Преплетените истории на Балканите

Author(s): Nikolay Aretov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2018

This paper presents volumes 2 and 3 of the collective research project “Entangled Histories of the Balkans” dedicated to the “Transfers of Political Ideologies and Institutions” (edited by Roumen Daskalov and Diana Mishkova) and to the “Shared Pasts, Disputed Legacies” (edited by Roumen Daskalov and Alexander Vezenkov). Modern Balkan history has traditionally been studied by national historians in terms of separate national histories taking place within bounded state territories. The authors in this volume take a different approach. They all seek to treat the modern history of the region from a transnational and relational perspective in terms of shared and connected, as well as entangled, histories, transfers, and crossings. This goes along with an interest in the way ideas, institutions, and techniques were selected, transferred and adapted to Balkan conditions and how they interacted with those conditions. The volumes also invite reflection on the interacting entities in the very process of their creation and consecutive transformations rather than taking them as givens.

Konrad Seitz, Chiny. Powrót olbrzyma, [Dialog, Warszawa 2013, 425 s.]; Dietmar Rothermund, Indie. Nowa azjatycka potęga, [Dialog, Warszawa 2013, 316 s.]

Author(s): Stanisław Tokarski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2014

David Shambaugh, Where Great Powers Meet: America and China in Southeast Asia, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, 352 pp

Author(s): Stefania Teodora Cocor / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

David Shambaugh, Where Great Powers Meet: America and China in Southeast Asia, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, 352 pp.

Въздействието на идеите, делата и личността на Васил Левски върху македоно-одринските националреволюционери

Author(s): Mihail Nedelchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

The strong influence of the ideas and work of Vasil Levski (1837 – 1873) and the Internal Revolutionary Organization created by him can be traced throughout the history of the liberation movement of the Macedonian and Thracian Bulgarians. The memories of the most prominent leaders of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO), as well as the other revolutionaries, unequivocally testify to Levski’s enormous authority and to the continuity in the Bulgarian revolutionary movement before and after the Liberation of 1878.

WHO IS THE AUDIENCE, EMPEROR? TARGETING AUDIENCES ON LATE ROMAN AND EARLY BYZANTINE COINS

Author(s): Jehan HILLEN / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

This article suggests that audience targeting occurred on late Roman and early Byzantine coins by differentiating imperial attributes on the obverse rather than images on the reverse. Although late Roman and early Byzantine coin types are substantially more standardized than previous Roman imperial issues there are still subtle differences to be found between the various metals and even denominations. By focusing on imperial attributes this article indicates the way in which targeted messages were sent by changing the representation and subsequent role of the emperor on the obverse. By analyzing the appearance of the so-called military and consular types, this article will provide two case studies of imperial representations that were struck on rare gold, and occasional silver, issues intended for a specific audience well into the Byzantine era. Additionally, these imperial representations were under specific circumstances also broadened to a larger audience using bronze coins.

Архитектурная и историко-географическая загадка церкви села Василкэу

Author(s): Tamara Nesterova,Andrey GERTSEN / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1/2021

The article provides a comprehensive architectural and historical-geographical analysis of a unique monument of medieval religious-defensive architecture – the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin in Vasilcau village, located on the banks of the Dniester River, near the state border of the Republic of Moldova and the Ukraine. Vasilcau was the border point between the Principality of Moldavia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Middle Ages. Its geographical position led to the formation of a fortified border point here, which served as an eastern outpost of the Soroca tsinut (county). The elevated cape with steep slopes, on which a temple with a bell tower, a courtyard, a trading square, as well as an ancient trade road and a river crossing was built, is a vivid example of a natural, historical-cultural complex, the basis of which is a medieval fortified point with a unique cult-defensive monument of architecture. The church represents a widespread type of place of worship, whose architecture combines the planimetric features of wooden architecture with those used in medieval buildings built of stone, highlighted in the found proportions. The solution of the historical-geographical enigmas that envelop the history of the heritage monument in the absence of written sources is carried out on the basis of a complex poly-scale historical and cartographic analysis and the use of modern geoinformation methods.

