My City of Ruins: Bruce Springsteen e l’utopia fra le rovine

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Enrico Botta

2011-09-01

Full Text Available The paper focuses on My City of Ruins, the song that Bruce Springsteen sang—ten days after the 09/11 terrorist attacks—for "America: A Tribute to Heroes" and that was released in the concept album The Rising in 2002. The essay aims to highlight how the song describes the post 09/11 New York City by opposing the themes of “ruins” and “utopia.” From a textual and musical point of view, My City of Ruins is, in fact, composed of a double structure that balances different feelings: the fear, pain, and loneliness of the victims, in the rock-blues first section; the faith, love, and hope, in the gospel second part. Furthermore, the paper tries to point out how My City of Ruins no longer describes the symbolic ruins of a foreign past—in line with the nineteenth and twentieth-century American cultural tradition of the Grand Tour—but defines the physical signs of a definitively collapsed “American dream,” which can survive only in a utopian and spiritual “Promised Land.”

Introducing ruin theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilkinson, D.H.

1992-11-01

Although the central limit theorem and the Gaussian approximation are useful for describing the usual behaviour of statistical systems they are useless for discussing very small probabilities i.e. for quantifying the likelihood of very rare events. For this latter purpose the ruin theory of F. Esscher is well adapted; it is exposed, and some applications presented in detail, for the case that the influences to be summed are all positive definite with their arising governed by the Poisson distribution; the case that influences of both signs are involved is also considered as is the alternative impact of the Polya distribution. (author) 4 refs., 1 tab., 15 figs

Ruin Analysis of a Discrete-Time Dependent Sparre Andersen Model with External Financial Activities and Randomized Dividends

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Sung Soo Kim

2016-02-01

Full Text Available We consider a discrete-time dependent Sparre Andersen risk model which incorporates multiple threshold levels characterizing an insurer’s minimal capital requirement, dividend paying situations, and external financial activities. We focus on the development of a recursive computational procedure to calculate the finite-time ruin probabilities and expected total discounted dividends paid prior to ruin associated with this model. We investigate several numerical examples and make some observations concerning the impact our threshold levels have on the finite-time ruin probabilities and expected total discounted dividends paid prior to ruin.

The False Ruins of Villa Torlonia: the Nymphaeum

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Alessandro Spila

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This essay deals with a singular construction built by Giovanni Battista Caretti in the garden of Villa Torlonia in Rome, between 1800 and 1830. The so-called “ruin of nymphaeum”, the only surviving part of a composite system of ruins, built for Alessandro Torlonia, has not, until now, been the object of any exhaustive study which could clarify historic and design aspects, and furthermore, characterize this particular class of folies. The essay analyses the building with the help of accurate measurements. A lack of archival documents did not prevent the author proposing some interesting theses on the method of construction and the possible models of reference, also in relation to the antiquarian culture of the architect (who was also the architect of the Gallery of Ercole and Lira in the destroyed Palazzo Torlonia in piazza Venezia. Particular attention is paid to the spolia which were re-used in the ruin, among which, a part from the original complex of statues (classified by Carlo Gasparri and now displayed in the museum of the Casino dei Principi, two large fragments of a Domitian cornice, and a group of 15th century consoles, probably from the studio of Andrea Bregno, all stand out. The specific characteristics of these fragments suggest that they originate from the antiques collection of the Colonna family, a collection, the importance of which is documented by some previously unknown archival documents cited in the essay.

Problems in the study of the medieval heritage in the Lim valley

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Popović Marko

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Discussing the results of archaeological investigation at two important medieval sites - remains of the monastery of St George at Mažići near Priboj and of the church at Drenova near Prijepolje - the author puts forward his critical observations that make significant revisions to the conclusions suggested by excavators. The remains of a monastery at Mažići have long ago been identified with the monastery of St George in the župa (district of Dabar known from early 13th-century records. In the 1310s a monastery of St George is referred to in association with the toponym of Orahovica. After a long gap, the monastery is referred to again several times in the 1600s until its final destruction in 1743, as St George’s at Orahovica or simply Mažić(i. The report following systematic archaeological excavations suggests the unacceptable and unfounded conclusion, with dating and interpretation that the monastery church was built in the 13th century, received additions in the 14th, and was renovated in the 16th-17th centuries when there was a hospital attached to it. Careful analysis of the structural remains and the site’s stratigraphy clearly shows that the monastery was built on the site of a medieval cemetery of a 14th-15th-century date, which means that the church and its buildings cannot be older than the 16th century. The author also argues against the assumed presence of a monastic hospital, the assumption being based upon metal artifacts misinterpreted as "medical instruments" (parchment edge trimmer, compasses, fork!!!. The author’s inference is that the ruins at Mažići are not the remains of the monastery of St George, which should be searched for elsewhere, but possibly the legacy of a 14th-century monastic establishment which was moved there from an as yet unknown location most likely about the middle of the 16th century. The site at Drenova, with remains of a church destroyed by land slide, has been known since the late 19th

Medieval monsters, in theory and practice.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

The past two decades have witnessed a plethora of studies on the medieval monster. These studies have contributed significantly to our understanding of religion, art, literature, and science in the Middle Ages. However, a tendency to treat the medieval monster in purely symbolic and psychological terms ignores the lived experiences of impaired medieval people and their culture's attitudes toward them. With the aid of recent insights provided by disability studies, this article aims to confront "real" medieval monsters--e.g., physically impaired human beings--in both their human and monstrous aspects.

Psychiatry and psychology in medieval Persia.

Science.gov (United States)

Vakili, Nasser; Gorji, Ali

2006-12-01

The history of psychological sciences and especially the ways in which related disorders were treated in medieval Persia are not well known in the West. The main objective of this article is to review the clinical approaches to psychological disorders used by practitioners in medieval Persia. Several documents still exist from which the clinical data on different psychological syndromes in medieval Persia can be ascertained. Data for this review were identified by searches of MEDLINE, Current Contents, the Internet, references from relevant articles and books, the Astan-e-Ghods Razavi Library, the Tehran University Library, the Mashhad University Library, and the files of the authors. Search terms included psychiatry, psychology, Persian, medieval, Avicenna, and pharmacotherapy. The medieval practitioners defined various signs and symptoms, apparent causes, and hygienic and dietary rules for prevention of these disorders. Medieval Persian medical writings encouraged the treatment of psychological disorders by tackling the conditions that cause or contribute to the disorder and through the use of electrical-shock therapy, phlebotomy, psychotherapy, music and color therapy, and especially prescription of long lists of medicaments. Some of the approaches of doctors in medieval Persia are accepted today, although most remain largely unexamined. With further research, more of these treatments may be shown to be of use to modern medicine.

What Is Medieval European Literature?

OpenAIRE

Borsa, Paolo; Høgel, Christian; Mortensen, Lars Boje; Tyler, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

The editors of Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures explain the scope and purpose of the new journal by mapping out the significance and possible meanings of the three key terms of the subtitle: ‘literature,’ ‘medieval,’ ‘Europe.’ The specific theme of Issue 1 is introduced: ‘Histories of Medieval European Literatures: New Patterns of Representation and Explanation.’ With respect to this theme, theoretical problems concerning teleology and the present possibilities for liter...

Statistical Analysis of Radio Propagation Channel in Ruins Environment

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Jiao He

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The cellphone based localization system for search and rescue in complex high density ruins has attracted a great interest in recent years, where the radio channel characteristics are critical for design and development of such a system. This paper presents a spatial smoothing estimation via rotational invariance technique (SS-ESPRIT for radio channel characterization of high density ruins. The radio propagations at three typical mobile communication bands (0.9, 1.8, and 2 GHz are investigated in two different scenarios. Channel parameters, such as arrival time, delays, and complex amplitudes, are statistically analyzed. Furthermore, a channel simulator is built based on these statistics. By comparison analysis of average excess delay and delay spread, the validation results show a good agreement between the measurements and channel modeling results.

Essays on medieval computational astronomy

CERN Document Server

Bergón, José Chabás

2014-01-01

In Essays on Medieval Computational Astronomy the authors provide examples of original and intelligent approaches and solutions given by medieval astronomers to the problems of their discipline, mostly presented in the form of astronomical tables.

Climate change. Climate in Medieval time.

Science.gov (United States)

Bradley, Raymond S; Hughes, Malcolm K; Diaz, Henry F

2003-10-17

Many papers have referred to a "Medieval Warm Period." But how well defined is climate in this period, and was it as warm as or warmer than it is today? In their Perspective, Bradley et al. review the evidence and conclude that although the High Medieval (1100 to 1200 A.D.) was warmer than subsequent centuries, it was not warmer than the late 20th century. Moreover, the warmest Medieval temperatures were not synchronous around the globe. Large changes in precipitation patterns are a particular characteristic of "High Medieval" time. The underlying mechanisms for such changes must be elucidated further to inform the ongoing debate on natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change.

The ruin probability of a discrete time risk model under constant interest rate with heavy tails

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tang, Q.

2004-01-01

This paper investigates the ultimate ruin probability of a discrete time risk model with a positive constant interest rate. Under the assumption that the gross loss of the company within one year is subexponentially distributed, a simple asymptotic relation for the ruin probability is derived and

Les ruines à l'épreuve de La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli: Imaginer se souvenir?

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Laure Barillas

2017-07-01

Full Text Available What place should be given to ruins in the phenomenology of memory sketched by Ricœur in Memory, History, Forgetting? The contemplation of ruins raises the same problem as that which occupies the whole of Ricœur’s work: the representation of the past and the relations of memory and imagination in the formation of recollection. Can ruins give rise to a rearrangement of the relations of memory and imagination and produce an “imagining remembering”?

Study on provenance of ancient pottery excavated from Huating Ruins, Xinyi County by INAA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Anwu; Wang Changsui; Chi Jinqi; Satoshi Koshimizu; Kazai Manabu; Kushihara Koichi

1997-01-01

The ancient pottery excavated from Huating Ruins, Xinyi Country, Jiangsu Province, was measured and studied by INAA. The data were manipulated by multivariate statistic analysis, such as cluster and factor analysis. It has been shown that the specimens can be divided into two groups, which are related to Liangzhu Culture area and Dawenkou Culture area respectively. The result seems to support the viewpoint that the pottery specimens of Liangzhu Culture from Huating Ruins belong to war trophies

Medievalism: From Ruskin toChesterton

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Marko Jenko

2009-12-01

Full Text Available This article deals with the topic of medievalism as all existing, still evolving, and future forms of reception of the Middle Ages, focusing primarily on the issues of the term itself and the problems that arise with its definition, its occurrence in John Ruskin’s time, various historical forms, and their variations, especially considering some of the implications of its official or academic aspect – namely, medieval studies in general. Consequently, the article shows that medievalism entails a step beyond or beneath the usual opposition between the real and false Middle Ages. In terms of objectivity as an ideal, as the search or quest for the real Middle Ages (and also as a reaction against subjective receptions, colored by presuppositions, preconceptions, and prejudice, medievalism shifts our perspective on the opposition between the objective and subjective, inaugurating a field of study that centers on the objective-subjective, which should not be seen or taken as a synthesis. Furthermore, it pinpoints a change or shift in the status of truth itself: a truth with no guarantee. Primarily making reference to art history, the article emphasizes the importance of medievalist fantasies and proposes a much needed re-reading of Panofsky’s take on the scholastic habitus. Both terms, fantasy and/or habitus, permeate the field of medievalism, opening what is perhaps the most important question: that of (works of art and materiality.

Why We Need a Medieval Narratology: A Manifesto

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Eva von Contzen

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In the wake of the growing interest in diachronic approaches and the historicizing of narratology, a medieval narratology is called for which systematically scrutinizes medieval forms and functions of narration. In the first part of the article, the problems of applying classical narratological theories to medieval literature are sketched, as well as the reasons for the relative invisibility of the narratological studies already conducted by medievalists. In the second part, the main parameters of a medieval narratology are outlined by means of selected sample analyses across a range of genres. A medieval narratology, it is argued, requires necessary shifts and modifications of existing theories, but also an open dialogue between the disciplines. Both narratologists and medievalists can profit from such an endeavor, which does not reject classical and post-classical theories. Rather, it is based on an informed understanding of the historical grounding of narrative forms and their place in the history of literature. The essay rounds off with a proposal of “Ten Theses for a Medieval Narratology”.

Analysing Medieval Urban Space; a methodology

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Marlous L. Craane MA

2007-08-01

Full Text Available This article has been written in reaction to recent developments in medieval history and archaeology, to study not only the buildings in a town but also the spaces that hold them together. It discusses a more objective and interdisciplinary approach for analysing urban morphology and use of space. It proposes a 'new' methodology by combining town plan analysis and space syntax. This methodology was trialled on the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. By comparing the results of this 'new' methodology with the results of previous, more conventional, research, this article shows that space syntax can be applied successfully to medieval urban contexts. It does this by demonstrating a strong correlation between medieval economic spaces and the most integrated spaces, just as is found in the study of modern urban environments. It thus provides a strong basis for the use of this technique in future research of medieval urban environments.

Medieval Romances: "Perceval" to "Monty Python."

Science.gov (United States)

Jehle, Dorothy M.

A selection of romances from medieval literature can be used successfully in undergraduate literature classes to trace the appearance and relevance of medieval themes, motifs, and characters in works of modern poetry, fiction, and film. New scholarly editions, historiographies, translations, and modernizations give both teachers and students more…

Convexity of Ruin Probability and Optimal Dividend Strategies for a General Lévy Process

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Chuancun Yin

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We consider the optimal dividends problem for a company whose cash reserves follow a general Lévy process with certain positive jumps and arbitrary negative jumps. The objective is to find a policy which maximizes the expected discounted dividends until the time of ruin. Under appropriate conditions, we use some recent results in the theory of potential analysis of subordinators to obtain the convexity properties of probability of ruin. We present conditions under which the optimal dividend strategy, among all admissible ones, takes the form of a barrier strategy.

Convexity of Ruin Probability and Optimal Dividend Strategies for a General Lévy Process

Science.gov (United States)

Yuen, Kam Chuen; Shen, Ying

2015-01-01

We consider the optimal dividends problem for a company whose cash reserves follow a general Lévy process with certain positive jumps and arbitrary negative jumps. The objective is to find a policy which maximizes the expected discounted dividends until the time of ruin. Under appropriate conditions, we use some recent results in the theory of potential analysis of subordinators to obtain the convexity properties of probability of ruin. We present conditions under which the optimal dividend strategy, among all admissible ones, takes the form of a barrier strategy. PMID:26351655

Ruin probabilities with compounding assets for discrete time finite horizon problem, independent period claim sizes and general premium structure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kok, de A.G.

2003-01-01

In this paper, we present fast and accurate approximations for the probability of ruin over a finite number of periods, assuming inhomogeneous independent claim size distributions and arbitrary premium income in subsequent periods. We develop exact recursive expressions for the non-ruin

Ruin probabilities with compounding assets for discrete time finite horizon problems, independent period claim sizes and general premium structure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kok, de A.G.

2003-01-01

In this paper we present fast and accurate approximations for the probability of ruin over a finite number of periods, assuming inhomogeneous independent claim size distributions and arbitrary premium income in subsequent periods. We develop exact recursive expressions for the non-ruin probabilities

Gambler's ruin problem on Erdős-Rényi graphs

Science.gov (United States)

Néda, Zoltán; Davidova, Larissa; Újvári, Szeréna; Istrate, Gabriel

2017-02-01

A multiagent ruin-game is studied on Erdős-Rényi type graphs. Initially the players have the same wealth. At each time step a monopolist game is played on all active links (links that connect nodes with nonzero wealth). In such a game each player puts a unit wealth in the pot and the pot is won with equal probability by one of the players. The game ends when there are no connected players such that both of them have non-zero wealth. In order to characterize the final state for dense graphs a compact formula is given for the expected number of the remaining players with non-zero wealth and the wealth distribution among these players. Theoretical predictions are given for the expected duration of the ruin game. The dynamics of the number of active players is also investigated. Validity of the theoretical predictions is investigated by Monte Carlo experiments.

[Neurology in medieval regimina sanitatis].

Science.gov (United States)

de Frutos González, V; Guerrero Peral, A L

2011-09-01

In medical medieval literature some works about dietetics stand out. Dietetics, as a separate branch of medicine, includes not only food or drinks, but other environmental factors influencing on health. They are known as regimina sanitatis or salutis, and specially developed in the Christian west. They generally consisted of a balance between the Galenic "six non-natural things"; factors regulating health and its protection: environment, exercise, food, sleep, bowel movements and emotions. After reviewing the sources and defining the different stages of this genre, we have considered three of the most out-standing medieval regimina, the anonymous Regimen sanitatis salernitanum, Arnaldo de Vilanova's Regimen sanitatis ad regem aragonum and Bernardo de Gordon's Tractatus of conservatione vite humane. In them we review references to neurological disease. Though not independently considered, there is a significant presence of neurological diseases in the regimina. Dietetics measures are proposed to preserve memory, nerves, or hearing, as well as for the treatment of migraine, epilepsy, stroke or dizziness. Regimina are quiet representative among medical medieval literature, and they show medieval physicians vision of neurological diseases. Dietetics was considered useful to preserve health, and therapeutics was based on natural remedies. 2010 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

JEWISH SUFISM IN MEDIEVAL ISLAM

OpenAIRE

Epafras, Leonard C.

2011-01-01

This article is a literary research and preliminary examination to a unique interaction between Jews and Sufism that taken place in medieval Islamic ruling. In the face of the present antagonistic posture of Jews and Muslims relationship that dominates the public sphere, in history, there are some examples of interaction of the two people beyond confictual narrative. One of them is Jewish mysticism that adopted Sufism into their spiritual ideal, which took place in the medieval era. We might ...

Wind Diagrams in Medieval Iceland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kedwards, Dale

2014-01-01

This article presents a study of the sole wind diagram that survives from medieval Iceland, preserved in the encyclopaedic miscellany in Copenhagen's Arnamagnæan Institute with the shelf mark AM 732b 4to (c. 1300-25). It examines the wind diagram and its accompanying text, an excerpt on the winds...... from Isidore of Seville's Etymologies. It also examines the perimeter of winds on two medieval Icelandic world maps, and the visual traditions from which they draw....

Structures of masonry walls in buildings of permanent ruin – causes of damage and methods of repairs

OpenAIRE

Bartosz Szostak

2017-01-01

Currently there is a lot of castles classified as objects of the permanent ruin. In according to conservation doctrine, it is needed to protect this objects and prevent further degradation. Usually one of the most destructed element in this type of object is masonry wall. In this article has been described selected types of the masonry walls of the permanent ruin, causes of their damages and repairs methods.

Structures of masonry walls in buildings of permanent ruin – causes of damage and methods of repairs

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Bartosz Szostak

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Currently there is a lot of castles classified as objects of the permanent ruin. In according to conservation doctrine, it is needed to protect this objects and prevent further degradation. Usually one of the most destructed element in this type of object is masonry wall. In this article has been described selected types of the masonry walls of the permanent ruin, causes of their damages and repairs methods.

The virtues of balm in late medieval literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Truitt, Elly R

2009-01-01

This article argues that balm, or balsam, was, by the late medieval period, believed to be a panacea, capable of healing wounds and illnesses, and also preventing putrefaction. Natural history and pharmacological texts on balm from the ancient and late antique periods emphasized specific qualities of balm, especially its heat; these were condensed and repeated in medieval encyclopedias. The rarity and cost of balsam, from antiquity through the medieval period, and the high rate of counterfeiting also demonstrate its high demand and significance in medicine and religious ritual. Travel writing and itineraria from the early and central medieval periods added a new layer to ideas about the capabilities of balsam: that it originated from a Christian miracle and was a particularly Christian plant.

The City of the Sea in Ruins

Science.gov (United States)

Kissee, T.

2017-12-01

It is important to make the connection between warming temperatures and the dying of coral reefs because we directly affect the cause and the effect of this devastation directly affects us. In the last 30 years, we have lost 50% of our world's coral. You can't have cities without building and you can't have coral reefs without coral. I will be using an art concept, which will show data on a coral reef slowly dying. If we don't do something now, instead of a city in the sea, we will have ruins.

Dramatic Aspects of Medieval Magic in Scandinavia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søndergaard, Leif

2011-01-01

The arcle deal with the performative aspects of medieval spells and rituals. The most important spells are cited in extenso and commented uopn.......The arcle deal with the performative aspects of medieval spells and rituals. The most important spells are cited in extenso and commented uopn....

A Study of Pattern Prediction in the Monitoring Data of Earthen Ruins with the Internet of Things.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Yun; Wang, Xin; Eshragh, Faezeh; Wang, Xuanhong; Chen, Xiaojiang; Fang, Dingyi

2017-05-11

An understanding of the changes of the rammed earth temperature of earthen ruins is important for protection of such ruins. To predict the rammed earth temperature pattern using the air temperature pattern of the monitoring data of earthen ruins, a pattern prediction method based on interesting pattern mining and correlation, called PPER, is proposed in this paper. PPER first finds the interesting patterns in the air temperature sequence and the rammed earth temperature sequence. To reduce the processing time, two pruning rules and a new data structure based on an R-tree are also proposed. Correlation rules between the air temperature patterns and the rammed earth temperature patterns are then mined. The correlation rules are merged into predictive rules for the rammed earth temperature pattern. Experiments were conducted to show the accuracy of the presented method and the power of the pruning rules. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty Great Wall dataset was used to examine the algorithm, and six predictive rules from the air temperature to rammed earth temperature based on the interesting patterns were obtained, with the average hit rate reaching 89.8%. The PPER and predictive rules will be useful for rammed earth temperature prediction in protection of earthen ruins.

Medieval Theatre: It's More Fun than It Looks.

Science.gov (United States)

Fitzhugh, Mike

1996-01-01

Explores production ideas for plays other than works by Shakespeare, including medieval plays such as the "Wakefield Noah" by the Wakefield Master. Lists some questions to consider when deciding to perform a medieval play. (PA)

The Effects of Largest Claim and Excess of Loss Reinsurance on a Company’s Ruin Time and Valuation

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Yuguang Fan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We compare two types of reinsurance: excess of loss (EOL and largest claim reinsurance (LCR, each of which transfers the payment of part, or all, of one or more large claims from the primary insurance company (the cedant to a reinsurer. The primary insurer’s point of view is documented in terms of assessment of risk and payment of reinsurance premium. A utility indifference rationale based on the expected future dividend stream is used to value the company with and without reinsurance. Assuming the classical compound Poisson risk model with choices of claim size distributions (classified as heavy, medium and light-tailed cases, simulations are used to illustrate the impact of the EOL and LCR treaties on the company’s ruin probability, ruin time and value as determined by the dividend discounting model. We find that LCR is at least as effective as EOL in averting ruin in comparable finite time horizon settings. In instances where the ruin probability for LCR is smaller than for EOL, the dividend discount model shows that the cedant is able to pay a larger portion of the dividend for LCR reinsurance than for EOL while still maintaining company value. Both methods reduce risk considerably as compared with no reinsurance, in a variety of situations, as measured by the standard deviation of the company value. A further interesting finding is that heaviness of tails alone is not necessarily the decisive factor in the possible ruin of a company; small and moderate sized claims can also play a significant role in this.

Calculation of ruin probabilities for a dense class of heavy tailed distributions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bladt, Mogens; Nielsen, Bo Friis; Samorodnitsky, Gennady

2015-01-01

In this paper, we propose a class of infinite-dimensional phase-type distributions with finitely many parameters as models for heavy tailed distributions. The class of finite-dimensional phase-type distributions is dense in the class of distributions on the positive reals and may hence approximate...... any such distribution. We prove that formulas from renewal theory, and with a particular attention to ruin probabilities, which are true for common phase-type distributions also hold true for the infinite-dimensional case. We provide algorithms for calculating functionals of interest...... such as the renewal density and the ruin probability. It might be of interest to approximate a given heavy tailed distribution of some other type by a distribution from the class of infinite-dimensional phase-type distributions and to this end we provide a calibration procedure which works for the approximation...

Interest in medieval accounts: Examples from England, 1272-1340

OpenAIRE

Adrian R. Bell; Chris Brooks; Tony Moore

2008-01-01

Research into medieval interest rates has been hampered by the diversity of terms and methods used by historians, creating serious misconceptions in the eporting of medieval interest rates, which have then been taken at face value by later scholars. This has had important repercussions on the wider debate on the credit risk of different forms of medieval governments and the costs of borrowing as a bar to investment. This paper seeks to establish a standardised methodology to accurately calcul...

Pulp fictions of medieval England: Essays in popular romance

OpenAIRE

McDonald, Nicola

2004-01-01

Middle English popular romance is the most audacious and compendious testimony to the imaginary world of the English Middle Ages. Yet, with few exceptions, it remains under read and under studied. Pulp fictions of medieval England demonstrates that popular romance merits and rewards serious critical attention and that it is crucial to our understanding of the complex and conflicted world of medieval England. Pulp fictions of medieval England comprises ten essays on individual romances that, w...

The Barbarian North in Medieval Imagination

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen-Rix, Robert William

This book examines the sustained interest in legends of the pagan and peripheral North, tracing and analyzing the use of an ‘out-of-Scandinavia’ legend (Scandinavia as an ancestral homeland) in a wide range of medieval texts from all over Europe, with a focus on the Anglo-Saxon tradition. The pagan...... origins, showing how an ‘out-of-Scandinavia’ legend can be found in works by several familiar writers including Jordanes, Bede, ‘Fredegar’, Paul the Deacon, Freculph, and Æthelweard. The book investigates how legends of northern warriors were first created in classical texts and since re-calibrated to fit...... the disciplines of poetry, history, rhetoric, linguistics, and archaeology. After years of intense critical interest in medieval attitudes towards the classical world, Africa, and the East, this first book-length study of ‘the North’ will inspire new debates and repositionings in medieval studies....

Representations of Lancet or Phlebotome in Serbian Medieval Art.

Science.gov (United States)

Pajić, Sanja; Jurišić, Vladimir

2015-01-01

The topic of this study are representations of lancet or phlebotome in frescoes and icons of Serbian medieval art. The very presence of this medical instrument in Serbian medieval art indicates its usage in Serbian medical practices of the time. Phlebotomy is one of the oldest forms of therapy, widely spread in medieval times. It is also mentioned in Serbian medical texts, such as Chilandar Medical CodexNo. 517 and Hodoch code, i.e. translations from Latin texts originating from Salerno-Montpellier school. Lancet or phlebotome is identified based on archaeological finds from the Roman period, while finds from the Middle Ages and especially from Byzantium have been scarce. Analyses of preserved frescoes and icons has shown that, in comparison to other medical instruments, lancet is indeed predominant in Serbian medieval art, and that it makes for over 80% of all the representations, while other instruments have been depicted to a far lesser degree. Examination of written records and art points to the conclusion that Serbian medieval medicine, both in theory and in practice, belonged entirely to European traditions of the period.

Parisian ruin probability for spectrally negative L\\'{e}vy processes

OpenAIRE

Ronnie Loeffen; Irmina Czarna; Zbigniew Palmowski

2011-01-01

In this note we give, for a spectrally negative Lévy process, a compact formula for the Parisian ruin probability, which is defined by the probability that the process exhibits an excursion below zero, with a length that exceeds a certain fixed period $r$. The formula involves only the scale function of the spectrally negative Lévy process and the distribution of the process at time $r$.

Patterns and prevalence of violence-related skull trauma in medieval London.

Science.gov (United States)

Krakowka, Kathryn

2017-11-01

This study aims to identify the patterns and prevalence of violence-related skull trauma (including the cranium and mandible) among a large sample of skeletons from medieval London (1050-1550 AD). In total, data from 399 skulls, representing six different sites from across medieval London, were analyzed for evidence of trauma and assessed for the likelihood that it was caused by violence. The sites include the three parish cemeteries of St Nicholas Shambles (GPO75), St Lawrence Jewry (GYE92), and St Benet Sherehog (ONE94); the two monastic houses of London Blackfriars (PIC87) and St Mary Graces (MIN86); and the early inmate cemetery from the medieval hospital of St Mary Spital (NRT85). The overall findings suggest that violence affected all aspects of medieval London society, but how that violence was characterized largely depended on sex and burial location. Specifically, males from the lay cemeteries appear to have been the demographic most affected by violence-related skull injuries, particularly blunt force trauma to the cranial vault. Using both archaeological and historical evidence, the results suggest that violence in medieval London may have been more prevalent than in other parts of medieval England, particularly rural environments, but similar to other parts of medieval Europe. However, more studies focusing on medieval trauma, and violence specifically, need to be carried out to further strengthen these results. In particular, males from the lay cemeteries were disproportionately affected by violence-related trauma, especially blunt force trauma. It perhaps indicates a means of informal conflict resolution as those of lower status did not always have the newly established medieval legal system available to them. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

New Methodologies for the Documentation of Fortified Architecture in the State of Ruins

Science.gov (United States)

Fallavollita, F.; Ugolini, A.

2017-05-01

Fortresses and castles are important symbols of social and cultural identity providing tangible evidence of cultural unity in Europe. They are items for which it is always difficult to outline a credible prospect of reuse, their old raison d'être- namely the military, political and economic purposes for which they were built- having been lost. In recent years a Research Unit of the University of Bologna composed of architects from different disciplines has conducted a series of studies on fortified heritage in the Emilia Romagna region (and not only) often characterized by buildings in ruins. The purpose of this study is mainly to document a legacy, which has already been studied in depth by historians, and previously lacked reliable architectural surveys for the definition of a credible as well as sustainable conservation project. Our contribution will focus on different techniques and methods used for the survey of these architectures, the characteristics of which- in the past- have made an effective survey of these buildings difficult, if not impossible. The survey of a ruin requires, much more than the evaluation of an intact building, reading skills and an interpretation of architectural spaces to better manage the stages of documentation and data processing. Through a series of case studies of fortified buildings in ruins, we intend to describe the reasons that guided the choice of the methods and tools used and to highlight the potentials and the limits of these choices in financial terms.

Ruin philosophy, poetic discourse and the collapse of meta-narratives in Aleksandr Kushner's poetry of the 1970s

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Andreas Schönle

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This article offers an analysis of the trope of ruin in the poetry of Aleksandr Kushner (born 1936, in particular through a close reading of two of his poems: “In a slippery graveyard, alone” and “Ruins”. The analysis of these poems is preceded by an overview of ruin philosophy from Burke and Diderot to Simmel and Benjamin, with particular emphasis on the way the trope of ruin contemplation stages a confrontation between the self and what transcends it (death, history, nature, etc.. This philosophical background serves as a heuristic tool to shed light on the poetry of Kushner. Through the trope of ruin, Kushner explores the legitimacy of poetic speech after the collapse of all meta-narratives. Kushner has no truck with Diderot's solipsism, nor with Hegel's bold narrative of progress, nor with Simmel's peaceful reconciliation with the creative forces of nature. Nor, really, does he intend to bear witness to history, the way Benjamin does in the faint anticipation of some miracle. Instead, Kushner posits the endurance of a community united not around a grand project, but around the idea of carrying on in the face of everything, muddling through despite the lack of hopes for a transformational future and making the most of fleeting moments of positivity that emerge out of the fundamental serendipity of history.

Gioacchino Volpe and the medieval religious movements

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Enrico Artifoni

2007-12-01

Full Text Available This article is a widened version of a lecture held in 2005 at the congress: ‘Gioacchino Volpe between past and present’, issued in the volume edited by R. Bonuglia (Rome 2007. It analyzes the main topics present in the work by Gioacchino Volpe: Movimenti religiosi e sette ereticali nella società medievale italiana (secoli XI-XIV (‘Religious movements and heretical sects in Italian Medieval society (11th-14th century', of 1922, and connects such essay to the author’s interests for ‘social’ history in the period after the 11th century. It also casts light on the influence of  Volpe’s thesis on many Italian Medieval scholars, who studied the medieval heresies over the 20th century (Morghen, Dupré Theseider, Manselli, Violante.

Exploring the Middle Ages with the Medieval Map.

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Parry, Joseph D.

1998-01-01

Illustrates how medieval maps provide a means for studying the Middle Ages by allowing students to explore the ideology and representations of the medieval world conveyed by the maps. Explains that students also can compare the maps with literature from the same time period to further analyze the representations of the culture. (CMK)

Renewing Audience Response in Study of Medieval Literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Harrington, David V.

Although modern readers often find the interpretation of medieval literature difficult, they should be encouraged to use their imagination to resolve the dilemmas they encounter. Often, these are the same issues with which medieval audiences had to wrestle and which the poets intended to raise. W. Iser's and H. R. Jauss's principles of…

Vascular Plant and Vertebrate Inventory of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, Brian F.; Albrecht, Eric W.; Schmidt, Cecilia A.; Halvorson, William L.; Anning, Pamela; Docherty, Kathleen

2006-01-01

Executive Summary This report summarizes results of the first comprehensive biological inventory of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (NM) in southern Arizona. Surveys at the monument were part of a larger effort to inventory vascular plants and vertebrates in eight National Park Service units in Arizona and New Mexico. In 2001 and 2002 we surveyed for vascular plants and vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) at Casa Grande Ruins NM to document the presence, and in some cases relative abundance, of species. By using repeatable study designs and standardized field techniques, which included quantified survey effort, we produced inventories that can serve as the basis for a biological monitoring program. Of the National Park Service units in the region, no other has experienced as much recent ecological change as Casa Grande Ruins NM. Once situated in a large and biologically diverse mesquite bosque near the perennially flowing Gila River, the monument is now a patch of sparse desert vegetation surrounded by urban and commercial development that is rapidly replacing agriculture as the dominant land use in the area. Roads, highways, and canals surround the monument. Development, and its associated impacts, has important implications for the plants and animals that live in the monument. The plant species list is small and the distribution and number of non-native plants appears to be increasing. Terrestrial vertebrates are also being impacted by the changing landscape, which is increasing the isolation of these populations from nearby natural areas and thereby reducing the number of species at the monument. These observations are alarming and are based on our review of previous studies, our research in the monument, and our knowledge of the biogeography and ecology of the Sonoran Desert. Together, these data suggest that the monument has lost a significant portion of its historic complement of species and these changes will likely intensify as

Magna Carta: Teaching Medieval Topics for Historical Significance

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Metzger, Scott Alan

2010-01-01

The Middle Ages are an immensely important era in the Western experience. Unfortunately, medieval studies are often marginalized or trivialized in school curriculum. With the approach of the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, the famous charter of rights from medieval England, one has a timely and useful example for considering what a focus on…

Medieval Pictorial Art and Medieval Spanish Literature: A Case in Point for the Use of the Visual Arts in the Literature Class.

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Bergstrom, Stanford E.

1991-01-01

An exploration of the connection between literature and the visual arts and its application in the foreign language literature class includes an illustration of how a medieval literary Spanish masterpiece becomes more clear when the text is compared with medieval pictorial art pieces. (four references) (Author/CB)

The time to ruin in some additive risk models with random premium rates

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Martin

2012-01-01

to have a Laplace transform that is a rational function. The main results describe the joint Laplace transform of the time at ruin and the deficit at ruin. The method used consists in finding partial eigenfunctions for the generator of the joint process consisting of the Markov process and the accumulated...... of the present value of the Markov process. The intensity for a claim to occur is another nonnegative function of the value of the Markov process. The claim arrival times are the regeneration times for the Markov process. Two-sided claims are allowed, but the distribution of the positive claims is assumed......The risk processes considered in this paper are generated by an underlying Markov process with a regenerative structure and an independent sequence of independent and identically distributed claims. Between the arrivals of claims the process increases at a rate which is a nonnegative function...

Microalgae on dimension stone of a medieval castle in Thuringia

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Hallmann, C.; Stannek, L.; Fritzlar, D.; Hoppert, M.

2012-04-01

Phototrophic microorganisms are important primary producers on hard rock substrata as well as on building facades. These eukaryotic microalgae and cyanobacteria, along with lichens, have also been recognized as important factors for rock weathering and stone decay. The rock substratum itself mostly provides extreme environmental conditions. Composition and diversity of sub-aeric phototrophic microbial communities is up to now poorly understood. Here we present a comparative study addressing the composition of algal biofilms on sandstone substrata based on the analysis of rDNA clone libraries from environmental samples and enrichment cultures. From a W-exposed, shaded wall area of a medieval castle ruin (Burg Gleichen, Thuringia, Germany cf. Hallmann et al., 2011), green algae like Prasiococcus, Prasiola and Elliptochloris could be retrieved. A ESE, sun-exposed wall section was colonized mainly by Apatococcus, Phyllosiphon and the lichen alga Trebouxia and Myrmecia. Accordingly, cyanobacterial communities show clear differences between both wall areas: the sun exposed area was dominated by Synechococcus-like organisms while on the W-exposed area cyanobacteria were almost absent. Just a few species, in particular Stichococcus-related strains, are ubiquitous in both areas. It is obvious that, apart from few generalists, different species colonize the wall areas that are situated in close vicinity, but provide different microclimatic conditions. These differences are discussed in view of biogenic weathering phenomena: certain microalgal species colonize crusts and scales along fracture planes and may contribute to rapid detachment and turnover of dimension stone surfaces. Hallmann, C., Fritzlar, D., Stannek, L., Hoppert, M. (2011) Ascomycete fungi on dimension stone of the "Burg Gleichen", Thuringia. Env. Earth Sci. 63, 1713-1722.

Insight into the Fulnek Church and Parish Medieval Building Chronology

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Augustinková Lucie

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The church of the Holy Trinity and parish in Fulnek was for nearly four centuries an Augustinian canonry and collegiate church (1293-1389. The medieval church and parish building chronology, however, have not been thus far established. From research between 2015 and 2016 we have been able to identify medieval portions of the buildings, clarify the site medieval construction phases and date the parish buildings (formerly the canonry from dendrochronological analysis of embedded wooden scaffolding.

Skin pathology and medical prognosis in medieval Europe: the secrets of Hippocrates.

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Ackerman Smoller, L

2000-12-01

This article analyzes a medieval text known as The Secrets of Hippocrates. Neither secret (because of its wide circulation in manuscript and print) nor by Hippocrates, the work offered readers a means of offering a prognosis of impending death based on observable signs on the skin. Although the aphorisms that make up the text make little sense in a modern medical understanding, the Secrets of Hippocrates fits well within three medieval traditions: the tradition of secrets literature, the medieval medical tradition, and the tradition of medieval Christian views about the body. First, like other books of secrets, a genre to whose conventions the text closely adheres, the Secrets of Hippocrates offered a shortcut to socially useful knowledge: the ability to offer an accurate medical prognosis. Second, the treatise corresponded to the medieval physician's concern for the so-called nonnaturals, such as diet and exercise. Third, it fit with a medieval Christian notion that sickness and sin were related, as were sin and ugliness. Just as a leper's deformities were a window to his sinful soul, so skin pathologies could clue a medieval physician to the lethal disease hidden inside the body.

The Medieval Swedish Horror Ballad in the Romantic Era

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fyhr, Mattias

2014-01-01

In the late 18th century the Horror Ballad became popular in Sweden. The rediscovery of medieval tales and ballads inspired the Romantic authors. Clas Livijn uses the medieval folksong of "Hafsfrun" in his dramatic play of the same title (1806). In Livijn’s own library we also find many......” by Baggesen, in turn based on German and English sources. Anna Maria Lenngren followed with several ballads, often based on Danish sources. One more purely Swedish medieval ballad is “Varulven”. From 1810 unto 1971 thirteen versions of this Swedish ballad was discovered and printed. I place the focus...

Geriatric management in medieval Persian medicine

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Emami, Morteza; Sadeghpour, Omid; Zarshenas, Mohammad M.

