known from inscriptions Severan gymnasion) with theatron in front of it, a piazza and an equestrian statue, all located near the Southwestern gate of Augusta Traiana-Beroe. Since long time the function and the date of every part of the complex has become the subject of discussion. The piazza was identified by its researchers as the forum of the city. But in the opinion of the author,it should be rather the agora, not the forum, located most probably not here, but almost in the Northern centre of the city, because it was Greek-speaking and organized similarly to the other Greek cities in the Balkans and Asia Minor. The first building period with three phases of the thermen-gymnasion is related to the time of the Severan dynasty. This theatre-like place was functioning simultaneously to the still not found theatre (or theatre-amphitheatre) of Augusta Traiana. The complex at the Southwestern Gate has several main functions: as a place of training in sports and for humanitarian and artistic education; as thermen for hygienic and recreational purposes; and finally as a place for demonstrations of the skills of the young men,probably in connection with the veneration of the imperial and other local cults. The visitors of the thermen and the city elite as spectators were watching from the auditorium the athletic games, the theatre-like performances and possibly other competitions. In the second period, beginning after the recovering from the Goths’ devastations in the middle of the 3rd century and ending in 351, the piazza has changed its function and has become the arena of gladiatorial combats, some venationes and bestiaria, with a special railing, separating the decumanus and the traffic from the combats. In the third period, removing of the railing and erecting of an equestrian statue, probably of Constantius II, this put to an end the gladiatorial games in the piazza and generally of paganism in the city. The piazza with the statue has become one of the several centers of the imperial cult in Beroe in Late Antiquity. The whole area was Christianized, including thetransformation of the bath’s vestibule into an Early Christian basilica and bishop residence.
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This paper studies the architectonic decoration in the Ionian order of Augusta Traiana-Beroe (mainly bases, columns, capitals, frieze-architraves, cornice etc.). They were applied in different types of architecture – public, cult, residential. Four building periods can be followed in their application. The earliest one is the period of Trajan-Hadrian; the second period belongs to Marcus Aurelius-Commodus; the third one is from the end of the Antonines to the end of the Severans. The fourth period relates to the beginning of the 4th century. From the first period some bases from houses and porticoes were re-used in the Late Antique colonnades. In the second period the fortress walls were built. The Ionian order from that period demonstrates very rich pieces and supports the announcement of Marcus Aurelius as the ‘κτίστης’ of the city. The peak of the development of the city architecture and in the use of the Ionian order is the third period of the Severi, in which the samples from the time of Hadrian are repeated and further enriched, leading to the so-called ‘Hadrianic Renaissance’. Emblematic for this period is the Auditorium in front of the thermae at the Southwestern gate.The heritage of the second architectural and decorative period can be observed as well: the astragal, the Ionian kyma etc. In the fourth period earlier can be found elements used in the houses and colonnade till the 4th century. The author is looking for evidence for the local production (stone, manner of carving and treatment, motifs, technological markers). For the first time the Proconessian import is publically inaugurated in Augusta Traiana based on the type of marble, motifs, decorative scheme and technology. The materials from the city enlarge the panorama of this center of production with the interior of Thrace and especially with Augusta Traiana.
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During the archaeological investigations in 1974-1975, conducted by D. Nikolov and D. Yankov, a significant part of a thermal building with auditorium in front of it has been discovered in close proximity to the Southwestern gate of Augusta Traiana-Beroe. One of the excavated rooms, interpreted as vestibule, was decorated with mosaic pavement, over which a synthronon was built later, connected with the transformation of this part of the complex into Early Christian basilica. The mosaic floor itself was excavated completely in two stages, the second one performed in 2013.The mosaic covers all the space of the vestibule. Its decoration is formed by several bands in the central part, in front of the exedras and the niches different floral and geometric ornaments are represented. The technique is opus tessellatum, with dimensions of the tesserae from 1 cm up to 1.6 cm with a great variety of colours: white, black, ochre, red, grey and light blue. As a whole the condition of the mosaic is good, but in some parts can be seen small areas with stratification, cracks and single loss of tesserae. On other places some repairs with mortar can be observed, whose aim was to level the deformed surface. The mosaic pavements will be exposed in situ after the protective building is erected and the conservation activities finish.
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In 2011 during archaeological excavations in the central area of Sofia was discovered a well preserved mosaic. It covers the floor of a spacious room (probably a representative hall) of one of the large houses. The mosaic consists of six panels with different geometrical schemes. In the central part of the floor is placed the pseudo-emblema, which presents a running wheel surrounded by a stylized laurel wreath with alternating green and purple leaves. Around the wreath in the four corners of the panel there are four cantharoi with wine stems, leaves and grapes growing from their rims. The techniques used in the mosaic decoration are opus tessellatum and opus vermiculatum (only in the pseudo-emblema). On two of the crescent-like segments of the running wheel is inscribed a word ‘Felix’ with smaltae. According to the archaeological context the mosaic dates to the 80s of the 4th century AD.