INTRODUCTION: LANGUAGES OF POWER AND ELITE LEGITIMISATION ON THE PERIPHERY, POLAND, AND NORWAY, 1000–1300

Author(s): Wojtek Jezierski,Hans Jacob Orning,Grzegorz Pac / Language(s): English Issue: 129/2024

In this introduction, we argue that the key to understanding the means and dynamics of political order in the peripheral polities during the era of Europeanization (1000–1300) lies in exploring the practices of (self-) legitimisation by the peripheral elites in Poland and Norway. The article proposes a novel agenda-setting theoretical and methodological framework for how medievalists can study elite legitimation and relations between core European and peripheral polities from a comparative perspective. This introduction launches this agenda in five steps. First, it outlines the key conceptual tools for studying the elites and the languages of power they used as means of symbolically legitimising themselves. Second, it re-assesses Robert J. Bartlett’s thesis of diffuse Europeanization to argue how a comparative focus on the peripheral elites and their languages of power can give a new perspective on this research topic. Third, it lays out the methodological tenets of an experimental comparative framework for elite legitimation on the peripheries. Fourth, it fleshes out these postulations in connection to our two contrasting cases and contexts, Polish and Norwegian. Finally, it presents the specific comparative case studies in this special issue.

To Win with such a few Men: Explaining the Russian Defeat at the Battle of Wenden 1578

Author(s): Pavel Horký / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The battle of Wenden of 1578 was one of the major clashes of the Livonian War. It is significant both for its contemporaries and also for modern historians since it shows how different armies of early modern Eastern Europe acted on the battlefield. This article presents a novel reconstruction of the battlefield events, reconciling pieces of information from contemporary sources. However, its main aim is to assess which factors caused the Russian defeat against a much weaker enemy. Although the primary sources do not allow a thorough analysis of all factors, three of them might be identified: the lack of good reconnaissance, incorrect deployment of the Russian troops, and the inexperience of the Russian leadership.

O rzekomym chrzcie prawosławnym Jagiełły (polemika z hipotezą Jana Tęgowskiego)

Author(s): Jarosław Nikodem / Language(s): Polish Issue: 9/2023

Th e author attempted to verify the opinions of historiography (especially the latest suggestion by JanTęgowski) on the alleged Orthodox baptism of Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania. An analysisof the sources has unequivocally shown that the future king of Poland was baptised in Krakow in1386 as a pagan.

Od teatrality k intimitě? Emoce a smrt u Martiniců a Schwarzenbergů v období baroka a romantismu

Author(s): Václav Grubhoffer,Josef Kadeřábek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2014

Between the Baroque and Romanticism attitudes to death and the discursive framework of the emotional experience of dying fundamentally changed among the Catholic high nobility. The ideal baroque death was supposed to take the form of an extreme point at which the dying person confessed their sins through theatrical gestures and utterances. The deathbed ritual explicitly confirmed the denominational and spiritual orientation of the family. In succeeding generations, both aristocrats and commoners were expected to be confirmed in that orientation by a written and iconographic testimony rich in symbols. Romanticism, on the other hand, imbued the process of dying with sentiment, loving care and family cohesion, which among the high nobility brought solace and a peaceful death. Finally, between the Baroque and Romanticism the relative status of private and public experience of the last moments changed. The Baroque “theatrical” deathbed, which was presented with the central figure of the dying individual and the priest, was a public event. Gradually it changed into a more intimate, quiet contemplation with only a few witnesses gathered in the family circle. Moreover, the doctor came to replace the priest as the chief attendant at the dying person’s bedside. What remained unchanged was the anxious determination to conform to expected patterns of behaviour. By trying to fulfil the contemporary ideal of a “good death”, the counts of Martinice and the princes of Schwarzenberg tried to affirm their unique position in Bohemian (and European) aristocratic society. Their emotional experience of death was intended to serve as an example to their descendants and form one of the constitutive elements of the family’s collective memory.

Cesta švédského přírodovědce Carla Adolpha Agardha do Čech a do střední Evropy v roce 1827 ve světle jeho alba amicorum

Author(s): Antonín Kostlán / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2024

This study focuses on the Swedish botanist and algologist Carl Adolph Agardh (1785–1859), professor at the University in Lund (1812–1835) and bishop in Karlstad (from 1835). The author outlines the development of his scientific interests and analyses his scientific connections with the Czech Lands, with special attention paid to the album amicorum which Agardh kept in 1810–1829. Based on this album and other sources, the study reconstructs Agardh’s expedition to Central Europe and northern Italy undertaken in the spring and summer of 1827. Detailed attention is paid to his stay in the Bohemia (Prague and Carlsbad) and to Bohemical entries added to his album during the journey.