2013-01-01

In Iran, a large group of patients are elderly people and they intend to have natural remedies as treatment. These remedies are rooted in historical of Persian and humoral medicine with a backbone of more than 1000 years. The current study was conducted to draw together medieval pharmacological information related to geriatric medicine from some of the most often manuscripts of traditional Persian medicine. Moreover, we investigated the efficacy of medicinal plants through a search of the PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar databases. In the medieval Persian documents, digestible and a small amount of food such as chicken broth, honey, fig and plum at frequent intervals as well as body massage and morning unctioning are highly recommended. In the field of pharmacotherapy, 35 herbs related to 25 families were identified. Plants were classified as tonic, anti-aging, appetizer, memory and mood enhancer, topical analgesic and laxative as well as health improvement agents. Other than historical elucidation, this paper presents medical and pharmacological approaches that medieval Persian practitioners applied to deal with geriatric complications. PMID:24381461

A luminescence dating study of the sediment stratigraphy of the Lajia Ruins in the upper Yellow River valley, China

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Zhang, Yuzhu; Huang, Chun Chang; Pang, Jiangli; Zhou, Yali; Zha, Xiaochun; Wang, Longsheng; Zhou, Liang; Guo, Yongqiang; Wang, Leibin

2014-06-01

Pedo-sedimentological fieldwork were carried out in the Lajia Ruins within the Guanting Basin along the upper Yellow River valley. In the eolian loess-soil sections on the second river terrace in the Lajia Ruins, we find that the land of the Qijia Culture (4.20-3.95 ka BP) are fractured by several sets of earthquake fissures. A conglomerated red clay covers the ground of the Qijia Culture and also fills in the earthquake fissures. The clay was deposited by enormous mudflows in association with catastrophic earthquakes and rainstorms. The aim of this study is to provide a luminescence chronology of the sediment stratigraphy of the Lajia Ruins. Eight samples were taken from an eolian loess-soil section (Xialajia section) in the ruins for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. The OSL ages are in stratigraphic order and range from (31.94 ± 1.99) ka to (0.76 ± 0.02) ka. Combined OSL and 14C ages with additional stratigraphic correlations, a chronological framework is established. We conclude that: (1) the second terrace of the upper part of Yellow River formed 35.00 ka ago, which was followed by the accumulation of the eolian loess-soil section; and (2) the eolian loess-soil section is composed of the Malan Loess of the late last glacial (MIS-2) and Holocene loess-soil sequences.

Herbal diuretics in medieval Persian and Arabic medicine.

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Shoja, Mohammadali M; Tubbs, R Shane; Bosmia, Anand N; Fakhree, Mohammad A A; Jouyban, Abolghasem; Balch, Margaret Wood; Loukas, Marios; Khodadoust, Kazem; Khalili, Majid; Eknoyan, Garabed

2015-06-01

In accord with the notions of humoralism that prevailed in medieval medicine, therapeutic interventions, including diuretics, were used to restore the disturbed balance among the four humors of the human body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Most diuretics were derived from plants. The primary textual reference on herbal diuretics was Dioscorides's De Materia Medica, which was written during the first century CE. The authors reviewed the medieval medical texts written in Persian and Arabic and compiled a list of 135 herbal diuretics used by the medieval medical authorities for treating various ailments. Between the 8th and 11th centuries CE, Middle Eastern physicians systematically reviewed extant books on medicine and pharmacotherapy and compiled new and expanded lists of herbal medicines, diuretics in particular. Furthermore, they introduced new chemical methods of extraction, distillation, and compounding in the use of herbal medicines. Several herbal remedies now are considered as potentially safe and affordable alternatives to chemical pharmaceuticals. Thus, research on medieval herbal therapies may prove to be relevant to the practice of current cardiovascular and renal pharmacotherapy. The authors propose that modern research methods can be employed to determine which of these agents actually are effective as diuretics.

The long-term impact of developmental stress. Evidence from later medieval and post-medieval London (AD1117-1853).

Science.gov (United States)

Watts, Rebecca

2015-12-01

Episodes of ill-health in childhood can predispose affected individuals to further periods of illness and early adult mortality. This study uses nonspecific indicators of stress to examine how growth disruptions during infancy/early childhood, and late childhood/early adolescence affected adult longevity in later medieval and post-medieval London. Hazards analysis was used to evaluate the effect of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) and the size of the anteroposterior (AP) and transverse (TR) diameters of the vertebral neural canal (VNC) on adult age-at-death. This was applied to skeletal samples from later medieval (n = 461) and post-medieval (n = 480) London. Growth disruptions during infancy/early childhood (LEH and AP VNC diameters) were not associated with longevity, or with impaired growth at later stages of development (TR VNC diameters). Growth disruptions during late childhood/early adolescence (TR VNC diameters) were associated with a significantly increased risk of adult mortality. Macroscopic hypoplasia represent short periods of stress during infancy/early childhood which did not disrupt future investments in growth or cause long-term damage to health. Small TR diameters represent chronic stress during late childhood/early adolescence which resulted in greater susceptibility to infections and increased risk of mortality. These interactions were influenced by sex and socioeconomic status, suggesting that socioeconomic circumstances in both childhood and adult life could influence exposure and resistance to stressors. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Challenge of Folklore to Medieval Studies

OpenAIRE

John Lindow

2018-01-01

When folklore began to emerge as a valid expression of a people during the early stages of national romanticism, it did so alongside texts and artifacts from the Middle Ages. The fields of folklore and medieval studies were hardly to be distinguished at that time, and it was only as folklore began to develop its own methodology (actually analogous to medieval textual studies) during the nineteenth century that the fields were distinguished. During the 1970s, however, folklore adopted a wholly...

Аrchitectural ruins phenomenon ФЕНОМЕН АРХИТЕКТУРНЫХ РУИН

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Fedorov Viktor Vladimirovich

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Modern academic research has a large area of behaviorist and environmental studies focusing on the spatial factor employed to explain the reality. The concept of understanding ruins as monuments of the past dates back to the days of the Renaissance. Exposed to destruction in the past ages, they have acquired numerous meanings, thus, becoming a source of ideas about the past. It is appropriate to speak about “historic” and “modern” ruins. In the first case, the time distance between the moments of construction and perception of ruins is quite large. In the second case, ruins comprise the outcome of inaccurate design, construction or maintenance of buildings, natural disasters or wars. They also have a symbolic and semantic content. The interest in the phenomenon of ruins has brought forth the notion of«false ruins» (in landscape parks and «future ruins» (paintings and fiction. The spatial and time scale of the urban environment (including ruins generates a powerful symbolic content. Ruins often symbolize a pathological state of the society that strives to minimize the presence of such objects in the everyday life. Developing culture prefers creative motives and tends to replace destructive ones. Since the 1980s, the phenomenon of architectural ruins has been rapidly expanding its presence in the virtual space due to:1 the complexity of visual assessments because of the lack of familiar structural elements to be employed to estimate the size of buildings; 2 the violation of the balance of space, mass, shape, typical of architectural creations; 3 the dominance of the deaf mass (remains of columns, walls, etc.; 4 the lack of spatial reference, volume, symmetry, reinforcing irrationality in perception of ruins (the loss of the original image destroys the unity of form and content; 5 the loss of opinions on the functional purpose of buildings; 6 exclusive picturesque ruins; 7 background lighting, colour and texture of surfaces

Premaxillary hyperdontia in medieval Norwegians: a radiographic study.

Science.gov (United States)

Stermer Beyer-Olsen, E M

1989-11-01

An excavation of a part of the graveyard of St Olav's church, Trondheim, Norway, uncovered 389 tombs from the medieval period (1100-1600). Radiographic examination of 140 skulls with an intact premaxilla revealed hyperdontia in the form of a mesiodens in two (1.4%) cases. This is within the same range as similar medieval and present Nordic populations. Change in functional pattern does not seem to influence the prevalence.

The Medieval Dublin Project: A Case Study

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Niall O'hOisin

2010-04-01

Full Text Available This paper provides an overview of the Medieval Dublin Project. It covers the development and release of the DVD ‘Medieval Dublin: From Vikings to Tudors (Schools Edition,’ and outlines the major virtual and interactive features developed for that release. The paper also covers the collaboration that took place between the DVD development team and the academic community and discusses the ways in which 3D visualisations, timelines, interactivity and character-based storytelling were used to present Dublin’s archaeological heritage in an engaging and interesting way

Anthony Davenport. Medieval Narrative – An Introduction

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Richard TRIM

2005-10-01

Full Text Available This latest book by Tony Davenport represents not only a very useful guide to the different types of narrative associated with the Middle Ages but also succinctly describes their origins in Antiquity as well as linking up the various genres of medieval story-telling to present-day fiction in prose and film. The introductory pages thus give a global picture of narrative both before and after the medieval period and the Middle Ages are thereby not left in a vacuum. Although the focus is on Engl...

Episodes in the mathematics of medieval Islam

CERN Document Server

Berggren, J L

2016-01-01

This book presents an account of selected topics from key mathematical works of medieval Islam, based on the Arabic texts themselves. Many of these works had a great influence on mathematics in Western Europe. Topics covered in the first edition include arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and numerical approximation; this second edition adds number theory and combinatorics. Additionally, the author has included selections from the western regions of medieval Islam—both North Africa and Spain. The author puts the works into their historical context and includes numerous examples of how mathematics interacted with Islamic society.

Greek Astronomy and the Medieval Arabic Tradition

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Saliba, George

2002-07-01

Islamic scholars of the Middle Ages are often credited with preserving the scientific writings of Antiquity through the Dark Ages of Europe. Saliba argues that the medieval Islamic astronomers did far more—actually correcting and improving on Greek astronomy by creating new mathematical tools to explain the motions of celestial objects. These tools were so useful that Copernicus appears to have borrowed them for use in his heliocentric cosmology. In this new light, the medieval Islamic astronomers played a fundamental role in the scientific revolution that was forged in Europe during the Renaissance.

Characterization of corroded bronze Ding from the Yin Ruins of China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ling, He; Qingrong, Zhao; Min, Gao

2007-01-01

This paper presents the result of scientific examinations carried out on the soil-buried archaeological bronzes Ding from Yin Ruins of China. Eight of typical fragments from different bronze Ding were selected as researched samples according to their deterioration characteristics. Optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy (SEM-EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to understand the corrosive morphological characteristics, to clear the nature of patina and to analyze the elementary composition of bronze Ding. The results indicated that it is not possible to distinguish the original lustrous metallic surface in most samples because of the corrosive crust. The substrate of bronze Ding contains74-86% Cu, 1.1-4.6% Pb, and 10-18% Sn, which is in agreement with the historical investigation in the ritual vessels of Shang time. Copper-containing compounds were the main constituents of natural patina: Cu 2 (OH) 3 Cl existed as corrosion product in all the powdery or crack surface; Cu 2 (OH) 2 CO 3 was the main corrosive product in a compact and hard corrosive surface. This study provides useful information for the restoration and protection of bronze Ding in Yin Ruins

Research output in medieval and crusades studies 1981-2011

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Torben Kjersgaard

2017-01-01

This article investigates the numerical research output of crusade studies over the past thirty years. The article compares its findings to the output of medieval studies in general in the same period. It shows in detail how the applied bibliometric statistics are generated and elaborates on some...... of the methodological considerations necessary in carrying out this kind of quantitative research. On the basis of bibliometric statistics generated from the International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) and Bibliographie de Civilisation Médiévale (BCM), the article identifies a numeric decrease in research output both...... in crusade studies in particular and in medieval studies in general. The article proposes further discussion on the “why” and “how” of this somewhat surprising result....

Sex differentials in frailty in medieval England.

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DeWitte, Sharon N

2010-10-01

In most modern populations, there are sex differentials in morbidity and mortality that favor women. This study addresses whether such female advantages existed to any appreciable degree in medieval Europe. The analyses presented here examine whether men and women with osteological stress markers faced the same risks of death in medieval London. The sample used for this study comes from the East Smithfield Black Death cemetery in London. The benefit of using this cemetery is that most, if not all, individuals interred in East Smithfield died from the same cause within a very short period of time. This allows for the analysis of the differences between men and women in the risks of mortality associated with osteological stress markers without the potential confounding effects of different causes of death. A sample of 299 adults (173 males, 126 females) from the East Smithfield cemetery was analyzed. The results indicate that the excess mortality associated with several osteological stress markers was higher for men than for women. This suggests that in this medieval population, previous physiological stress increased the risk of death for men during the Black Death to a greater extent than was true for women. Alternatively, the results might indicate that the Black Death discriminated less strongly between women with and without pre-existing health conditions than was true for men. These results are examined in light of previous analyses of East Smithfield and what is known about diet and sexually mediated access to resources in medieval England. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Barrett, James H.; Locker, Alison M.; Roberts, Callum M.

2004-01-01

The catastrophic impact of fishing pressure on species such as cod and herring is well documented. However, the antiquity of their intensive exploitation has not been established. Systematic catch statistics are only available for ca.100 years, but large-scale fishing industries existed in medieval Europe and the expansion of cod fishing from the fourteenth century (first in Iceland, then in Newfoundland) played an important role in the European colonization of the Northwest Atlantic. History has demonstrated the scale of these late medieval and post-medieval fisheries, but only archaeology can illuminate earlier practices. Zooarchaeological evidence shows that the clearest changes in marine fishing in England between AD 600 and 1600 occurred rapidly around AD 1000 and involved large increases in catches of herring and cod. Surprisingly, this revolution predated the documented post-medieval expansion of England's sea fisheries and coincided with the Medieval Warm Period--when natural herring and cod productivity was probably low in the North Sea. This counterintuitive discovery can be explained by the concurrent rise of urbanism and human impacts on freshwater ecosystems. The search for 'pristine' baselines regarding marine ecosystems will thus need to employ medieval palaeoecological proxies in addition to recent fisheries data and early modern historical records. PMID:15590590

Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference, Birmingham 3.–6. 7. 2014

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Mráčková, Veronika; Baťa, J.

2014-01-01

Roč. 51, 3-4 (2014), s. 414-417 ISSN 0018-7003. [Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference. Birmingham, 03.07.2014-06.07.2014] Institutional support: RVO:68378076 Keywords : conference * medieval * music Subject RIV: AL - Art, Architecture, Cultural Heritage

The Pleasure of Discovery: Medieval Literature in Adolescent Novels Set in the Middle Ages.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnhouse, Rebecca

1999-01-01

Discusses three recent novels for young adults set in medieval times, illustrating several ways that modern writers incorporate medieval material into fiction. Argues that pairing such novels with medieval texts such as "Beowulf" and "The Canterbury Tales" offers opportunities to explore traditional literary topics while providing a gateway into…

Crop Protection in Medieval Agriculture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zadoks, J.C.

2013-01-01

Mediterranean and West European pre-modern agriculture (agriculture before 1600) was by necessity ‘organic agriculture’. Crop protection is part and parcel of this agriculture, with weed control in the forefront. Crop protection is embedded in the medieval agronomy text books but specialised

Higher-than-present Medieval pine (Pinus sylvestris treeline along the Swedish Scandes

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Leif Kullman

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The upper treeline of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L. is renowned as a sensitive indicator of climate change and variability. By use of megafossil tree remains, preserved exposed on the ground surface, treeline shift over the past millennium was investigated at multiple sites along the Scandes in northern Sweden. Difference in thermal level between the present and the Medieval period, about AD 1000-1200, is a central, although controversial, aspect concerning the detection and attribution of anthropogenic climate warming. Radiocarbon-dated megafossil pines revealed that the treeline was consistently positioned as much as 115 m higher during the Medieval period than today (AD 2000-2010, after a century of warming and substantial treeline upshift. Drawing on the last-mentioned figure, and a lapse rate of 0.6 °C/100 m, it may be inferred that Medieval summer temperatures were about 0.7 °C warmer than much of the past 100 years. Extensive pine mortality and treeline descent after the Medieval warming peak reflect substantially depressed temperatures during the Little Ice Age. Warmer-than-present conditions during the Medieval period concur with temperature reconstructions from different parts of northern Fennoscandia, northwestern Russia and Greenland. Modern warming has not been sufficient to restore Medieval treelines. Against this background, there is little reason to view further modest warming as unnatural.

[Who were the healers in medieval Trondheim?].

Science.gov (United States)

Pape, K; Westin, S

1998-12-10

When Trondheim celebrated its millenium in 1997, this also marked a 1000 year-old medical tradition. In medieval times, sick and disabled people made their pilgrimage to the Nidaros cathedral and the grave of Saint Olav (995-1030). Working from the assumption that every organized society develops rituals and rules to deal with disease and death, we have looked for evidence of what kind of healers one would expect there were in medieval Trondheim up to the reformation in 1537. Sources include reports from archaeological excavations, written material of both medieval and more recent origin, buildings and objects, and living traditions. Three kinds of healer traditions can be identified: The popular and "wise" folk healers were based on traditional pre-Christian mythology and belief in natural forces. The charitable clerics emerged with Christianity. The "professional" wound healers evolved from the needs of the military, later to merge with the early barber surgeons. Traces of scientific traditions, the Salerno school and early European university medicine can be found in local texts, but there is no evidence of any university educated doctor practising in Trondheim before the 17th century.

Disintegration of monetary system of medieval Serbia

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Gnjatović Dragana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The subject matter of this paper is the process of gradual disintegration of monetary system of medieval Serbia during the second half of the 14th and the first half of the 15th century. This period is characterized by an appearance of frequent usurpations of the ruling right to mint coinage by local landlords and the attempts of the rulers from Lazarević and Branković families to restore unified monetary system. Common debasements and restorations of silver coinage provoked economic instability and induced frequent turning backwards to the custom of using weighted silver instead of silver coins as commodity monetary standard. The aim of this paper is to explain the reasons for those phenomena. We apply qualitative, historical, empirical analysis where we consider money minting right holders and their decisions to debase and restore the value of silver dinars. We found that gradual disintegration of monetary system of medieval Serbian State continued until the fall of Serbian Despotate as a consequence of political instability following dissolution of medieval Serbian Empire and economic and financial exhaustion of Serbia by Ottoman suzerains.

Books authored/co-authored and edited/co-edited by members of staff of the Department of Medieval/Medieval and Renaissance Archaeology, Aarhus University, 1971-2014

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Roesdahl, Else

2015-01-01

Chronologically organized list of books authored/co-authored and edited/co-edited by members of staff of the Department of Medieval and Renaissance Archaeology, Aarhus University, 1971-2014......Chronologically organized list of books authored/co-authored and edited/co-edited by members of staff of the Department of Medieval and Renaissance Archaeology, Aarhus University, 1971-2014...

Historical fencing and scientific research medieval weapons: common ground

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B. V. Hrynchyshyn

2015-07-01

We considered various approaches to the reconstruction of the historical fencing. It is proved that the activities of such societies has a positive effect on the process research of features of medieval weapons, fighting tactics of different periods The various approaches to the reconstruction of the historical fencing. Proved that the activities of such societies has a positive effect on the process research of features of medieval weapons, fighting tactics of different periods.

A Memory of Shadows and of Stone. Traumatic Ruins, Conservation, Social Processes

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Nino Sulfaro

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Considering the scars caused by many terrible traumatic events, such as the atomic bomb, the Holocaust, genocides, massacres, and also deep socio-economic transformations, the notion of memory in the contemporary age is nearly always the result of a conflict between the conservation of some elements of the past and the oblivion of others. The ruin or the place of a tragedy is no longer merely a trace of a terrible past but, through a resemantization process, it becomes a sign, which is transmittable to the future. This introduces some questions to the issue of traumatic ruin: what are the social implications of ‘memorializing’ the trauma? Who decides what kind of traces of the past to deliver to the future? What is the role of conservation and architectural restoration in these processes? The present paper focuses on the possible practices in the processes of the representation of the past, with special regard to the relationship between places/buildings, memory and social processes. In particular, the paper deals with the consequences of practices involving a reinterpretation of the past and, practices aimed at leaving the signs of traumatic events visible on a building, a monument or a place: practices which, as they involve oblivion and remembrance, describe the contemporary condition of memory.

Proper Living - Exploring Domestic Ideals in Medieval Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristiansen, Mette Svart

2014-01-01

Houses frame homes, households, and daily life, and it is reasonable to suggest that ideas of domestic space in medieval society, and ideas of how to live in an orderly and acceptable manner in the eyes of one’s peers and oneself are reflected in domestic architecture, its layout, fittings......, and ornaments. This paper addresses ideas of proper living in affluent rural and urban milieus in medieval Denmark, particularly as they are expressed through houses, inventories, and murals, and it also addresses current challenges in understanding the materialized ideas based on excavations and analysis...

Locality and Distance in Cults of Saints in Medieval Norway

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Nils Holger

2017-01-01

A discussion of the Norwegian medieval cult of the purported Irish St Sunniva, a cult in which holiness is seen as foreign and distant in the cultural memory of the saint.......A discussion of the Norwegian medieval cult of the purported Irish St Sunniva, a cult in which holiness is seen as foreign and distant in the cultural memory of the saint....

Social representations of memory and gender in later medieval England.

Science.gov (United States)

Kane, Bronach

2012-12-01

Social representations in later medieval culture have attracted little attention amongst psychologists, pre-dating the development of the so-called 'public sphere' in the eighteenth century. In addition, the association of pre-modern societies with 'traditional' modes of communication in social psychology places implicit limits on areas that may be studied through the lens of social representation theory. This article analyses the way in which knowledge circulated in late medieval society, noting initially the plural nature of representations of events and marginal groups, and the myriad channels through which beliefs were consolidated. In later medieval England perceptions of the past depended on collective and group memory, with customary rights and local histories forged through 'common knowledge', hearsay and the opinions of 'trustworthy men' of the village. The final section of this commentary provides an analysis of testimony from the late medieval church courts, in which witnesses articulated gender ideologies that reflected perceptions drawn from everyday life. Social representations of women were thus deployed in ecclesiastical suits, on the one hand supporting evidence of female witnesses and on the other justifying misogynistic stereotypes of women's behaviour.

The Image of Medieval Woman

Science.gov (United States)

Wade, Marjorie D.

1978-01-01

California State University offered a course concerning the roles and positions of women in medieval society as depicted in Middle High German literature. The course was open to all undergraduate students and required no prerequisites or knowledge of German. The content and structure of the course are outlined. (SW)

Population-Area Relationship for Medieval European Cities.

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Rudolf Cesaretti

Full Text Available Medieval European urbanization presents a line of continuity between earlier cities and modern European urban systems. Yet, many of the spatial, political and economic features of medieval European cities were particular to the Middle Ages, and subsequently changed over the Early Modern Period and Industrial Revolution. There is a long tradition of demographic studies estimating the population sizes of medieval European cities, and comparative analyses of these data have shed much light on the long-term evolution of urban systems. However, the next step-to systematically relate the population size of these cities to their spatial and socioeconomic characteristics-has seldom been taken. This raises a series of interesting questions, as both modern and ancient cities have been observed to obey area-population relationships predicted by settlement scaling theory. To address these questions, we analyze a new dataset for the settled area and population of 173 European cities from the early fourteenth century to determine the relationship between population and settled area. To interpret this data, we develop two related models that lead to differing predictions regarding the quantitative form of the population-area relationship, depending on the level of social mixing present in these cities. Our empirical estimates of model parameters show a strong densification of cities with city population size, consistent with patterns in contemporary cities. Although social life in medieval Europe was orchestrated by hierarchical institutions (e.g., guilds, church, municipal organizations, our results show no statistically significant influence of these institutions on agglomeration effects. The similarities between the empirical patterns of settlement relating area to population observed here support the hypothesis that cities throughout history share common principles of organization that self-consistently relate their socioeconomic networks to structured

Population-Area Relationship for Medieval European Cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Cesaretti, Rudolf; Lobo, José; Bettencourt, Luís M A; Ortman, Scott G; Smith, Michael E

2016-01-01

Medieval European urbanization presents a line of continuity between earlier cities and modern European urban systems. Yet, many of the spatial, political and economic features of medieval European cities were particular to the Middle Ages, and subsequently changed over the Early Modern Period and Industrial Revolution. There is a long tradition of demographic studies estimating the population sizes of medieval European cities, and comparative analyses of these data have shed much light on the long-term evolution of urban systems. However, the next step-to systematically relate the population size of these cities to their spatial and socioeconomic characteristics-has seldom been taken. This raises a series of interesting questions, as both modern and ancient cities have been observed to obey area-population relationships predicted by settlement scaling theory. To address these questions, we analyze a new dataset for the settled area and population of 173 European cities from the early fourteenth century to determine the relationship between population and settled area. To interpret this data, we develop two related models that lead to differing predictions regarding the quantitative form of the population-area relationship, depending on the level of social mixing present in these cities. Our empirical estimates of model parameters show a strong densification of cities with city population size, consistent with patterns in contemporary cities. Although social life in medieval Europe was orchestrated by hierarchical institutions (e.g., guilds, church, municipal organizations), our results show no statistically significant influence of these institutions on agglomeration effects. The similarities between the empirical patterns of settlement relating area to population observed here support the hypothesis that cities throughout history share common principles of organization that self-consistently relate their socioeconomic networks to structured urban spaces.

The first coronation churches of medieval Serbia

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Kalić Jovanka

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The medieval ceremony of coronation as a rule took place in the most important church of a realm. The sites of the coronation of Serbian rulers before the establishment of the Žiča monastery church as the coronation church of Serbian kings in the first half of the thirteenth century have not been reliably identified so far. Based on the surviving medieval sources and the archaeological record, this paper provides background information about the titles of Serbian rulers prior to the creation of the Nemanjić state, and proposes that Stefan, son of the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, was crowned king (1217 in the church of St Peter in Ras.

Data Integration Acquired from Micro-Uav and Terrestrial Laser Scanner for the 3d Mapping of Jesuit Ruins of São Miguel das Missões

Science.gov (United States)

Reiss, M. L. L.; da Rocha, R. S.; Ferraz, R. S.; Cruz, V. C.; Morador, L. Q.; Yamawaki, M. K.; Rodrigues, E. L. S.; Cole, J. O.; Mezzomo, W.

2016-06-01

The Jesuit Missions the Guaranis were one of the great examples of cultural, social, and scientific of the eighteenth century, which had its decline from successive wars that followed the exchange of territories domain occupied by Portugal and Spain with the Madrid Treaty of January 13, 1750. One of the great examples of this development is materialized in the ruins of 30 churches and villages that remain in a territory that now comprises part of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. These Churches, São Miguel das Missões is among the Brazilian ruins, the best preserved. The ruins of São Miguel das Missões were declared a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage in 1983 and the Institute of National Historical Heritage (IPHAN) is the Brazilian Federal agency that manages and maintains this heritage. In order to produce a geographic database to assist the IPHAN in the management of the Ruins of São Miguel das Missões it was proposed a three-dimensional mapping of these ruins never performed in this location before. The proposal is integrated data acquired from multiple sensors: two micro-UAV, an Asctec Falcon 8 (rotary wing) and a Sensefly e-Bee (fixed wing); photos from terrestrial cameras; two terrestrial LIDAR sensors, one Faro Focus 3D S-120 and Optec 3D-HD ILRIS. With this abundance of sensors has been possible to perform comparisons and integration of the acquired data, and produce a 3D reconstruction of the church with high completeness and accuracy (better than 25 mm), as can be seen in the presentation of this work.

Archaeological culture and medieval ethnic community: theoretical and methodical problems of correlation (the case of medieval Bulgaria

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Izmaylov Iskander L.

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Problems related to archaeological culture and ethnos comparison in the case of medieval Bulgaria are discussed in the article. According to the author, in recent years it has become evident that the traditional concept and methodology of the study of the Bulgars’ ethnogenesis and ethnic history are in contradiction with the facts accumulated. The methods of “archaeological ethno-genetics”, which dictated solving problems of ethnogenesis of the ancient population belonging to an archaeological culture in direct correlation with ethnicity, are currently being criticized. According to modern ideas about ethnos and ethnicity, ethnicity is based upon identity with a complex hierarchical nature. Contemporary methodology requires proceeding with the integrated study of the problems of ethnogenesis on the basis of archaeology and ethnology. This kind of analysis is based upon the study of the medieval Bulgar mentality as a source of information on key aspects of ethno-political ideas. The analysis of authentic historical sources, historiographical tradition elements and folklore materials makes it possible to reconstruct the basic ideas that were significant for an ethnic group. The archaeological culture of the population of Bulgaria is characterized by two clearly distinguished and interconnected elements – the common Muslim culture and that of the elite military “druzhina” (squad. These elements directly characterize the Bulgar ethno-political community. These theoretical conclusions and empirical research concerning the case of the medieval Bulgars’ ethnogenesis attest to the productivity of ethnological synthesis techniques on an interdisciplinary basis.

The Ruins of the British Welfare State

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Tahl Kaminer

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The subjects of Owen Hatherley’s A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain are architecture and urban development. The book addresses also some broader cultural, political and economic references, as well as personal anecdotes and memories. It includes many encounters with the remnants of the British welfare state.As an extension to his blog postings and a sequel of sorts to his previous Militant Modernism, Hatherley’s antagonist here is the semi-official architecture of New Labour, which he terms ‘pseudomodernism’: an unimaginative, inferior, and, in its own specific way, also tacky architecture of white stucco, steel and glass. He attacks the Faustian bargain of Richard Rogers and his allies with neoliberalism, a pact that produces a modernism devoid of social content, reflected by the unimaginative, speculation-driven architectural design. While Hatherley produces the promised indictment of recent British architecture, the book is, at the end of the day, primarily a eulogy to the disappearing postwar architecture he so evidently loves.

Cereal production, high status and climate in Medieval Iceland

Science.gov (United States)

Erlendsson, Egill; Riddell, Scott

2017-04-01

At Hrísbrú (formerly the medieval Mosfell estate) in the Mosfell Valley, southwest Iceland, archaeologists have excavated a medieval skáli (hall) proposed to be the high status residence of a chieftain. This is indicated by the size of the skáli, artefacts (foreign goods), archaeofaunal (cattle/sheep bone) ratios and macrobotanical remains (cereal grain). The analysis of pollen from nearby natural contexts suggests that cereals were grown locally. Using multiple profile palynological approach, this paper examines if the apparent cereal production is representative of high status in the Icelandic context. First as a correlate by confirming that cereals were grown in association with the archaeological features characteristic of high status; secondly, as an indicator in its own right through comparison with other palynological datasets from inferred lower status farms. The presence or absence of cereal-type pollen (cf. barley) and other arable correlates was examined for each site. The results suggest that medieval cereal cultivation in the Mosfell Valley was confined to the landholding of the medieval Mosfell estate. This feature is seen as an attribute of the locale's greater status in relation to the other farms in Mosfell Valley. The abandonment of cereal cultivation at the Mosfell estate around AD 1200 is probably associated with interactions between changes in the nation's social power structure and how marginal cereal production in Iceland was (and is) in terms of climate.

Flavorings in Context: Spices and Herbs in Medieval Near East

OpenAIRE

Lewicka, Paulina B.

2011-01-01

Throughout history, the approach towards imported spices varied from culture to culture. In medieval and early post-medieval Europe, where spices became an exotic object of temporary desire, they were often used unskillfully and in a haphazard manner. In the Ottoman Constantinople, unlike in Europe, it was the moderate use of spices, and not overdosing them, that became a manifestation of status. As deliberate paragons of refinement, the Ottomans depreciated what they considered uncivilized w...

Genome-wide comparison of medieval and modern Mycobacterium leprae

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schuenemann, Verena J; Singh, Pushpendra; Mendum, Thomas A

2013-01-01

Leprosy was endemic in Europe until the Middle Ages. Using DNA array capture, we have obtained genome sequences of Mycobacterium leprae from skeletons of five medieval leprosy cases from the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark. In one case, the DNA was so well preserved that full de novo assembly...... origin for leprosy in the Americas, and the presence of an M. leprae genotype in medieval Europe now commonly associated with the Middle East. The exceptional preservation of M. leprae biomarkers, both DNA and mycolic acids, in ancient skeletons has major implications for palaeomicrobiology and human...

Medieval Nomads – Sixth International Conference on the Medieval History of the Eurasian Steppe (Szeged, Hungary, November 23–26, 2016

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Aleksandar Uzelac

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Sixth international conference dedicated to the Medieval History of the Eurasian Steppe took place in the Hungarian city of Szeged on November 23-26, 2016. The organizer of the event was MTA-SZTE (“Hungarian Academy of Sciences – University of Szeged” Turkological Research group of the departments of Altaic and Medieval Studies at the Faculty of Arts, University of Szeged. More than thirty scholars from Hungary, Russia, Turkey, China, Spain, Bulgaria and Serbia took part in this event. The working languages of the conference were English and Russian. Presented papers dealt with various aspects of the history of Eurasian nomads, from the Early Middle Ages up to the seventeenth century. Among them, several have been related to the history of the Golden Horde. The proceedings of the conference are planned to be published in 2017, as a separate volume of the journal Chronica – Annual of The Institute of History, University of Szeged. Considering the quality and variety of the papers, presented at this occasion, there is no doubt it will attract the attention of the growing community of researchers and scholars interested in the medieval history of Eurasia.

Hospitality, Culture and Regeneration: Urban decay, entrepreneurship and the "ruin" bars of Budapest

OpenAIRE

Lugosi, Peter; Bell, David; Lugosi, Krisztina

2010-01-01

This paper considers the relationships between hospitality, culture and urban regeneration through an examination of rom (ruin) venues, which operate in dilapidated buildings in Budapest, Hungary. The paper reviews previous work on culture and urban regeneration in order to locate the role of hospitality within emerging debates. It subsequently interrogates the evolution of the rom phenomenon and demonstrates how, in this context, hospitality thrives because of social and physical decay in ur...

The Barbarian North in Medieval Imagination

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen-Rix, Robert William

different medieval understandings of identity and ethnicity. Among other things, the ‘out-of-Scandinavia’ tale was exploited to promote a legacy of ‘barbarian’ vigor that could withstand the negative cultural effects of Roman civilization. This volume employs a variety of perspectives cutting across...

Limitations imposed by wearing armour on Medieval soldiers' locomotor performance

OpenAIRE

Askew, Graham N.; Formenti, Federico; Minetti, Alberto E.

2011-01-01

In Medieval Europe, soldiers wore steel plate armour for protection during warfare. Armour design reflected a trade-off between protection and mobility it offered the wearer. By the fifteenth century, a typical suit of field armour weighed between 30 and 50 kg and was distributed over the entire body. How much wearing armour affected Medieval soldiers' locomotor energetics and biomechanics is unknown. We investigated the mechanics and the energetic cost of locomotion in armour, and determined...

Genealogical relationships between early medieval and modern inhabitants of Piedmont.

Science.gov (United States)

Vai, Stefania; Ghirotto, Silvia; Pilli, Elena; Tassi, Francesca; Lari, Martina; Rizzi, Ermanno; Matas-Lalueza, Laura; Ramirez, Oscar; Lalueza-Fox, Carles; Achilli, Alessandro; Olivieri, Anna; Torroni, Antonio; Lancioni, Hovirag; Giostra, Caterina; Bedini, Elena; Pejrani Baricco, Luisella; Matullo, Giuseppe; Di Gaetano, Cornelia; Piazza, Alberto; Veeramah, Krishna; Geary, Patrick; Caramelli, David; Barbujani, Guido

2015-01-01

In the period between 400 to 800 AD, also known as the period of the Barbarian invasions, intense migration is documented in the historical record of Europe. However, little is known about the demographic impact of these historical movements, potentially ranging from negligible to substantial. As a pilot study in a broader project on Medieval Europe, we sampled 102 specimens from 5 burial sites in Northwestern Italy, archaeologically classified as belonging to Lombards or Longobards, a Germanic people ruling over a vast section of the Italian peninsula from 568 to 774. We successfully amplified and typed the mitochondrial hypervariable region I (HVR-I) of 28 individuals. Comparisons of genetic diversity with other ancient populations and haplotype networks did not suggest that these samples are heterogeneous, and hence allowed us to jointly compare them with three isolated contemporary populations, and with a modern sample of a large city, representing a control for the effects of recent immigration. We then generated by serial coalescent simulations 16 millions of genealogies, contrasting a model of genealogical continuity with one in which the contemporary samples are genealogically independent from the medieval sample. Analyses by Approximate Bayesian Computation showed that the latter model fits the data in most cases, with one exception, Trino Vercellese, in which the evidence was compatible with persistence up to the present time of genetic features observed among this early medieval population. We conclude that it is possible, in general, to detect evidence of genealogical ties between medieval and specific modern populations. However, only seldom did mitochondrial DNA data allow us to reject with confidence either model tested, which indicates that broader analyses, based on larger assemblages of samples and genetic markers, are needed to understand in detail the effects of medieval migration.

Genealogical relationships between early medieval and modern inhabitants of Piedmont.

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Stefania Vai

Full Text Available In the period between 400 to 800 AD, also known as the period of the Barbarian invasions, intense migration is documented in the historical record of Europe. However, little is known about the demographic impact of these historical movements, potentially ranging from negligible to substantial. As a pilot study in a broader project on Medieval Europe, we sampled 102 specimens from 5 burial sites in Northwestern Italy, archaeologically classified as belonging to Lombards or Longobards, a Germanic people ruling over a vast section of the Italian peninsula from 568 to 774. We successfully amplified and typed the mitochondrial hypervariable region I (HVR-I of 28 individuals. Comparisons of genetic diversity with other ancient populations and haplotype networks did not suggest that these samples are heterogeneous, and hence allowed us to jointly compare them with three isolated contemporary populations, and with a modern sample of a large city, representing a control for the effects of recent immigration. We then generated by serial coalescent simulations 16 millions of genealogies, contrasting a model of genealogical continuity with one in which the contemporary samples are genealogically independent from the medieval sample. Analyses by Approximate Bayesian Computation showed that the latter model fits the data in most cases, with one exception, Trino Vercellese, in which the evidence was compatible with persistence up to the present time of genetic features observed among this early medieval population. We conclude that it is possible, in general, to detect evidence of genealogical ties between medieval and specific modern populations. However, only seldom did mitochondrial DNA data allow us to reject with confidence either model tested, which indicates that broader analyses, based on larger assemblages of samples and genetic markers, are needed to understand in detail the effects of medieval migration.

Architectural Ruins and Urban Imaginaries: Carlos Garaicoa’s Images of Havana

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Jodi Kovach

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Contemporary Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa juxtaposes photographic images of Havana’s architectural ruins with timidly articulated drawings that trace the outlines of the dilapidated buildings in empty urbanscapes. Each of these fragile drawings, often composed of delicate threads adhered to a photograph of a site after demolition, serves as a vestige of the sagging structure that the artist photographed prior to destruction. The dialogue that emerges from these photograph/drawing diptychs implies the unmooring of the radical utopian underpinnings of revolutionary ideology that persisted in the policies of Cuba’s Período especial (Special Period of the 1990s, and suggests a more complicated narrative of Cuba’s modernity, in which the ambiguous drawings—which could indicate construction plans or function as mnemonic images—represent empty promises of economic growth that must negotiate the real socio-economic crises of the present. This article proposes that Garaicoa’s critique of the goals and outcomes of the Special Period through Havana’s ruins suggests a new articulation of the baroque expression— one that calls to mind the anti-authoritative strategies of twentieth-century Neo-Baroque literature and criticism. The artist historically grounds the legacy of the Cuban Revolution’s modernizing project in the country’s real economic decline in the post-Soviet era, but he also takes this approach to representing cities beyond Cuba’s borders, thereby posing broader questions about the architectural symbolism of the 21st-century city in the ideological construction of modern globalizing society.

Ancient genomes reveal a high diversity of Mycobacterium leprae in medieval Europe.