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The mosaic pavement in villa No 1 in Kalimanitsa belongs to the West Balkan type of composition with geometric character. It is well dated with a coin, found in the mortar, in the years immediately after or synchronous to 319-320. At that time additional rooms and walls were constructed in the villa. Very interesting are the data on the mosaic technique and the specialization in the craft of mosaic. In the horreum near the villa a lead sheet was found, probably used for samples of different motives and elements of the mosaic. The non-used tesserae found in another room of the horreum show that the assistant of the mosaicist was occupied in cutting the stone and preparing the material for the mosaic, while the master was busy with its designing and making. The analysis of the mortar evidence the usage of blood for better quality of the mosaic foundation. The marble of Berkovitsa in several colours is used predominantly. The composition is typical for the West Balkan areas, influenced by Northern Italy. It has no figural or ornamental decoration, but there is a balance between the orthogonal and curvy elements-fillings. The places of the entrances, real or provisory, are marked at the borders.
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The identification of monastic structures in Thrace is closely related to their presumed coenobitic character. The main issue in recognizing a monastery within the archaeological process is generated by the lack of a clear spatial scheme of the Early Christian cloisters. This is why some structural elements of the large eastern complexes are being translated into standard landmarks of the monastery core, namely: the enclosed character of the monastic space; the chain disposition of the cell-dwellings and the binding presence of a katholikon. A particularly important role in the series of buildings take the ones for communal activities, i.e. a kitchen or refectory. Archaeological research has not encountered such spatial program within the diocese of Thrace. The lack of explicit coenobitic complexes predetermines the uncertainties related to the identification of the early monastic sites. Not all the sites can be chronologically specified correctly, and yet the lack of evidence for monastic organization in Thrace before the middle of fifth century is quite notable. This could be due to the imperfection of the archaeological method, but possibly must be related to the full institutionalization of monasticism by the Church after the Fourth ecumenical council of 451. We should point out that all sites in Thrace which can be assigned monastic emerge after this date. All examined sites bring us to the conclusion that the main challenge for the identification of an Early Christian monastery is presented by their unclear archaeological context. A structural character of the Early Christian monastery cannot be laid down and the lack of wide-range of archaeological results can bring incorrect conclusions.
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The introduction into scholarship of a new seal of hypatos and domestikos of the Hikanatoi of the West Paul Phylakos will amend the corpus of Byzantine seals from Bulgaria to include the seal of previously unknown person, will get us acquainted with a new member of the Phylakoi family, and will enlarge to some extend our notion of Byzantine military elite, which was closely connected to the Balkans in the age of the Byzantine-Pecheneg wars of the eleventh century; this case clarifies the data of an elite cavalry corps commanded by the domestikos of the Hikanatoi.
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The article deals with a deposit discovered in late 2012 in the foothills of the Crimean Mountains by a private person. The deposit contains 44 Ottoman silver coins (akches). 1 akche was minted in the last year of Murad II’s first reign (1444), while the others – during Mehmed II’s second reign (1451– 1481). These coins are dated AH 855 (5 pcs.) and 865 (38 pcs.) and were issued during 1451–1460 and 1460–1470 respectively. The majority of coins from the deposit were minted at Rumelian mints – Edirne, Novar and Serez (84.09%), while the share of Anatolian mints – Amasya, Ayasluk and Bursa, is substantially lower (13.64%), since most of the Ottoman silver mines of that time were located in Rumelia. A proportion of mints among the AH 865 akches, which are the youngest coins in the composition of the deposit under consideration, and its comparison with the similar hoards from the Romanian lands (Schinetea, Piua Petrii) allowed to assume that its lost or concealment was in the second half of the 1460s – early 1470s. During this period an influx of Ottoman coins to Crimea, as well as an activity of Ottoman merchants in this region has probably increased as a result of the Ottoman conquest of the largest commercial centers in Southern Black Sea region (Amastris, Sinop and Trebizond) and weakening of Genoese trade. One can not state with confidence that the deposit under consideration might be associated with the Ottoman campaign on the Genoese Gazaria and Principality of Theodoro in 1475, since in its composition the AH 875 akches, issued in 1470–1480, are absent.
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There was an active scholarly discussion in the numismatic circles of Ukraine regarding the possibility of minting at the initiative of the Cossack hetmans their own coins at the beginning of the 20th century. However, such coins have not been discovered, and multiple mentions of them in print sources of information remain only the basis for various hypotheses. To the coins, which could be hypothetically minted by the order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, we can conditionally refer the imitations of poltoraks, made with the use of silver. Unfortunately, the plans of Ivan Vyhovsky to mint in Kyiv the coins of the Grand Principality of Rus’, which were similar to the Polish-Lithuanian coins, have not materialized. We assume that the coins minted at the initiative and on behalf of Petro Doroshenko could be coins of average face-value, made of silver. In our deep conviction, the fact of the money emission on the assignment of the Cossack hetmans is indisputable, as evidenced by the analysis of newly found Ukrainian treasures, which includes coins, probably, minted by hetmans. However, taking into account a drastic increase of numismatic treasure material, that was found by private searchers over the last almost 20 years, it has become possible to develop the issue of minting by Ukrainian hetmans their own coins. Although the results of official archaeological searches conducted on the sites of Cossack settlements, in the Bogoroditsky Fortress and at the place of the Battle of Berestechko, on the territory of the fortress in Zhabotin and on Khortytsia island, had not given science the finds of the desired own coin of Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
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The purpose of the study is to study the numismatic collection of Svitlovodsk city museum of local history in the context of the general problems of studying monetary circulation within the territory of Zadniprskih places. The article is devoted to money circulation on the territory of Zadniprskikh places of the Hetmanate in the period from the beginning of the ХVІІ to the middle of the XVIII century. The author analyzes the available written sources, historical and local history researches that deal with the problem of monetary circulation, and also describes and analyzes the numismatic materials from the collection of Svitlovodsky city local history museum related to the territory of the Zadniprskih places of the Hetmanate during the specified period. The monetary circulation of the specified territory in the specified chronological framework in the historical and and local history literature not yet covered, but some local descriptions of numismatic sources made by the local history have been made, which, in their place of location and the time of chasing, are relevant to the specified territory and chronological framework, were not considered in the context of the coverage of monetary circulation.