„Býti národním v umění je směšný pleonasmus. Národní je i spánek.“ K německočeské debatě nad moderním meziválečným uměním

Author(s): Ivo Habán / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2021

As an art historian who has long focused on the manifestations of the visual culture of the German-speaking scene in the Czech lands, I have repeatedly encountered the topic of perceiving the “Czechness” and “worldliness” of domestic production. From my research perspective, I see two levels in this beautiful and provocative challenge. The first is the evergreen of German-Bohemian art, i.e. if we apply a national or geographical scale to the artistic expressions that emerged from the Czech lands. Today, of course, we take a geographical view, but if we look at the production of individual regions side by side, it is impossible not to see clear differences on the part of the ethnically Czech and German scenes. Capturing and defining more universally some of the subliminal specifics that are apparent at first glance is a challenge that still occupies me mentally, despite the awareness of the absurdity of searching for a national definition of art. Fixing the key features is complicated by the existence of multicultural exceptions, which often introduce an element of Judaism into the traditional dualism of the period under review. These exceptions successfully disrupt the flattened idea of parallel Czech- and German-speaking cultural and social worlds of the Czech lands. Moreover, it is precisely these exceptions that are often the bearers of tendencies towards imaginary worldliness, which brings us to the second level of this consideration – to what extent and through what phenomena the territorially and numerically relatively small art scene of the Czech lands can be perceived as world-class. The answer may be the market, or a confident search for regional authenticity. In the words of Josef Kroutvor, “minor branches of modernity.” It seems to me that in today’s global world, their offsprings are more important than many textbook examples of the avant-garde.

Elementi decorativi nella ceramica della seconda età del Ferro a sud del Po

Author(s): Marina Giaretti,Marica Venturino / Language(s): Italian Issue: 1/2024

The paper analyses on a chronological‑typological level the decorative syntax present on impasto pottery from the Late Iron Age (Ligure III period: 475–89 BC) in lower Piedmont (inner Piedmontese Liguria), where vessel forms and decorative elements appear largely in continuity with those of the Middle Iron Age (Ligure II period: 625–475 BC).Decoration is generally present on closed shapes (situliform vases, ollae). Compared to the Middle Iron Age, the percentage of decorated pottery increases and the decorative elements become more elaborate. The most characteristic elements are the horizontal rows of finger or tool impressions, the simple zigzags, at first continuous and then interrupted (the latter evolving over time from single to double and then to multiple, sometimes with the alternate insertion of triangular or circular impressions at the corners), the impressions with or without clay, are usually on the lower part of the vessel, sometimes in combination with the zigzag motif.Shapes and decorative syntax are not found in the funerary and settlement contexts of northern Piedmont and more generally in Cispadana, while they seem to have an identifying character for the Ligurian groups of inland Piedmont.

On the Ubiquity of Dimples. Finger‑Tip Decorated Coarse Ware in Bohemia and Moravia in the Early Iron Age and the Roman Iron age

Author(s): Tomáš Mangel,Richard Thér,Daniel Bursák,Jan Kysela / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The various coarse decorated pottery wares of Ha D2–3 and LT A in Bohemia and Moravia also include a prominent pottery group characterised with surface decorated with finger‑tip impressions. In France and Italy, some authors have conceived pottery with similar decoration as evidence of long‑distance contacts or even migrations of Celts in the early 4th century BC. However, the use of finger‑tip decoration is attested in the Czech Republic in various cultural and chronological contexts with its peak in the Roman Iron Age suggesting that this ware is not sufficiently distinct to be connected with a specific cultural milieu. The results of technological analyses of this ware point in a similar direction. At the present state of research in the Czech Republic, finger‑tip decoration thus needs to be understood as a universal technique of decoration or surface treatment rather than as a hint at a population with a distinct identity.

Tumultuous materials. Decorated coarse ware in Late Iron Age Emilia

Author(s): Lorenzo Zamboni / Language(s): Italian Issue: 1/2024

In the Emilian Po plain, during the Late Iron Age (4th and 3rd century BCE), an unprecedented and heterogeneous class of handmade coarse and decorated ceramics emerged in certain sites. In comparison to other Transpadane regions, its presence is not dominant or statistically significant, except for a few sites that are characterised by more evident La Tène imports and burial customs. This pottery gradually disappeared during the Roman conquest (late 3rd–2nd century BCE), except in some rural areas and in the westernmost colonies. The aim of this paper is to outline the key features of this distinctive and challenging pottery and to explore functional and potential social and cultural interpretations, while also considering cross‑cultural comparisons.