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Verena J Schuenemann

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Studying ancient DNA allows us to retrace the evolutionary history of human pathogens, such as Mycobacterium leprae, the main causative agent of leprosy. Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded and most stigmatizing diseases in human history. The disease was prevalent in Europe until the 16th century and is still endemic in many countries with over 200,000 new cases reported annually. Previous worldwide studies on modern and European medieval M. leprae genomes revealed that they cluster into several distinct branches of which two were present in medieval Northwestern Europe. In this study, we analyzed 10 new medieval M. leprae genomes including the so far oldest M. leprae genome from one of the earliest known cases of leprosy in the United Kingdom-a skeleton from the Great Chesterford cemetery with a calibrated age of 415-545 C.E. This dataset provides a genetic time transect of M. leprae diversity in Europe over the past 1500 years. We find M. leprae strains from four distinct branches to be present in the Early Medieval Period, and strains from three different branches were detected within a single cemetery from the High Medieval Period. Altogether these findings suggest a higher genetic diversity of M. leprae strains in medieval Europe at various time points than previously assumed. The resulting more complex picture of the past phylogeography of leprosy in Europe impacts current phylogeographical models of M. leprae dissemination. It suggests alternative models for the past spread of leprosy such as a wide spread prevalence of strains from different branches in Eurasia already in Antiquity or maybe even an origin in Western Eurasia. Furthermore, these results highlight how studying ancient M. leprae strains improves understanding the history of leprosy worldwide.

Ancient genomes reveal a high diversity of Mycobacterium leprae in medieval Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Schuenemann, Verena J; Avanzi, Charlotte; Krause-Kyora, Ben; Seitz, Alexander; Herbig, Alexander; Inskip, Sarah; Bonazzi, Marion; Reiter, Ella; Urban, Christian; Dangvard Pedersen, Dorthe; Taylor, G Michael; Singh, Pushpendra; Stewart, Graham R; Velemínský, Petr; Likovsky, Jakub; Marcsik, Antónia; Molnár, Erika; Pálfi, György; Mariotti, Valentina; Riga, Alessandro; Belcastro, M Giovanna; Boldsen, Jesper L; Nebel, Almut; Mays, Simon; Donoghue, Helen D; Zakrzewski, Sonia; Benjak, Andrej; Nieselt, Kay; Cole, Stewart T; Krause, Johannes

2018-05-01

Studying ancient DNA allows us to retrace the evolutionary history of human pathogens, such as Mycobacterium leprae, the main causative agent of leprosy. Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded and most stigmatizing diseases in human history. The disease was prevalent in Europe until the 16th century and is still endemic in many countries with over 200,000 new cases reported annually. Previous worldwide studies on modern and European medieval M. leprae genomes revealed that they cluster into several distinct branches of which two were present in medieval Northwestern Europe. In this study, we analyzed 10 new medieval M. leprae genomes including the so far oldest M. leprae genome from one of the earliest known cases of leprosy in the United Kingdom-a skeleton from the Great Chesterford cemetery with a calibrated age of 415-545 C.E. This dataset provides a genetic time transect of M. leprae diversity in Europe over the past 1500 years. We find M. leprae strains from four distinct branches to be present in the Early Medieval Period, and strains from three different branches were detected within a single cemetery from the High Medieval Period. Altogether these findings suggest a higher genetic diversity of M. leprae strains in medieval Europe at various time points than previously assumed. The resulting more complex picture of the past phylogeography of leprosy in Europe impacts current phylogeographical models of M. leprae dissemination. It suggests alternative models for the past spread of leprosy such as a wide spread prevalence of strains from different branches in Eurasia already in Antiquity or maybe even an origin in Western Eurasia. Furthermore, these results highlight how studying ancient M. leprae strains improves understanding the history of leprosy worldwide.

The Case for Medieval Drama in the Classroom: An Approach through Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Lieblein, Leanore; Pare, Anthony

1983-01-01

Argues that medieval drama in performance suggests a number of important issues about the nature of literature, particularly about the way narrative and dramatic art can express the life of a community. Presents a series of exercises that start with familiar, nonthreatening situations in order to approach the richness of medieval plays and the…

Micromorphological Approaches to the Formation and Biographies of Early Medieval Towns in Northwest Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wouters, Barbora

Even after decades of intensive research, the complex stratigraphy of many early medieval and Viking towns in continental Europe remains poorly understood. Debate continues about crucial aspects such as their origins, the changes they underwent through time and, in some cases, their supposed...... on - the youngest early medieval urban phases 7. Post-depositional transformations This framework makes it possible to gain a deeper, more detailed understanding of the sites’ evolution through time as well their spatial organisation, and to mutually compare them without losing sight of their individual...... idiosyncrasies. At the same time, this approach bypasses a generalising discourse of early medieval towns. By juxtaposing the results of these five case studies with existing debates on early medieval towns, a number of set historical narratives can be challenged....

Ruin and Revolution in ``Hamlet."

Science.gov (United States)

Usher, P. D.

1999-05-01

In the cosmic allegorical interpretation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (BAAS 28, 859 & 1305, 1996; Mercury 26:1, 20, 1997; RPS 18:3, 6, 1997; Giornale di Astronomia 24:3, 27, 1998), the usurper King Claudius, namesake of Ptolemy, personifies geocentricity. Textual support for this reading is found in 1.2 where Hamlet is associated with the Sun, as befits a rightful heir, while Claudius is associated with the Earth. In 3.3 Claudius fears Hamlet's antics. Rosencrantz states that the lives of many depend on the well-being of the King. He warns that if the King were to be imperiled, his subjects, those "ten thousand lesser things", would fall in a "boisterous ruin" along with "each small annexment" and "petty consequence." These 10,000 lesser lights are the naked eye stars (mv ~ 6.5) which would collapse with the demise of the pre-Diggesian firmament, along with ancient planets and their geometrical contrivances. In 5.1 Shakespeare puns on "De revolutionibus" when he refers to "fine revolution." The double meaning of "revolution" (alteration, orbital motion) was in use long before 1600. Since "revolution" is used in the context of digging, it may refer as much to the Diggesian as the Copernican Revolution. Shakespeare's prescience is revealed by his anticipation of change, as encapsulated geocentricity is transformed to stellar boundlessness, while his presence is suggested by fatherly concerns and ghost-like direction.

Second order corrections for the limits of normalized ruin times in the presence of heavy tails

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Asmussen, Søren; Kortschak, Dominik

In this paper we consider a compound Poisson risk model with regularly varying claim sizes. For this model in [4] an asymptotic formula for the finite time ruin probability is provided when the time is scaled by the mean excess function. In this paper we derive the rate of convergence for this fi...

"Fossils" of practical medical knowledge from medieval Cairo.

Science.gov (United States)

Lev, Efraim; Amar, Zohar

2008-09-02

To asses the scientific value of the practical medical fragments found in the Cairo Genizah (10th century), as a useful source for ethnopharmacological purposes (in exposing rare and usually inaccessible original medieval practical knowledge of medicinal substances to present-day researchers), and to reconstruct the practical drugs and their uses. A methodology distinguishing between theoretical (about 1500 fragments) and practical medical knowledge (about 230 fragments) was created and used. The information regarding the practical medicinal substances was extracted from prescriptions (140), lists of drugs (70) and few letters of physicians. The reconstructed lists of practical (278) and theoretical (414) drugs allow us to recognize and quantify the gap between them in medieval times (136). We propose that the data obtained from ancient prescriptions is comparable to ethnopharmacological surveys. The finding of plants such as myrobalan, saffron, licorice, spikenard and lentisk, all of which have scientifically proven anti-microbial/bacterial and anti-fungal activity, sheds a helpful light on the medical decision-making of the medieval practitioners in respect of the plants they applied as drugs. With the wealth of information meticulously assembled from these time capsules we expect to make a significant contribution to contemporary efforts at locating modern drugs in ancient roots and gauging their feasibility.

On the Jewish Nature of Medieval Spanish Biblical Translations Linguistic Differences between Medieval and Post-Exilic Spanish Translations of the Bible

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Schwarzwald, Ora

2010-06-01

Full Text Available A linguistic comparison of medieval Spanish translations of the Hebrew Bible and the Constantinople and Ferrara post exilic Ladino translations reveals systematic lexical and grammatical variations. These differences can be explained by the population groups to which the translations were targeted: Christian for the medieval translations; Jewish (or former converso for the post-exilic ones. The conclusion is that the medieval translations are not Jewish in nature and could therefore not have been a source for the post-exilic versions which were based on oral tradition.

Una comparación lingüística de las traducciones hispano-medievales de la Biblia hebrea y las postexílicas de Constantinopla y Ferrara revela variaciones sistemáticas léxicas y gramaticales. Esas diferencias pueden explicarse por la audiencia a las que iban dirigidas dichas traducciones: cristiana, en el caso de las medievales; judía (o exconversa en el de las post-exílicas. La autora concluye que las traducciones medievales no son judías, por naturaleza, y en consecuencia, no podrían haber sido una fuente para las versiones post-exílicas que estaban basadas en la tradición oral.

[Caries of permanent dentition in medieval inhabitants of Wrocław].

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Staniowski, Tomasz; Dabrowski, Paweł; Gawlikowska-Sroka, Aleksandra

2011-01-01

The study of dentition plays an important role in the reconstruction of the diet and in assessment of the overall health and living conditions of paleopopulations. The aim of this study was to determine the condition of permanent dentition of medieval inhabitants of Wrocław basing on the prevalence and intensity of caries in permanent dentition. The material consisted of 1156 permanent teeth from 118 skulls recovered from two medieval cemeteries in Wrocław: the parish cemetery at the St. Elisabeth Church (13th-14th century) and the cemetery in Ołbin (12th-13th century). Two age classes were formed taking into account anthropologic assessment and group size. The younger class consisted of material up to the age of 35 years; the remaining skulls were assigned to the older class. The prevalence and incidence of caries was determined. The prevalence and intensity of caries was 56.91% and 15.7%, respectively. Carious lesions predominated in males and in the older age class. The prevalence and intensity of caries in permanent dentition did not differ from other medieval populations and increased with age. High prevalence of caries reflects a high proportion of carbohydrates in the diet of medieval inhabitants of Wrocław, their high socioeconomic status, and poor oral hygiene.

Ideal kingship in the late medieval world: The Ottoman case

OpenAIRE

Yelçe, Zeynep Nevin; Yelce, Zeynep Nevin

2003-01-01

The aim of this study is to examine the characteristics of the ideal ruler as seen through the eyes of the members of late medieval societies. Throughout the study, main features attributed to the ideal ruler in various cultures have been pursued. Comparing the concepts and attributes apparent in these cultures, it has become possible to talk about a single ideal of kingship as far as the "Christian" and "Muslim" realms of the late medieval era is concerned. The early Ottoman enterprise has b...

Un gobierno medieval en un mundo global.

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Gisele Becerra

2007-05-01

Full Text Available The Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario is a unique case in the World of corporate governance enduring, by which this university, one of the most prestigious institutions in Colombia, could preserve its culture and medieval tradition in the election of their authorities and governance becoming a modern higher education institution that educate the future social leaders. Nova et Vetera – the New and the Old– the integration of today reality and dynamics, and its future projection, with the more ancient university tradition of the Medieval concept of “Universitas Scholarium” becoming a modern institution of 354 years old. These successful combinations produced by the continuity of traditional corporate governance since 1653 has empowered the institution and permit it to lead the most important intellectual, political and social changes of the country.

Medieval Universities, Legal Institutions, and the Commercial Revolution. NBER Working Paper No. 17979

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Cantoni, Davide; Yuchtman, Noam

2012-01-01

We present new data documenting medieval Europe's "Commercial Revolution'' using information on the establishment of markets in Germany. We use these data to test whether medieval universities played a causal role in expanding economic activity, examining the foundation of Germany's first universities after 1386 following the Papal Schism. We…

Ruins in Reverse. An Exhibition at Tate Modern (March 1st - June 24th 2013

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Colin Philip Sterling

2013-07-01

Full Text Available In the same week Ruins in Reverse opened at the Tate Modern gallery in London, Jonathan Jones asked on his Guardian Blog whether archaeology might be ‘the new art’ (2013. He posed this question as a result of two recent exhibitions at The British Museum, namely Ice Age Art and Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, both of which sought to emphasise the aesthetic qualities of archaeological objects. As Jones argued, such exhibitions ‘popularise’ the discipline by drawing attention to the ‘stupendous beauty of things that survive from the past’. While visitor numbers go some way to demonstrating the veracity of this comment, it seems restrictive both to art and to archaeology to frame any relationship between the two in this way. The spectacular archaeological find is atypical and potentially deceptive. A more potent line of enquiry - one adopted by several of the artists featured in Ruins in Reverse - might be to consider the present itself through an archaeological lens, applying the language of ‘discovery’ and ‘excavation’ to artefacts and locations that few would call stupendous or beautiful.

Farm Studies and Post-Medieval Rural Archaeology in Denmark: Comments on the Past, the Present and the Future

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristiansen, Mette Svart

2012-01-01

legislation and administrative practice, has left the post-medieval cultural heritage in a rather peculiar and to some extent neglected position. This paper will address research on post-medieval rural buildings and farms in particular and discuss the current challenges within post-medieval rural archaeology...

Two medieval doctors: Gilbertus Anglicus (c1180-c1250) and John of Gaddesden (1280-1361).

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Pearn, John

2013-02-01

Biographies of medieval English doctors are uncommon and fragmentary. The two best-known English medieval physicians were Gilbertus Anglicus and John of Gaddesden. This paper brings together the known details of their lives, compiled from extant biographies and from internal references in their texts. The primary records of their writings exist in handwritten texts and thereafter in incunabula from the time of the invention of printing in 1476. The record of the lives of these two medieval physicians can be expanded, as here, by the general perspective of the life and times in which they lived. Gilbertus Anglicus, an often-quoted physician-teacher at Montpellier, wrote a seven-folio Compendium medicinae in 1271. He described pioneering procedures used later in the emergent disciplines of anaesthetics, cosmetic medicine and travel medicine. Gilbertus' texts, used extensively in European medical schools, passed in handwritten copies from student to student and eventually were printed in 1510. John of Gaddesden, an Oxford graduate in Arts, Medicine and Theology, wrote Rosa Anglica, published circa 1314. Its detailed text is an exemplar of the mixture of received Hippocratic and Galenic lore compounded by medieval astronomy and religious injunction, which mixture was the essence of medieval medicine. The writings of both these medieval English physicians formed part of the core curriculum that underpinned the practice of medicine for the next 400 years.

Temporal trends in vertebral size and shape from medieval to modern-day.

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Juho-Antti Junno

Full Text Available Human lumbar vertebrae support the weight of the upper body. Loads lifted and carried by the upper extremities cause significant loading stress to the vertebral bodies. It is well established that trauma-induced vertebral fractures are common especially among elderly people. The aim of this study was to investigate the morphological factors that could have affected the prevalence of trauma-related vertebral fractures from medieval times to the present day. To determine if morphological differences existed in the size and shape of the vertebral body between medieval times and the present day, the vertebral body size and shape was measured from the 4th lumbar vertebra using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI and standard osteometric calipers. The modern samples consisted of modern Finns and the medieval samples were from archaeological collections in Sweden and Britain. The results show that the shape and size of the 4th lumbar vertebra has changed significantly from medieval times in a way that markedly affects the biomechanical characteristics of the lumbar vertebral column. These changes may have influenced the incidence of trauma- induced spinal fractures in modern populations.

Ruin Probabilities and Aggregrate Claims Distributions for Shot Noise Cox Processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Albrecher, H.; Asmussen, Søren

claim size is investigated under these assumptions. For both light-tailed and heavy-tailed claim size distributions, asymptotic estimates for infinite-time and finite-time ruin probabilities are derived. Moreover, we discuss an extension of the model to an adaptive premium rule that is dynamically......We consider a risk process Rt where the claim arrival process is a superposition of a homogeneous Poisson process and a Cox process with a Poisson shot noise intensity process, capturing the effect of sudden increases of the claim intensity due to external events. The distribution of the aggregate...... adjusted according to past claims experience....

“I” of the author of the 12th century: rhetoric and subjectivity of medieval literature

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Dolgorukova Natalia Mikhailovna

2015-10-01

Full Text Available This article attempts to answer a series of questions relevant to the study of medieval literature: is it possible to create a typology of the medieval “I” and to distinguish rhetorical use of personal constructions from more subjective types which was the author's “I” in the 12th century. Is it possible to talk about subjectivity of medieval literature, and, if so, how is it expressed?

Medieval European medicine and Asian spices.

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Nam, Jong Kuk

2014-08-01

This article aimed to explain the reasons why Asian spices including pepper, ginger, and cinnamon were considered as special and valuable drugs with curative powers in the Medieval Europe. Among these spices, pepper was most widely and frequently used as medicine according to medieval medical textbooks. We analyzed three main pharmacology books written during the Middle Ages. One of the main reasons that oriental spices were widely used as medicine was due to the particular medieval medical system fundamentally based on the humoral theory invented by Hippocrates and Galen. This theory was modified by Arab physicians and imported to Europe during the Middle Ages. According to this theory, health is determined by the balance of the following four humors which compose the human body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Each humor has its own qualities such as cold, hot, wet, and dry. Humoral imbalance was one of the main causes of disease, so it was important to have humoral equilibrium. Asian spices with hot and dry qualities were used to balance the cold and wet European diet. The analysis of several major medical textbooks of the Middle Ages proves that most of the oriental spices with hot and dry qualities were employed to cure diverse diseases, particularly those caused by coldness and humidity. However, it should be noted that the oriental spices were considered to be much more valuable and effective as medicines than the local medicinal ingredients, which were not only easily procured but also were relatively cheap. Europeans mystified oriental spices, with the belief that they have marvelous and mysterious healing powers. Such mystification was related to the terrestrial Paradise. They believed that the oriental spices were grown in Paradise which was located in the Far East and were brought to the Earthly world along the four rivers flowing from the Paradise.

COLONIAL AMERICAN LITERATURE: MARVELOUS WONDERS AND THE MEDIEVAL TRADITION IN LUSO-BRAZILIAN HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CHRONICLES COLONIAL American Literature: WONDERS maravilhoso e da tradição medieval NO LUSO-BRASILEIRA historiográfica CHRONICLES

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Pedro Fonseca

1996-01-01

Full Text Available Este artigo apresenta uma analise interpretativa de certos aspectos do imaginário literário medieval e sua influência na formação tropológica das crônicas do Novo Mundo. A abordagem examina algumas das motivações estéticas e mentais da tradição medieval no discurso historiográfico luso-brasileiro colonial, principalmente em relação a alguns relatos de descobrimentos e ocupação inicial de terras brasileiras na América. This article presents an interpretative analysis of certain aspects of the medieval literary imaginary and its influence in the tropological formation of the New World chronicles. The approach examines some of the aesthetic and mental motivations of the medieval tradition in the colonial Luso-Brazilian historiographical discourse, principally in regards to some accounts of discoveries and initial occupation of Brazilian lands in America.  

THz reflectometric imaging of medieval wall paintings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dandolo, Corinna Ludovica Koch; Jepsen, Peter Uhd

2013-01-01

Terahertz time-domain reflectometry has been applied to the investigation of a medieval Danish wall painting. The technique has been able to detect the presence of carbonblack layer on the surface of the wall painting and a buried insertion characterized by high reflectivity values has been found...

The Vicissitudes of a Medieval Japanese Warrior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Oxenbøll, Morten

2007-01-01

In standard accounts of medieval Japanese society, enormous stress is put on the conflicts between local landholders (zaichi ryôshu) and absentee proprietors. Fuelled by the debate on feudalism that divided scholars up until the early 1990s, these conflicts have widely been recognised as proof...

Episodes in the mathematics of medieval Islam

CERN Document Server

Berggren, J L

1986-01-01

From the reviews: The book is, in spite of the author's more modest claims, an introductory survey of main developments in those disciplines which were particularly important in Medieval Islamic mathematics...No knowledge of mathematics (or of the history of mathematics) beyond normal high-school level is presupposed, and everything required beyond that (be it Apollonian theory of conics or the definitions of celestial circles) is explained carefully and clearly. Scattered throughout the work are a number of lucid remarks on the character of Islamic mathematics or of mathematical work in general. The book will hence not only be an excellent textbook for the teaching of the history of mathematics but also for the liberal art aspect of mathematics teaching in general. - Jens Høyrup, Mathematical Reviews ...as a textbook, this work is highly commendable...It is definitely the product of a skillful mathematician who has collected over the years a reasonably large number of interesting problems from medieval Arab...

Uncovering the Secret: Medieval Women, Magic and the Other

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Ludwikowska Joanna

2015-01-01

Full Text Available For medieval audiences women occupied a specific, designated cultural area which, while they could freely form it according to their will and nature, was in fact imaginary and immaterial. Women in social, legal, and religious contexts were mostly counted among the receptive, inactive, and non-ruling groups. On both levels, there was a group of features universally defining all women: the strong, virtuous and independent model Aquinas lamented was replaced in real life by the sinful, carnal and weak stereotype, and the erotic, emotional, mysterious, and often wild type present predominantly in literature. Indeed, women were a source of scientific, theological, and cultural fascination because of their uncanny and complex nature, producing both fear and desire of the source and nature of the unattainable and inaccessible femininity. In social contexts, however, the enchantress seems to lose that veil of allure and, instead, is forced to re-define her identity by suppressing, denying, or losing her supernatural features. With the example of Saint Agnes from the South English Legendary Life of Saint Agnes, and Melior from Partonope of Blois (ca. 1450, the article will explore how medieval texts dealt with the complex and unruly female supernatural, and how its neutralization and subduing fitted into the moral, scientific, and cultural norms of medieval society.

„Incendula“ or „monedula“? An Enigmatic Bird Name in Medieval Latin-Written Sources

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Šedinová, Hana

-, č. 74 (2016), s. 89-109 ISSN 1376-7453 Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : latin lexicography * ancient and medieval zoology * ancient and medieval zoology * latin names of birds * Bartholomaeus de Solencia dictus Claretus * Aristoteles * Aristoteles Latinus * Michael Scotus * Thomas of Cantimpré Subject RIV: AI - Linguistics OBOR OECD: Specific languages

La confrontación de Heidegger con san Agustín y la mística medieval: Nota crítica en torno a Estudios sobre mística medieval de Martin Heidegger

OpenAIRE

Santiesteban, Luis César

2007-01-01

El presente artículo da cuenta de algunos aspectos de la confrontación de Heidegger con san Agustín y la mística medieval, así como de la manera en que Heidegger, en su camino a Ser y tiempo, hace suya una parte del ideario del filósofo de Tagaste, y del modo en que se perfila y va tomando cuerpo su diálogo con la mística medieval y, a una con ello, su propia actitud religiosa. Para ello, se toma como base de la interpretación el texto de Heidegger Estudios sobre mística medieval. This art...

INTEGRATION OF GEODATA IN DOCUMENTING CASTLE RUINS

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P. Delis

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Textured three dimensional models are currently the one of the standard methods of representing the results of photogrammetric works. A realistic 3D model combines the geometrical relations between the structure’s elements with realistic textures of each of its elements. Data used to create 3D models of structures can be derived from many different sources. The most commonly used tool for documentation purposes, is a digital camera and nowadays terrestrial laser scanning (TLS. Integration of data acquired from different sources allows modelling and visualization of 3D models historical structures. Additional aspect of data integration is possibility of complementing of missing points for example in point clouds. The paper shows the possibility of integrating data from terrestrial laser scanning with digital imagery and an analysis of the accuracy of the presented methods. The paper describes results obtained from raw data consisting of a point cloud measured using terrestrial laser scanning acquired from a Leica ScanStation2 and digital imagery taken using a Kodak DCS Pro 14N camera. The studied structure is the ruins of the Ilza castle in Poland.

Cities and Socialization of Libraries in Medieval Europe

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Dilek Bayır Toplu

2000-09-01

Full Text Available In this study, socialization of libraries in Medieval Europe has been examined by means of the growing of cities and movements of ideologies. Cities, as results of economic based changes, caused the apperance of merchantiles in produce and consumption flows. Cities, by selecting an area outside of feudal city walls, and by consisting new living habits which shows differances from village living habits took its place in Medieval Feudal Regime. While cities consist their conceits, conceits consists the specialisatians which identifies the city from the village. Technologic developments, innovations, the movements of different social classes, the changes in produce and consumption models, movements of ideologies; carried Medieval Europe to Enlighment Period after very long and difficult experiements. While the man in “Enlighment Period” ideologically based on rationalism and critical thinking; it realized knowledge as a product of rationalism. That realisation gave start to the socialisation of libraries and books and books which includes the “knowledge” stating with the innovation of press, the gobalization of books and the movements in cities gave speed to the interaction between cultures and effected the extansi-on of knowledge in a positive way. While knowledge was socialized by means of the opportunities of cities, libraries became space which knowledge can easily reachable by society. Cities arosed in Middle ageesand by effecting social structures, they became an indirect effect for reaching of libraries to society and moneyfree service.

Ancient and medieval Iberia seen through glass: An archaeometric perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Juan Ares, J. de; Nadine Schibille, N.

2017-01-01

The study of ancient and medieval glasses has identified distinct compositional groups as a result of the chemical characteristics of the raw materials used for its production. Archaeometric analysis can determine the provenance of the glass, and has demonstrated a large-scale production and commercialisation of raw glass throughout the Mediterranean during the ancient and medieval periods. Secondary workshops on the Iberian Peninsula imported raw glass from the Near East for the better part of the first millennium CE, following a similar pattern observed elsewhere in the Mediterranean region. However, there are some indications that point to a local production of glass and that deserve further investigation. In the ninth century, natron glass was replaced in al-Ándalus by plant ash and lead-rich glass that may represent a local production. Little is known about the production or use of glass in the Christian parts of the peninsula during this period. The increasing volume of analytical data on Spanish glass demonstrates the potential of an archaeometric approach to shed light not only on the production and trade of glass on the Iberian Peninsula but also on the ancient and medieval economy more generally. [es

Paradise, pleasure and desire: Edenic delight in some late-medieval dramatic fragments

OpenAIRE

James, Sarah

2017-01-01

This paper explores the biblical Paradise and its relationship with the concept of delight or pleasure. In the first section it discusses the changing descriptions and interpretations of Paradise, from the biblical text to later medieval works; it goes on to explore the Augustinian and Thomist philosophies of pleasure and delight. Finally it brings together three late-medieval dramatic texts, all of which share an interest in Paradise, and explores the ways in which these texts utilise the co...

Los animales en el mundo medieval cristiano-occidental : actitud y mentalidad

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María Dolores Carmen Morales Muñiz

1998-01-01

Full Text Available El presente trabajo analiza el peso que los animales tuvieron en la sociedad medieval y especialmente en la mentalidad del hombre. Se subraya la importancia que el uso material de los animales tuvo a la hora de conformar esa actitud. En la segunda parte del trabajo se profundiza en manifestaciones como la simbología o la magia en donde los animales jugaron un papel principal. Un último punto del trabajo comenta la hipótesis de J. Salisbury sobre el descubrimiento, a partir del siglo xii, del animal interior presente en los hombres.The present paper reviews the role played by animals in medieval society and mentality. In particular we stress the importance which the material use of each species had in determining specific roles. The second part of the work deals with symbolic and magical connotations, fields in which animáis played a most prominent role throughout medieval times. One final aspect comments on J. Salisbury's hypothesis of «the beast within man» which seems to date back to the tweifth century.

Diabetes and related remedies in medieval Persian medicine

Science.gov (United States)

Zarshenas, Mohammad M.; Khademian, Sedigheh; Moein, Mahmoodreza

2014-01-01

Diabetes Mellitus is a common metabolic disorder presenting increased amounts of serum glucose and will cover 5.4% of population by year 2025. Accordingly, this review was performed to gather and discuss the stand points on diagnosis, pathophysiology, non-pharmacological therapy and drug management of diabetes this disorder as described in medieval Persian medicine. To this, reports on diabetes were collected and analyzed from selected medical and pharmaceutical textbooks of Traditional Persian Medicine. A search on databases as Pubmed, Sciencedirect, Scopus and Google scholar was also performed to reconfirm the Anti diabetic activities of reported herbs. The term, Ziabites, was used to describe what is now spoken as diabetes. It was reported that Ziabites, is highly associated with kidney function. Etiologically, Ziabites was characterized as kidney hot or cold dystemperament as well as diffusion of fluid from other organs such as liver and intestines into the kidneys. This disorder was categorized into main types as hot (Ziabites-e-har) and cold (Ziabites-e-barid) as well as sweet urine (Bole-e-shirin). Most medieval cite signs of Ziabites were remarked as unusual and excessive thirst, frequent urination and polydipsia. On the management, life style modification and observing the essential rules of prevention in Persian medicine as well as herbal therapy and special simple manipulations were recommended. Current investigation was done to clarify the knowledge of medieval scientists on diabetes and related interventions. Reported remedies which are based on centuries of experience might be of beneficial for- further studies to the management of diabetes. PMID:24741508

Bohemian so-called surgical early medieval knives

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Hošek, Jiří; Profantová, Naďa; Šilhová, Alena; Ottenwelter, Estelle

2007-01-01

Roč. 2007, č. 1 (2007), s. 932-937 ISSN 1335-1532. [Metallography 2007. Stará Lesná, 02.05.2007-04.05.2007] R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAA800020603; GA ČR GA404/05/0232 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z80020508 Keywords : knife * medieval * archaeometallurgy Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology

[Women, bodies, and Hebrew medieval medical literature].

Science.gov (United States)

Navas, Carmen Caballero

2008-01-01

This essay explores different views on the female body articulated within Hebrew medieval texts on women's health care. It also investigates whether texts also integrate women's own perceptions of their bodies, and of their needs and care. I have analysed how this genre of Hebrew literature understood two key issues in the construction of sexed bodies: menstruation and cosmetics.

SharedCanvas: A Collaborative Model for Medieval Manuscript Layout Dissemination

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sanderson, Robert D. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Albritton, Benjamin [Stanford University; Schwemmer, Rafael [e-codices; Van De Sompel, Herbert [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2011-01-01

In this paper we present a model based on the principles of Linked Data that can be used to describe the interrelationships of images, texts and other resources to facilitate the interoperability of repositories of medieval manuscripts or other culturally important handwritten documents. The model is designed from a set of requirements derived from the real world use cases of some of the largest digitized medieval content holders, and instantiations of the model are intended as the input to collection-independent page turning and scholarly presentation interfaces. A canvas painting paradigm, such as in PDF and SVG, was selected based on the lack of a one to one correlation between image and page, and to fulfill complex requirements such as when the full text of a page is known, but only fragments of the physical object remain. The model is implemented using technologies such as OAI-ORE Aggregations and OAC Annotations, as the fundamental building blocks of emerging Linked Digital Libraries. The model and implementation are evaluated through prototypes of both content providing and consuming applications. Although the system was designed from requirements drawn from the medieval manuscript domain, it is applicable to any layout-oriented presentation of images of text.

Human Parasites in Medieval Europe: Lifestyle, Sanitation and Medical Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, Piers D

2015-01-01

Parasites have been infecting humans throughout our evolution. However, not all people suffered with the same species or to the same intensity throughout this time. Our changing way of life has altered the suitability of humans to infection by each type of parasite. This analysis focuses upon the evidence for parasites from archaeological excavations at medieval sites across Europe. Comparison between the patterns of infection in the medieval period allows us to see how changes in sanitation, herding animals, growing and fertilizing crops, the fishing industry, food preparation and migration all affected human susceptibility to different parasites. We go on to explore how ectoparasites may have spread infectious bacterial diseases, and also consider what medieval medical practitioners thought of parasites and how they tried to treat them. While modern research has shown the use of a toilet decreases the risk of contracting certain intestinal parasites, the evidence for past societies presented here suggests that the invention of latrines had no observable beneficial effects upon intestinal health. This may be because toilets were not sufficiently ubiquitous until the last century, or that the use of fresh human faeces for manuring crops still ensured those parasite species were easily able to reinfect the population. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Carabelli's trait in contemporary Slovenes and inhabitants of a medieval settlement (Sredisce by the Drava River).

Science.gov (United States)

Stamfelj, Iztok; Stefancić, Marija; Gaspersic, Dominik; Cvetko, Erika

2006-06-01

The objectives of this study were to determine the total frequency, expression and asymmetry of Carabelli's trait in permanent dentitions of contemporary Slovenes and a medieval skeletal population from northeastern Slovenia. A total of 254 dental casts from contemporary Slovene children were examined. The population of a medieval settlement (10th-15th centuries), was represented by 94 skeletons. A modification of the method of Alvesalo and associates was used to classify Carabelli's trait on a five-grade scale. The trait was expressed on the upper first molars of 79.7% of the contemporary subjects and 75.8% of the medieval sample. Positive expressions of the trait were found in 10.1% of the contemporary subjects and 15.2% of the medieval sample. While the observed total frequency of the trait in both samples is characteristic of Europeans, the rates of positive expressions are surprisingly low but consistent with data from a recently published worldwide literature survey. Both populations showed a low rate of left-right fluctuating asymmetry of the trait. This finding might reflect a pronounced ability of individuals in the medieval population to buffer unfavourable influences from the environment and a relatively low level of environmental stress in the contemporary population.

Investigation of original bricks from Ventspils castle for the purpose of restorations of medieval brick masonry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bajare, D.; Shvinka, V.

2000-01-01

This paper mainly tries to characterize Middle Age brick taken from Ventspils Castle (13-17th century). To this aim, the following techniques were applied: visual inspection, X-ray diffraction, mercury porosimetry, physical laboratory tests (water absorption, density, open porosity, saturation coefficient, Mage's index) and chemical analysis. The medieval bricks are still in good condition, any visible damages were not recognized in the course of visual inspection. According to the results of chemical analysis, three types of bricks made from different clays in different centuries were used. According to X-ray diffraction analysis data no one type of medieval bricks contains illite. So sintering temperature of the medieval bricks studied was higher than 900 deg C. The secondary calcite was formed in the structure of bricks from lime mortars under influence of water migration during several centuries. All medieval bricks studied are porous - open porosity of them amounts to 26-30 %. 14-15th century bricks have inclusions of chamotte additive, which makes the bricks less durable to soluble salts and frost, and of organic additive, that imparts the higher porosity. Mage's index for all medieval is less than 0.55, but saturation coefficient is close to 0,78 and it means that these bricks are not enough durable to soluble salts and frost

Multi-Ethnicity and Material Exchangesin Late Medieval Tallinn

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Naum, Magdalena

2014-01-01

his article examines the cultural and social dynamics of a multi-ethnic medieval town. Taking the lower town of Tallinn as a case study, this paper identifies the major urban ethnic groups living in the town and discusses their co-existence, self-definition, and processes of categorization...

Diet and mobility in Early Medieval Bavaria: a study of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes.

Science.gov (United States)

Hakenbeck, Susanne; McManus, Ellen; Geisler, Hans; Grupe, Gisela; O'Connell, Tamsin

2010-10-01

This study investigates patterns of mobility in Early Medieval Bavaria through a combined study of diet and associated burial practice. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were analyzed in human bone samples from the Late Roman cemetery of Klettham and from the Early Medieval cemeteries of Altenerding and Straubing-Bajuwarenstrasse. For dietary comparison, samples of faunal bone from one Late Roman and three Early Medieval settlement sites were also analyzed. The results indicate that the average diet was in keeping with a landlocked environment and fairly limited availability of freshwater or marine resources. The diet appears not to have changed significantly from the Late Roman to the Early Medieval period. However, in the population of Altenerding, there were significant differences in the diet of men and women, supporting a hypothesis of greater mobility among women. Furthermore, the isotopic evidence from dietary outliers is supported by "foreign" grave goods and practices, such as artificial skull modification. These results reveal the potential of carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis for questions regarding migration and mobility. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Some more earthquakes from medieval Kashmir

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Ahmad, Bashir; Shafi, Muzamil

2014-07-01

Kashmir has the peculiarity of having written history of almost 5,000 years. However, the description of earthquakes in the archival contents is patchy prior to 1500 a.d. Moreover, recent search shows that there exist certain time gaps in the catalogs presently in use especially at medieval level (1128-1586 a.d.). The presence of different ruling elites in association with socioeconomic and political conditions has in many ways confused the historical context of the medieval sources. However, by a meticulous review of the Sanskrit sources (between the twelfth and sixteenth century), it has been possible to identify unspecified but fair number (eight seismic events) of earthquakes that do not exist in published catalogs of Kashmir or whose dates are very difficult to establish. Moreover, historical sources reveal that except for events which occurred during Sultan Skinder's rule (1389-1413) and during the reign of King Zain-ul-Abidin (1420-1470), all the rediscovered seismic events went into oblivion, due mainly to the fact that the sources available dedicated their interests to the military events, which often tended to overshadow/superimpose over and even concealed natural events like earthquakes, resulting in fragmentary accounts and rendering them of little value for macroseismic intensity evaluation necessary for more efficient seismic hazard assessment.

Making medieval art modern

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Elizabeth den Hartog

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Janet T. Marquardt’s book ‘Zodiaque. Making medieval art modern’ discusses the historical context, history and impact of the Zodiaque publications issued by the monks from the abbey of Ste-Marie de la Pierre-qui-Vire in Burgundy between 1951 and 2001 and links the striking photogravures, the core business of these books, to the modern movement. Although Marquardt’s view that the Zodiaque series made a great impact on the study of Romanesque sculpture is somewhat overrated, her claim that the photogravures should be seen as avant-garde works of art and the books as a “museum without walls” is entirely convincing.

Russian Medieval Military Architecture

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Rappoport, Pavel

1969-12-01

Full Text Available In Russia defensive works were not less important than in Western Europe. Russian chronicles are full of reports of the building of towns, of their siege and defence. In Ancient Russian the word town meant not a town in the modern sense, but only a fortified settlement as distinct from an unfortified one. Thus the concept town applied to medieval towns proper and to citadels, feudal castles and even fortified villages. Every population centre with a wall round it was called a town. Moreover, until the 17th century this word was frequently applied to mean the fortifications themselves.

Duration and severity of Medieval drought in the Lake Tahoe Basin

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Kleppe, J.A.; Brothers, D.S.; Kent, G.M.; Biondi, F.; Jensen, S.; Driscoll, N.W.

2011-01-01

Droughts in the western U.S. in the past 200 years are small compared to several megadroughts that occurred during Medieval times. We reconstruct duration and magnitude of extreme droughts in the northern Sierra Nevada from hydroclimatic conditions in Fallen Leaf Lake, California. Stands of submerged trees rooted in situ below the lake surface were imaged with sidescan sonar and radiocarbon analysis yields an age estimate of ∼1250 AD. Tree-ring records and submerged paleoshoreline geomorphology suggest a Medieval low-stand of Fallen Leaf Lake lasted more than 220 years. Over eighty more trees were found lying on the lake floor at various elevations above the paleoshoreline. Water-balance calculations suggest annual precipitation was less than 60% normal from late 10th century to early 13th century AD. Hence, the lake’s shoreline dropped 40–60 m below its modern elevation. Stands of pre-Medieval trees in this lake and in Lake Tahoe suggest the region experienced severe drought at least every 650–1150 years during the mid- and late-Holocene. These observations quantify paleo-precipitation and recurrence of prolonged drought in the northern Sierra Nevada.

Archaeology of Architecture and Archaeology of houses in Early Medieval Europe

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Quirós Castillo, Juan Antonio

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to introduce the «Archaeology of Architecture and Household Archaeology in Early Medieval Europe» dossier, the object of which is to explore the different approaches, methodologies and themes analysed in the study of early medieval architecture in western Europe. More specifically, in what follows, analysis is undertaken of the contexts which explain the recent development of studies on this topic, as well as the main contributions of the seven papers which form this dossier. In addition, the main historical and archaeological problems raised by the analysis of this material record are also discussed.En este trabajo se presenta el dossier «Archaeology of Architecture and Household Archaeology in Early Medieval Europe», que pretende explorar los distintos enfoques, metodologías y temáticas analizadas en el estudio de las arquitecturas altomedievales en el marco de Europa occidental. Más concretamente se analizan los contextos que explican el desarrollo reciente de los estudios sobre esta materia, las principales aportaciones de los siete trabajos que conforman este dossier y se discuten los principales problemas históricos y arqueológicos que plantea el análisis de este registro material.

Evolution of Management Thought in the Medieval Times.