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This article tells about and analyzes the evidences from the Ukrainian periodical newspapers concerning the coin counterfeiting. Determined the potential of the newspapers as the source of research of the aspect of coin counterfeit in the end of XIX – the beginning of XX centuries. Nowadays the fund of the newspapers in the National V.I. Verdanskiy library of Ukraine counts more than 200.000 year issues sets. The domestic researches have highly appreciated the potential of the use of the materials of the newspapers in lots of the directions of the historical researches like the questions of the insurgent movement, economics problems and the aspects of the special branches of the historical science. The main disadvantage of the published information in newspapers is often it’s incompleteness and superficial reflection. Often the materials consist the wrong and false information also with the use of the «black PR» technologies. The reason is in the main focus of the newspapers publications in the investigated period – the widening of the information among the public giving it in the available and understandable view without looking into details (often so important for the modern researchers) and missing the deep knowledge about the special branches of the human life, escaping the outsourcing to the professionals. That’s why the most of the newspaper periodical publications need the rectification with the use of the additional data of the state archives. Below we cite the most interesting examples of the newspapers publications that demonstrate the different aspects of the money counterfeiting. Investigated materials geographically cover the territory of the Central and Eastern Europe while other newspapers publications can belong to any state in the world. The used data consists on the pages of the newspapers printed in Kyiv, L’viv, Poltava, Odesa, Kremenchug, Chernihiv, Ackerman, Gadyach and Valuiky. Fixed newspapers publications we have classified on the groups and cited the most interesting ones. Also we have selected the specific vocabulary according to the counterfeiters and the process of the forgery produce. Defined the main regions of the most often facts of the appearance of the forgery money in Russian and AustroHungarian empires, also located the potential centers of the illegal coin producing in Kyiv suburbs. Except the local money counterfeiters the newspapers tell about their «colleagues» abroad. Also known the facts of the arresting of the Russian Empire citizens who was running the counterfeit money produce far abroad. The old newspapers consists the data concerning the social status, age, professions and nationality of the counterfeiters. The especially valuable are the newspapers evidences about the detecting and arrest of the factories which was producing the forgeries using the professional machinery equipment and technical facilities. During the WWI newspapers are often inform about the facts of the import of the forgery money on the territory of the Russian Empire from Germany as the economic diversion on the state level. The newspapers also were publishing the materials over the criminalistics investigation of the counterfeiters and some recommendations to the public how to determine the forgery. Widely represented the descriptions of the forgery coins and banknotes also with the details of the technologies of its produce. Among the newspapers publications we have find the evidence about the existing of the professional expertize in the Russian Empire and the protection technologies used by the banks in AustroHungary. In the difficult period of the Ukrainian Revolution in 1917-1921 the newspapers pages can consist the wrong information about the Ukrainian money, calling them a fake, which is caused by the try of discrimination of the Ukraine’s independence and the whole idea of development of the national state. Extremely interesting are the data about the court verdicts and judgment over the money counterfeiters. According to the facts of the absence of the coincidences among the newspapers data and the state archive materials and examples of the counterfeit coins and banknotes in the museums and private collections in Ukraine, we assume some publications in the periodical press (especially with the lack of details and with generalizing character) can be wrong or false and have been published with the purpose of the filling the issuewith the interesting facts. The evidences about the used by counterfeiters technical devices for the forgery production are rather useful for the modern researchers and also will be helpful in identifying and the research of the private forgeries in the museum and private collections in Ukraine and abroad. So we can make a conclusion that the newspapers publication are the weighty and valuable historical source which effectively adds the knows data with the new data about the money counterfeiting in the end of XIX – the beginning the XX century and can be rather useful for the modern scientists for the investigating the forgeries of the coins and banknotes in the museum and private collections. The perspective of the future research we see the detecting and publishing the newspapers data over the money counterfeit in the library funds of the neighboring countries and also the rectification the known data from newspapers with the information in the state archives. We also see relevant the creation of the general publication of the newspapers material concerning the history of the monetary circulation, economics history and the special branches of the historical science that will be useful for the researchers like in Ukraine and in whole other world. whole other world.
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