Late Iron Age decorated coarse ware in central‑eastern Lombardy (Northern Italy)

Author(s): Raffaella Poggiani Keller,Paolo Rondini / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

This paper delves into Late Iron Age decorated coarse ware originating from the present‑day province of Bergamo in central Lombardy. During protohistoric time, this region served as a borderland and a nexus connecting extensive cultural spheres, encompassing both lowland and mountainous terrains. The study presents data sourced from investigations conducted in the lowlands, alongside previously undisclosed finds from the local urban centre of Bergamo. We examine recent finds from the mountain range, encompassing not only the broader region but also focusing on the village of Parre in the Valle Seriana, a crucial place for comprehending the dynamics between lowland plains and mountainous environments. This distinct pottery class exhibits traces of both indigenous and far‑reaching influences, suggesting its significance in the multifaceted process of Romanization and its role in negotiating cultural identities during this intricate historical phase.

Právo zločineckej povahy: Nesplnená domáca úloha v oblasti trestnoprávneho vyrovnania sa s minulosťou

Author(s): Martin Slávik / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 02/2024

The document discusses the challenges and importance of addressing criminal acts committed during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. It highlights the legal and moral implications of prosecuting these crimes, emphasizing the necessity of justice for societal security and the erosion of public trust if crimes go unpunished. The text compares the approaches of Czechoslovakia and Germany in dealing with their respective pasts, noting the differences in outcomes and public perception. It also touches on the legislative and judicial hurdles faced in prosecuting former regime officials, including issues of legal retroactivity and the influence of political changes on the process. The document underscores the ongoing struggle to reconcile with the past and the impact of these efforts on contemporary democratic values and legal principles.

Historická paměť, nebo manipulace? Španělsko uzákonilo jediný „správný vklad“ vlastní velmi složité minulosti

Author(s): Stanislav Škoda / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2024

The article examines Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy following the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. It highlights key moments such as the desire for national reconciliation, the "thick line" policy that prevented the punishment of Francoist crimes, and the gradual compensation of war and dictatorship victims. The article discusses the 2022 law on democratic memory, which mandates a "correct" interpretation of Spain's complex history, emphasizing the Second Spanish Republic as a democratic regime. It also addresses the political and social transformations during the transition, including the challenges faced by reformists and the opposition. The article underscores the importance of historical memory and the ongoing debate over the interpretation of Spain's past. It concludes by reflecting on the broader implications of these historical narratives for contemporary Spanish society.

BRIEF CONTENT ANALYSIS REGARDING THE CIUC-ODORHEI-TREI SCAUNE REGION IN THE 1936 ISSUES OF THE INTERWAR NEWSPAPER "NEAMUL NOSTRU"

Author(s): Alin Bulumac / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

The present article focuses on one of the few publications that addressed the Romanian public from the Ciuc-Odorhei-Trei Scaune region in the interwar period. Familiarizing the general public with the issue of the local Romanian minority from Harghita-Covasna-Mureș counties is a long and arduous process, fact proven by the present state of the topic in the public sphere: even nowadays their problems and the challenges they face are still under-reported, both by mass media and elite discourse. From this perspective, the article aims to highlight some of the main ideas promoted in the "Neamul nostru" newspaper, to get a better understanding of the type of interethnic coexistence between Romanians (dominated local minority) and Hungarians (dominant local majority) that took place in the interwar timeframe. From a methodological standpoint, the newspaper was filtered with the help of content analysis instruments and the conclusions prove to be useful for the present day understanding of the relationship between the two ethnic groups in Transilvania and also the (low) quality of the state intervention in the area.

Agenda INST

Author(s): Carmen Stratone / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 3-4/2024

n perioada 22-27 septembrie 2024, o echipă de cercetători formată din dr. Florin Abraham, director al I.N.S.T., dr. Cristina Diac, c.s. II, dr. Corina Doboș, c.s. III și dr. Carmen Stratone, c.s., membri ai proiectului bilateral româno-bulgar cu debut în anul 2024, au efectuat un stagiu de documentare la Sofia, Bulgaria. Deplasarea reprezintă una dintre activităţile prevăzute pentru anul în curs ale proiectului comun România şi Bulgaria în epoca totalitarismelor, derulat de I.N.S.T. şi Institutul de Studii Balcanice & Centrul de Tracologie al Academiei Bulgare de Ştiinţe în perioada 2024-2026.