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Sharma, C. L.

The medieval times witnessed progress toward the growth of larger and more complex organizations and the application of increasingly sophisticated management techniques. Feudalism contributed the concept of decentralization. The concepts evolved by the Catholic Church can scarcely be improved on and are very much pertinent to the management of…

Genome-wide comparison of medieval and modern Mycobacterium leprae.

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Schuenemann, Verena J; Singh, Pushpendra; Mendum, Thomas A; Krause-Kyora, Ben; Jäger, Günter; Bos, Kirsten I; Herbig, Alexander; Economou, Christos; Benjak, Andrej; Busso, Philippe; Nebel, Almut; Boldsen, Jesper L; Kjellström, Anna; Wu, Huihai; Stewart, Graham R; Taylor, G Michael; Bauer, Peter; Lee, Oona Y-C; Wu, Houdini H T; Minnikin, David E; Besra, Gurdyal S; Tucker, Katie; Roffey, Simon; Sow, Samba O; Cole, Stewart T; Nieselt, Kay; Krause, Johannes

2013-07-12

Leprosy was endemic in Europe until the Middle Ages. Using DNA array capture, we have obtained genome sequences of Mycobacterium leprae from skeletons of five medieval leprosy cases from the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark. In one case, the DNA was so well preserved that full de novo assembly of the ancient bacterial genome could be achieved through shotgun sequencing alone. The ancient M. leprae sequences were compared with those of 11 modern strains, representing diverse genotypes and geographic origins. The comparisons revealed remarkable genomic conservation during the past 1000 years, a European origin for leprosy in the Americas, and the presence of an M. leprae genotype in medieval Europe now commonly associated with the Middle East. The exceptional preservation of M. leprae biomarkers, both DNA and mycolic acids, in ancient skeletons has major implications for palaeomicrobiology and human pathogen evolution.

"La Chanson de Roland" in the Elementary School Classroom: A Case for Medieval Literature and Young Language Students.

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Petry, Karla L.

1981-01-01

Describes successful experiment in teaching of medieval literature to elementary French language classes in the Cincinnati public schools. Purpose was to strengthen linguistic awareness and expand social studies unit on medieval France. (BK)

THE ORIGIN OF THE CONCEPT OF NEUROPATHIC PAIN IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PERSIA (9TH-12TH CENTURY CE).

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Heydari, Mojtaba; Shams, Mesbah; Hashempur, Mohammad Hashem; Zargaran, Arman; Dalfardi, Behnam; Borhani-Haghighi, Afshin

2015-01-01

Neuropathic pain is supposed to be a post-renaissance described medical entity. Although it is often believed that John Fothergill (1712-1780) provided the first description of this condition in 1773, a review of the medieval Persian medical writings will show the fact that neuropathic pain was a medieval-originated concept. "Auojae Asab" [Nerve-originated Pain] was used as a medical term in medieval Persian medical literature for pain syndromes which etiologically originated from nerves. Physicians like Rhazes (d. 925 CE), Haly Abbas (d. 982 CE), Avicenna (d. 1037 CE), and Jorjani (d. 1137 CE) have discussed multiple aspects of nerve-originated pain including its classification, etiology, differentiating characteristics, different qualities, and pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments. Recognizing medieval scholars' views on nerve-originated pain can lighten old historical origins of this concept.

The Gendered Nose and its Lack: "Medieval" Nose-Cutting and its Modern Manifestations.

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Skinner, Patricia

2014-01-01

Time magazine's cover photograph in August 2010 of a noseless Afghan woman beside the emotive strap line, "What happens if we leave Afghanistan," fuelled debate about the "medieval" practices of the Taliban, whose local commander had instructed her husband to take her nose and ears. Press reports attributed the violence to the Pashtun tradition that a dishonored husband "lost his nose." This equation of nose-cutting with tradition begs questions not only about the Orientalist lens of the western press when viewing Afghanistan, but also about the assumption that the word "medieval" can function as a label for such practices. A study of medieval nose-cutting suggests that its identification as an "eastern" practice should be challenged. Rather clearer is its connection with patriarchal values of authority and honor: the victims of such punishment have not always been women, but this is nevertheless a gendered punishment of the powerless by the powerful.

Materiality of Body: The Material Practices of Life and Death in Medieval Britain

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Mabast A. Muhammad Amin

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to investigate the ways people understood their body during the medieval period in Britain. I bring together the multiple different ways in which the body was treated in death, I focus on the role and power of grave goods and evidence found in dead bodies for plasticity in life to embrace the complexity of the medieval body, I examine the cultural practice of nutrition and environment affected the bodily mold. Another point I take into consideration is the practice of dietary through differentiation between male and female body in which we explore how medieval people socially and culturally constructed body based on their notion and understanding of gender identity. In addition, religion had a great influence on people’s understanding to deal with dead bodies and I concentrate on how bodily resurrection impacted on people’s preparation for the Day of Judgment by placing the goods in burials.

Limitations imposed by wearing armour on Medieval soldiers' locomotor performance.

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Askew, Graham N; Formenti, Federico; Minetti, Alberto E

2012-02-22

In Medieval Europe, soldiers wore steel plate armour for protection during warfare. Armour design reflected a trade-off between protection and mobility it offered the wearer. By the fifteenth century, a typical suit of field armour weighed between 30 and 50 kg and was distributed over the entire body. How much wearing armour affected Medieval soldiers' locomotor energetics and biomechanics is unknown. We investigated the mechanics and the energetic cost of locomotion in armour, and determined the effects on physical performance. We found that the net cost of locomotion (C(met)) during armoured walking and running is much more energetically expensive than unloaded locomotion. C(met) for locomotion in armour was 2.1-2.3 times higher for walking, and 1.9 times higher for running when compared with C(met) for unloaded locomotion at the same speed. An important component of the increased energy use results from the extra force that must be generated to support the additional mass. However, the energetic cost of locomotion in armour was also much higher than equivalent trunk loading. This additional cost is mostly explained by the increased energy required to swing the limbs and impaired breathing. Our findings can predict age-associated decline in Medieval soldiers' physical performance, and have potential implications in understanding the outcomes of past European military battles.

Medieval Day at Reynolds: An Interdisciplinary Learning Event

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Morrison, Nancy S.

2012-01-01

Medieval Day at Reynolds turned a typical Friday class day into an interdisciplinary learning event, which joined faculty and students into a community of learners. From classrooms issued tales of Viking and Mongol conquests, religious crusaders, deadly plague, and majestic cathedrals and art, all told by costumed faculty members with expertise in…

Archaeogeophysical Studies in the Ruins of Kars-Ani (Turkey) in the 2009 Excavation Season

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Hoskan, Nihan; Ahmet Yuksel, Fethi; Gorucu, Ziya; Coruhlu, Yasar

2010-05-01

The Ani ancient city, which is at 48 km distance to Kars (Turkey), is founded at the banks of the Arpacay River flowing in the vicinity of Turkey - Armenia border and is in the borders of Mevcut Ocakli Village. Recent studies show that the first settlement in Ani ancient city could be in the 5th millenium B.C.(Chalcolithic Period) and moreover, there were some buildings built in the Iron and Bronze Period. In the early 9th century, Ashot Msaker, who was Bagratuni dynasty (806-827), declared their first capital city at Bagaran, some 40 km south of Ani, and then transferred it to Kars in the year 929. In 961, King Ashot III (953-977) transferred the capital city from Kars to Ani. Ani expanded during the reign of King Smbat II (977-989). Recent research shows that by the early 11th century the population of Ani was over 100,000. After capture of Ashot, Ani surrendered to Byzantine controlled in 1045. A Greek governor was installed in the city. In 1064 a Seljuk Turkish army, headed by Sultan Alparslan, attacked and captured Ani. Then the Georgians captured Ani in 1124, 1161 and 1174. By the 14th century Ani was ruled by the Turkish dynasties, namely Jalayrids and the Kara Koyunlu. After the Persian Safavids ruled Ani, it became part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1579. A small town remained within its walls until 1650 A.C. and it was completely abandoned by the middle of the 18th century. Examples of Sasani, Arabic, Armenian, and Seljuk architecture can be found among the Ani ruins. Ani is home to the first Turkish mosque built in Anatolia, namely Ebul Menucehr. The mosque was erected by the members of the Seljuk Dynasty in 1072. The first archaeological excavations were conducted at Ani in 1892. Since then, several archaeological excavations have been done in Ani. In the 2009 excavation season, magnetic methods were applied in Ani ruins to find the exact locations of the ruins. Magnetic Gradient Measurements were taken in front of Ebul Menucehr Mosque. After

Uniform Estimate of the Finite-Time Ruin Probability for All Times in a Generalized Compound Renewal Risk Model

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Qingwu Gao

2012-01-01

Full Text Available We discuss the uniformly asymptotic estimate of the finite-time ruin probability for all times in a generalized compound renewal risk model, where the interarrival times of successive accidents and all the claim sizes caused by an accident are two sequences of random variables following a wide dependence structure. This wide dependence structure allows random variables to be either negatively dependent or positively dependent.

Migration to the medieval Middle East with the crusades.

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Mitchell, Piers D; Millard, Andrew R

2009-11-01

During the 12th and 13th centuries thousands of people moved from Europe to the Middle East to fight, undertake pilgrimage, or settle and make a new life. The aim of this research is to investigate two populations from the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem, by determining who was born in Europe and who came from the Middle East. Oxygen and strontium stable isotope analyses were conducted on the enamel of teeth from skeletal remains excavated from Crusader contexts. Twenty individuals from the coastal city of Caesarea (10 high status and 10 low status), and two local Near Eastern Christian farmers from the village of Parvum Gerinum (Tel Jezreel) were analyzed as a control sample. Results were compared with known geographic values for oxygen and strontium isotopes. The population of the city of Caesarea appears to have been dominated by European-born individuals (probably 19/20, but at least 13/20), with few locals. This was surprising as a much higher proportion of locals were expected. Both controls from the farming village of Parvum Gerinum had spent their childhood in the area of the village, which matches our understanding of limited mobility among poor Medieval farmers. This is the first time that stable isotope analysis has been applied to the study of the migration of peoples between Medieval Europe and the Middle East at the time of the crusades. In view of these findings, we must now rethink past estimations of population social structure in Levantine coastal Medieval cities during the Crusader period.

The medieval feminine personage in the romance O guarani

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Afrânio Gurgel Lucena

2011-06-01

Full Text Available We objectify to present a intertextual analysis of the literary text that contemplates a process of mythical constitution of the personages of the romance the Guarani (1857 of the writer Jose de Alencar. Focamos the analysis on the Cecília young for where we discover its “static” adaptation as medieval myth in the Brazilian romantic romance. The unconditional, protective and servile love of the Peri indian (One arquétipo of the medieval knight. conditions the construction of the loved one, therefore under the medieval myth of the gracious love, a personage is formed in function of the other, is opposing destinations that search the balance in the love. Exactly being something distant and inaccessible, as they present the trovadorescas Cantigas of love. In the theoretical recital, we have: MOISÉS (2004 - 2005 characterizing the mythos and the definitions of the plain and round personages; a platonic reference to the servile love in the Slap-up meal; Spalding (1973, Brunel (1988 for the dicionarizações concerning the thematic one and of the critical one; in the literary theory, Brunel, Pichois and Rousseau (1995, p.115: the myth, “a narrative set consecrated by the tradition”; in Samuel (2000, the mythical literariedade in the formation of a people; Bosi (1994, information on the indianismo and Coutinho (1988, gênese of our literariedade and the romantic romance. Thus, our work presents a result to the literary study: the thematic influence of the Average Age and its mythical love (gracious and servile in the composition of the indianista romance.

Postmortem Inventories in Medieval Valencia. A Source for the Study of Household Consumption and Living Standards

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Luis Almenar Fernández

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Basic questions about the nature of postmortem inventories in late medieval Valencia have rarely been asked. What distinguished them from other lists of goods and what was their legal basis? Why were inventories made? Which goods were listed and which ones omitted? How many inventories are preserved today? Which sectors of medieval society requested them? The answers that this paper provides clearly show the potential of a serial and quantitative usage of the Valencian inventory for the study of household consumption, an analysis that would enable us to measure far more accurately the changes in living standards in late medieval society to a degree that is difficult to achieve in other regions of Europe.

Judicial astrology in theory and practice in later medieval Europe.

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Carey, Hilary M

2010-06-01

Interrogations and elections were two branches of Arabic judicial astrology made available in Latin translation to readers in western Europe from the twelfth century. Through an analysis of the theory and practice of interrogations and elections, including the writing of the Jewish astrologer Sahl b. Bishr, this essay considers the extent to which judicial astrology was practiced in the medieval west. Consideration is given to historical examples of interrogations and elections mostly from late medieval English manuscripts. These include the work of John Dunstaple (ca. 1390-1453), the musician and astrologer who is known have served at the court of John, duke of Bedford. On the basis of the relatively small number of surviving historical horoscopes, it is argued that the practice of interrogations and elections lagged behind the theory.

Some Early Optics: Classical and Medieval. Experiment No. 6.

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Devons, Samuel

Information related to the history of optics with emphasis on the classical and medieval periods is presented. Notes are included on experiments dealing with refraction at a plane interface between two media; refraction by transparent spheres; light, color, and reflection by transparent spheres. (Author/SA)

Analysis of ancient and medieval glasses by INAA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuleff, I.; Djingova, R.; Penev, I.

1984-01-01

A scheme for instrumental neutron activation analysis of ancient and medieval glasses is proposed. The combination of three irradiations (short time, pile and epithermal) enables the determination of 34 elements. The accuracy of the method is evaluated by analyzing two glass standard reference materials. Results from the analysis of three glasses from different times are presented. (author)

Ocular anatomy in medieval arabic medicine. A review.

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Laios, Konstantinos; Moschos, Marilita M; George, Androutsos

2016-01-01

In medieval Arabic medicine Ophthalmology had a central role. Ocular anatomy was described in many ophthalmological treatises of the physicians of the time. These physicians followed the doctrines of Galen according ocular anatomy, nevertheless their contribution to the history of ocular anatomy was the presentation of ocular anatomical sketches in their manuscripts for the fist time in medical history.

Measuring the Measuring Rod: Bible and Parabiblical Texts within the History of Medieval Literature

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Lucie Doležalová

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In spite of the acknowledged crucial role it had in forming medieval written culture, the Bible and a wide-range of parabiblical texts still remain largely ignored by histories of medieval literatures. The reason for this striking omission of an important group of medieval texts from the 'canonical' narratives is, as I argue, the strong bias in favour of national, secular, fictional, and original texts which shapes literary studies – an inheritance from the nineteenth-century nationalising approaches discussed in the first issue of the Interfaces journal. Of course, the discipline of literary studies and therefore selection, hierarchization, and interpretation are complex social, cultural and political processes where almost anything is possible. It is the environment, the interpretive community, in which the interpretation takes place that has a decisive role. And that, too, is constantly being transformed. Thus, there are no final categories and answers because as long as there are interpretive communities, meanings are generated and operate in new ways. That is why the present discussion does not aim to claim that many of the parabiblical texts are literature and should have been included in the canon of medieval literature. Rather, I examine what the nineteenth-century notion of canon did to these texts and how the current questioning and substantial reshaping of notions of canon can transform our understanding of parabiblical texts.

Rules & legislation on love charms in early medieval Ireland

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Borsje, J.

2010-01-01

Love magic is defined as verbal and material instruments by which erotic and affectionate feelings are believed to be aroused or destroyed in a supernatural way. This is a discussion of love magic as it is presented in early medieval Hiberno-Latin penitentials and Irish legal texts.

Study of the ruining behaviour of a structure with reinforced concrete carrying walls

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manas, B.

1998-06-01

Nuclear facility buildings must be constructed with the respect of para-seismic rules. These rules are defined according to the most probable seismic risk estimated for the sites. This study concerns the ruining behaviour of a structure made of reinforced concrete walls. In a first part, a preliminary study on reinforced concrete is performed with the Castem 2000 finite elements code. This study emphasizes the non-linear phenomena that take place inside the material, such as the cracking of concrete and the plasticization of steels. In a second part, predictive calculations were performed on a U-shape structure. This structure was submitted to earthquakes of various magnitudes and the response of the structure was analyzed and interpreted. (J.S.)

Excavating a Silk Road City: the Medieval Citadel of Taraz, Kazakhstan

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Giles Dawkes

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The city of Taraz, located near the southern border with Uzbekistan, is one of the most significant historic settlements in Kazakhstan, and two seasons of fieldwork in the central market-place have revealed a substantial depth of medieval stratigraphy. Despite frequent mentions in Arabic and Chinese written sources, both the form and evolution of this important Silk Road city remain poorly understood. Evidence for a series of successive medieval buildings, including a bathhouse and a Zoroastrian flame shrine, was found in the area of the former citadel. These excavations, undertaken as a joint initiative between the Centre for Applied Archaeology and Kazakh archaeologists, were the first for 50 years in the city and form part of a wider public outreach programme.

The Resources of the Past in Early Medieval Europe

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Gantner, C.; McKitterick, R.M.; Meeder, S.M.

2015-01-01

This volume analyses the importance of history, the textual resources of the past and the integration of Christian and imperial Rome into the cultural memory of early medieval Europe within the wider question of identity formation. The case studies in this book shed new light on the process of

The Desirability of Medieval Germany: Some Observations on an Introductory Course

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Jillings, Lewis G.; Murdoch, Brian O.

1975-01-01

This paper discusses the problems and advantages of a course in Medieval Germany, including history, culture and literature along with language. Attention is given to issues and texts to be studied. (CHK)

A Morphology of Medieval Notations in the Optical Neume Recognition Project

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Kate Helsen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The study of medieval notations depends on effective categorization of individual signs in order to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of their musical meaning. Over the past century, chant scholars have developed several kinds of neume tables which arrange and contextualize neumes either according to graphical type, chronology, or scribal tradition. Some neume tables contain longer strings of neumes that link certain notation conventions with performance traditions. The course of neume table development reads like a history of the study of early notations, itself, and reveals the evolving interests and pursuits of the scholars who created them. It also sets the stage for the latest use of the neume table as a reference for document analysis software applied to digital images of medieval manuscripts. Now, instead of presenting a static list of discrete signs, the neume table can be understood as a reflection of the notational variety and nuance of the hundreds of thousands of neumes contained in every book of liturgical chant. On this scale, neume tables help scholars to understand the use of medieval neumes in the same way a linguist understands the morphology of words. This article presents the principles on which this new kind of neume table has been developed and suggests the ways in which this new way of thinking might inform the discipline in the future.

Selling or telling? A theory of ruin value:Selling or Telling? Paradoxes in tourism, culture and heritage

OpenAIRE

Pihl, Ole Verner

2011-01-01

Selling or telling? : A theory of ruin value  Abstract: To what extent can tourism be described as an agent of peace? Can war and conflict be reconciled through tourism? Why is the children's memorial in Hiroshima so important and why is the Holocaust memorial in Berlin a reconciliating and fascinating monument?  The post apocalyptic vision in our mainstream mass culture is a broad genre and is loaded with heavy, dramatic architecture and landscapes of destruction; most religions have these d...

The effect of fires on the development and appearance of medieval towns

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Domen Kušar

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The occurrence of fires was one of the main dangers, which slowed down development of medieval towns. Frequent fires, whether they occurred due to carelessness, poorly maintained fireplaces and chimneys or military attacks, caused damage, particularly to those towns and buildings, which were constructed of inflammable materials such as timber and straw. In medieval times most towns were built using such materials, except those near the coast. Citizens tried to reduce fire hazards and the consequences of fires. With substitution of inflammable materials, apparatus and with the improved maintenance of fireplaces and chimneys, as well as other preventive measures, they influenced the development of towns and thus changed their architectural image.

Translation Memory and Computer Assisted Translation Tool for Medieval Texts

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Törcsvári Attila

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Translation memories (TMs, as part of Computer Assisted Translation (CAT tools, support translators reusing portions of formerly translated text. Fencing books are good candidates for using TMs due to the high number of repeated terms. Medieval texts suffer a number of drawbacks that make hard even “simple” rewording to the modern version of the same language. The analyzed difficulties are: lack of systematic spelling, unusual word orders and typos in the original. A hypothesis is made and verified that even simple modernization increases legibility and it is feasible, also it is worthwhile to apply translation memories due to the numerous and even extremely long repeated terms. Therefore, methods and algorithms are presented 1. for automated transcription of medieval texts (when a limited training set is available, and 2. collection of repeated patterns. The efficiency of the algorithms is analyzed for recall and precision.

Pervivencias del cuento medieval en la tradición sefardí contemporánea

OpenAIRE

Sánchez-Pérez, María

2015-01-01

El objetivo de este artículo es poner de manifiesto cómo diferentes cuentos medievales de la tradición hispánica han pervivido en la cultura sefardí contemporánea. Para ello, hemos estructurado el trabajo en varias partes: una introducción, una comparación entre el cuento medieval y la konseja sefardí, un breve estado de la cuestión y, posteriormente, un análisis comparativo de tres casos concretos. The aim of this article is to highlight how different medieval tales of the ...

Three cases of feet and hand amputation from Medieval Estremoz, Portugal.

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Fernandes, Teresa; Liberato, Marco; Marques, Carina; Cunha, Eugénia

2017-09-01

Peri-mortem limb amputations are rarely reported in the paleopathological literature. The cases reported here concern severing of both hands and feet observed in three adult male skeletons, exhumed from the medieval Portuguese necropolis of Rossio do Marquês de Pombal, Estremoz, Portugal. The fact that they were found in the same site, in graves placed side by side, that all are young males, and that the three skeletons show similar perimortem injuries, make this a unique case meriting detailed analysis. Considering the lesions' location and pattern, as well as historical data, we hypothesize that this is a case of amputation as a consequence of judicial punishment. Estremoz was an important city in sustaining the Royal power at a regional scale during the medieval period. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hospitality, culture and regeneration: urban decay, entrepreneurship and the "ruin" bars of Budapest.

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Lugosi, Peter; Bell, David; Lugosi, Krisztina

2010-01-01

This paper considers the relationships between hospitality, culture and urban regeneration through an examination of rom (ruin) venues, which operate in dilapidated buildings in Budapest, Hungary. The paper reviews previous work on culture and urban regeneration in order to locate the role of hospitality within emerging debates. It subsequently interrogates the evolution of the rom phenomenon and demonstrates how, in this context, hospitality thrives because of social and physical decay in urban locations, how operators and entrepreneurs exploit conflicts among various actors involved in regeneration and how hospitality may be mobilised purposefully in the regeneration process. The paper demonstrates how networked entrepreneurship maintains these operations and how various forms of cultural production are entangled and mobilised in the venues' hospitality propositions.

Unriddling of ancient-medieval culture by PIXE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uda, M.

1997-01-01

Some examples are given for unriddling of ancient-medieval culture by PIXE. Effectiveness of PIXE to analyze art and archaeological objects is also explained. Objects employed here are 1) red, yellow, blue and white pigments painted on sun-dried bricks excavated in Egypt, 2) ancient glass beads used in the Near East, 3) South American mummy hair, 4) ancient slag excavated from Kansai-district, Japan 5) ink used by Galileo Galilei and 6) Renaissance style enameled gold jewelry. (author)

Study on the provenance of ancient porcelain excavated in Maojiawan ruin by WDXRF analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xie Guoxi

2007-01-01

In order to determine the provenance of two different kinds of ancient celadons which were excavated in Maojiawan ruin located in Beijing of China and named FLQ (imitated celadon) and WLNQ which is celadon outside and blue-white inside, ten components of each sample's body and glaze were measured by the wave length dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) analysis. Multivariates statistical analysis was used to analyze and compare the experiment data with those of LQY (ancient celadon) made in Zhejiang and ancient Jingdezhen porcelain (JDZ) made in Jingdezhen. The results show that the two different kinds of ancient celadons have the same provenance as JDZ, that is, they were produced in Jingdezhen. (authors)

The Function of the Medieval in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Nouvelle Heloise : A Rereading of the Abelard and Heloise Motif

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Montoya, Alicia C.

2010-01-01

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's critical rewriting in his Nouvelle H,lo medieval works-the letters of Ab,lard and H,lo medieval played in his own moral vision. This article both identifies a possible eighteenth-century

Morbidity, rickets and long-bone growth in post-medieval Britain--a cross-population analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinhasi, R; Shaw, P; White, B; Ogden, A R

2006-01-01

Vitamin D deficiency rickets is associated with skeletal deformities including swollen rib junctions, bowing of the legs, and the flaring and fraying of the wrist and long-bone metaphyses. There is, however, scarce information on the direct effect of rickets on skeletal growth in either present or past populations. The study investigated the effect of vitamin D deficiency rickets on long-bone growth in two post-medieval skeletal populations from East London (Broadgate and Christ Church Spitalfields). Subsequently, inter-population growth variations in relation to non-specific environmental stress (dental enamel defects), industrialization, urbanization and socio-economic status during infancy (birth to 3 years) and early childhood (3-7 years) were examined. Data on long-bone diaphyseal length dimensions and stress indicators of 234 subadults from Anglo-Saxon, late medieval and post-medieval archaeological skeletal samples were analysed using both linear and non-linear growth models. Rickets had no effect on the growth curves for any of the long bones studied. However, pronounced variations in growth between the four populations were noted, mainly during infancy. The diaphyseal length of long bones of Broadgate were significantly smaller-per-age than those of Spitalfields and the other samples up to the age of 4 years, and were associated with a high prevalence of enamel defects during early infancy. Socio-economic status, rather than urbanization, industrialization or rickets, was the central factor behind the observed differences in growth among the post-medieval populations. The observed inter-population growth variations were only significant during infancy.

Orientation of medieval churches of Morava school

OpenAIRE

Tadić Milutin; Gavrić Gordana

2012-01-01

In this paper we present the mathematical and topographic analysis of orientation of the most significant churches (11) of Morava school, the last style in architecture of medieval Serbia whose executors were chief architects. The deviation from equinox East of the main axis of each church and the dates when the Sun rises on the physical horizon, in the extension of the main axis, have been calculated. These were the dates when the church could have been oriented towards the rising Sun....

[Subjectivity and objectivity, semiotics and diagnosis. An approach to the medieval concept of illness].

Science.gov (United States)

Riha, O

1996-01-01

Relying on their patients' complaints, medieval physicians did not discriminate theoretically between sickness and health. As for the types of illness, there were two different concepts of disease: The semiotic tracts (sphygmology, uroscopy, hematoscopy) describe signs of dyscrasia and locus affectus, while the medical handbooks combine symptoms like fever, pain, nausea, constipation etc. with the signs of pulse, urine and blood. The term "diagnosis" should be used only for this latter type of disease. Because of the ancient model of humoral pathology and because of the deductive construction of symptomatology, "medieval" illnesses cannot be compared with "ours".

Primstav and Apocalypse : Time and its Reckoning in Medieval Scandinavia

OpenAIRE

Powell, Avery Myers

2011-01-01

This work is intended as an exploration of methods of time-reckoning and conception in Medieval Scandinavia. In the main this is tied to the dynamism between a duality: that of the cyclical and linear models of time’s progression. Involved in this study are sources verbal and pictoral.

From the Dictionary of Medieval Latin in Czech Lands. Gracocenderius

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Šedinová, Hana

2017-01-01

Roč. 140, č. 3/4 (2017), s. 455-470 ISSN 0024-4457 Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : ravens * ancient and medieval zoology * Latin names of birds * Bartholomaeus de Solencia dictus Claretus * Aristotle * Aristoteles Latinus * Michael Scotus * Thomas of Cantimpré Subject RIV: AI - Linguistics OBOR OECD: Specific languages

Living History with a Medieval Banquet in the Alhambra Palace.

Science.gov (United States)

Shabbas, Audrey

1996-01-01

Recommends that students learn about Islamic civilization by presenting a "medieval banquet in the Alhambra Palace." Provides information about middle eastern culture and history that students could use to plan and produce the banquet. Includes a list of 26 "guests" who would be role-played by students. (CFR)

Social inequality and death as illustrated in late-medieval death dances

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J.P. Mackenbach (Johan)

1995-01-01

textabstractLate-medieval murals and books of the then-popular "dances of death" usually represented the living according to their social standing. These works of art thus provide an interesting opportunity to study the relationship between social inequality and death

Medieval Japan. Grade 7 Model Lesson for Standard 7.5. World History and Geography: Medieval and Early Modern Times. California History-Social Science Course Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Zachlod, Michelle, Ed.

California State Standard 7.5 is delineated in the following manner: "Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of medieval Japan." Seventh-grade students describe the significance of Japan's proximity to China and Korea and the influence of these countries on Japan; discuss the reign of…

The language and style of Latin rubrics in medieval liturgical Easter drama

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Vršecká-Kvízová, Kateřina

-, č. 71 (2013), s. 267-280 ISSN 1376-7453 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LD13043 Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : Easter drama * Medieval Latin * Latin rubrics Subject RIV: AI - Linguistics

The ethics of heroism in medieval and American Indian tales.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, A

1990-01-01

Oral-traditional stories detail their heroes' growth through a narrative pattern of exile and return that places the heroes in situations repeatedly challenging their strength and resolve. Through the motif of the quest, medieval and American Indian tales alike reaffirm general psychological truths that bear upon our understanding of human nature. Stories about heroes are stories about us: about our desires to grow up, to defeat death, to prove ourselves in difficult situations, and to achieve recognition or admiration among our peers (Becker, 1973, p. 4). In this way, medieval and American Indian tales are about self-actualization. They maintain that "one has within oneself proclivity toward growth and unity of personality ... and an automatic thrust toward expression" of these qualities (Yalom, 1980, p. 9). All forms of literature, however, reflect ideas peculiar to their cultures. The ways in which these basic human truths are represented in medieval and American Indian tales suggest the differing religious or social concerns that have informed these truths and have given them shape. To a large degree, the medieval knight's view of "self" and "other" encompasses the view that Western humanity has had (and continues to have) of itself. This is a view conditioned upon the superiority of the "self" as measured against the inferiority of the "other," reinforced through existing social (hierarchial) and religious (Judeo-Christian) codes of behavior. Such codes are not only inadequate to the task of interpreting American Indian perceptions of "self" and "other," they are inimical to the ethical foundation underlying them. Scott Momaday remarks that "you cannot understand how the Indian thinks of himself in relation to the world around him unless you understand his conception of what is appropriate; particularly what is morally appropriate within the context of that relationship" (Basso, 1984, p. 46). For the American Indian hero, self-actualization is self

Corruption as a Legacy of the Medieval University: Financial Affairs

Science.gov (United States)

Osipian, Ararat L.

2004-01-01

Looking back upon the centuries one would suspect that in earlier ages universities of medieval France and Italy were very different from the multiplicity of organizational and institutional forms of higher education institutions in modern times, and yet one would be surprised how much these old "universitas" and modern universities have…

The "Endura" of The Cathars' Heresy: Medieval Concept of Ritual Euthanasia or Suicide?

Science.gov (United States)

Tsiamis, Costas; Tounta, Eleni; Poulakou-Rebelakou, Effie

2016-02-01

The aim of the study is to explore the medieval concepts on the voluntary death of severely sick people, as they emerge through the endura (endurance) of the heresy of the Cathars in France (twelfth to fourteenth centuries). The endura was the prerequisite act of repentance that would allow the fallen soul to return to heaven. The endura was a necessary act of repentance, after the performance of a ceremonial purification of the soul (consolamentum), and consisted of the patients' voluntary abstention from vital food. The consolamentum and endura could be performed in the final stage of a disease with the consent of the patients or their relatives. The role of the Cathar physician was only to determine the severity of the disease and the forthcoming death of the patient. The physician was not allowed to take steps that would deprive the life of the patient, and the performance of the ritual endura was duty of the spiritual leaders of the community. The modern ethical approach to this subject is dictated by the medieval belief on the salvation of the soul and tries to answer the question of whether the endura could be seen as a medieval concept of a ritual euthanasia or fell within the theological sin of suicide.

A lime based mortar for thermal insulation of medieval church vaults

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, P.K.; Hansen, Tessa Kvist

A new mortar for thermal insulation of medieval church vaults was tested in a full scale experiment in Annisse Church, DK. The mortar consists of perlite, a highly porous aggregate, mixed with slaked lime. These materials are compatible with the fired clay bricks and the lime mortar joints....... The lambda-value of the insulation mortar is 0.08 W/m K or twice the lambda-value for mineral wool. The water vapour permeability is equal to a medieval clay brick, and it has three times higher capacity for liquid water absorption. The mortar was applied to the top side of the vaults in a thickness of 10 cm......, despite a water vapour pressure gradient up to 500 Pa between the nave and attic. There was no reduction in energy consumption the first winter, possibly due to the increased heat loss related to the drying of the mortar....

Medieval Europe. Grade 7 Model Lesson for Standard 7.6. World History and Geography: Medieval and Early Modern Times. California History-Social Science Course Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Zachlod, Michelle, Ed.

California State Standard 7.6 is delineated in the following manner: "Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Medieval Europe." Seventh-grade students study the geography of Europe and the Eurasian land mass; describe the spread of Christianity north of the Alps and…

Origen y evolución urbana de Alcañiz. De la villa medieval a la ciudad renacentista

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan José Barragán Villagrasa

2011-01-01

Full Text Available La ciudad de Alcañiz (Aragón constituye un ejemplo de las reformas que el urbanismo renacentista impulsó en las villas medievales, ligado en este caso al desarrollo del Concejo, y la progresiva independencia municipal respecto al señorío de la Orden de Calatrava, con sede en el castillo. Hemos indagado en el modelo de urbanismo medieval impulsado por los calatravos desde la repoblación del territorio, formado por dos líneas de muralla, una de ellas inédita, y que hemos denominado «muralla alta». Desde el Concejo medieval, con sede en las Casas Comunes, se desarrolla un nuevo modelo de urbanismo, con nuevos espacios públicos como la Plaza Mayor, una trama de calles más anchas y regulares, y el desarrollo de una edificación más estandarizada, que convivirá con lo culminando en la construcción de la Casa Consistorial por el Concejo posmedieval, institución que actualmente conocemos como Ayuntamiento.The town of Alcañiz, in Aragon, is a good example of the reforms that Renaissance town plannings spread in medieval towns. In this case, it is linked to the development of the town Council, and the progressive local independence from the Calatrava Lordship, whose headquarter were inside the castle. We have researched the medieval town planning promoted by the Calatravos since the repopulation of the territory. It is formed by two lines of city walls, one of which was unknown and we have called it «the high wall». From the medieval Council House, sited in the Common Houses, a new model of urbanism is developed, with new public spaces like the Main Square, wider and more regular street patterns and the development of a more standarized way of building that has co-existed with the medieval quarters until the present days.

Protracted fluvial recovery from medieval earthquakes, Pokhara, Nepal

Science.gov (United States)

Stolle, Amelie; Bernhardt, Anne; Schwanghart, Wolfgang; Andermann, Christoff; Schönfeldt, Elisabeth; Seidemann, Jan; Adhikari, Basanta R.; Merchel, Silke; Rugel, Georg; Fort, Monique; Korup, Oliver

2016-04-01

River response to strong earthquake shaking in mountainous terrain often entails the flushing of sediments delivered by widespread co-seismic landsliding. Detailed mass-balance studies following major earthquakes in China, Taiwan, and New Zealand suggest fluvial recovery times ranging from several years to decades. We report a detailed chronology of earthquake-induced valley fills in the Pokhara region of western-central Nepal, and demonstrate that rivers continue to adjust to several large medieval earthquakes to the present day, thus challenging the notion of transient fluvial response to seismic disturbance. The Pokhara valley features one of the largest and most extensively dated sedimentary records of earthquake-triggered sedimentation in the Himalayas, and independently augments paleo-seismological archives obtained mainly from fault trenches and historic documents. New radiocarbon dates from the catastrophically deposited Pokhara Formation document multiple phases of extremely high geomorphic activity between ˜700 and ˜1700 AD, preserved in thick sequences of alternating fluvial conglomerates, massive mud and silt beds, and cohesive debris-flow deposits. These dated fan-marginal slackwater sediments indicate pronounced sediment pulses in the wake of at least three large medieval earthquakes in ˜1100, 1255, and 1344 AD. We combine these dates with digital elevation models, geological maps, differential GPS data, and sediment logs to estimate the extent of these three pulses that are characterized by sedimentation rates of ˜200 mm yr-1 and peak rates as high as 1,000 mm yr-1. Some 5.5 to 9 km3 of material infilled the pre-existing topography, and is now prone to ongoing fluvial dissection along major canyons. Contemporary river incision into the Pokhara Formation is rapid (120-170 mm yr-1), triggering widespread bank erosion, channel changes, and very high sediment yields of the order of 103 to 105 t km-2 yr-1, that by far outweigh bedrock denudation rates

The Religious Significance of the Medieval Body and Flannery O'Connor's Fiction

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Novak, Kenneth

2002-01-01

Flannery O'Connor based what she called her "anagogic vision" on the medieval way of seeing the world that allowed the reader of a text to discern "different levels of reality in one image or one situation...

Corruption as a Legacy of the Medieval University

OpenAIRE

Osipian, Ararat

2004-01-01

Looking back upon the centuries one would suspect that in earlier ages universities of medieval France and Italy were very different from the multiplicity of organizational and institutional forms of higher education institutions in modern times, and yet one would be surprised how much these old universitas and modern universities have in common. The increasing scale and scope of corruption in higher education in the former Soviet Bloc as well as numerous other countries urges a better unders...

Genetic research at a fivefold children's burial from medieval Berlin.

Science.gov (United States)

Rothe, Jessica; Melisch, Claudia; Powers, Natasha; Geppert, Maria; Zander, Judith; Purps, Josephine; Spors, Birgit; Nagy, Marion

2015-03-01

Berlin originated from the two twin cities Berlin and Cölln, which both were founded at the beginning of the 13th century. However the real date of their foundation as well as the origin of the first settlers is still unknown. On the Berlin site the historic city center is still visible in the Nikolaiviertel, but the medieval origin of Cölln disappeared almost completely. In 2007 a large scale excavation, which comprised an area of about 1700m(2) of the historical center of the St. Peters church, recovers the remains of Cölln's first citizens and span a period of 500 years of medieval population. Here we present the first genetic analysis of a fivefold children's burial from excavations in Berlin. The genetic data unveiled next to ancestry and eye color data also the kinship and the gender of the five individuals. Together with the archeological context the new gained information help to shed more light on the possible reasons for this burial. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Introduction to the Medieval English: The Historical and Literary Context, Traces of Church and Philosophical Movements in the Literature

Science.gov (United States)

Behtash, Esmail Zare; Toroujeni, Seyyed Morteza Hashemi; Samani, Farzane Safarzade

2017-01-01

The Transition from Greek to medieval philosophy that speculated on religion, nature, metaphysics, human being and society was rather a rough transition in the history of English literature. Although the literature content of this age reflected more religious beliefs, the love and hate relationship of medieval philosophy that was mostly based on…

The Disputed Authorship of a Medieval Text: A New Solution to the Attribution Problem in the Case of Guillaume D’Angleterre

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Slautina

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a case of disputed authorship concerning a literary medieval text, the Old French romance Guillaume d’Angleterre, and describes a new attempt to use the mathematical method of authorship attribution called the "method of pattern recognition”. After presenting an overview of previous approaches to the problem of the authorship of this text, I argue for the advantages of a statistical syntactic based method for authorship attribution of medieval texts. The method of pattern recognition consists in the identification of a domain of syntactic parameters and a measurement of the proximity or distance of texts as located in a multi-dimensional syntactic space. I find that the medieval text most likely belongs to Chrétien de Troyes, one of the most famous French authors of the twelfth century. I present for the first time an attempt to apply the method of pattern recognition to determine the authorship of a medieval text written in Old French.

Ancient and medieval Iberia seen through glass: An archaeometric perspective; La Hispania antigua y medieval a través del vidrio: la aportación de la arqueometría

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Juan Ares, J. de; Nadine Schibille, N.

2017-11-01

The study of ancient and medieval glasses has identified distinct compositional groups as a result of the chemical characteristics of the raw materials used for its production. Archaeometric analysis can determine the provenance of the glass, and has demonstrated a large-scale production and commercialisation of raw glass throughout the Mediterranean during the ancient and medieval periods. Secondary workshops on the Iberian Peninsula imported raw glass from the Near East for the better part of the first millennium CE, following a similar pattern observed elsewhere in the Mediterranean region. However, there are some indications that point to a local production of glass and that deserve further investigation. In the ninth century, natron glass was replaced in al-Ándalus by plant ash and lead-rich glass that may represent a local production. Little is known about the production or use of glass in the Christian parts of the peninsula during this period. The increasing volume of analytical data on Spanish glass demonstrates the potential of an archaeometric approach to shed light not only on the production and trade of glass on the Iberian Peninsula but also on the ancient and medieval economy more generally. [Spanish] El estudio del vidrio antiguo y medieval ha permitido identificar distintos grupos composicionales que son resultado de las características químicas de las materias primas empleadas en su fabricación. Los análisis arqueométricos permiten determinar la procedencia del vidrio, demostrando que el vidrio primario fue producido y comercializado a gran escala a través del Mediterráneo durante la Antigüedad y la Edad Media. Los talleres hispanos importaron vidrio primario desde Próximo Oriente durante la mayor parte del primer milenio d. C. siguiendo un patrón paralelo al resto del Mediterráneo. Sin embargo, algunos indicios señalan que pudieron convivir con vidrios de fabricación local que merecen ser investigados. En el siglo IX el vidrio de

A Review of The Architecture of the Scottish Medieval Church 1100–1560

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ian Campbell

2013-01-01

Full Text Available If ever a book could be described as a ‘magnum opus’ it is this: indeed it is a summa. Richard Fawcett has been publishing on Scottish medieval architecture, mainly ecclesiastical, for three decades, ranging from articles on minute changes in Gothic mouldings (the subject of his doctoral research at the University of East Anglia such as ‘Dunblane Cathedral: evidence for a change in the design of the nave’ (1982 to a survey of architecture between 370 and 1560, Scottish Architecture from the Accession of the Stewarts to the Reformation (1994. For much of that time he was an Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Historic Scotland, allowing him unfettered access to all the key monuments for most of which he has written authoritative guidebooks. However, besides Scotland, his knowledge of other European medieval architecture, especially in England, France and the Low Countries is encyclopaedic. His researches have made unsustainable the inferiorist attitude that Scottish medieval architecture was insular and backward, by pointing out countless foreign parallels, which demonstrate that Scotland’s patrons and masons were always aware of contemporary developments beyond its borders and shores. This monumental book brings together the fruits of these years of study into a rich synthesis. At last MacGibbon and Ross’ groundbreaking Ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland (1896-7 has been superseded.

Adolescent health in medieval Serbia: signs of infectious diseases and risk of trauma.

Science.gov (United States)

Djurić, M; Janović, A; Milovanović, P; Djukić, K; Milenković, P; Drasković, M; Roksandic, M

2010-04-01

Although pattern of health in adults has been frequently assessed in past human populations, health status of adolescents as a distinct life stage has usually been overlooked. Inconsistency in number and meaning of recognised age categories in anthropological literature, as well as chronological age ranges used to define them, further complicate the interpretation of adolescent health. In this study, we analysed signs of pathological conditions on skeletal remains of 81 adolescents from a medieval site of Stara Torina (northern Serbia). Diagnostic palaeopathological procedures comprised gross examination, digital radiography, and histological analysis. Skeletal signs of anaemia such as cribra orbitalia and other porotic phenomena as well as signs of non-specific bone infection were observed frequently, while evidence of bone trauma was recorded in a very low percentage of individuals. In addition, we recorded two conditions relatively rarely observed in palaeopathological contexts: a case of skull and vertebral asymmetry indicative of congenital muscular torticollis, and a case of a fibrous cortical defect on distal femur. Comparison with available information from other medieval adolescent samples from Serbia demonstrated that while mortality was relatively constant throughout the sample, Stara Torina showed a much higher occurrence of bone disease. Characteristics of observed skeletal conditions, supported by available historical reports, suggest that the health of medieval adolescents in the examined population was most significantly affected by infectious processes. Copyright 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Managing Uncertainty through Profit sharing Contracts from medieval Italy to Silicon Valley

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brouwer, M.

2005-01-01

Organizational innovation is essential to economic development. But, the way successful societies have organized new ventures has been remarkably similar in both past and present. The commenda organizations of medieval Italy shared many characteristics with modern startups that are financed by

The structure of the medieval town of Rupea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Borcoman, M.

2010-11-01

Full Text Available The town of Rupea, set up at the beginning of the 12th century, was the capital of the county of Rupea between 1337 and 1876. Its urban structure and organization prove that it belonged to group of Transylvania’s German medieval towns. Here, alongside with the German (established in the central area, Romanians lived in the outskirts. This structure was preserved until the early 1800s, and even until nowadays although the initial ethnical composition has altered.

Alteration of medieval stained-glasses. Contribution to the long-term behaviour of vitrified wastes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sterpenich, J.

1998-01-01

In this work, the behaviour of glasses during alteration have been studied in two different ways: 1)study of the alteration of medieval stained-glasses 2)experimental leaching of modelled glasses. Medieval stained-glasses have a silico-calcic and alkaline composition. It appears three different alteration modes for these glasses: 1)by condensation waters 2)by atmospheric agents 3)by porosity waters and humic acids. A chemical study of the altered areas has allowed to understand the alteration behaviour of a lot of elements: in particular transition elements, heavy metals and some rare earths. On the other hand, two vitrified wastes and a glass having the same composition of the potassic medieval stained-glasses have been leached in a static mode (pH=1 to 10, T=20 to 80 degrees Celsius, T=12 hours to 6 months). These experiments have revealed that the alteration mechanisms depend on the pH of the solution and on the chemical composition of the glass. An increasing durability of glasses in terms of the global polymerization degree has been revealed too. At last, the behaviours of glasses during alteration, observed with natural and experimental conditions, show that it is necessary to study natural analogous for predicting the long-term behaviour of vitrified wastes. (O.M.)

Restorian of outdoor plaster pavement floors in a medieval Czech castle

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Slížková, Zuzana; Drdácký, Miloš

2008-01-01

Roč. 14, č. 3 (2008), s. 81-98 ISSN 1355-6207 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA103/06/1609 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20710524 Keywords : floor plaster * metakaoline modified mortar * medieval castle rampart * non-standard testing Subject RIV: AL - Art, Architecture, Cultural Heritage

The Accreditation of Hildegard Von Bingen as Medieval Female Technical Writer

Science.gov (United States)

Rauch, Susan

2012-01-01

Although scholars have acknowledged technical texts written during the Middle-Ages, there is no mention of "technical writer" as a profession except for Geoffrey Chaucer, and historically absent is the accreditation of medieval female writers who pioneered the field of medical-technical communication. In an era dominated by identifiable medieval…

Orientation of English Medieval Parish Churches

Science.gov (United States)

Hoare, Peter G.

Our understanding of the alignment of English medieval parish churches, after more than three centuries of research, is far from complete. The arrangement of relatively few structures has been explained beyond reasonable doubt, and tests of the overwhelmingly popular festival orientation theory are often insufficiently rigorous to provide convincing answers. Much work remains to be done, including verifying and analyzing some of the existing raw data, determining whether the present church was dedicated at the time of construction, examining wills for evidence of early dedications, measuring the effect of eastern horizons on sunrise azimuths, and consulting excavation reports to assess whether earlier buildings may have influenced the arrangement of those churches that replaced them.

Approximation for the Finite-Time Ruin Probability of a General Risk Model with Constant Interest Rate and Extended Negatively Dependent Heavy-Tailed Claims

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Yang

2011-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a general continuous-time risk model with a constant interest rate. In this model, claims arrive according to an arbitrary counting process, while their sizes have dominantly varying tails and fulfill an extended negative dependence structure. We obtain an asymptotic formula for the finite-time ruin probability, which extends a corresponding result of Wang (2008.

Tablet-woven and tabby-woven braids from the Czech late medieval archaeological findings

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Březinová, Helena

2010-01-01

Roč. 23, - (2010), s. 47-51 ISSN 0860-0007 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z80020508 Keywords : textile fragments * tablet -woven braids * tabby-woven braids * late medieval Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology

Changing Settlements and Landscapes: Medieval Whittlewood, its Predecessors and Successors

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Richard Jones

2006-09-01

Full Text Available This article presents an interpretative synthesis of the development of a medieval landscape in the English Midlands. It explores its administrative organisation and divisions; the exploitation of its woodland, pasture, and arable resources; and the creation, growth, and decline of its villages, hamlets and farmsteads. It takes as its central theme two inter-related oppositions: continuity and change, moments and processes. In particular it examines the role these played in the development of varying settlement morphologies (the area under investigation contains both nucleated and dispersed settlement forms and in the introduction and demise of the open field system. The article is based on the investigation of twenty-one medieval villages and hamlets and their surrounding landscapes, straddling the Northamptonshire-Buckinghamshire boundary and previously falling within the royal forest of Whittlewood. This work was undertaken between 2000 and 2005 as part of an AHRC (formerly ARHB-funded research project. This enquiry, and the use it has made of the comparative method, has pinpointed moments of village and hamlet 'creation' and the alternative forms that these could take in their earliest phases. The subsequent development of these settlements has been charted, revealing the divergent paths they took towards the nucleated or dispersed plans they present when first mapped in the 17th, 18th or 19th centuries. This dynamic pattern of settlement has been set against a background of related changes to the authoritative landscape, which saw the fission and fusion of administrative units; to the economic landscape, which witnessed the development of the open field system and the re-organisation of woodland; and to social and cultural landscapes, affected inter alia by the growth and decline of population, and the imposition of Forest Law. The reconstruction of these medieval village territories has only been achieved by adopting an interdisciplinary

Ruin Probabilities in a Dependent Discrete-Time Risk Model With Gamma-Like Tailed Insurance Risks

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Xing-Fang Huang

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This paper considered a dependent discrete-time risk model, in which the insurance risks are represented by a sequence of independent and identically distributed real-valued random variables with a common Gamma-like tailed distribution; the financial risks are denoted by another sequence of independent and identically distributed positive random variables with a finite upper endpoint, but a general dependence structure exists between each pair of the insurance risks and the financial risks. Following the works of Yang and Yuen in 2016, we derive some asymptotic relations for the finite-time and infinite-time ruin probabilities. As a complement, we demonstrate our obtained result through a Crude Monte Carlo (CMC simulation with asymptotics.

Crossdressing medieval troubadours, Castile to Brazil : Cristóbal de Castillejo (d. 1550) and Augusto de Campos (b. 1931)

OpenAIRE

Roy Rosenstein

2014-01-01

Starting out from a reading of Cristóbal de Castillejo's sixteenth-century sonnet referencing the medieval Occitan troubadours, "Garcilaso y Boscán, siendo llegados", this article reflects on cultural and temporal translations of medieval troubadour lyric. In the second part, it examines in more detail Augusto de Campos's modern Brazilian translations or "transcreations" of Arnaut Daniel's works – the only complete poetic translation in any language of his works.

Some considerations on X-ray fluorescence use in museum measurements - The case of medieval silver coins

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Constantinescu, B.; Bugoi, R.; Oberlaender-Tarnoveanu, E.; Parvan, K.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to give a general layout for the potential applications of Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) technique for ancient silver coin characterization, using in-situ (in museums) measurements. Examples concerning originality testing, provenance (mines, workshops) identification, counterfeits selection, historical studies (manufacturing technologies, commercial, military and political relationships) are given. Two study cases of medieval coins are described: German brakteaten pfennige and Moldavian groschen. Other analysis methods and their use in the study of medieval coins are illustrated with the example of Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) technique. (authors)

Diet and diversity at later medieval Fishergate: the isotopic evidence.

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Müldner, Gundula; Richards, Michael P

2007-10-01

We present the results of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of bone collagen for 155 individuals buried at the Later Medieval (13th to early 16th century AD) Gilbertine priory of St. Andrew, Fishergate in the city of York (UK). The data show significant variation in the consumption of marine foods between males and females as well as between individuals buried in different areas of the priory. Specifically, individuals from the crossing of the church and the cloister garth had consumed significantly less marine protein than those from other locations. Isotope data for four individuals diagnosed with diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) are consistent with a diet rich in animal protein. We also observe that isotopic signals of individuals with perimortem sharp force trauma are unusual in the context of the Fishergate dataset. We discuss possible explanations for these patterns and suggest that there may have been a specialist hospital or a local tradition of burying victims of violent conflict at the priory. The results demonstrate how the integration of archaeological, osteological, and isotopic data can provide novel information about Medieval burial and society. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Disputing strategies in medieval Scandinavia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Orning, Hans Jacob

In Scandinavia the study of disputes is still a relatively new topic: The papers offered here discuss how conflicts were handled in Scandinavian societies in the Middle Ages before the emergence of strong centralized states. What strategies did people use to contest power, property, rights, honour......, and other kinds of material or symbolic assets? Seven essays by Scandinavian scholars are supplemented by contributions from Stephen White, John Hudson and Gerd Althoff, to provide a new baseline for discussing both the strategies pursued in the political game and those used to settle local disputes. Using...... practice and process as key analytical concepts, these authors explore formal law and litigation in conjunction with non-formal legal proceedings such as out-of-court mediation, rituals, emotional posturing, and feuding. Their insights place the Northern medieval world in a European context of dispute...

Harris lines of the tibia across centuries: a comparison of two populations, medieval and contemporary in Central Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ameen, S.; Vock, P.; Anderson, S.E.; Staub, L.; Ulrich, S.; Ballmer, F.

2005-01-01

To determine the incidence of Harris lines in two medieval populations which inhabited the Canton of Berne, in Central Switzerland, and to compare the results with those of a contemporary population living in the same geographical area. A simplified method is described for measuring the age of the individual at the time of formation of Harris lines, with possible future applications. Radiographs of 112 well-preserved tibiae of skeletons of two medieval populations from the eighth to fifteenth centuries were reviewed for the incidence of Harris lines. The results were compared with those of 138 current patients living in the same geographic location in Central Switzerland. Age and gender of the medieval individual were determined using known anthropological methods. Age of bone at the time of formation of Harris lines was estimated according to the method of Maat. Harris lines were found in 88 of 112 (80%) of the examined medieval skeletons and in 28 of 138 (20%) of the living individuals. Higher incidences of Harris lines were found at the age of 2 years and at ages between 8 and 12 years in both populations. No gender difference was found regarding the incidence of Harris lines. In both populations the occurrence of Harris lines was associated with certain diseases such as degenerative bone disease, trauma, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, peripheral vascular diseases, rickets and bony deformities. (orig.)

Harris lines of the tibia across centuries: a comparison of two populations, medieval and contemporary in Central Europe

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ameen, S.; Vock, P.; Anderson, S.E. [University Hospital of Bern, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Bern (Switzerland); Staub, L.; Ulrich, S. [University of Bern, Institute of Historical Medicine, Bern (Switzerland); Ballmer, F. [University Hospital of Bern, Department of Orthopaedics, Bern (Switzerland)

2005-05-01

To determine the incidence of Harris lines in two medieval populations which inhabited the Canton of Berne, in Central Switzerland, and to compare the results with those of a contemporary population living in the same geographical area. A simplified method is described for measuring the age of the individual at the time of formation of Harris lines, with possible future applications. Radiographs of 112 well-preserved tibiae of skeletons of two medieval populations from the eighth to fifteenth centuries were reviewed for the incidence of Harris lines. The results were compared with those of 138 current patients living in the same geographic location in Central Switzerland. Age and gender of the medieval individual were determined using known anthropological methods. Age of bone at the time of formation of Harris lines was estimated according to the method of Maat. Harris lines were found in 88 of 112 (80%) of the examined medieval skeletons and in 28 of 138 (20%) of the living individuals. Higher incidences of Harris lines were found at the age of 2 years and at ages between 8 and 12 years in both populations. No gender difference was found regarding the incidence of Harris lines. In both populations the occurrence of Harris lines was associated with certain diseases such as degenerative bone disease, trauma, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, peripheral vascular diseases, rickets and bony deformities. (orig.)

Archaeometrical studies on medieval silver coins at the Bucharest TANDEM Accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bugoi, R.; Constantin, F.; Constantinescu, B.; Oberlaender-Tarnoveanu, E.; Parvan, K.

2003-01-01

An extensive study on Medieval Moldavian (XIVth - XVIth Centuries) silver coins (Groschen) using 3 MeV protons PIXE (Proton Induced X-ray Emission) and '2 41 Am source based XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence) was performed in order to determine the evolution of the coinage (debasement, metal sources, minting technologies). XRF was used to determine heavier elements concentrations. Comparing the trace elements results (Bi, Pb, Zn, Au) obtained on these samples with the ones on coins from Hungary, Poland, Tatar Khanate, Bohemia we bring support to the curator hypothesis that a lot of Moldavian emissions were made by melting foreign coins, possibly obtained as customs taxes or from trade with these neighbouring countries. For the late medieval silver coins, the high Hg content may be an indication of an imperfect metallurgical processing of the local silver ores. The relationship between the silver content of the coins and the military conflicts corresponding to the minting periods is discussed, taking into account the fact that crisis times are characterized by a decrease in the precious metal concentration. (authors)

Archaeometrical studies on medieval silver coins at the Bucharest Tandem Accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bugoi, Roxana; Constantin, Florin; Constantinescu, Bogdan

2005-01-01

An extensive study on Medieval Moldavian (XIVth - XVIth Centuries) silver coins (groschen) using 3 MeV protons PIXE (Proton Induced X-ray Emission) and 241 Am source based XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence) was performed in order to determine the evolution of the coinage (debasement, metal sources, minting technologies). XRF was used to determine the heavier elements concentrations. Comparing the trace element results (Bi, Pb, Zn, Au) obtained on these samples with the ones on coins from Hungary, Poland, Tatar Khanate, Bohemia, we bring support to the curator hypothesis that a lot of Moldavian emissions were made by melting foreign coins, possibly obtained as customs taxes or from trade with these neighbouring countries. For the late medieval silver coins, the high Hg content may be an indication of an imperfect metallurgical processing of the local silver ores. The relationship between the silver content of the coins and the military conflicts corresponding to the minting periods is discussed, taking into account the fact that crisis times are characterized by a decrease in the precious metal concentration. (authors)

The use of geothermal energy at a chieftan's farm in medieval Iceland

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Gudrun Sveinbjarnardottir

2003-10-01

Full Text Available Archaeological investigations at the farm site of Reykholt, in the Reykholtsdalur valley in western Iceland (Fig. 1 , have produced evidence of sophisticated use of geothermal energy in the medieval period that is unmatched by comparable finds elsewhere in this geothermally and volcanically active country.

Two incrusted medieval swords from Zbaszyn, Lubusz voivodship

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Głosek, Marian

2007-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents two interesting medieval swords that can be dated between the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 14th century AD. Both display, engraved in the fuller, inscriptions in silver and copper inlay, one of them a Latin text, the other heraldic symbols.

Se presentan dos espadas medievales fechables entre finales del S. XII y principios del XIV, decoradas con damasquinados en plata y aleación de cobre. Una presenta un texto latino y mativos ornamentales; la otra, elementos heráldicos.

XRF and UV-Vis-NIR analyses of medieval wall paintings of al-Qarawiyyin Mosque (Morocco)

Science.gov (United States)

Fikri, I.; El Amraoui, M.; Haddad, M.; Ettahiri, A. S.; Bellot-Gurlet, L.; Falguères, C.; Lebon, M.; Nespoulet, R.; Ait Lyazidi, S.; Bejjit, L.

2018-05-01

Medieval wall painting fragments, taken at the medieval Mosque of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, have been investigated by means of X-ray fluorescence and UV-Vis-NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopies. The analyses permitted to determine the palette of pigments used by craftsmen of the time. Hematite or red ochre were used to obtain red brown colours, calcite for white, copper-based pigments for blue and blue-grey shades while a mixture of cinnabar, lead-based pigments and hematite was adopted to make red-orange colours. Furthermore, the analysis of mortars (external layer and plaster) on these wall painting samples revealed that they are composed mainly by calcite and sometimes by additional compounds such as quartz and gypsum.

Becoming Artifacts Medieval Seals, Passports and the Future of Digital Identity

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Chango, Mawaki

2012-01-01

What does a digital identity token have to do with medieval seals? Is the history of passports of any use for enabling the discovery of Internet users' identity when crossing virtual domain boundaries during their digital browsing and transactions? The agility of the Internet architecture and its simplicity of use have been the engines of its…

Solidarity and Brotherhood in Medieval Italian Confraternities: AWay of Inclusion or Exclusion? Solidarity and Brotherhood in Medieval Italian Confraternities: A Way of Inclusion or Exclusion?

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Marina Gazzini

2012-10-01

Full Text Available

Historians usually consider medieval confraternities as lay religious communities involved in devotional and charitable practices which carried out a socializing function as well. Confraternities, when seen through this lens, fundamentally appear to be inclusive communities which helped strengthen the identities of good believers and good citizens by focusing on the solidarity created among the members of the association itself. This ecumenical vision depends essentially on a positive prejudice which is automatically ascribed to the concept of solidarity, and which often leads one to forget that, though solidarity in some cases may have rationales for inclusion, in many others it can be a source of exclusion. Yet, these opposite characteristics only seem to conflict, because to exclude someone means including someone else at the same time. The aim of this short paper is to discuss these aspects, especially with respect to northern late medieval Italy, along the lines of the question posed in these preliminary remarks: were medieval confraternities inclusive communities or exclusive institutions?

Gli studi sulle confraternite medievali, oltre che agli aspetti devozionali e caritativi, sono soliti guardare alle finalità solidaristiche e inclusive di tali associazioni. E, a proposito di queste ultime, la solidarietà che si instaurava all’interno del gruppo confraternale, e fra questo e quella parte della popolazione destinataria di solidarietà e assistenza, spirituale come materiale, viene vista come funzionale al rafforzamento del ruolo e dell’identità di buon cittadino (o buon suddito e di buon fedele. Un pregiudizio positivo grava però sul concetto di solidarietà: se vi sono solidarietà che includono, ne esistono tuttavia altre che escludono. Una confraternita infatti prevedeva spazi chiusi di azione, fisici e metaforici, tali da escludere chi se ne trovava al di fuori. Sulla base di esemplificazioni relative all’Italia del

Embroided Portraits in the Romanian Medieval Art

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Ecaterina Marghidan

2015-05-01

Full Text Available If the artistic value of the Romanian medieval embroidery is obvious, it is no less real its documentary value. Most embroided portraits are made on liturgical pieces and they are a proof of the relationship of the rulers with the Orthodox Church. The position of the characters is a mute way of communicating the status that the voievod had. The vertical rigid representations, kneeling, the gestures of the palms and elbows, the beneficence objects, the way characters are grouped, the proportion or their placement in the work can be symbolically interpreted depending on the type of the Liturgical item on which the embroidery was done.

In praise of death : history and poetry in medieval Marwar (South Asia)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kamphorst, Janet

2008-01-01

This study of heroic and epic “war poetry” transmitted by the poets of pastoral-nomadic communities in medieval Marwar (Rajasthan) evokes the lived past of the Rajput, Bhil and Charan of the Marwari desert with a detailed analysis of poetic sources concerning Pabuji, a fourteenth-century warrior and

Optical spectroscopy applied to the analysis of medieval and post-medieval plain flat glass fragments excavated in Belgium

Science.gov (United States)

Meulebroeck, W.; Wouters, H.; Baert, K.; Ceglia, A.; Terryn, H.; Nys, K.; Thienpont, H.

2010-04-01

Window glass fragments from four Belgian sites were studied and for a set of eighty-five samples the UV-VIS-NIR transmission spectra were analyzed. This collection contains historical and archaeological finds originating from religious buildings namely the Basilica of Our Lady of Hanswijk in Mechelen (17th-20thc) and the Church of Our Lady in Bruges (16th-20thc) as well as from secular buildings as a private house/Antwerp (18th-1948) and the castle of Middelburg-in-Flanders (1448-17thc). All sites contain material on the hinge point between the medieval and the industrial tradition. The variation in composition of the analyzed samples can be explained by the use of different glassmaking recipes, more specifically the use of different raw materials. The composition of window glass differs essentially in the type of flux, using a potash rich fluxing agent until the post-medieval times and industrial soda from the 19th century onwards. A second difference concerns the iron impurities in the glass. For all fragments a clear compositional classification could be made based on the iron concentration. These conclusions were based on archaeological research and drawn after submitting samples to expensive, complex, time-consuming and destructive chemical analyzing methods. Our study indicates that similar conclusions could be made applying the proposed optical based methodology for plain window glass. As a whole, the obtained results make it possible to cluster the fragments for a particular site based on three different sensing parameters: the UV absorption edge, the color and the presence of characteristic absorption bands. This information helps in identifying trends to date window glass collections and indicating the use of different raw materials, production technologies and/or provenance.

In-situ diagnosis of stone monuments; the Ruin Garden in Székesfehérvár

Science.gov (United States)

Theodoridou, Magdalini; Török, Ákos

2014-05-01

Székesfehérvár is a city in central Hungary, located around 65 km southwest of Budapest. In the Middle Ages (11th and 12th centuries), the city was a Royal residence and until the Turkish occupation in 1543, one of the most important cities of Hungary. The Ruin Garden of Székesfehérvár is a unique assemblage of monuments belonging to the cultural heritage of Hungary due to its important role in the Middle Ages as the coronation church for the kings of the Hungarian Christian Kingdom and the burial place for fifteen kings and other members of the royal families and the high nobility. It was also the home of the royal treasury and relics. It is comprised of a provostal church dedicated to Virgin Mary, so called today "Royal Basilica", royal tombs and related ecclesial and lay buildings. Since it has been nominated for "National Memorial Place", its present and future protection is required. Its several reconstructions and expansions throughout Hungarian history introduce another aspect of the importance of the historical site. By a quick overview of the current state of the monument, the presence of several lithotypes could be found among the remained building and decorative stones. Therefore, the research related to the materials in order to understand their composition, structure, origin and behavior was crucial not only for the conservation of that specific monument but also for a series of other historic structures in the Hungarian territory. In order to help the study of the Ruin Garden in Székesfehérvár, a series of maps was created based on in-situ investigations. Five wall sections were selected for the sake of the different lithotypes distribution and the different construction periods were the ruins belong to. The total mapped area covers about 30 m2 of the existing walls surfaces. Three different kinds of maps were designed for each wall section. The first series of maps depicts the different construction periods of the selected section of the

Un suelo referible al periodo calido medieval en Patagonia Austral y Tierra del Fuego (Argentina. Aspectos cronologicos y paleoclimaticos

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Favier Dubois, C. M.

2002-08-01

Full Text Available Geoarchaeological work done in Southernmost Patagonia and in the north of Tierra del Fuego, have revealed the recurrent presence of a paedogenesis interval represented by a soil of an A-AC-C profile, with a mollic epipedon, in the upper section of eolian and colluvial deposits of the late Holocene. This soil is today buried in the sites that have been analyzed, while it remains exposed in other areas of the landscape. Radiocarbon dates obtained on materials placed below it (maximum ages and those obtained by OCR (Oxidizable Carbon Ratio in the AC horizon of this soil (minimum ages, indicate the beginning of its development around the year 1000 BP. Its chronology and environmental implications suggest a relationship with the medieval climatic fluctuations called Medieval Warm Period or Medieval Optimum in Europe. This period has correlates detected in Patagonia by dendroclimatic studies.Estudios geoarqueológicos realizados en 5 localidades de Patagonia austral y norte Tierra del Fuego han revelado la recurrente presencia de un suelo de perfil A-AC-C, de epipedon mólico, en depósitos eólicos y coluviales del Holoceno tardío. Este suelo se observa sepultado en los yacimientos arqueológicos analizados, mientras que permanece expuesto en otras posiciones del paisaje. Numerosas edades máximas y mínimas obtenidas por 14C y por la técnica de OCR (Oxidizable Carbon Ratio indican el comienzo de su desarrollo hacia el 1000 AP. Su cronología e implicancias ambientales permiten vincularlo con fluctuaciones climáticas desarrolladas durante el denominado Período Cálido Medieval u Optimo Medieval Europeo, con correlatos detectados en Patagonia a través de estudios dendroclimáticos.

Waste Management and Attitudes Towards Cleanliness in Medieval Central Europe

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Havlíček Filip

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with the relationships between people and waste in the Middle Ages, primarily in urban environments in Central Europe. At the center of interest are the attitudes of the inhabitants of medieval cities towards cleanliness and a description of different waste management practices. This paper also describes an experiment using ashes to launder clothing as one possible use of a particular waste material.

Material Culture and Diasporic Experiences: A Case of Medieval Hanse Merchantsin the Baltic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Naum, Magdalena

2015-01-01

The Hanseatic League, a late medieval merchant association with roots in northern German towns, is credited with the establishment of extensive economic and geographic connections and considerable impact on the development of urban culture around the Baltic and the North Sea. Its merchants...

Cranial vault trauma and selective mortality in medieval to early modern Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boldsen, Jesper L; Milner, George R; Weise, Svenja

2015-01-01

to interpersonal violence in past populations. Three medieval to early modern Danish skeletal samples are used to estimate the effect of selective mortality on males with cranial vault injuries who survived long enough for bones to heal. The risk of dying for these men was 6.2 times higher than...

Auditory Ossicles in Archaeological Skeletal Material from Medieval Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qvist, M; Grøntved, A M

2000-01-01

Auditory ossicles were collected from two skeletal materials from early medieval Denmark. A total of 147 and 1,162 ossicles were obtained from the 2 materials, constituting 23% and 55% of the possible in vivo ossicles. The numbers and percentages found are among the highest reported from studies...... of archaeological skeletal material. Archaeological ossicles may be used in palaeopathological evaluation of chronic otitis media and otosclerosis, and morphometric studies of the ossicles might be valuable in analysis of population genetics and taxonomy....

La tradición medieval prearistotélica y la formación de la politica como teoría a partir de 1265

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Francisco Bertelloni

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with the gradual constitution of the politica as theory in the middle ages within the division of the philosophiamoralis in ethica, oeconomica and politica. The author organizes the paper in three parts in accordance with three different stages of medieval treatment of the politica as science. First he gives an overview of the medieval notion of politica until the first half of the thirteenth century. Secondly he analyzes Albert's conception of politica in the treatise Super Ethica. Thirdly he shows Albert's modifications of his own conception after the medieval reception of Aristotle's Politics.

On the threshold of adulthood: A new approach for the use of maturation indicators to assess puberty in adolescents from medieval England.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Mary; Shapland, Fiona; Watts, Rebecca

2016-01-01

This study provides the first large scale analysis of the age at which adolescents in medieval England entered and completed the pubertal growth spurt. This new method has implications for expanding our knowledge of adolescent maturation across different time periods and regions. In total, 994 adolescent skeletons (10-25 years) from four urban sites in medieval England (AD 900-1550) were analyzed for evidence of pubertal stage using new osteological techniques developed from the clinical literature (i.e., hamate hook development, cervical vertebral maturation (CVM), canine mineralization, iliac crest ossification, and radial fusion). Adolescents began puberty at a similar age to modern children at around 10-12 years, but the onset of menarche in girls was delayed by up to 3 years, occurring around 15 for most in the study sample and 17 years for females living in London. Modern European males usually complete their maturation by 16-18 years; medieval males took longer with the deceleration stage of the growth spurt extending as late as 21 years. This research provides the first attempt to directly assess the age of pubertal development in adolescents during the 10th-17th centuries. Poor diet, infections, and physical exertion may have contributed to delayed development in the medieval adolescents, particularly for those living in the city of London. This study sheds new light on the nature of adolescence in the medieval period, highlighting an extended period of physical and social transition. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Antigüedades portátiles: transportes, ruinas y comunicaciones en la arqueología del siglo XIX Portable antiquities: transportation, ruins, and communications in nineteenth-century archeology

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Irina Podgorny

2008-09-01

Full Text Available En este trabajo presentamos un problema de la arqueología del siglo XIX: la transformación de las ruinas de la antigüedad americana en evidencia científica. Tomando el caso de la exploración arqueológica de Palenque luego de la independencia centroamericana y mexicana, analizaremos los intentos por hacer portátil las ruinas de una ciudad hallada en la selva a fines del siglo XVIII, analizando algunos de los medios creados y utilizados para resolver su transporte.The article addresses an issue in nineteenth-century archeology: the transformation of ancient American ruins into scientific evidence. It focuses specifically on the case of Palenque, a city discovered in the jungle in the late eighteenth century. The archeological exploration of this find, which occurred shortly after Central American and Mexican independence, entailed efforts to make these ruins portable. The article analyzes some of the means devised and used in their transportation.

Medieval emergence of sweet melons, Cucumis melo (Cucurbitaceae).

Science.gov (United States)

Paris, Harry S; Amar, Zohar; Lev, Efraim

2012-07-01

Sweet melons, Cucumis melo, are a widely grown and highly prized crop. While melons were familiar in antiquity, they were grown mostly for use of the young fruits, which are similar in appearance and taste to cucumbers, C. sativus. The time and place of emergence of sweet melons is obscure, but they are generally thought to have reached Europe from the east near the end of the 15th century. The objective of the present work was to determine where and when truly sweet melons were first developed. Given their large size and sweetness, melons are often confounded with watermelons, Citrullus lanatus, so a list was prepared of the characteristics distinguishing between them. An extensive search of literature from the Roman and medieval periods was conducted and the findings were considered in their context against this list and particularly in regard to the use of the word 'melon' and of adjectives for sweetness and colour. Medieval lexicographies and an illustrated Arabic translation of Dioscorides' herbal suggest that sweet melons were present in Central Asia in the mid-9th century. A travelogue description indicates the presence of sweet melons in Khorasan and Persia by the mid-10th century. Agricultural literature from Andalusia documents the growing of sweet melons, evidently casabas (Inodorous Group), there by the second half of the 11th century, which probably arrived from Central Asia as a consequence of Islamic conquest, trade and agricultural development. Climate and geopolitical boundaries were the likely causes of the delay in the spread of sweet melons into the rest of Europe.

Actively Engaging Students in Culture, Gender, and Class Issues in Medieval Literature

Science.gov (United States)

Donnelly, Colleen E.

2017-01-01

Students often find it difficult to understand literature of another era and a world that differs from their own. From interacting with illuminated manuscript pages to conducting a mock trial, this article discusses ways in which visual and active learning techniques can be used to engage students in medieval literature and culture.

Medieval iconography of watermelons in Mediterranean Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Paris, Harry S.; Daunay, Marie-Christine; Janick, Jules

2013-01-01

Background and Aims The watermelon, Citrullus lanatus (Cucurbitaceae), is an important fruit vegetable in the warmer regions of the world. Watermelons were illustrated in Mediterranean Antiquity, but not as frequently as some other cucurbits. Little is known concerning the watermelons of Mediterranean Europe during medieval times. With the objective of obtaining an improved understanding of watermelon history and diversity in this region, medieval drawings purportedly of watermelons were collected, examined and compared for originality, detail and accuracy. Findings The oldest manuscript found that contains an accurate, informative image of watermelon is the Tractatus de herbis, British Library ms. Egerton 747, which was produced in southern Italy, around the year 1300. A dozen more original illustrations were found, most of them from Italy, produced during the ensuing two centuries that can be positively identified as watermelon. In most herbal-type manuscripts, the foliage is depicted realistically, the plants shown as having long internodes, alternate leaves with pinnatifid leaf laminae, and the fruits are small, round and striped. The manuscript that contains the most detailed and accurate image of watermelon is the Carrara Herbal, British Library ms. Egerton 2020. In the agriculture-based manuscripts, the foliage, if depicted, is not accurate, but variation in the size, shape and coloration of the fruits is evident. Both red-flesh and white-flesh watermelons are illustrated, corresponding to the typical sweet dessert watermelons so common today and the insipid citron watermelons, respectively. The variation in watermelon fruit size, shape and coloration depicted in the illustrations indicates that at least six cultivars of watermelon are represented, three of which probably had red, sweet flesh and three of which appear to have been citrons. Evidently, citron watermelons were more common in Mediterranean Europe in the past than they are today. PMID:23904443

RESENHA: BROADIE, A. Introduction to medieval logic. Segunda edição. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002.

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Alexandre Cabeceiras

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Nessa obra, Broadie, após discutir qual seria a melhor ordem de exposição paraum texto sobre lógica medieval, decide tratar primeiro dos termos, depois dasproposições e, por fim, das inferências. Mas, não se restringindo ao que era uniforme oupredominante na Idade Média, explora disputas envolvendo lógicos ou filósofos daqueleperíodo. Delimitando seu objeto, estabelece que a obra lidará, hegemonicamente, commaterial produzido no período entre a segunda metade do século XIII e o final do séculoXV, por considerar essa a fase mais produtiva no que se refere à lógica medieval.

Finger printing of medieval investment cast idols by radiography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Venkatraman, B.; Babu Rao, C.; Bhattacharya, D.K.; Raj, Baldev

1993-01-01

Among the various methods, radiography is an important technique that can be used to fingerprint an idol. This is because, these idols are cast structures, and radiography is the most reliable technique for the detection of internal features like casting defects. This paper presents the radiographic methodology adopted and the results of the studies to characterise radiographically three medieval cast idols belonging to different periods 9th, 13th, and 16th century obtained from the government museum Madras. (author). 2 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs

Conservation of a medieval climbing stem by freeze-drying and resin impregnation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schaudy, R.; Slais, E.; Eibner, C.

1985-12-01

The conservation of a climbing stem originating from a medieval mining adit is described. The fragile wet object was preserved by a combined process consisting of freeze-drying after a polyethylene glycol bath and consecutive resin impregnation with curing by gamma irradiation. The whole conservation process took 1 year. The result is discussed. (Author)

Red layered medieval stained glass window characterization by means of micro-PIXE technique

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ortega-Feliu, I., E-mail: iofeliu@us.es [Centro Nacional de Aceleradores, Universidad de Sevilla, Avda. Thomas A. Edison 7, 41092 Sevilla (Spain); Gomez-Tubio, B. [Centro Nacional de Aceleradores, Universidad de Sevilla, Avda. Thomas A. Edison 7, 41092 Sevilla (Spain); Departamento de Fisica Aplicada III, Universidad de Sevilla (Spain); Respaldiza, M.A. [Centro Nacional de Aceleradores, Universidad de Sevilla, Avda. Thomas A. Edison 7, 41092 Sevilla (Spain); Departamento de Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad de Sevilla (Spain); Capel, F. [Instituto de Ceramica y Vidrio, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (Spain)

2011-10-15

Red layered medieval stained glass windows on a transparent greenish substrate are characteristic of European medieval cathedrals, but few compositional analyses have been performed on the coloured layers. The PIXE technique has been performed on a red layered stained glass window obtained during the restoration works carried out in Las Huelgas Monastery in Burgos (Spain). Protons of 3 MeV with a beam of 4 x 5 {mu}m{sup 2} were used to acquire elemental maps of a cross section of the sample, in order to observe the homogeneity of the layered structure and its substrate. In our work, copper was detected as in other layered glasses but a correspondence with lower amounts of zinc has also been determined. Both elements appear enriched in the red coloured layers, while the other quantified elements have the same relative composition along the sample. Corrosion layers, due to the lead supporting structure of the window, were also found.

The Medieval Climate Anomaly and Little Ice Age in Chesapeake Bay and the North Atlantic Ocean

Science.gov (United States)

Cronin, T. M.; Hayo, K.; Thunell, R.C.; Dwyer, G.S.; Saenger, C.; Willard, D.A.

2010-01-01

A new 2400-year paleoclimate reconstruction from Chesapeake Bay (CB) (eastern US) was compared to other paleoclimate records in the North Atlantic region to evaluate climate variability during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and Little Ice Age (LIA). Using Mg/Ca ratios from ostracodes and oxygen isotopes from benthic foraminifera as proxies for temperature and precipitation-driven estuarine hydrography, results show that warmest temperatures in CB reached 16-17. ??C between 600 and 950. CE (Common Era), centuries before the classic European Medieval Warm Period (950-1100. CE) and peak warming in the Nordic Seas (1000-1400. CE). A series of centennial warm/cool cycles began about 1000. CE with temperature minima of ~. 8 to 9. ??C about 1150, 1350, and 1650-1800. CE, and intervening warm periods (14-15. ??C) centered at 1200, 1400, 1500 and 1600. CE. Precipitation variability in the eastern US included multiple dry intervals from 600 to 1200. CE, which contrasts with wet medieval conditions in the Caribbean. The eastern US experienced a wet LIA between 1650 and 1800. CE when the Caribbean was relatively dry. Comparison of the CB record with other records shows that the MCA and LIA were characterized by regionally asynchronous warming and complex spatial patterns of precipitation, possibly related to ocean-atmosphere processes. ?? 2010.

Environment and Economy of the Early Medieval Settlement in Žatec

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kočár, P.; Čech, Petr; Kozáková, Radka; Kočárová, R.

2010-01-01

Roč. 1, 1-2 (2010), s. 45-60 ISSN 1804-848X R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAA800020706 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z80020508 Keywords : Žatec * Early Medieval Period * plant macroremains * agriculture * cereals * pollen analysis * charcoal analysis * three field system Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology http://www.iansa.eu/papers/IANSA-2010-01-02-kocar.pdf

On the street and in the bathhouse: medieval Galenism in action?

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Coomans, J.

2013-06-01

Full Text Available In this article we combine the perspective of medieval urban hygiene and the fi ndings of medical and intellectual historians by tracing some ways in which medieval urban residents and governments attempted to limit disease and promote health by recourse to preventative measures. In both of the urban regions and domains in focus, namely Italian streets and Dutch bathhouses, considerable thought had been put into reducing the health risks perceived as attending upon them, at times devising arguments and procedures that possibly refl ect insights from prevailing medical theories and the advice of practitioners. We suggest that the relation between medical learning and health practices was more complex than a trickledown process, and analyze them in the context of pre-modern “healthscaping”: a physical, social, legal, administrative, and political process by which urban individuals, groups, and especially governments sought to safeguard and improve collective wellbeing.En este artículo combinamos la perspectiva de la higiene urbana medieval con los hallazgos de los historiadores de la medicina y de la intelectualidad, analizando algunas de las formas con que los habitantes y los gobiernos urbanos medievales intentaron limitar las enfermedades y promover la salud mediante medidas preventivas. En las dos regiones que se toman en consideración (las calles italianas y los baños holandeses, se hizo un esfuerzo de reflexión considerable para reducir los riesgos de la salud, elaborando a veces argumentos y procedimientos que reflejaban las ideas de las teorías médicas imperantes y los consejos de los profesionales. Sugerimos que la relación entre el aprendizaje médico y las prácticas de salud era más compleja que un simple proceso de propagación, y la analizamos en el contexto de la preservación de la salud de carácter pre-moderno: un proceso físico, legal, administrativo y político mediante el cual individuos, grupos y, especialmente

DNA and bone structure preservation in medieval human skeletons.

Science.gov (United States)

Coulson-Thomas, Yvette M; Norton, Andrew L; Coulson-Thomas, Vivien J; Florencio-Silva, Rinaldo; Ali, Nadir; Elmrghni, Samir; Gil, Cristiane D; Sasso, Gisela R S; Dixon, Ronald A; Nader, Helena B

2015-06-01

Morphological and ultrastructural data from archaeological human bones are scarce, particularly data that have been correlated with information on the preservation of molecules such as DNA. Here we examine the bone structure of macroscopically well-preserved medieval human skeletons by transmission electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry, and the quantity and quality of DNA extracted from these skeletons. DNA technology has been increasingly used for analyzing physical evidence in archaeological forensics; however, the isolation of ancient DNA is difficult since it is highly degraded, extraction yields are low and the co-extraction of PCR inhibitors is a problem. We adapted and optimised a method that is frequently used for isolating DNA from modern samples, Chelex(®) 100 (Bio-Rad) extraction, for isolating DNA from archaeological human bones and teeth. The isolated DNA was analysed by real-time PCR using primers targeting the sex determining region on the Y chromosome (SRY) and STR typing using the AmpFlSTR(®) Identifiler PCR Amplification kit. Our results clearly show the preservation of bone matrix in medieval bones and the presence of intact osteocytes with well preserved encapsulated nuclei. In addition, we show how effective Chelex(®) 100 is for isolating ancient DNA from archaeological bones and teeth. This optimised method is suitable for STR typing using kits aimed specifically at degraded and difficult DNA templates since amplicons of up to 250bp were successfully amplified. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Das representações míticas à cultura clerical: as Fadas da Literatura Medieval

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Antonio P.V. Morás

1999-01-01

Full Text Available O presente artigo estuda a permanência dos mitos celtas no folclore medieval e como seus temas e motivos são assimilados pela cultura clerical do século XII em diante. O principal propósito do mesmo é analisar a dimensão simbólica dos mitos celtas e o deslocamento de seu sentido original nos textos produzidos no meio cavaleiresco.The present article studies the constancy of the celtic myths in the medieval folklore and how its themes and motifs are assimilated for the clerical culture of the XIIth. century and forth. The principal purpose of this article is analyse the symbolical dimension of the celtic myths and the displacement of its original sense in the literary texts produced in the chivalrous environment.

Galeata: chronic migraine independently considered in a medieval headache classification

OpenAIRE

Guerrero-Peral, Ángel Luís; de Frutos González, Virginia; Pedraza-Hueso, María Isabel

2014-01-01

Background Chronic migraine is a quite recent concept. However, there are descriptions suggestive of episodic migraine since the beginning of scientific medicine. We aim to review main headache classifications during Classical antiquity and compared them with that proposed in the 11th century by Constantine the African in his Liber Pantegni, one of the most influential texts in medieval medicine. Method We have carried out a descriptive review of Henricum Petrum's Latin edition, year 1539. Re...

Medieval codes of ius commune in Portugal: status quaestionis

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José Domingues

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Portugal inherited from the kingdom of León legal sources and its earliest law code. With the “rebirth” of Roman law, the Ius commune –arriving very early in the twelfth century– soon came to shape everyday life, from the middle ages until the Enlightenment of the late eighteenth century. Enormous research efforts have been made to locate chronologically and spatially medieval remnants of these legal texts. This work aims to provide a summary, including a comprehensive and updated picture, of the status quaestionis of this theme.

Tackling Tuwaitha's radioactive ruins

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-01-01

Full text: Some 1000 Iraqi men, women and children in a village near the former Tuwaitha nuclear site are living inside an area contaminated by radioactive residues and ruins. A project to clean-up the site, and other contaminated facilities in Iraq, was kick-started earlier this year at IAEA headquarters. Inhabitants of the Ishtar village, based within the Tuwaitha site boundary, some 20 kilometres south of Baghdad, are living in an area where levels of radiation are known to be higher than normal and prolonged exposure could prove risky over time. US authorities have supplied the IAEA with photographs of the Tuwaitha reactor that show crumbling facades and interiors of rubble, spray-painted with warnings like 'radioactive' and 'HOT'. (See Photo Essay). Once at the heart of Iraq's nuclear programme, the Tuwaitha complex was inspected and largely dismantled during IAEA-led weapons inspections in the 1990s and subsequently bombed in the 2003 war. It is one of a number of sites in the country identified as needing decommissioning or remediation where radioactive material was used or waste are buried. The Iraqi Government has requested the IAEA's assistance to prepare plans and programmes to decommission contaminated facilities in the country. The project's groundwork was set at an IAEA meeting in Vienna in February 2006, attended by the Iraqi Minister for Science and Technology, representatives from sixteen countries, including the US, and the European Commission. 'This is a huge task, one that could take many years,' says Mr. Dennis Reisenweaver, the IAEA safety expert in charge of the effort. Among the first steps is to identify, cordon off, and prioritise contaminated areas that pose the most risk to the public. Some of the challenges facing the clean-up effort include determining now unknown locations where contaminated equipment and materials might be buried, and recovering lost records about the contents of radioactive materials stored in waste containers

A medieval city within Assyrian walls: the continuity of the town of Arbil in Northern Mesopotamia

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Nováček, K.; Amin, A.M.; Melčák, Miroslav

2013-01-01

Roč. 75, autumn (2013), s. 1-42 ISSN 0021-0889 Institutional support: RVO:68378009 Keywords : medieval Arbil * North Mesopotamia * topography * remote sensing * archeology Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology

The death of a medieval Danish warrior. A case of bone trauma interpretation

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Forsom Eva

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In 1934 a grave was found in the church ruins of the Cistercian Abbey at Øm in central Jutland, Denmark (founded in 1172, demolished 1561 AD. The grave contained the skeletal remains of an individual lying in a supine position with the head towards the west. The anthropological analysis revealed that the remains belonged to a young male, aged 25-30 years at death and approximately 162.7 cm tall. He had 9 perimortem sharp force lesions, five of which were cranial and four were postcranial, indicating he suffered a violent death in a swordfight.

Opisthorchiasis in infant remains from the medieval Zeleniy Yar burial ground of XII-XIII centuries AD

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Sergey Mikhailovich Slepchenko

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We present a paleoparasitological analysis of the medieval Zeleniy Yar burial ground of the XII-XII centuries AD located in the northern part of Western Siberia. Parasite eggs, identified as eggs of Opisthorchis felineus, were found in the samples from the pelvic area of a one year old infant buried at the site. Presence of these eggs in the soil samples from the infant’s abdomen suggests that he/she was infected with opisthorchiasis and imply consumption of undercooked fish. Ethnographic records collected among the population of the northern part of Western Siberia reveal numerous cases of feeding raw fish to their children. Zeleniy Yar case of opisthorchiasis suggests that this dietary custom has persisted from at least medieval times.

Medieval Dobrun

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Popović Marko Đ.

2002-01-01

Full Text Available An interesting and highly structured medieval complex, Dobrun has been attracting attention of scholars for a long time. Unlike the ruins of medieval fortifications, the remains of wall-painting in the former monastery church received most of the attention. A series of problems have, however remained open. Some of them have escaped observation, and there are hypotheses that ought to be reassessed. The Dobrun complex is not a matter of local or regional significance. It is a surviving testimony to the events and processes that marked the century preceding the final Ottoman occupation of Serbia and Bosnia. After outlining the research work done to date and analyzing the original historical documents and physical remains, this paper brings the author's views of the issue and some reflections aimed at suggesting directions of further research. The Dobrun complex is situated on the fringe of a hospitable landscape in the lower Rzav valley, not far from Višegrad. It is a region of present-day Republika Srpska on the border with Serbia. The medieval fortifications high up on cliffs above either side of the river controlled the entrance to the gorge, a natural border between western Serbia and Podrinje (the Drina river basin. About a kilometer downstream, on a plot of flat land above the right riverbank, surrounded by rocky hillsides and opening onto a gully cut by a mountain stream, sits the monastic complex of Dobrun with the Church of the Annunciation. The discussion of the structural remains of the complex (Fig. 2 proceed from the multipart whole, which consists of fortifications on the rocks above either bank of the Rzav, built in such a way as to take full advantage of the terrain for defence purposes. The steep slopes and inaccessible rocks complete with walls and towers form a fortress considered at the time of building to be virtually unassailable. Fortification elements were laid out on the western edge of the gorge, which was and still is an

On the distribution of trace element concentrations in multiple bone elements in 10 Danish medieval and post-medieval individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Lund Rasmussen, Kaare; Skytte, Lilian; D'imporzano, Paolo; Orla Thomsen, Per; Søvsø, Morten; Lier Boldsen, Jesper

2017-01-01

The differences in trace element concentrations among 19 different bone elements procured from 10 archaeologically derived human skeletons have been investigated. The 10 individuals are dated archaeologically and some by radiocarbon dating to the medieval and post-medieval period, an interval from ca. AD 1150 to ca. AD 1810. This study is relevant for two reasons. First, most archaeometric studies analyze only one bone sample from each individual; so to what degree are the bones in the human body equal in trace element chemistry? Second, differences in turnover time of the bone elements makes the cortical tissues record the trace element concentrations in equilibrium with the blood stream over a longer time earlier in life than the trabecular. Therefore, any differences in trace element concentrations between the bone elements can yield what can be termed a chemical life history of the individual, revealing changes in diet, provenance, or medication throughout life. Thorough decontamination and strict exclusion of non-viable data has secured a dataset of high quality. The measurements were carried out using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (for Fe, Mn, Al, Ca, Mg, Na, Ba, Sr, Zn, Pb and As) and Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (for Hg) on ca. 20 mg samples. Twelve major and trace elements have been measured on 19 bone elements from 10 different individuals interred at five cemeteries widely distributed in medieval and renaissance Denmark. The ranges of the concentrations of elements were: Na (2240-5660 µg g -1 ), Mg (440-2490 µg g -1 ), Al (9-2030 µg g -1 ), Ca (22-36 wt. %), Mn (5-11450 µg g -1 ), Fe (32-41850 µg g -1 ), Zn (69-2610 µg g -1 ), As (0.4-120 µg g -1 ), Sr (101-815 µg g -1 ), Ba (8-880 µg g -1 ), Hg (7-78730 ng g -1 ), and Pb (0.8-426 µg g -1 ). It is found that excess As is mainly of diagenetic origin. The results support that Ba and Sr concentrations are effective provenance or dietary indicators. Migrating

The archaeology of early medieval violence: the mass grave at Budeč, Czech Republic

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Štefan, I.; Stránská, Petra; Vondrová, H.

2016-01-01

Roč. 90, č. 351 (2016), s. 759-776 ISSN 0003-598X Institutional support: RVO:67985912 Keywords : Czech Republic * Bohemia * Budeč * tenth-eleventh centuries * early medieval * mass grave * violence * warfare Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology Impact factor: 1.536, year: 2016

Characterisation of early medieval frescoes by μ-PIXE, SEM and Raman spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zucchiatti, A.; Prati, P.; Bouquillon, A.; Giuntini, L.; Massi, M.; Migliori, A.; Cagnana, A.; Roascio, S.

2004-01-01

We have studied the VIII-IX century frescoes of the Longobard temple of Cividale del Friuli in Italy with noninvasive sampling and, for the first time in such a context, with high chemical and spatial sensitivity techniques (PIXE, SEM and Raman). Results demonstrate richness of manufacturing details and integrate in a substantial way the historic and artistic framework of this early medieval monument

Characterisation of early medieval frescoes by {mu}-PIXE, SEM and Raman spectroscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zucchiatti, A. E-mail: zucc@ge.infn.it; Prati, P.; Bouquillon, A.; Giuntini, L.; Massi, M.; Migliori, A.; Cagnana, A.; Roascio, S

2004-06-01

We have studied the VIII-IX century frescoes of the Longobard temple of Cividale del Friuli in Italy with noninvasive sampling and, for the first time in such a context, with high chemical and spatial sensitivity techniques (PIXE, SEM and Raman). Results demonstrate richness of manufacturing details and integrate in a substantial way the historic and artistic framework of this early medieval monument.

The Bistrup Project: a comparison of floor-tiles from Medieval churches by means of neutron activation analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Als Hansen, B.; Aaman Soerensen, M.; Heydorn, K.; Hoejslet Christensen, L.; Mejdahl, V.; Winther-Nielsen, M.; Conradsen, K.

1982-01-01

Medieval, decorated floor-tiles from a number of churches in and around Roskilde, Denmark, have been compared with identically ornamented wasters of floor-tiles found inside two kilns excavated at Bistrup near Roskilde and with clay from Bistrup and Oroe. For each sample the concentrations of 14 elements were determined by means of neutron activation analysis, and the results were submitted to a stepwise discriminant analysis. All floor-tile groups showed a distinct similarity to the groups of wasters and clay from Bistrup, and the result is thus compatible with the archaeological view that during the Medieval period Bistrup functioned as a production centre for tiles impregnated with these particular ornamentations. (author)

[Tooth macromorphological and ultrastructural analysis of osteological material from the medieval locality of St. Panteleimon Church in Nis].

Science.gov (United States)

Mitić, Nadica; Mitić, Aleksandar; Mitić, Vladimir; Savić, Vojin; Nikolić, Marija

2010-01-01

Analysis of macromorphological and ultrastructural tooth characteristics of osteological material from the medieval site of St. Pantaleimon Church in Nis provides us with insight on the life, nutrition and habits of medieval population, as well as the structure and composition of their teeth. The aim of this research, based on the tooth inspection of skeletal remains from the medieval site of St. Pantaleimon Church in Nis, was to analyze macromorphological characteristics, ultrastructure of the dental tissue of maxillary and mandibular molars, canines and incisors, as well as their chemical composition. Macromorphological and ultrastructural analysis of the dental tissue of osteological material dating from the 12th century included 1312 teeth with advanced abrasion. Macromorphological changes were detected by using a dental mirror, probe and radiography. After irrigation, the teeth were prepared using the standard procedure and analyzed by scanning electronic microscopy (JEOL-JSM-5300). Chemical analysis was done by expanded downscaling (EDS) method for Mg, P, Ca. The analysis detected second degree abrasions of all teeth in individuals aged 20-25 years. Third and fourth degree abrasions of teeth were detected in individuals aged over 40 years. Ultrastructural analysis showed a complete obliteration of dentin tubules and pulp of the lower incisors, the apposition of intratubular dentin inside the tubules, as well as extensive deformity and loss of dentin structure on molars with preserved pulp volume and nerve fiber calcification. The calcification of nerve fibers showed that the formation of intratubular dentin was proportional with the biological potential of pulp and the degree of abrasion, and inversely proportional with the size of dentin surface. Chemical analysis showed that in the analyzed teeth Ca composition was slightly lower than that in the control group, P composition was almost identical, while Mg composition was multiply increased in comparison to

"Quid dant artes nisi luctum?": Learning, Ambition, and Careers in the Medieval University.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferruolo, Stephen C.

1988-01-01

Focusing on the medieval university during its formative years (late 1100s and early 1200s), the author addresses questions such as "How did the ambitions of students and masters influence the organization and curriculum of these new institutions?" Concludes that society was served by these universities despite the indication that the…

Man, nutrition and mobility: A comparison of teeth and bone from the Medieval era and the present from Pb and Sr isotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aberg, G.; Stray, H.; Fosse, G.

1998-01-01

Naturally occurring isotopic systems, such as strontium (Sr) and lead (Pb), are very useful for characterizing different sources and to produce background information. Norwegian teeth from the Medieval era have 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ratios between 18.8 and 18.2, in comparison with present day ratios of between 18.0 and 17.6 showing the impact of Pb from modern industrialization and from traffic. Sr analyses of Medieval teeth show that an individual living in a coastal town on the west coast of Norway can easily be distinguished from one in a rural area at that time. The Sr signature shows that Medieval people lived on local products while present people to a greater degree live on imported or domestic industrially processed food. Medieval and modern teeth from one site give similar Pb signatures and concentrations indicating no increase in pollution over time. However, the impact of industrial pollution can be seen from Pb analyses on contemporary teeth, so that the method can be used to monitor emission of heavy metals from local industry. Whilst the Pb and Sr natural isotopic systems individually provide valuable information, a combination of the two techniques is a very powerful tool in environmental and archaeological research. (Copyright (c) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.)

A spectroscopic study of Brazilwood paints in medieval books of hours.

Science.gov (United States)

Melo, Maria João; Otero, Vanessa; Vitorino, Tatiana; Araújo, Rita; Muralha, Vânia S F; Lemos, Ana; Picollo, Marcello

2014-01-01

In this work, microspectrofluorimetry was for the first time applied to the identification of the red organic lakes that are characteristic of the lavish illuminations found in 15(th) century books of hours. Microspectrofluorimetry identified those red paints, ranging from opaque pink to dark red glazes, as brazilwood lakes. An unequivocal characterization was achieved by comparison with reference paints produced following recipes from the medieval treatise The Book on How to Make Colours, and was further confirmed by fiber optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS). For these treasured cultural objects, microspectrofluorimetry and FORS proved to be the only techniques that could identify, in situ or in microsamples, the chromophore responsible for the pinkish hues: a brazilein-Al(3+) complex. Additionally, a multi-analytical approach provided a full characterization of the color paints, including pigments, additives, and binders. Microspectroscopic techniques, based on infrared and X-ray radiation, enabled us to disclose the full palette of these medieval manuscripts, including the elusive greens, for which, besides malachite, basic copper sulfates were found; Raman microscopy suggested a mixture of brochantite and langite. Infrared analysis proved invaluable for a full characterization of the additives that were applied as fillers or whites (chalk, gypsum, and white lead) as well as the proteinaceous and polysaccharide binders that were found pure or in mixture.

[Medieval scenes of ritual circumcision as a reflection of sociopolitical circumstances].

Science.gov (United States)

Pust, R A; Drost, C; Willerding, H; Bschleipfer, T

2005-03-01

Ritual circumcision in males is regarded as one of the oldest surgical procedures. Whereas their medieval illustrations are mostly interpreted within a religious context, this study tries to prove the influence of the political and social situation of the above-mentioned period.Selected iconography of ritual male circumcision in the Middle Ages from Germany, France, Italy, and the Byzantine Empire was critically examined. Special attention was paid to the stained glass windows recently returned to St. Mary's Church in Frankfurt/Oder, where circumcision of the so-called Antichrist is also shown. Up to now we could not find any medical historical information about this subject. Clerical fine art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries shows more frequently than before illustrations of ritual circumcision, which evidently demonstrate the political, economic, and social tensions and controversies of that period. In many cases this iconography indicates a rejection of this old Jewish tradition and its confessors. Also the stained glass image of the Antichrist posthetomy could be interpreted as criticism or aversion.This study expands our approach to medieval illustrations of ritual circumcision that have hitherto mostly been interpreted in religious terms. The influence of changing political and social situations in the Middle Ages is evident.

El comercio de los esclavos musulmanes en el Portugal medieval : rutas y papel económico

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François Soyer

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Actualmente existen muy pocos estudios acerca de la esclavitud musulmana en Portugal. Cuando se trata el comercio de los esclavos en la historia portuguesa, generalmente los trabajos se refieren al comercio de los esclavos africanos que los navegantes portugueses comenzaron traer de vuelta a Europa desde el año 1441 en adelante, a pesar de que desde el siglo XI existía una pobulación de esclavos musulmanes —los llamados mouros cativos—. En este artículo propongo estudiar, de la forma la más detallada posible, las características y dinámicas del comercio de los esclavos musulmanes en el reino cristiano de Portugal durante la Edad Media, tratando de responder a preguntas relevantes, como las de cuál era el origen y el papel económico de los esclavos musulmanes en el Portugal medieval, qué sabemos del comercio de los esclavos en aquel reino, o a la cuestión de si Portugal fue un país exportador o importador de esclavos.Whilst the presence of Muslim slaves in medieval Spain has attracted considerable scholarly attention from historians both inside and outside of the Iberian Peninsula, the same cannot be said of the history of Muslim slaves in the medieval Christian kingdom of Portugal. Most studies of slavery in Portugal focus on captives from sub-Saharan Africa brought back by Portuguese slavers to Europe from 1441 onwards even though Muslim slaves were present in Portugal from the eleventh century at the very least. We know next-to-nothing about these Muslim slaves. This article proposes to examine in as much detail as possible the characteristics and dynamics of the commerce of Muslim slaves in medieval Portugal. It addresses problematic questions regarding the origins and economic role of Muslim slaves in premodern Portugal, the nature of slave trading and whether Portugal was an importer or exporter of slaves.

The basis of the modern medical hygiene in the medieval Medical School of Salerno.

Science.gov (United States)

Bifulco, Maurizio; Capunzo, Mario; Marasco, Magda; Pisanti, Simona

2015-01-01

The link between hygiene and the concept of transmission of infective diseases was established earlier than the birth of microbiology, thanks to the studies of two neglected physicians of maternity clinic, Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis and Oliver Holmes, in the mid-1800s. Surprisingly, centuries earlier, a medieval women physician, Trotula de Ruggiero, introduced for the first time the notion of diseases’ prevention, highlighting the importance of the association of personal hygiene, balanced nutrition and physical activity for better health. Moreover, she was particularly concerned of hands hygiene for the midwives during child birth, to preserve the good health of both the mother and the baby. She practiced inside the medieval Medical School of Salerno, whose main text, the “Regimen Sanitatis Salerni” has an entire part dedicated to hygiene, providing hygienic precepts that anticipate the concepts derived from the revolutionary discoveries in medical science only centuries later.

Classification of medieval ceramics in the Rhineland and neighbouring areas by neutron activation analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mommsen, H.; Hein, A.

1997-01-01

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) is known to be well suited for provenance determinations of ceramics, since more than 25 minor and trace elements can be measured with precisions high enough to discriminate between different pottery production workshops. INAA-data are presented for more than 1500 shards, mostly wasters, produced in different places such as Brueggen/Elmpt, Brunssum/Schinveld, Frechen/Cologne, Hoehr-Grenzhausen, Mayen, Paffrath, Pingsdorf/Bruehl, Raeren and Siegburg, to name only the most important earthen and stoneware production centres of the Rhine area in medieval and post medieval times. It turned out, that the wares of these different centres, although by archeological criteria often very similar, can be clearly recognized by INAA. This large reference databank can now be used to determine export pieces from these centres and to trace trade relations in the Middle Ages. An examples of a provenance determination of questionable finds of Pingsdorf and Paffrath Ware from Emden is given. (author)

Determination of the origin of the medieval glass bracelets discovered in Dubna, Moscow Region, Russia, using the neutron activation analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dmitrieva, S.O.; Frontasyeva, M.V.; Dmitriev, A.Yu.; Dmitriev, A.A.

2017-01-01

The work is dedicated to the determination of the origin of archaeological finds from medieval glass using the method of neutron activation analysis (NAA). Among such objects we can discover things not only produced in ancient Russian glassmaking workshops but also imported from Byzantium. The authors substantiate the ancient Russian origin of the medieval glass bracelets of pre-Mongol period, found on the ancient Dubna settlement. The conclusions are based on data on the glass chemical composition obtained as a result of NAA of 10 fragments of bracelets at the IBR-2 reactor, FLNP, JINR.

Una mención medieval de los ispallenses de Plinto (Nh.III, 24

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Javier CABALLERO CASADO

2010-02-01

Full Text Available RESUMEN: En este artículo se plantea la identidad de los ispallenses citados por Plinto (NH, III, 24 en la lista de pueblos pertenecientes al Convento Jurídico Cesaraugustano con el topónimo Spalanam, señalado como límite común de las diócesis de Osea y Caesaraugusta en la División de Wamba, documento medieval de principios del siglo XII.A partir de la relación entre ambos topónimos y el texto del triffinium de Fuentes de Ebro (Zaragoza, se realiza un ensayo de localization de los ispallenses plinianos.ABSTRACT: In this paper we propose the identity between the ispallenses mentioned by Pliny's Natural History (III, 24 and the place-name Spallanam, mentioned as common boundery between the bishoprics of Osea and Caesaraugusta in the book División de Wamba, a medieval document probably written at the beginning of 12th. Century From the relationship between this two place-names and the text conserved in Fuentes de Ebro's (Zaragoza triffinium, we try to situate those plinian's ispallenses.

Exposition des ymages des figures qui sunt: discourses about images in Medieval Occident

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Maria Cristina Correia Leandro Pereira

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Contrary to what indicates the famous – and questionable – formula "Bible des illetrés”, the medieval discourses on images went well beyond just highlighting its didactic function. In this article, we present a sample of this diversity, analyzing a number of medieval texts dealing with images, which we have divided into five broad categories (not mutually exclusive: on the contrary, sometimes complementary. The first and most numerous are the theoretical discourses on images involving theological questions. Then, still based on arguments of theological order, a second group corresponds to those texts that seek to intervene in the practice of images through normative propositions. As a result from the previous two types is the third group: the speeches dealing with the reception of images and the reactions they cause. A fourth group are the writings that mention the producers of images: both practical documents and those that express value judgments about their Works. And finally, there are texts that describe the images, both their iconographic content and their materiality.

Combined GPR and ERT exploratory geophysical survey of the Medieval Village of Pancorbo Castle (Burgos, Spain)

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández-Álvarez, José-Paulino; Rubio-Melendi, David; Quirós Castillo, Juan Antonio; González-Quirós, Andrés; Cimadevilla-Fuente, David

2017-09-01

Ground-penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) have been fruitfully employed for archaeological purposes. An area at the Pancorbo medieval site in Burgos (Spain) has been jointly explored by GPR and ERT in the search for the buried remains of the Pancorbo medieval village. After data collection, quality control and merging, a shallow depth of interest was identified and studied in detail. 3D resistivity simulation, considering sensible geometrical structures of the targets helped discover anomalies present in the area. On the other hand, visual GPR inspection was considerably enhanced by trace energy attribute analysis which provided a plan view of the existing anomalies. Two posterior archaeological excavations have a very good correlation between the identified anomalies and the excavated remains. The survey also provides hints for the continuation of the excavation.

Location-based technology and game-based learning in secondary education: learning about medieval Amsterdam

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Admiraal, W.; Akkerman, S.; Huizenga, J.; van Zeijts, H.

2009-01-01

Mobile games in education are excellent ways to combine situated, active and constructive learning with fun. In the mobile city game Frequency 1550 teams -of four students each- step into the game's world. With help of the Internet, smart phones and GPS technology, Amsterdam changes into a medieval

ACTIVE BRIBERY IN CROATIAN MEDIEVAL AND MODERN LAW

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Mijo Galiot

2016-01-01

Full Text Available When it comes to writing about the history of punishment, it is always linked with critically re-thinking and better understanding of the contemporary system of punishment, as a result of its long historical development. In such a way, „contemporary criminal law cannot be seen as a result of an effort made by a certain nation or in a certain epoch“. „Permanently faced with social changes, in its long historical development, criminal law has been modifying its fundamental principles and categories, by building new institutes and instruments, in order to become less cruel and more human, but not less efficient than in earlier stages of its development, characterized by rudeness, cruelty and exemplarity of its sanctions. Although it is not easy to answer the question, if there is the measure, in which social understanding of punishment and its purpose, determines the civilizational level in the society, there is no doubt about the fact that civilizational and legal point of view towards punishment derives from a waste range of factors: general, cultural, sociological, psychological, religious, political and other factors that should be taken altogether in their historical dimension. The genesis of criminal law is linked with the moment of establishing the public authorities and the state. According to different criteria, it is possible to introduce different periodization of criminal law. When it comes to the historical criterion, there can be made a historical division into periods of ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary criminal law (punishment, which periods should not be taken as absolutely inseparable. The point of this paper is to present a review and development of punishing active bribery in the Croatian medieval and modern law.

ECOHYDROLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES OF DEGRADING BAOLIS DURING MEDIEVAL PERIOD IN DELHI: traditional practices of water management

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Subhash Anand

2017-03-01

Baolis es el depósito de agua en los monumentos arquitectónicos que habían sido construidos por varios sultanato de Delhi en diferentes períodos de tiempo y la mayoría de Baolis fueron construidos durante el período de tiempo medieval. Los Baolis se encuentran en todo el país, pero todos son diferentes en lo que respecta al arte y la arquitectura. Los sultanatos de Delhi habían construido una serie de Baolis en Delhi para mostrar su control y prestigio en la sociedad. Hay alrededor de 12 Baolis existentes en Delhi y de ellos, cuatro Baolis están a punto de extinguirse y pocos Baolis como Nizamuddin, Firoz Shah y Rajon ki Baolis están siendo utilizados por la gente local. Este artículo comprende la información relacionada con Baolis que fue construida por sultanatos de Delhi durante el período de tiempo medieval en Delhi. El presente trabajo intenta describir el método tradicional de gestión del agua como Baolis en época medieval y su estado actual. El estudio se basa en fuentes primarias y secundarias de información y se realizó una encuesta primaria y personal y se han utilizado fuentes secundarias de datos e información en este documento. El artículo concluyó que Baolis no está teniendo buenas condiciones y estas están muy contaminadas y degradadas y su degradación también conduce a la pérdida ecológica hidrológica en sus áreas adyacentes. Los acercamientos descuidados de la gente hacia estos Baolis son causas principales detrás de la extinción y de la degradación de estos Baolis. La conciencia de la comunidad y la participación es la única manera de proteger a estos Baolis de la extinción. Palabras clave: Baolis; Arquitectónico; Monumento; Medieval; Degradación; Eco hidrología; Contaminación; Manejo.

Universality of revealed Law and reflections on religions in Medieval Islamic philosophy: a few considerations

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Sara Barchiesi

2015-05-01

Full Text Available By analysing some Medieval Islamic philosophical theories, this paper aims at investigating the approach adopted by authors such as Avicenna and Averroës in respect of religions different from those of origin (Judaism, Christianism, Zoroastrianism and Sabeism. Moreover, it reflects on the universality of Islamic religion. The author will examine these philosophers' thoughts on prophetic teaching, recalling the Platonic sources from which they were developed, she will motivate the relevance of such thoughts in political science and she will explain their purposes. Furthermore, through a comparison with several scholars who have focused on whether Islamic Law has a conventional or natural status, she will try to investigate the origins of this problem, by examining the universal message that those Islamic Medieval philosophers found in revealed Law and the reasons that led them to present it as addressed to the whole mankind.

The Cross-Cultural Kingship in Early Medieval Kāmarūpa: Blood, Desire and Magic

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Paolo Eugenio Rosati

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Kingship in early medieval Kāmarūpa (Assam was influenced by the collision of orthodox and heterodox Brahmanic traditions with various tribal cultures. Since the last part of the Śālastambha period (seventh–tenth century the royal tutelary deity of Kāmarūpa was the menstruating Kāmākhyā, an ancient kirāta goddess. According to the Puranic tradition, the cult of Kāmākhyā was absorbed within Hindu religious folds by the mytho-historical king Naraka of Kāmarūpa. According to textual and epigraphic records, Naraka was conceived by Pṛthvī (Earth goddess during her menstrual period, through a sexual intercourse with varāha (boar form of Viṣṇu. All early medieval dynasties of Kāmarūpa traced back their origins to Naraka, connecting their lines to the divine power but also to the menstrual blood—a substance considered extremely impure though powerful in Vedic and post-Vedic traditions. The king operated as a cross-cultural mediator: he was the only actor who was able to harness the produced polluted forces, through the Tantric rituals, in order to strengthen the political power. Thence, this essay aims to demonstrate, through inter- and intra-textual evidences, epigraphic records, and ethnographic data, that in Assam throughout the early medieval ages, the kingship grounded its roots in an osmotic cross-cultural process which was influenced by tribal traditions and orthodox and heterodox Hindu sects.

PIXE and PGAA - Complementary methods for studies on ancient glass artefacts (from Byzantine, late medieval to modern Murano glass)

Science.gov (United States)

Constantinescu, Bogdan; Cristea-Stan, Daniela; Szőkefalvi-Nagy, Zoltán; Kovács, Imre; Harsányi, Ildikó; Kasztovszky, Zsolt

2018-02-01

Combined external milli-beam Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) analysis was applied to characterize the composition of paste and colorants from some fragments of Byzantine bracelets (10th-12th Centuries AD), late medieval (17th-18th Centuries AD) and modern Murano glass pieces. As fluxes, PGAA revealed the samples are soda-lime glass, except four samples - two medieval vessel white shards and two dark Byzantine fragments of bracelets - which have potash flux. Aluminium was detected in various proportions in all samples indicating different sources for the added sand. The presence of Magnesium is relevant only in one bracelet fragment suggesting the use of plant (wood?) ash and confirming that the Byzantine bracelet is manufactured from the mixture of both types of glass (natron and plant ash based). PGAA also indicated the presence of low quantities of Cadmium, high level of Arsenic and Lead (possibly lead arsenate) in one medieval sample and of ZnO in Murano glass, and of CoO traces (maximum 0.1%) in all blue-colored Byzantine, late medieval to modern Murano glass artefacts. PIXE confirmed the use of small quantities of CoO for blue color, indicated Manganese combined with Iron for dark glass, Copper for green, Lead, Tin and an Arsenic compound (orpiment?) for yellow and in the case of modern Murano glass Selenium and Cadmium to obtain a reddish color. Despite PIXE - PIGE combination is probably the best one for glass analysis, our external milli-PIXE - PGAA methods proved to be adequate complementary tools to determine many chemical elements from glass composition - Si, Na, K, Ca, Al, Mg, various metallic oxides.

Man, nutrition and mobility: A comparison of teeth and bone from the Medieval era and the present from Pb and Sr isotopes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aberg, G.; Stray, H. [Institute for Energy Technology, Box 40, N-2007 Kjeller (Norway); Fosse, G. [Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Bergen, N-5009 Bergen (Norway)

1998-12-11

Naturally occurring isotopic systems, such as strontium (Sr) and lead (Pb), are very useful for characterizing different sources and to produce background information. Norwegian teeth from the Medieval era have {sup 206}Pb/{sup 204}Pb ratios between 18.8 and 18.2, in comparison with present day ratios of between 18.0 and 17.6 showing the impact of Pb from modern industrialization and from traffic. Sr analyses of Medieval teeth show that an individual living in a coastal town on the west coast of Norway can easily be distinguished from one in a rural area at that time. The Sr signature shows that Medieval people lived on local products while present people to a greater degree live on imported or domestic industrially processed food. Medieval and modern teeth from one site give similar Pb signatures and concentrations indicating no increase in pollution over time. However, the impact of industrial pollution can be seen from Pb analyses on contemporary teeth, so that the method can be used to monitor emission of heavy metals from local industry. Whilst the Pb and Sr natural isotopic systems individually provide valuable information, a combination of the two techniques is a very powerful tool in environmental and archaeological research. (Copyright (c) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.)

Stable isotope evidence for sex- and status-based variations in diet and life history at medieval Trino Vercellese, Italy.

Science.gov (United States)

Reitsema, Laurie J; Vercellotti, Giuseppe

2012-08-01

The medieval period in Europe was a time of unprecedented social complexity that affected human diet. The diets of certain subgroups-for example, children, women, and the poor-are chronically underrepresented in historical sources from the medieval period. To better understand diet and the distribution of foods during the medieval period, we investigated stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of 30 individuals from Trino Vercellese, Northern Italy (8th-13th c.). Specifically, we examined diet differences between subgroups (males and females, and high- and low-status individuals), and diet change throughout the life course among these groups by comparing dentine and bone collagen. Our results show a diet based on terrestrial resources with input from C(4) plants, which could include proso and/or foxtail millet. Diets of low-status males differ from those of females (both status groups) and of high-status males. These differences develop in adulthood. Childhood diets are similar among the subgroups, but sex- and status-based differences appear in adulthood. We discuss the possibility of cultural buffering and dietary selectivity of females and high-status individuals. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Impact of industrialization: comparative study of child health in four sites from medieval and postmedieval England (A.D. 850-1859).

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Mary E

2002-11-01

The morbidity and mortality profiles of 831 non-adult skeletons from four contrasting sites in medieval and postmedieval England were compared to assess whether urbanization and later industrialization, had a detrimental effect on the health of the inhabitants. Failure in the population's ability to adapt to these environments should be evident in the higher rates of mortality, retarded growth, higher levels of stress, and a greater prevalence of metabolic and infectious disease in the urban groups. Non-adult skeletons were examined from Raunds Furnells in Northamptonshire, from St. Helen-on-the-Walls and Wharram Percy in Yorkshire, and from Christ Church Spitalfields in London. Results showed that a greater number of older children were being buried at the later medieval sites and that the skeletal growth profiles of the medieval urban and rural children did not differ significantly. A comparison of the growth profiles of St. Helen-on-the-Walls (urban) and Spitalfields (industrial) showed that the Spitalfields children were up to 3 cm shorter than their later medieval counterparts. At Spitalfields, cribra orbitalia and enamel hypoplasias occurred during the first 6 months of life, and 54% of the non-adults had evidence of metabolic disease. It is argued that differences in the morbidity and mortality of non-adults from urban and rural environments did exist in the past, but that it was industrialization that had the greatest impact on child health. Environmental conditions, urban employment, socioeconomic status, and changes in weaning ages and infant feeding practices contributed to differences in health in rural, urban, and industrial environments. Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Norse agriculture in Greenland? Farming in a remote medieval landscape

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henriksen, Peter Steen

The aim of the project Norse Farming in Greenland: Agriculture on the edge was to determine whether the Norse farmers actually cultivated crops in Greenland during colonisation in the Viking age and the medieval period. This was investigated by analysing macrofossils extracted from soil samples...... giving information about the local vegetation. Charred grains and threshing waste of barley was found in samples from four sites, strongly indicating that barley was cultivated in Greenland by the Norse farmers. The phosphate analyses showed no sign of any deliberate manuring of the infields as high...

Three individuals, three stories, three burials from medieval Trondheim, Norway.

Science.gov (United States)

Suppersberger Hamre, Stian; Ersland, Geir Atle; Daux, Valérie; Parson, Walther; Wilkinson, Caroline

2017-01-01

This article presents the life stories of three individuals who lived in Trondheim, Norway, during the 13th century. Based on skeletal examinations, facial reconstructions, genetic analyses, and stable oxygen isotope analyses, the birthplace, mobility, ancestry, pathology, and physical appearance of these people are presented. The stories are discussed within the relevant historical context. These three people would have been ordinary citizens, without any privileges out of the ordinary, which makes them quite rare in the academic literature. Through the study of individuals one gets a unique look into the Norwegian medieval society.

Social Perception of Infertility and Its Treatment in Late Medieval Italy: Margherita Datini, an Italian Merchant’s Wife

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Jong Kuk NAM

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Because the perception of infertility in medieval Europe ranged from the extremely religious view of it as a malediction of God or the devil’s work, to the reasonable medical conception of it as a sort of disease to treat, it is very difficult to determine the general attitudes of ordinary people towards infertility. This article seeks to elucidate the common social perception of infertility and its treatment in late medieval Europe by analyzing the case of Margherita Datini, an Italian merchant’s wife who lived in the 1400s. It relies heavily on the documents left by her and her husband, Francesco Datini; the couple left many records, including letters of correspondence between them. Margherita and those around her regarded infertility not as the devil’s curse or a punishment by God but as a disease that can be cured. Margherita and her husband, Francesco, tried hard to cure their infertility. They received treatment and prescriptions from several doctors while also relying on folk remedies, religious therapies, and even magical remedies. The comparative analysis of Datini documents, medical books, and theoretical treatises or prescriptive essays by clerics suggests that the general perception of infertility in medieval Europe was located between the extremely religious and modern medical conceptions of it.

À la recherche de la senefiance… — Lecture intertextuelle des récits de rêve médiévaux // In search of the senefiance… — Intertextual study of dream scenes in medieval French texts

OpenAIRE

Linda Németh

2015-01-01

The modern reader cannot read and interpret a medieval text in the same way as the medieval reader because of remoteness in time, the distance between our cultural space and medieval cultural space. We should understand them in terms of their own context, treat all énoncés in their specific historical and socio-cultural contexts. Special attention must be paid to dream scenes in medieval French texts which are separate events from narrative structure. On the one hand, our study fo...

Interaction of pulse laser radiation of 532 nm with model coloration layers for medieval stone artefacts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Colson, J. [University of Vienna, Department of Physical Chemistry, A-1090 Vienna (Austria); Nimmrichter, J. [Austrian Federal Office for the Care of Monuments, Department for Conservation and Restoration, Arsenal, Objekt 15, Tor 4, A-1030 Vienna (Austria); Kautek, W., E-mail: wolfgang.kautek@univie.ac.at [University of Vienna, Department of Physical Chemistry, A-1090 Vienna (Austria)

2014-05-01

Multilayer polychrome coatings on medieval and Renaissance stone artefacts represent substantial challenges in laser cleaning. Therefore, polychromic models with classical pigments, minium (Pb{sub 2}{sup 2+}Pb{sup 4+}O{sub 4}), zinc white (ZnO), and lead white ((PbCO{sub 3}){sub 2}·Pb(OH){sub 2}) in an acrylic binder, were irradiated with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser emitting at 532 nm. The studied medieval pigments exhibit strongly varying incubation behaviours directly correlated to their band gap energies. Higher band gaps beyond the laser photon energy of 2.3 eV require more incubative generation of defects for resonant transitions. A matching of the modification thresholds after more than four laser pulses was observed. Laser cleaning with multiple pulsing should not exceed ca. 0.05 J/cm{sup 2} when these pigments coexist in close spatial proximity.

Determination of the origin of the medieval glass bracelets discovered in Dubna (Moscow Region, Russia), using the neutron activation analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dmitrieva, S.O.; Frontas'eva, M.V.; Dmitriev, A.Yu.; Dmitriev, A.A.

2016-01-01

The work is dedicated to the determination of the origin of archaeological finds from medieval glass using the method of neutron activation analysis (NAA). Among such objects we can discover things not only produced in ancient Russian glassmaking workshops but also brought from Byzantium. The authors substantiate the ancient Russian origin of the medieval glass bracelets of pre-Mongol period, found on the ancient Dubna settlement. The conclusions are based on the data about the glass chemical composition obtained as a result of NAA of ten fragments of bracelets at the IBR-2 reactor, FLNP, JINR. [ru

Voyages of a successful text. The Dialogi of Gregory the Great in Medieval Sicily (XII-XIV Century

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Rossana Barcellona

2013-10-01

Full Text Available This essay reconstructs two “Sicilian chapters” of great success from the Dialogi by Gregorius Magnus which were enjoyed in the medieval era. These are the legend of Placido (Placido is a Benedict's young disciple mentioned in the Dialogi, which has Sicily as a background, as recounted by Pietro, Deacon of Montecassino between the XI and the XII centuries, and the Sicilian vulgarization of the work, carried out by Giovanni Campolo in the first half of the XIV century. The literary voyage of Placido and the work of Campolo are two excellent examples of the circulation and the fruition of an exemplary and authoritative text. Each highlights the complex intricacy of religion, culture and politics in the various systems of power and in the various historical settings that the medieval age explored.

Two medieval swords from the regional museum in Jagodina

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Cvetković Branislav

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The author analyzes two medieval swords (one found near Kalenić monastery and one near the Ćuprija town from the funds of the Department of Archaeology in the Regional Museum in Jagodina. He presents arguments in opposition to the typological classification existent in scholarly literature of the first one, and concludes that the both specimens most probably originate from the same workshop, as were being stamped with identical maker-marks. In the end the author draws one’s attention to circumstances of the site find of the first sword, and also points towards possible directions of research of the sacred topography of the Kalenić monastery environs.

New astronomical references in two Catalonian late medieval documents.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez, María José; Marco, Francisco J

2014-01-01

In 2008, after 13 years of preparation, the Generalitat of Catalunya finished the publication of the 10 volumes of the Dietaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya. The Dietaris, as well as a closely related source, the llibre de Jornades 1411/1484 de Jaume Safont, cover the period of 1411 to 1539. In this article, we examine astronomical references contained in these two sources, and place them in their historical context. Our main focus lies on astronomical phenomena that have not previously been published in the astronomical literature. In fact, relatively few astronomical records are accessible in Spanish medieval and early modern history, and our paper intends to fill this gap partially.

Support for global climate reorganization during the ''Medieval Climate Anomaly''

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Graham, N.E. [Hydrologic Research Center, San Diego, CA (United States); Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA (United States); Ammann, C.M. [National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States); Fleitmann, D. [University of Bern, Institute of Geological Sciences, Bern (Switzerland); University of Bern, Oeschger Centre for Climatic Change Research, Bern (Switzerland); Cobb, K.M. [Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Luterbacher, J. [Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen (Germany)

2011-09-15

Widely distributed proxy records indicate that the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA; {proportional_to}900-1350 AD) was characterized by coherent shifts in large-scale Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation patterns. Although cooler sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific can explain some aspects of medieval circulation changes, they are not sufficient to account for other notable features, including widespread aridity through the Eurasian sub-tropics, stronger winter westerlies across the North Atlantic and Western Europe, and shifts in monsoon rainfall patterns across Africa and South Asia. We present results from a full-physics coupled climate model showing that a slight warming of the tropical Indian and western Pacific Oceans relative to the other tropical ocean basins can induce a broad range of the medieval circulation and climate changes indicated by proxy data, including many of those not explained by a cooler tropical Pacific alone. Important aspects of the results resemble those from previous simulations examining the climatic response to the rapid Indian Ocean warming during the late twentieth century, and to results from climate warming simulations - especially in indicating an expansion of the Northern Hemisphere Hadley circulation. Notably, the pattern of tropical Indo-Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) change responsible for producing the proxy-model similarity in our results agrees well with MCA-LIA SST differences obtained in a recent proxy-based climate field reconstruction. Though much remains unclear, our results indicate that the MCA was characterized by an enhanced zonal Indo-Pacific SST gradient with resulting changes in Northern Hemisphere tropical and extra-tropical circulation patterns and hydroclimate regimes, linkages that may explain the coherent regional climate shifts indicated by proxy records from across the planet. The findings provide new perspectives on the nature and possible causes of the MCA

[Paleopathological skeleton findings. Macroscopical and radiographical studies of 364 individuals from a medieval graveyard].

Science.gov (United States)

Ittrich, H; Kleibscheidel, C; Nizze, H

2004-03-01

Paleopathological examinations can give an idea of diseases and living conditions in ancient populations. An archaeological collection of 364 late medieval/early modern skeletons from the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries, excavated from a church cemetery in the Rostock town center, was examined palaeopathologically. The type and frequency of certain diseases within this north German urban population are described. The majority of the skeletons were from adults with a remarkably low percentage of children. Skeletal malformations (e.g. gap formations of the spinal column) were not abnormally represented. With the exception of single individuals, metabolic disorders or unusual infectious diseases could not be diagnosed. Degenerative diseases often found at the joints and the spinal column showed substantially lower prevalences in comparison with reference rural populations. Individual cases of benign and rare malignant neoplasms could be documented. Traumatic injuries as well as dental pathological changes were rare. In summary it can be concluded that the individuals buried here belonged to a better social class within the medieval population of Rostock.

Archaeometric investigation of medieval Bulgarian glasses and sgraffito ceramics by neutron activation analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dzhingova, R.; Kulev, I.

1985-01-01

Instrumental neutron activation analysis was used to determine the content of Au, Ba, Ca, Ce, Cl, Cr, Co, Cs, Cu, Eu, Fe, Hf, La, Lu, Mn, Na, Rb, Sc, Sm, Sr, Ta, Tb, Th, Ti, U, Sb, V and Yb in glass samples excavated from medieval glassworkshops in Pliska and Preslav and in 20 glass finds from Preslav. Sgraffito ceramic samples excavated in Veliko Tarnovo were also analysed and the elements Al, As, Au, Ba, Br, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Dy, Eu, Fe, Hf, K, La, Lu, Mg, Mn, Na, Nd, Rb, Sb, Sc, Si, Sm, Ta, Tb, Th, Ti, U, V and Yb were determined. In order to localize the production site of the archaeological finds, the results from the analysis were subjected to cluster analysis, and stepwise discriminant analysis using the program package BMDP. A variety of the production of the medieval glass workshop in Preslav was identified and evaluated. It was proved that a part of the sgraffito ceramics samples have been produced in one and the same place and that the chemical composition might be successfully used to differentiate between the production of two workshops

Karg S., D.E. Robinson (2002): Secondary food plants from medieval sites in Denmark: fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs and spices. In: K. Viklund, R. Engelmark (eds.) Nordic Archaeobotany-NAG 2000 in Umeå.

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karg, Sabine

2002-01-01

Secondary food plants from medieval sites in Denmark: fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs and spices.......Secondary food plants from medieval sites in Denmark: fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs and spices....

From Egypt to Umbria: Jewish Women and Property in the Medieval Mediterranean

OpenAIRE

Frank, Karen A

2010-01-01

This article compares the financial activities of medieval Jewish women in Italy and the Mediterranean. Contrary to Jewish legal tradition, which curtailed women’s financial autonomy, by the later Middle Ages communities across the region increasingly allowed women to manage their own dotal property, inherit property from a variety of sources, and engage in loan banking. An examination of the historical developments of some Jewish communities in Egypt, Spain, and central Italy suggests that t...

Medieval Stars in Melk Abbey

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, P. G.; Zotti, G.

2012-05-01

Melk Abbey, a marvel of European high baroque architecture, is one of the most frequently visited tourist attractions in Austria, attracting 450 000 visitors each year. The monastery's museum presents selected aspects of Benedictine life in Melk since the monastery's foundation in 1089. After the church, the library is the second-most important room in a Benedictine monastery. Due to the wide scientific interests and contacts of the medieval monks, these libraries also contain manuscripts on mathematics, physics and astronomy. In 2009, the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009), the annual library exhibition was fully dedicated to astronomical manuscripts and early prints from the past 1000 years. Following earlier research work on astronomical manuscripts in Melk's library, we were invited to organise the exhibition. In addition, we also presented a lecture series and provided more background in an accompanying book. Because of positive feedback from the visitors, the exhibition was extended until March 2011. In the two years of its duration, the exhibition was seen by more than 900 000 visitors. In this article, we describe the background to the scientific project, how the exhibition was organised and lessons learned from this project.

Hidden library : Visualizing fragments of medieval manuscripts in early-modern bookbindings with mobile macro-XRF scanner

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duivenvoorden, Jorien R.; Käyhkö, Anna; Kwakkel, Erik; Dik, J.

2017-01-01

This experiment demonstrates the large potential of macro-XRF imaging for the visualization of fragments of medieval manuscripts hidden in early-modern bookbindings. The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century made manuscripts obsolete and bookbinders started recycling their

Finger of a saint, thumb of a priest: medieval relics in the Diocese of Turku, and the archaeology of lived bodies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Visa Immonen

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The relics of Turku Cathedral are remains belonging to the bodies of holy persons, different from ours, even today, although the cathedral is the see for the archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and relics are not on public display. Among the relics of the cathedral, there is a fragment of a radius, which according to its authentica, belongs to St Henry. Relics and reliquaries were in the core of medieval piety, and the cult of saints had infused throughout the society. Due to their central position in culture, relics offer glimpses at a range of material, social and cultural phenomena related to medieval embodiment.The Department of Archaeology at the University of Turku began to study the finger relic of St Eric and other items in the assemblage of Turku Cathedral in 2007. Relics and reliquaries are being opened and documented and organic as well as inorganic samples are being taken for a range of scientific analyses. So far the project has concentrated on building a chronological chart of individual artefacts. The majority of the relics date to the fourteenth century, although much more recent datings have also been obtained. The challenge of the project is not to stop when a better understanding of materials, their origins and age has been accomplished, but to use the results as a steppingstone into a study of the practices of medieval relic veneration. Medieval bodies and those material processes which authenticate relics, or distinguish saints’ bodies from other human remains, are thus at the heart of this article discussing embodiment.

Aristotle's carp as Claretus' bird comor? Tracing the origin of one medieval term

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Šedinová, Hana

-, č. 2 (2016), s. 111-123 ISSN 0567-8269 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LD13043 Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : ancient and medieval zoology * Latin lexicography * Aristoteles * Aristoteles Latinus * Michael Scotus * Thomas of Cantimpré * Claretus * carp * komor * comor Subject RIV: AI - Linguistics http://www.karolinum.cz/ink2_stat/index.jsp?include=AUC_clanek&id=2668&casopis=94&zalozka=0&predkl=0

Arqueología Medieval en Guipúzcoa. Estado actual y perspectivas de futuro.

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M. Mercedes Urteaga Artigas

1990-01-01

Full Text Available La Arqueología Medieval en Guipúzcoa tiene una larga trayectoria. Iniciada a principios de siglo, las actuaciones se han sucedido hasta el presente, de manera intermitente. En la actualidad presenta una evolución acelerada, ligada, sobre todo, a las intervenciones de salvamento. El futuro de la misma, parece especialmente vinculado a este tipo de actuaciones arqueológicas.

Acerca de la evolución semántica de los adjetivos relacionales en español medieval y clásico

OpenAIRE

Serradilla Castaño, Ana

2010-01-01

En este artículo se analiza la evolución semántica que sufren algunos adjetivos relacionales en español medieval y, sobre todo, en español clásico. Se trata de adjetivos como ageno, carnal, divino, mortal, criminal…, que en la época medieval funcionan como relacionales con el valor de ‘relativo a’ ‘perteneciente a’, ‘procedente de’, etc., independientemente del contexto sintáctico en que se encuentren: anteposición, posposición, construcciones superlativas… Frente a esta situación, a part...

Medieval and early modern approaches to fractures of the proximal humerus

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brorson, S.

2010-01-01

The diagnosis and management of complex fractures of the proximal humerus have challenged surgical practitioners and medical writers since the earliest recorded surgical texts. Current knowledge of fractures of the proximal humerus has been obtained through pathoanatomical and biomechanical studies...... within the last two centuries. However, the historical preconditions for this development have not been studied. This paper reviews written sources from the fall of the Roman Empire to the late eighteenth century. Medieval and early modern writers mainly rely on the Hippocratic writings De Fracturis...

'Fro Paris to Inglond'? The danse macabre in text and image in late-medieval England

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oosterwijk, Sophia

2009-01-01

This thesis examines the character, spread, development and influence of the Dance of Death or danse macabre theme in late-medieval England within its literary, socio- and art-historical context. It traces the origins of the theme and, following the deaths in 1422 of the English king Henry V and

Druids, deer and ‘words of power’: coming to terms with evil in medieval Ireland

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Borsje, J.; van Doorn-Harder, N.; Minnema, L.

2008-01-01

This contribution describes what is understood by evil, as perceived within Irish medieval texts, both by the authors and by the groups described in the texts. It attempts to include the points of view of possible audiences or readers of the texts as well. The definition of evil employed here thus

Wrestling with Stephen and Matilda: Planning Challenging Enquiries to Engage Year 7 in Medieval Anarchy

Science.gov (United States)

McDougall, Hannah

2013-01-01

McDougall found learning about Stephen and Matilda fascinating, was sure that her pupils would also and designed an enquiry to engage them in "the anarchy" of 1139-1153 AD. Pupils enjoyed exploring "the anarchy" and learning about it enhanced their knowledge and understanding of the medieval period considerably. However,…

Medieval capital markets. Markets for renten between state formation and private investment in Holland (1300-1550)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zuijderduijn, C.J.

2007-01-01

The book is structured as follows. Chapter 1 introduces medieval Holland as a significant entity for institutional-economic development by discussing how the state created a county wide societal structure. As a proto-territorial state Holland had a uniform judiciary, a government apparatus that gave

Early Medieval silver pearl from Lumbe's garden cemetery at Prague Castle: Composition, manufacture, deterioration, and conservation

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Děd, J.; Ottenwelter, Estelle; Šejvlová, Ludmila

2016-01-01

Roč. 61, č. 3 (2016), s. 174-183 ISSN 0039-3630 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP405/12/2195 Institutional support: RVO:67985912 Keywords : medieval jewellery * Lumbe's Garden * archaeometry Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology Impact factor: 0.578, year: 2016

Studies on tofts, peasants and hierarchies in medieval rural Denmark - some comments from an archaeological perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristiansen, Mette Svart

2013-01-01

A classical starting point for an archaeological discussion of hierarchy in Danish settlement research is the toft, particularly its size and position in the spatial arrangement of the medieval village. The main concern of this article is to identify and discuss related problems, in particular...

Investigation of medieval ceramics from Ras by physicochemical methods

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Zindović Nataša D.

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Although early medieval Serbian ceramic is well described by the archeologists and historians, knowledge of the Balkan ceramic production is still limited. Archaeometric study of ceramics provenance, technology of preparation and used pigments as well as influence of neighboring countries and specific characteristics of different workshops has never been performed so far. The detailed knowledge of the micro-chemical and micro-structural nature of an archaeological artifact is critical in finding solutions to problems of restoration, conservation, dating and authentication in the art world. In this work we present results of systematic investigation of pottery shards from archeological site Ras. The term Ras, which signifies both the fortress and the region encompassing the upper course of Raška River, used to be the center of the medieval Serbian state. Both the ceramic body and the polychromatic glaze of the artifacts were studied by a multianalitical approach combining optical microscopy (OM, FT-IR spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence (XRF. Mineralogical composition of pottery shards has been determined combining results obtained by FT-IR spectroscopy, after deconvolution of the spectra, and XRPD analysis. Firing temperature has been estimated based on the mineralogical composition and positions of Si-O stretching (-1000 cm-1 and banding (-460 cm-1 vibrations. Investigated samples have been classified into two groups based on the mineralogical composition, cross sections and firing temperature. Larger group consists of samples of fine-grained, homogeneous ceramics with firing temperatures bellow 800 °C which indicates imported products. Second, smaller group consists of inhomogeneous ceramics with firing temperatures between 850 and 900 °C produced in the domestic workshops. The obtained results will be used to build up a national database for the compositions of bodies, glazes and pigments.

The wine trade, piracy and maritime contract law in late medieval Southampton

OpenAIRE

Pamuk, Fatih

2014-01-01

Ankara : The Department of History, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, 2014. Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2014. Includes bibliographical references leaves 102-105. In late medieval Southampton, wine was a commodity, which was extensively traded, and quite precious to the pirates of the English Channel because it was easy to sell and the vessels loaded with wine had less protection than the ships of precious metals. Therefore, increase of wine trade in the late m...

Post-Mortem Projections: Medieval Mystical Resurrection and the Return of Tupac Shakur

OpenAIRE

Spencer-Hall, A.

2012-01-01

Medieval hagiographies abound with tales of post-mortem visits and miracles by saints. The saint was a powerful religious individual both in life and in death, a conduit of divine grace and lightning rod for Christian fervour. With her post-mortem presence, the presumptive boundary between living and dead, spirit and flesh, is rent apart: showing the reality of the hereafter and shattering the fantasies of the mortal world. The phenomenon of a glorified individual returning to ...

Physical education of the medieval knight La educación física del caballero medieval

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Buenaventura DELGADO

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The medieval knight was required to perform the same physical exercices and have the same capabilities as Spartan, Athenian and Roman soldiers. They had to be agile, strong, fast and able to use weapons on foot as on horseback. To be pysically fit was as important as knowing history as explained by tutors and sung by jugglers in moments of leisure during which they learnt of legends, nationals heroes and the paradigms that distinguish nations. All the heroes praised through generations provide models shaped the collective personality of entire peoples. San Isidoro de Sevilla, Ramón Llull, King Alfonso X the Wise and Don Juan Manuel were the principal writers to exalt the figure of the knight and his education. During the XII, XIII, XIV and XV centuries and including the Renaissance, there were exhibitions of physical games, during which knights sought fame and fortune: jousts, tournaments, staged games, games using canes and processions of arms called «pasos honrosos» were undertaken with popular enthusiasm in Western and central Europe in the Byzantine Empire and throughout the Moslem world.Los ejercicios y habilidades físicas exigidos al caballero medieval fueron semejantes a los que se pedían al militar espartano, ateniense y romano. Debían ser ágiles, fuertes, rápidos y diestros en el manejo de las armas a pie y a caballo. Tan importante como una buena forma física era conocer la Historia cantada por ayos y juglares en los momentos de ocio, a través de la cual se familiarizaban con las tradiciones, leyendas, héroes nacionales y los paradigmas que distinguían a un pueblo de otro. El abanico de héroes alabados y ensalzados de generación en generación eran otros tantos modelos destinados a troquelar la personalidad colectiva de cada pueblo. San Isidoro de Sevilla, Ramón Llull, el rey Alfonso X el Sabio y Don Juan Manuel son los principales escritores interesados en ensalzar la figura del caballero y su educación. En los siglos

Making computers noble. An experiment in automatic analysis of medieval texts

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Andrea Colli

2016-02-01

Full Text Available L’analisi informatica di testi filosofici, la creazione di database, ipertesti o edizioni elettroniche non costituiscono più unicamente una ricerca di frontiera, ma sono da molti anni una risorsa preziosa per gli studi umanistici. Ora, non si tratta di richiedere alle macchine un ulteriore sforzo per comprendere il linguaggio umano, quanto piuttosto di perfezionare gli strumenti affinché esse possano essere a tutti gli effetti collaboratori di ricerca. Questo articolo è concepito come il resoconto di un esperimento finalizzato a documentare come le associazioni lessicali di un gruppo selezionato di testi medievali possa offrire qualche suggerimento in merito ai loro contenuti teorici. Computer analysis of texts, creation of databases hypertexts and digital editions are not the final frontier of research anymore. Quite the contrary, from many years they have been representing a significant contribution to medieval studies. Therefore, we do not mean to make the computer able to grasp the meaning of human language and penetrate its secrets, but rather we aim at improving their tools, so that they will become an even more efficient equipment employed in research activities. This paper is thought as a sort of technical report with the proposed task to verify if an automatic identification of some word associations within a selected groups of medieval writings produces suggestions on the subject of the processed texts, able to be used in a theoretical inquiry.

Finding the Sacred Direction: Medieval Books on the Qibla

Science.gov (United States)

Rius, M.

2009-08-01

Medieval Islamic scholars wrote a great number of books on the qibla, the Sacred Direction. These books had a huge readership and provided instructions for finding the direction of Mecca by either exact or approximate means. In principle, the qibla was a purely religious subject, but in practice its determination required the use of astronomy as an applied science. As so often, religion and politics had many points of contact and, in this case, it was generally political considerations that prevailed. Finally, the analysis of nautical charts can offer new perspectives. As yet, modern scholarship has not established the link between this area of study and the classical literature on this subject.

Isidoro de Sevilla: el banco de datos medieval

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Américo Abad

2014-10-01

Full Text Available San Isidoro de Sevilla, el Doctor egregius de Ios siglos VI y VII, constituye una referencia medieval de suma importancia y en varios aspectos. Su obra enciclopédica, su pensamiento jurídico y filosófico, su conducción de los asuntos políticos, su apología de la iglesia como institución ecuménica, cuando apenas se dibujaban los primeros rasgos -impalpables casi - de la sociedad civil y del estado y la organizacJón del saber y del conocimiento llegados a su tiempo.Contenido: Presentación. El proyecto enciclopédico. Universo y sistema. Etimologías y otros textos. La ley y el gobierno. La filosofía. Comunidad y comunidades. Consideraciones finales

An Introduction to the Medieval English: The Historical and Literary Context, Traces of Church and Philosophical Movements in the Literature

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Esmail Zare Behtash

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The Transition from Greek to medieval philosophy that speculated on religion, nature, metaphysics, human being and society was rather a rough transition in the history of English literature. Although the literature content of this age reflected more religious beliefs, the love and hate relationship of medieval philosophy that was mostly based on the Christianity with Greek civilization was exhibited clearly. The modern philosophical ideologies are the continuation of this period’s ideologies. Without a well understanding of the philosophical issues related to this age, it is not possible to understand the modern ones well. The catholic tradition as well as the religious reform against church called Protestantism was organized in this age. In Medieval Period, philosophy and theoretical thoughts related to the Christianity were well-organized and the philosophy, science and theoretical thoughts served religion. Philosophy had different forms and orientations in various stages of this period. One of these philosophical thoughts was the Augustinian philosophy which was strongly in favor of church with its different practices and styles. It used Platonic and Neo-Platonic traditions to prove that faith is the result of divine dispensations, not the result of human will power and wisdom. On the other hand, according to Aquinas, we experience different types of the effects that existed in the world around us. He believed that we assign an effective cause to each effect we experienced around us. Additionally, he claimed that reasoning was the only way to reach the real faith. In fact, philosophy of Medieval Period attempted to prove that religious assertions and ideologists were in search of matching their philosophical beliefs with the beliefs of Christianity. Christianity as the dominant factor in Middle English Literature helped English to be stablished as a literary language.

La sciencia theorica speculativa en la construcción gótica. El promotor eclesiástico de la catedral medieval

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Lluis i Ginovart, Josep

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The construction of Gothic cathedrals can be seen as a transfer of knowledge between ecclesiastical figures the bishop and Chapter, and medieval architect. The beauty of the cathedral depended on the practica of medieval mason, versus the teorica of the church promoter. An example of this is the example of mainstreaming, the one of the construction of the Cathedral of Tortosa. Metrology and proportion of the architecture of the cathedral, derived directly from the philosophical sources of the Gothic order. The main authors of reference are identified in the chapter library; Augustine ACTo 20, Calcidius and Capella ACTo nº 80, Macrobius ACTo 236. This has allowed us to establish contact points between knowledge of the promoter and the gothic builder.La construcción de las catedrales góticas puede considerarse como un trasvase de conocimiento entre las figuras eclesiásticas del obispo y Capítulo, y el arquitecto medieval. La belleza de la catedral dependía de la practica del constructor medieval, y de la teorica de sus promotores. Una muestra de esta transversalidad es el ejemplo de la construcción de la catedral de Tortosa. La metrología y la proporción de la arquitectura de la catedral, emanan directamente de las fuentes filosóficas del orden gótico. Los principales autores de referencia están identificados en su biblioteca capitular: San Agustín (ACTo 20, Calcidio y Capella (ACTo nº 80 y Macrobio (ACTo 236. Esta circunstancia ha permitido establecer unos puntos de contacto entre los saberes del promotor y del constructor góticos.

Charlemagne's summit canal: an early medieval hydro-engineering project for passing the Central European Watershed.

Science.gov (United States)

Zielhofer, Christoph; Leitholdt, Eva; Werther, Lukas; Stele, Andreas; Bussmann, Jens; Linzen, Sven; Schneider, Michael; Meyer, Cornelius; Berg-Hobohm, Stefanie; Ettel, Peter

2014-01-01

The Central European Watershed divides the Rhine-Main catchment and the Danube catchment. In the Early Medieval period, when ships were important means of transportation, Charlemagne decided to link both catchments by the construction of a canal connecting the Schwabian Rezat and the Altmühl rivers. The artificial waterway would provide a continuous inland navigation route from the North Sea to the Black Sea. The shortcut is known as Fossa Carolina and represents one of the most important Early Medieval engineering achievements in Europe. Despite the important geostrategic relevance of the construction it is not clarified whether the canal was actually used as a navigation waterway. We present new geophysical data and in situ findings from the trench fills that prove for the first time a total length of the constructed Carolingian canal of at least 2300 metres. We have evidence for a conceptual width of the artificial water course between 5 and 6 metres and a water depth of at least 60 to 80 cm. This allows a crossing way passage of Carolingian cargo scows with a payload of several tons. There is strong evidence for clayey to silty layers in the trench fills which reveal suspension load limited stillwater deposition and, therefore, the evidence of former Carolingian and post-Carolingian ponds. These findings are strongly supported by numerous sapropel layers within the trench fills. Our results presented in this study indicate an extraordinarily advanced construction level of the known course of the canal. Here, the excavated levels of Carolingian trench bottoms were generally sufficient for the efficient construction of stepped ponds and prove a final concept for a summit canal. We have evidence for the artificial Carolingian dislocation of the watershed and assume a sophisticated Early Medieval hydrological engineering concept for supplying the summit of the canal with adequate water.

The modern enterprise – successor of business organization forms in ancient Rome and medieval Europe

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Anca Pacala

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In recent years, researchers and practitioners are increasingly interested in the role and influence of the forms of business organization on the economy and society. Interpretations of the role of companies in the modern period, ranging from enthusiastic support (as the most important invention of capitalism, an explanation of the Western civilization’s expansion to moderate and often critical positions, where the company is seen as a solution, not necessarily optimal, to market imperfections. On the other hand, we often ponder upon the explanation of political, administrative and infrastructural success of ancient Rome: the state or the enterprise (the private initiative? Closer to our time, we rediscover with amazement that the "dark" Middle Ages are not at all dark and lacking in progress, at least in terms of capitalist organization and logic. The development of trade in the two poles of medieval Europe (the Mediterranean and the BaltoScandinavian area, of industry and trade in the North-Western quadrant (Flanders and neighbouring regions, was concurrent with the improvement of organizational forms of business, with the diversity and flexibility of entrepreneurial or even corporate frameworks. Of course, the study of historical sources (ancient or medieval cannot provide direct answers or solutions to the questions of modern society, because the challenges of today are rather different to those of the past. On the other hand, understanding history can help companies to build a more complete and a wiser enterprise functionality and role in the modern society, to reformulate the questions and to find new solutions. Our paper, with a clear juridical perspective on economic history, focuses on the organization of firms in ancient Rome and medieval Europe, tries to provide examples, useful interpretations and diverse solutions to the problems of contemporary society and economy.

Paleoparasitological Findings in Medieval and Early Modern Archaeological Deposits from Hradební Street, Chrudim, Czech Republic

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Bartošová, L.; Ditrich, Oleg; Beneš, J.; Frolík, Jan; Musil, J.

2011-01-01

Roč. 2, č. 1 (2011), s. 27-38 ISSN 1804-848X Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60220518; CEZ:AV0Z80020508 Keywords : paleoparasitology * medieval town * cesspit * helmints * hygiene Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology http://www.iansa.eu/papers/IANSA-2011-01-bartosova.pdf

Environmental imperatives reconsidered: demographic crises in western North America during the medieval climatic anomaly.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, T L; Brown, G M; Raab, L M; McVickar, J L; Spaulding, W G; Kennett, D J; York, A; Wlaker, P L

1999-04-01

Review of late Holocene paleoenvironmental and cultural sequences from four regions of western North America show striking correlations between drought and changes in subsistence, population, exchange, health, and interpersonal violence during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (A.D. 800-1350). While ultimate causality is difficult to identify in the archaeological record, synchrony of the environmental and cultural changes and the negative character of many human responses--increased interpersonal violence, deterioration of long-distance exchange relationships, and regional abandonments--suggest widespread demographic crises caused by decreased environmental productivity. The medieval droughts occurred at a unique juncture in the demographic history of western North America when unusually large populations of both hunter-gathers and agriculturalists had evolved highly intensified economies that put them in unprecedented ecological jeopardy. Long-term patterns in the archaeological record are inconsistent with the predicted outcomes of simple adaptation or continuous economic intensification, suggesting that in this instance environmental dynamics played a major role in cultural transformations across a wide expanse of western North America among groups with diverse subsistence strategies. These events suggest that environment should not be overlooked as a potential cause of prehistoric culture change.

Post-Mortem Projections: Medieval Mystical Resurrection and the Return of Tupac Shakur

OpenAIRE

Spencer-Hall, Alicia

2012-01-01

Medieval hagiographies abound with tales of post-mortem visits and miracles by saints. The saint was a powerful religious individual both in life and in death, a conduit of divine grace and lightning rod for Christian fervour. With her post-mortem presence, the presumptive boundary between living and dead, spirit and flesh, is rent apart: showing the reality of the hereafter and shattering the fantasies of the mortal world. The phenomenon of a glorified individual returning to a worshipful co...

An early medieval symbol carved on a tree trunk. Pathfinder or territorial marker?

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Dreslerová, Dagmar; Mikuláš, Radek

2010-01-01

Roč. 84, č. 326 (2010), s. 1067-1075 ISSN 0003-598X R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAAX00020701; GA AV ČR IAA300130505 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z80020508; CEZ:AV0Z30130516 Keywords : Central Europe * early medieval * wood carving * fossil oak * alluvial setting Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology Impact factor: 0.969, year: 2010 http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/084/ant0841067.htm

Reflexões sobre o gênero e o monacato hispânico medieval

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Andréia Cristina Lopes Frazão

2010-01-01

Full Text Available From a presentation of the main approaches to the study of medieval hispanic monasticism, this article provides theoretical and methodological reflections and exposes the dilemmas resulting from the use of gender category to the study of monastic life. Such reflections are associated with the research that I am developping, which is scoped to the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla into two periods: 1076-1109 and 1227-1265.

El simbolismo animal en la cultura medieval

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Dolores Carmen Morales Muñiz

1996-01-01

Full Text Available Abordar un tema tan amplio y complejo como el de la simbología animal en los siglos medievales en un espacio tan corto, me obliga a seleccionar los puntos prioritarios a tratar. En primer lugar adelanto que el trabajo aquí presentado es parte de una línea de investigación más amplia sobre culturas zoológicas en la España medieval, entendiendo comparativamente a la cristiana, a la musulmana y a la judía. Como se sabe, la zoohistoria y sus implicaciones en la vida del Inombre —sobre todo esto último— es una especialidad cada vez más cultivada dentro de la investigación reciente, también para la Edad Media. La simbología, dentro de aquella especialidad, resulta uno de los aspectos más sugerentes, y en estas líneas queremos plantear los puntos más relevantes de esta contribución.

Orientation of medieval churches of Morava school

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Tadić Milutin

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper we present the mathematical and topographic analysis of orientation of the most significant churches (11 of Morava school, the last style in architecture of medieval Serbia whose executors were chief architects. The deviation from equinox East of the main axis of each church and the dates when the Sun rises on the physical horizon, in the extension of the main axis, have been calculated. These were the dates when the church could have been oriented towards the rising Sun. This possibility has been ruled out for four churches. As for the other churches, the matching of the mentioned dates with the patron’s days wasn’t established. The churches in monasteries Ljubostinja and Kalenic are oriented with astronomical precision towards equinox East, an admirable fact considering the tools available to the builders. Rade Borovic, the only chief architect who put his signature on his work, was the chief architect of Ljubostinja.

Visitors’ Motivations, Satisfaction and Loyalty Towards Castro Marim Medieval Fair

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Iolanda Márcia Barbeitos

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The study tests the relationship between motivation, satisfaction, and loyalty using a structural equation model. Data have been collected through a questionnaire applied to visitors attending a local festival, Castro Marim Medieval Fair, which hosts every year between 45.000 and 60.000 visitors. Results show that satisfaction towards controlled variables of the event within the venue’s boundaries, such as animation, gastronomy, and handicraft, influences visitors’ overall satisfaction towards the event. On the other hand, they also reveal a direct relationship between overall satisfaction and loyalty. The study contributes to a better understanding of visitors’ behaviour and provides useful guidance to festival ideation and design.

Locomotory Apparatus and Health Status of the Early medieval population in Great Moravia (the Czech Republic)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Velemínský, P.; Stránská, Petra; Dobisíková, M.; Zikán, V.; Likovský, Jakub; Zítková, J.; Žaloudková, M.; Fialová, L.; Stloukal, M.; Poláček, L.

2005-01-01

Roč. 126, č. 40 (2005), s. 112-113 ISSN 0002-9483. [Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologist. 06.04.05-09.04.05, Milwaukee] Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z80020508 Keywords : early medieval Slavonic population * ontogenesis * sexual dimorphism Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology , Ethnology

Elites and their children : a study in the historical anthropology of medieval China, 500-1000 AD

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pissin, Annika

2009-01-01

The history of children in medieval China, as in other parts of the world and in pre-modern times, stands in marked contrast to the traditional areas of historical inquiry such as the history of the state, the history of the economy or intellectual history. Children generally do not have political

The Dichotomy of Insularity: Islands between Isolation and Connectivity in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, and Beyond

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sicking, L.H.J.

2014-01-01

The importance of islands in maritime and global history is not yet understood in a comparative and long term perspective. This article aims to contribute to understanding the role of islands for the establishment, preservation and extension of maritime connections in medieval and early modern

Integrated Geophysycal Prospecting in Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Sites in Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Giannotta, Maria Teresa; Leucci, Giovanni; De Giorgi, Lara; Matera, Loredana; Persico, Raffaele; Muci, Giuseppe

2016-04-01

In this contribution, the results of some integrated geophysical prospecting (magnetometric and GPR) are exposed. This work has been performed in collaboration between archaeologists and geophysicists within the research project "History and Global Archaeology of the Rural Landascapes in Italy, between Late Antiquity and Medieval period. Integrated systems of sources, methodologies, and technologies for a sustainable development", financed by the Italian Ministry for Instruction, University and Research MIUR. In particular, the archaeological sites of Badia and San Giovanni in Malcantone, both in the Apulia Region (eastern-southern Italy) have been prospect. The sites have been identified on the basis of available documents, archaeological surveys and testimonies. In particular, we know that in Badia [1] it was probable the presence of an ancient roman villa of the late ancient period (strongly damaged by the subsequent ploughing activities). Whereas in San Giovanni there is still, today, a small chapel (deconsecrated) that was likely to be part of a previous larger church (probably a basilica of the early Christian period) restricted in the subsequent centuries (probably in more phases). The Saracen raids of the XVI centuries made the site ruined and abandoned. In both sites integrated prospecting have been performed [2-6] with a the integration of archaeological, magnetometer and a GPR data have provided some interesting results, allowing to overcome the difficulties relative to an extensive GPR prospecting, that could not be performed because of the intrinsic superficial roughness and/or the intensive ploughing activities. The prospecting activities, in particular, have added elements that seem to confirm the main archaeological hypothesis that motivate their performing, as it will be show at the conference. References [1] M. T, Giannotta, G. Leucci, R. Persico, M. Leo Imperiale, The archaeological site of Badia in terra d'Otranto: contribution of the

There is no mass spectrometry evidence that the C14 sample from the Shroud of Turin comes from a “medieval invisible mending”

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Bella, Marco, E-mail: Marco.Bella@uniroma1.it [Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University of Roma, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma (Italy); Garlaschelli, Luigi [Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 10, 27100 Pavia (Italy); Samperi, Roberto [Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University of Roma, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma (Italy)

2015-10-10

Highlights: • This editorial regards a paper published on Thermochimica Acta, 425 (2005) 189. • The author hypothesized a “medieval invisible mending” on the Shroud of Turin. • There is no evidence of such a “medieval invisible mending”. • The two mass spectra presented differ only by the presence of a contaminant. • When the peaks due to the contaminant are removed, the two mass spectra look alike. - Abstract: This is an editorial regarding a paper published on Thermochimica Acta (R.N. Rogers, Thermochimca Acta, 425 (2005) 189–194). A close-up analysis of the pyrolysis-mass spectra reported in the original paper reveals that the differences found between the samples coming from different parts of the Shroud are just due to the presence of a contaminant with a long aliphatic chain. Except for the presence of the contaminant, the two pyrolysis-mass spectra look alike rather than different. Therefore, the pseudoscientific theory stating that the C14 sample might come from a “medieval invisible mending” remains unsupported by evidences.

De herba lunatica (London, Wellcome Library, 573, f. 149v): edition and translation of a medieval opuscule on the magical properties of common moonwort (Botrychium lunaria Swartz)

OpenAIRE

Ferraces Rodríguez, Arsenio

2014-01-01

This article provides the first edition of a medieval text on the properties of a plant named herba lunatica. From the description of the plant found in this text as well as in other medieval sources, together with its iconographic representation on the lower margin of the manuscript, we propose its identification with the ‘Botrychium lunaria’ Swartz. The edition of the Latin text includes its translation into Spanish.

The Medieval Climate Anomaly and Byzantium: A review of the evidence on climatic fluctuations, economic performance and societal change

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Xoplaki, Elena; Fleitmann, Dominik; Luterbacher, Juerg; Wagner, Sebastian; Haldon, John F.; Zorita, Eduardo; Telelis, Ioannis; Toreti, Andrea; Izdebski, Adam

2016-04-01

At the beginning of the Medieval Climate Anomaly, in the ninth and tenth century, the medieval eastern Roman empire, more usually known as Byzantium, was recovering from its early medieval crisis and experiencing favourable climatic conditions for the agricultural and demographic growth. Although in the Balkans and Anatolia such favourable climate conditions were prevalent during the eleventh century, parts of the imperial territories were facing significant challenges as a result of external political/military pressure. The apogee of medieval Byzantine socio-economic development, around AD 1150, coincides with a period of adverse climatic conditions for its economy, so it becomes obvious that the winter dryness and high climate variability at this time did not hinder Byzantine society and economy from achieving that level of expansion. Soon after this peak, towards the end of the twelfth century, the populations of the Byzantine world were experiencing unusual climatic conditions with marked dryness and cooler phases. The weakened Byzantine socio-political system must have contributed to the events leading to the fall of Constantinople in AD 1204 and the sack of the city. The final collapse of the Byzantine political control over western Anatolia took place half century later, thus contemporaneous with the strong cooling effect after a tropical volcanic eruption in AD 1257. We suggest that, regardless of a range of other influential factors, climate change was also an important contributing factor to the socio-economic changes that took place in Byzantium during the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Crucially, therefore, while the relatively sophisticated and complex Byzantine society was certainly influenced by climatic conditions, and while it nevertheless displayed a significant degree of resilience, external pressures as well as tensions within the Byzantine society more broadly contributed to an increasing vulnerability in respect of climate impacts. Our

Construction of a taxonomy for medieval Portuguese history: problems and challenges

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Medeiros, Filipa

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Our main goal was to design and build a taxonomy of medieval Portuguese history using an interdisciplinary approach based on doctoral research. First, the criteria used for the selection of the vocabulary and its formal and semantic normalization were determined. Then species were listed, followed by the characterization of categories and their respective subclasses. As conclusions we highlight the successful application of the selected terms, as well as the fact that the taxonomy’s categories are being continuously updated and expanded, both in their global extension and in the depth of their thematic representation. In addition we offer proposals for continuing the ontological development of this taxonomy.Se ha fijado como objetivo principal diseñar y elaborar una taxonomía sobre Historia medieval portuguesa, y hacerlo mediante un abordaje interdisciplinar y como fruto de las investigaciones de tesis. En su proceso se determinaron, primero, los criterios seguidos para la selección y normalización formal y semántica del vocabulario. Luego se listaron las especies y se caracterizaron las categorías y las respectivas subclases. Como conclusión se destaca el hecho de que se han experimentado con éxito métodos antes ya probados en otros estudios para proyectar, desarrollar y mantener taxonomías, con independencia del nivel de especificidad temática, hecho que plantea otro tipo de retos. Sin olvidarse de avanzar propuestas que le den continuidad hacia su desarrollo ontológico.

Medieval women's writing: Works by and for Women in England, 1100-1500

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Watt, D

2007-01-01

Medieval Women's Writing is a major new contribution to our understanding of women's writing in England, 1100-1500. The most comprehensive account to date, it includes writings in Latin and French as well as English, and works for as well as by women. Marie de France, Clemence of Barking, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and the Paston women are discussed alongside the Old English lives of women saints, The Life of Christina of Markyate, the St Albans Psalter, and the legends of women saints...

The Monument as Ruin: Natality, Spectrality, and the History of the Image in the Tirana Independence Monument

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Raino Isto

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article examines the Tirana Independence Monument, first inaugurated in November of 2012 on the hundredth anniversary of Albanian independence from the Ottoman Empire. The monument, designed by Visar Obrija and Kai Roman Kiklas, swiftly fell into disrepair until it was recently renovated in November of 2015. The article analyzes the monument’s function in terms of its doubled existence as a sign of perpetual natality (the possibility of the rebirth of national consciousness and as a ruin with a spectral pseudo-presence (as an object that continually reminds us of the disjunctures that divorce the present from its historicity. It considers the way the monument’s inauguration relates to the politics of monumentality in contemporary Albania, and argues that the monument’s gradual ruination between 2012 and 2015 can be read as a particular manifestation of the history of the image in late capitalist society.Keywords: spectrality, natality, monumentality, Albania, Tirana, independence, national identity, grid, public sculpture

Richard Rufus's theory of mixture: a medieval explanation of chemical combination.

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Weisberg, Michael; Wood, Rega

2003-05-01

Richard Rufus of Cornwall offered a novel solution to the problem of mixture raised by Aristotle. The puzzle is that mixts or mixed bodies (blood, flesh, wood, etc.) seem to be unexplainable through logic, even though the world is full of them. Rufus's contribution to this long-standing theoretical debate is the development of a modal interpretation of certain Averroistic doctrines. Rufus's account, which posits that the elemental forms in a mixt are in accidental potential, avoids many of the problems that plagued non-atomistic medieval theories of mixture. This paper is an initial examination of Rufus' account.

Lichens as possible agents of sandstone deterioration in Jesuitic ruins of San Ignacio Miní (Misiones Province, Argentina

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Rosato, V. G.

2010-09-01

Full Text Available The ruins of San Ignacio Miní, in NE Argentina, Misiones Province, included by the UNESCO in the list of World Heritage in 1984, were built in the 18th century by the Guarani people under the supervision of the Jesuite Congregation. The ruins are located in a tropical weather zone, exposed to extreme conditions of heat and humidity affecting the rocks used in its construction. These rocks are identified as siliceous sandstones, mainly formed by rounded to subrounded clasts, with scarce angulose particles, containing 96% quartz. Weather characteristics encourage the growth of vascular plants as well as algae and mosses and other organisms that damage materials. Among these, there are 18 lichen species (belonging to 18 genera, 8 foliose, 3 fruticose and 7 crustose. The damaging action of these lichens has been observed through SEM observations and EDAX microanalysis of rock samples colonized by Caloplaca sp. and Buellia sp.

Incluidas en la lista de Patrimonio Mundial por la UNESCO, las ruinas de San Ignacio Miní, en el NE de Argentina, provincia de Misiones, fueron construidas en el siglo XVIII por pobladores guaraníes supervisados por la Compañía de Jesús. Las ruinas se encuentran en una zona de clima tropical, expuestas a condiciones extremas de calor y humedad que alteran a las rocas empleadas en su construcción. Estas rocas se identifican como areniscas silíceas, formadas por clastos redondeados a sub-redondeados, con escasas partículas angulosas, con un contenido de 96,0% cuarzo. Las características del clima favorecen el desarrollo tanto de plantas vasculares como también de musgos, algas y otros organismos capaces de dañar a los materiales. Entre éstos se incluyen 18 especies de líquenes (pertenecientes a 18 géneros, 8 foliosos, 3 fruticosos y 7 crustosos. Las observaciones con SEM y los microanálisis EDE de muestras de roca colonizadas por Caloplaca sp. y Buellia sp sugieren que estos líquenes ejercen una acci

[Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier: A Companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia] / Michael Amundsen

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Amundsen, Michael

2012-01-01

Arvustus: Crusading and chronicle writing on the medieval Baltic frontier : a companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia / edited by Marek Tamm, Linda Kaljundi, Carsten Selch Jensen. Farnham : Ashgate, 2011

Seismic Activity in Medieval Jeroným Mine, West Bohemia, During Period 2006-2009

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kaláb, Zdeněk; Lednická, Markéta; Knejzlík, Jaromír; Hrubešová, E.

2010-01-01

Roč. 5, č. 2 (2010), s. 67-77 ISSN 1896-3145. [Ochrona środowiska w górnictwie podziemnym, odkrywkowym i otworowym. Zawiercie, 19.05.2010-21.05.2010] R&D Projects: GA ČR GA105/09/0089 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30860518 Keywords : medieval Jeroným mine * seismic load * numerical modelling of underground spaces Subject RIV: DC - Siesmology, Volcanology, Earth Structure

[Tooth pathology analysis of osteological material from the Medieval locality of Saint Pantelejmon church in Nis].

Science.gov (United States)

Mitić, Nadica; Mitić, Aleksandar; Crnoglavac, Vesna; Vlak, Dejana; Nikolić, Marija

2008-01-01

Medieval necropolis at the porch of St. Panteleimon church in Nis, from 12th century represents a typical Serbian necropolis, which has its analogies in several areas in Serbia. Preservation of the skeletal remains belongs to category of good and medium preservation. The aim of the work was to study the skeletal remains for the prevalence of tooth caries, localization of caries lesions, presence of abrasion, supragingival tartar and resorption of alveolar bone as the indicator of periodontal disease. The analyses included 42 skeletal remains. The anthropological analyses involved paleopathological findings on 954 teeth of 22 men and 20 women. The pathological changes of teeth were determined by inspection, dental probe, dental mirror and x-ray examination. Epidemiological research was done using average caries index. The antropological tooth pathology research of osteological material from the medieval localization of St. Pantaleimon Church in Nis showed the presence of caries in 7.86% cases, 9.93% women and 6.07% men. In 76% caries were localized on the approximal surfaces of teeth. Abrasion of the second and third degree was registered on the side and front teeth with transformation of contact points into contact surfaces and the creation of approximal, interstitial, scolded surfaces. A large quantity of supragingival tartar was found in all individuals aged over 25 years. Expressed alveolar bone resorption is the indicator of generalized periodontal disease. The prevalence of caries in the studied medieval population from the 12th century was sporadic, with localization on secondary predilection places. The abrasion of the second and third degree was present, and the resorption of the alveolar bone was registered in all the examined skeletal remains, which was the indicator of spread periodontal disease in this period.

The religious polemics of the Muslims of Late Medieval Christian Iberia : Identity and religious authority in Mudejar Islam

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Colominas Aparicio, M.

2016-01-01

This dissertation investigates the politics of identity of the Muslims in Late Medieval Christian Iberia (Mudejars). Mudejars had to endure the pressure exerted by the Christian majority society and also the criticism from their co-religionists in Muslim lands who contested their exceptional

Archaeomagnetic Study performed on Early Medieval Buildings from western France

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Chauvin, A.; Lanos, P.; Dufresne, P.; Blain, S.; Guibert, P.; Oberlin, C.; Sapin, C.

2009-05-01

A multiple dating study, involving a collaboration between specialists of dating techniques (thermoluminescence (TL) and radiocarbon), historians of art and archaeologists, has been carried out on several early medieval buildings from western France. The early medieval period is not well known especially in France where there is a lack of visible evidence that identifies pre-Romanesque architecture. The majority of buildings to have survived from this period are religious ones, considered important enough to be made of strong, non-perishable material such as stone or brick, as for example the churches of Notre-Dame-sous- Terre in the Mont-Saint-Michel or St Martin in Angers. Due to their significance in architectural history, it is imperative to position them accurately in the chronology of the history of art. Bricks are often used to build up round-headed arches or to reinforce the frame of a wall with bonding courses in those churches. TL dating and archeomagnetic analysis were performed on cores drilled within bricks while radiocarbon dating were undertaken on coals found within mortars. In order to increase the number of data during the early Middle Ages, archeointensity determinations using the classical Thellier technique with anisotropy of thermal remanence and cooling rate corrections were performed. Archaeomagnetic directions were used to recognize the firing position of bricsk during manufacture. Reliable and precise ages were obtained on the church Notre-Dame-sous-Terre; they indicate two phases of building in 950±50AD and 990±50AD. Mean archeointensities obtained on 17 (21) samples from the first (second) phases appears very closed 69.1±1.2 and 68.3±1.6 microTesla. Ages and archeomagnetic results obtained on 4 other sites will be presented and compared to the available data in western Europe.

Van Giffen’s Dogs : Cranial Osteometry of Iron Age to Medieval Period Dogs from the Northern Netherlands

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Scheele, Esther E.; Çakirlar, Canan

2018-01-01

This paper presents biometric data from a collection of 488 dogs skulls originating from 58 (archaeological) sites in the northern Netherlands dating from the Iron Age to the Medieval Period. The crania were originally collected and documented in the early 20th century by Prof. Albert Egges van

El uso político de la edad media. The myth of nations. The medieval origins of Europe

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Abel Ignacio López

2002-01-01

Full Text Available El uso político de la edad media. Geary, Patrick, The Myth of Nations. The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp: 199. El libro de Patrick Geary es una brillante crítica a los abusos que políticos e incluso historiadores han hecho a propósito de la temprana Edad Media. En efecto, este historiador norteamericano muestra que ideólogos del nacionalismo europeo de nuestro tiempo se han basado y aún se basan en un conocimiento erróneo de la época medieval para fundamentar sus propios prejuicios y exclusiones. Según esa interpretación, los pueblos modernos de hoy se constituyeron por primera vez en el período posterior a la caída del Imperio Romano y a la consolidación en Europa de los llamados pueblos germanos.

A Passage to Infinity Medieval Indian Mathematics from Kerala and Its Impact

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Joseph, George Gheverghese

2009-01-01

This book traces the first faltering steps taken in the mathematical theorisation of infinity which marks the emergence of modern mathematics. It analyses the part played by Indian mathematicians through the Kerala conduit, which is an important but neglected part of the history of mathematics. Passage to Infinity: Medieval Indian Mathematics from Kerala and its Impact begins with an examination of the social origins of the Kerala School and proceeds to discuss its mathematical genesis as well as its achievements. It presents the techniques employed by the School to derive the series expansion

Some early medieval swords in the Wallace Collection and elsewhere

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Edge, David

2003-12-01

Full Text Available The analysis of eight early medieval swords shows that some were made from a single piece of steel, while others had a steel cutting edge welded on. Heat-treatment to harden the steel was undertaken in six out of seven cases; the other proved to be a modern replica.

El análisis de ocho espadas altomedievales muestra que algunas de ellas fueron hechas a partir de una sola pieza de acero, mientras que a otras se les ha soldado un cortante filo de este material. El endurecimiento del acero mediante forja fue realizado en seis de siete casos, mientras que el restante se demostró que era una réplica moderna.

[Evidence of health culture in medieval statute of Budva].

Science.gov (United States)

Milovic Karic, Grozdana; Milovic, Dorde

2010-01-01

The Statute of Budva dates from the time of Nemanjics. This medieval document was approved at the time Budva was under venetian dominion and remained in force until the end of the Venetian Republic. During 17th century the Statute was translated into the Italian language. The document includes regulations which indicate a concern for the health of the public. Among the regulations is one which prohibit the sale of fisch outside the stalls of the fishmarket presumably to ensure the sale of only fresh fish. Another regulation prohibits the sale of dead animals, the sale of dog's meat instead od wether meat. There is also language indicating a concern for protecting the cleanliness of brooks, rivers and wells. Corporal punishment is mentioned but only with regard to whipping and beheading.

Provenance studies of pottery fragments from medieval Cairo, Egypt

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beal, J.W.; Olmez, I.

1997-01-01

In the analysis of archeological pottery fragments, instrumental neutron activation analysis has been utilized to establish the elemental concentrations of up to 37 chemical elements for each of 53 archeological pottery samples from medieval Cairo, Egypt, and one additional sample of Chinese porcelain. These elemental concentrations have been utilized in a statistical analysis procedure in order to determine similarities and correlations between the various samples. Multivariate analyses have been used to quantitatively determine these interrelationships. This methodology successfully separated the Egyptian samples into two broad categories: polychrome decorated ceramic ware and monochrome celadon ware. In addition the methodology successfully identified the one unique sample of Chinese porcelain. Several samples appeared to be either a mixture of categories or outliers in the data set and were not attributable to any distinct category. (author)

[Medicinal plants and symbols in the medieval mystic altarpiece].

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Louis-Paul; Verilhac, Régine; Ferrandis, Jean-Jacques; Trépardoux, Francis

2011-01-01

The medieval mystic altarpiece towers above the altar table. It is linked to the evocation of a religious mystery beyond our faculty of reasoning. Symbolism of an enclosed garden evokes the image of the Heavenly Garden isolated by a wall from the rest of earthly world. In this mystic chiefly Rhenan altarpiece the enclosed garden is that of Virgin Mary who in the Middle Ages was likened to the spouse in the song of songs. The Blessed Virgin is painted with flowers, lily, rose, violet, lily of the valley. Most of these are medicinal plants in order to implore a faith healing for the believers. All in all about fifty plants are showed on Rhenan altarpieces and on 14th century mystic altarpieces almost contemporary of Issenheim's altarpiece, some Italian, some Rhenan.

The Conservation of Early Post-Medieval Period Coins Found in Estonia

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Aive Viljus

2013-02-01

Full Text Available This article deals with archaeological find material with a low silver content and the problems of conserving such material. The aim of the research was to find the most suitable method for the conservation of poorly preserved early post-medieval period coins with varying composition. For this, first, the composition of both the metal and the corrosion products of the archaeological coins were analysed, after which comparative experiments of different cleaning methods were carried out in order to find out the least harmful and most efficient method. A test was also performed to determine the necessity and efficiency of stabilizing the surface of the coins after cleaning.

A Review of The Architecture of the Scottish Medieval Church 1100–1560

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Campbell, Ian

2013-01-01

If ever a book could be described as a ‘magnum opus’ it is this: indeed it is a summa. Richard Fawcett has been publishing on Scottish medieval architecture, mainly ecclesiastical, for three decades, ranging from articles on minute changes in Gothic mouldings (the subject of his doctoral research at the University of East Anglia) such as ‘Dunblane Cathedral: evidence for a change in the design of the nave’ (1982) to a survey of architecture between 370 and 1560, Scottish Architecture from the...

Veedors, marquejadors, maestros: el valor de la experiencia en la carpintería medieval. El ejemplo valenciano

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Izquierdo Aranda, Teresa

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In the carpenter’s guild of Valencia in the Middle Ages, experience and skill were two notions captured in the more comprehensive idea of expertise. The appreciation of this added value made the expert an indispensable figure inside the guild. He was present in the different positions of control and inspection established by by-laws, which ensured the quality of goods manufactured, the proper level of teaching, and the accreditation of new masters. This figure also acted as an expert assessor, estimating the work of a colleague of even assessing the value of his interventions. In this article we examine the notion of expert in medieval carpentry and the infl uence of his practical application in the daily routine of woodworkers.En la carpintería medieval valenciana, la experiencia y la destreza eran dos nociones complementarias de la idea más amplia de pericia. La apreciación de este valor añadido hacía del experto una figura imprescindible en la corporación de oficios, a través de los diversos encargos de control e inspección arbitrados por los estatutos para asegurar la calidad en la factura y en la enseñanza desarrollada por cada maestro, así como en los exámenes de magisterio. El experto también estaba presente en las tasaciones periciales, en las que su juicio servía para certificar la aptitud de la obra realizada por un colega o incluso valorar su intervención. En este artículo examinaremos la noción de experto en l’art de la fusteria o carpintería medieval valenciana y en qué medida su aplicación práctica afectaba al trabajo cotidiano de un maestro carpintero en los siglos XIV al XVI.

The Nature of Beauty: The Arts in Greece, Rome and the Medieval Period. Program for Gifted Students.

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Garton, Harry A.; Woodbury, Virginia Garton

One in a series of instructional units designed for gifted students, the booklet focuses on the arts in Greece, Rome, and the Medieval period. Narrative information on Greek pottery, sculpture, architecture, music, and dance is followed by lists of suggested activities for students and reference lists of texts and media. A similar unit on the…

Spontaneous generation in medieval Jewish philosophy and theology.

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Gaziel, Ahuva

2012-01-01

The concept of life forms emerging from inanimate matter--spontaneous generation--was widely accepted until the nineteenth century. Several medieval Jewish scholars acknowledged this scientific theory in their philosophical and religious contemplations. Quite interestingly, it served to reinforce diverse, or even opposite, theological conclusions. One approach excluded spontaneously-generated living beings form the biblical account of creation or the story of the Deluge. Underlying this view is an understanding that organisms that generate spontaneously evolve continuously in nature and, therefore, do not require divine intervention in their formation or survival during disastrous events. This naturalistic position reduces the miraculous dimension of reality. Others were of the opinion that spontaneous generation is one of the extraordinary marvels exhibited in this world and, accordingly, this interpretation served to accentuate the divine aspect of nature. References to spontaneous generation also appear in legal writings, influencing practical applications such as dietary laws and actions forbidden on the Sabbath.

Mockers and mocked in Spanish medieval exemplary literature

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Graciela Cándano Fierro

2012-06-01

Full Text Available This article presents a brief account of comical motifs that appear in some medieval exempla collections, for instance the Disciplina clericalis and Conde Lucanor, with and approximation to a hybrid work, as Libro de Buen amor, by the Arcipreste de Hita. Tge purpose of these writings was to teach and moralize audiences and this is a notable from the very introduction on. However, authors or compilers never include in their preliminaries that the purpose of their writings is to amuse, make their readers laugh, reinterpret or decontextualize the world. The main objective of this investigation is to direct the analysis of exemplary works toward revealing their amusing or even comical side. Central to this study is a conceptual structure of the laughter phenomenon that has come forward from theoretical works by well-known authors such as Aristotle. Bergson, Ducrot and others. The subject matter is to emphasize the universality of the comical vein in the aforesaid writings, which has lasted up to the present.

Historical DNA reveals the demographic history of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in medieval and early modern Iceland.

Science.gov (United States)

Ólafsdóttir, Guðbjörg Ásta; Westfall, Kristen M; Edvardsson, Ragnar; Pálsson, Snæbjörn

2014-02-22

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) vertebrae from archaeological sites were used to study the history of the Icelandic Atlantic cod population in the time period of 1500-1990. Specifically, we used coalescence modelling to estimate population size and fluctuations from the sequence diversity at the cytochrome b (cytb) and Pantophysin I (PanI) loci. The models are consistent with an expanding population during the warm medieval period, large historical effective population size (NE), a marked bottleneck event at 1400-1500 and a decrease in NE in early modern times. The model results are corroborated by the reduction of haplotype and nucleotide variation over time and pairwise population distance as a significant portion of nucleotide variation partitioned across the 1550 time mark. The mean age of the historical fished stock is high in medieval times with a truncation in age in early modern times. The population size crash coincides with a period of known cooling in the North Atlantic, and we conclude that the collapse may be related to climate or climate-induced ecosystem change.

Neutron activation analysis of medieval and early modern times ceramics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kies, A.; Reitsamer, G.; Bauer, W.

1985-01-01

Provenience studies of medieval and early modern times ceramics from the Eastern Danube area of Austria have been performed by instrumental neutron activation analysis. All sherds examined were selected from pottery which was specially charactrized by pottery marks ('Cross Potent', 'Crossmark within a circle', 'Latin Cross', 'Cross Paty'). With respect to the chemical composition five different pottery groups could be evaluated by cluster analysis. Archaeological results: The'Cross Patent' was used by different potter's workshops whereas the 'Crossmark within a circle' was more likely restricted to one manufacture entre. The distribution of the 'Latin Cross' and The 'Cross Paty' over all five clusters indicated the usage of clay from different deposits. The assignment of the 'Cross Paty' exclusively to the area of Passau could be disproved. (Author)

The Smell of Relics: Authenticating Saintly Bones and the Role of Scent in the Sensory Experience of Medieval Christian Veneration

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Paul Anthony Brazinski

2013-09-01

Full Text Available ''The archaeology of smell is a burgeoning field in recent scholarship. This paper adds to existing literature by investigating the function of smell in relation to relic sales and veneration in medieval Europe, a hitherto understudied area of research. Collating historical texts concerning the translatio of saintly relics in Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire with archaeological sources associated with relic veneration and religious worship (including ampullae, unguentaria, sarcophagi, holy oils, pillow graves, and silk, this paper suggests that (1 smell was used in the medieval world as a means to challenge or confirm a relic’s authenticity, and (2 olfactory liquids that imbued or permeated material objects in the context of worship functioned as a means of focusing attention on relic veneration and were an essential part of the cult and/or pilgrimage experience.

Soil archives of a Fluvisol, part II. Archaeostratigraphical model of the subsurface of the medieval city centre of Vlaardingen, the Netherlands

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Kluiving, Sjoerd; De Ridder, Tim; van Dasselaar, Marcel; Prins, Maarten

2017-04-01

In Medieval times the city of Vlaardingen (the Netherlands) was strategically located on the confluence of three rivers, the Meuse, the Merwede and the Vlaarding. A church of early 8th century was already located here. In a short period of time Vlaardingen developed into an international trading place, the most important place in the former county of Holland. Starting from the 11th century the river Meuse threatened to flood the settlement. These floods have been registered in the archives of the fluvisol and were recognised in a multidisciplinary sedimentary analysis of these archives. To secure the future of this vulnerable soil archive an extensive interdisciplinary research (76 mechanical drill holes, grain size analysis (GSA), thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), archaeological remains, soil analysis, dating methods, micromorphology, and microfauna has started in 2011 to gain knowledge on the sedimentological and pedological subsurface of the mound as well as on the well-preserved nature of the archaeological evidence. Pedogenic features are recorded with soil descriptive, micromorphological and geochemical (XRF) analysis. The soil sequence of 5 meters thickness exhibits a complex mix of 'natural' as well as 'anthropogenic layering' and initial soil formation that enables to make a distinction for relatively stable periods between periods with active sedimentation. In this paper the results of this large-scale project are demonstrated in a number of cross-sections with interrelated geological, pedological and archaeological stratification. Distinction between natural and anthropogenic layering is made on the occurrence of chemical elements phosphor and potassium. A series of four stratigraphic / sedimentary units record the period before and after the flooding disaster. Given the many archaeological remnants and features present in the lower units, we know that the medieval landscape was drowned while it was inhabited in the 12th century AD. After a final

Isotope analyses to explore diet and mobility in a medieval Muslim population at Tauste (NE Spain.

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Iranzu Guede

Full Text Available The Islamic necropolis discovered in Tauste (Zaragoza, Spain is the only evidence that a large Muslim community lived in the area between the 8th and 10th centuries. A multi-isotope approach has been used to investigate the mobility and diet of this medieval Muslim population living in a shifting frontier region. Thirty-one individuals were analyzed to determine δ15N, δ13C, δ18O and 87Sr/86Sr composition. A combination of strontium and oxygen isotope analysis indicated that most individuals were of local origin although three females and two males were non-local. The non-local males would be from a warmer zone whereas two of the females would be from a more mountainous geographical region and the third from a geologically-different area. The extremely high δ15N baseline at Tauste was due to bedrock composition (gypsum and salt. High individual δ15N values were related to the manuring effect and consumption of fish. Adult males were the most privileged members of society in the medieval Muslim world and, as isotope data reflected, consumed more animal proteins than females and young males.

Human intestinal parasites in crusader Acre: Evidence for migration with disease in the medieval period.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, Piers D; Anastasiou, Evilena; Syon, Danny

2011-12-01

The aim of this research is to highlight the role of ancient parasites as evidence for human migration in past populations. The material analysed was soil sediment from the excavation of a medieval cesspool in the city of Acre, in Israel. Archaeological stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating of a fragment of animal bone from the cesspool confirm its use in the 13th century CE, during the crusader period. At that time Acre was located in the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem. Soil samples from the cesspool were analysed and eggs of the roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) and fish tapeworm (Diphyllobothrium latum) were identified. The fish tapeworm has only been found in the mainland Near East once before, in a latrine of the crusader Order of St. John (Knights Hospitaller). It has been absent in all earlier cesspools, latrines and coprolites so far studied in the region. In contrast to its rarity in the Levant, the fish tapeworm was common in northern Europe during the medieval period. The presence of fish tapeworm eggs in a crusader period cesspool in Acre suggests its use by crusaders or pilgrims from northern Europe who travelled to the Levant carrying these parasites in their intestines. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Medieval monastic mortality: hazard analysis of mortality differences between monastic and nonmonastic cemeteries in England.

Science.gov (United States)

DeWitte, Sharon N; Boulware, Jessica C; Redfern, Rebecca C

2013-11-01

Scholarship on life in medieval European monasteries has revealed a variety of factors that potentially affected mortality in these communities. Though there is some evidence based on age-at-death distributions from England that monastic males lived longer than members of the general public, what is missing from the literature is an explicit examination of how the risks of mortality within medieval monastic settings differed from those within contemporaneous lay populations. This study examines differences in the hazard of mortality for adult males between monastic cemeteries (n = 528) and non-monastic cemeteries (n = 368) from London, all of which date to between AD 1050 and 1540. Age-at-death data from all cemeteries are pooled to estimate the Gompertz hazard of mortality, and "monastic" (i.e., buried in a monastic cemetery) is modeled as a covariate affecting this baseline hazard. The estimated effect of the monastic covariate is negative, suggesting that individuals in the monastic communities faced reduced risks of dying compared to their peers in the lay communities. These results suggest better diets, the positive health benefits of religious behavior, better living conditions in general in monasteries, or selective recruitment of healthy or higher socioeconomic status individuals. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

How did Humans Adapt in the Eastern Farming-pastoral zone during the Medieval Warm Period?

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, X.

2017-12-01

With its extremely warm climate, the "medieval warm period" is considered analogous to the climate change humans are likely to face due to future global warming. Thus, the ability of humans to adapt to an extremely warm climate during the medieval period in Eurasia's farming-pastoral zone has attracted some attention. The warmth of the climate during this period (900-1300 BC) is demonstrated by evidence of bamboo in charcoal remains and phytoliths found in the settlement sites and tomb murals of the Western Liao river basin in Northeast China. This warmth probably promoted agricultural diversification, as the presence of foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, wheat, barley, soybean, hemp, and buckwheat in this region can be seen in plant seeds and phytoliths found in archaeological sites. The bones of deer and birds also provide evidence of hunting, and the practice of animal husbandry is indicated in pig, dog, cattle, ovicaprid, horse and camel bones. Diversity in food structures is also shown in stable isotopes from human and animal bones. Competence in animal husbandry and hunting, and the availability of stable food resources may have contributed to the rise of the Liao people in military prowess and power, and promoted the expansion of Khitan-Liao culture.

[Description of an early medieval skull from Biel-Mett with peculiar dental findings].

Science.gov (United States)

Roulet, J F; Ulrich-Bochsler, S

1978-04-01

During the excavation of a church in Biel a medieval cranium was found (600-700 a.c.) which showed a large radicular cyst in the middle facial area, located on tooth 16 which caused considerable facial deformation. Furthermore carious lesions and evidence of chronic periodontal disease were discovered, which gave some indications on the way of life the individual had conducted. The examinations proved that a combination of methods of examination was able to increase the yield of information on the given object. Such studies should be conducted more often on an interdisciplinary way.

Mimetismo e Recriação do Imaginário Medieval em Auto da Compadecida de Ariano Suassuna e en La Diestra de Dios Padre de Enrique Buenaventura

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Tereza Aline Pereira de Queiroz

1998-01-01

Full Text Available O artigo tem por objetivo discutir, a partir da análise das peças teatrais Auto da Compadecida, de Ariano Suassuna, e La Diestra de Dios Padre, de Enrico Buenaventura, a presença do imaginário medieval ibérico no continente americano.This article intends to discuss the maintenance of iberian medieval imaginaire in the american continent analysing the plays Auto da Compadecida by Ariano Suassuna and La Diestra de Dios Padre by Enrico Buenaventura.

Historical and Technical Notes on Aqueducts from Prehistoric to Medieval Times

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Giovanni De Feo

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to present the evolution of aqueduct technologies through the millennia, from prehistoric to medieval times. These hydraulic works were used by several civilizations to collect water from springs and to transport it to settlements, sanctuaries and other targets. Several civilizations, in China and the Americas, developed water transport systems independently, and brought these to high levels of sophistication. For the Mediterranean civilizations, one of the salient characteristics of cultural development, since the Minoan Era (ca. 3200–1100 BC, is the architectural and hydraulic function of aqueducts used for the water supply in palaces and other settlements. The Minoan hydrologists and engineers were aware of some of the basic principles of water sciences and the construction and operation of aqueducts. These technologies were further developed by subsequent civilizations. Advanced aqueducts were constructed by the Hellenes and, especially, by the Romans, who dramatically increased the application scale of these structures, in order to provide the extended quantities of water necessary for the Roman lifestyle of frequent bathing. The ancient practices and techniques were not improved but survived through Byzantine and early medieval times. Later, the Ottomans adapted older techniques, reintroducing large-scale aqueducts to supply their emerging towns with adequate water for religious and social needs. The scientific approach to engineering matters during the Renaissance further improved aqueduct technology. Some of these improvements were apparently also implemented in Ottoman waterworks. Finally the industrial revolution established mechanized techniques in water acquisition. Water is a common need of mankind, and several ancient civilizations developed simple but practical techniques from which we can still learn. Their experience and knowledge could still play an important role for sustainable water supply

How to stop e-mail spam, spyware, malware, computer viruses, and hackers from ruining your computer or network the complete guide for your home and work

CERN Document Server

Brown, Bruce

2010-01-01

It seems like everywhere you go on the Internet, there is spam, spyware, and the risk of viruses infecting your computer and ruining your online experience. In businesses alone, according to Nucleus Research Inc. spam costs more than 712 per employee each year in productivity and computing resources and the estimation on money lost by businesses due to computer viruses ranges between 100 million and 2 billion annually depending on how the total is calculated. This complete, revolutionary book has compiled all of the vital information you need to make sure that you are able to combat the risk

À la recherche de la senefiance… — Lecture intertextuelle des récits de rêve médiévaux // In search of the senefiance… — Intertextual study of dream scenes in medieval French texts

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Linda Németh

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The modern reader cannot read and interpret a medieval text in the same way as the medieval reader because of remoteness in time, the distance between our cultural space and medieval cultural space. We should understand them in terms of their own context, treat all énoncés in their specific historical and socio-cultural contexts. Special attention must be paid to dream scenes in medieval French texts which are separate events from narrative structure. On the one hand, our study focuses on the narrative characteristics of premonitory dreams especially in some Old French epics and romances. Taking under study intertextual links between the different sequences of their narration, we attempt to describe and explore prototypical traits of their linguistic expression. We note that dream narratives contain several types of recursive formula (the dream’s emotional and physical effects on the dreamer, description of falling asleep, in author’s commentaries. Oneiric narration follows standard, retains its specific structral forms. On the other hand, we will explore through some examples how the symbolic images of dream stories can be read in intertextuality. Uncovering intertextual relations, this study also sheds light on how our symbols are in direct correlation with the texts of some medieval bestiaries and encyclopedical scripts. The intertextual work that we are proposing, not only helps to better understand some textual phenomena of medieval works but supports the interpretative procedures and elucidation of dream contents. Above all, it prevents to project to the past values and judgments, that are the property of the modern mentality.

[Crusading and chronicle writing on the medieval Baltic frontier: A companion to the chronicle of Henry of Livonia] / Radosław Biskup

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Biskup, Radosław

2014-01-01

Arvustus: Crusading and chronicle writing on the medieval Baltic frontier : a companion to the chronicle of Henry of Livonia, eds. Marek Tamm, Linda Kaljundi, Carsten Selch Jensen. Farnham ; Burlington (Vt.) : Ashgate, c2011

Iconología política en la Cataluña medieval

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Puigarnau, Alfons

2002-06-01

Full Text Available Between the XIIIth and the XIV centuries, the so called Quatre grans cròniques (Four Great Chronicles are written in Mediaeval Catalonia. Three of the four authors of these documents show the historical facts as connected with and allowed by the Divine Providence. They develop a concept of History in which Space and time are categories necessarily moved by a supernatural force that gives them a reason for being, and the possibility of a free self-development. If we analyse these three major documents we will check an attempt of legitimate political power through a comparison between the present authority and the historical authority of the Jewish Kings of Israel, mainly David and Salomon. This is the "Icon of Political Power" that catalan medieval chroniclers want to reproduce.

Entre los siglos XIII y XIV se escriben en Cataluña las llamadas Quatre grans cròniques. Tres de sus cuatro autores muestran la pretendida conexión de los hechos históricos con la Providencia divina. Desarrollan un concepto de Historia en el que el Espacio y el Tiempo son categorías necesariamente dominadas por fuerzas sobrenaturales. Al analizar estos documentos se registra un intento de legitimar el poder político a través del paralelismo entre la autoridad presente y la autoridad hostórica de los reyes de Israel, David y Salomón. Tras este intento de legitimación del poder político se encuentra, por tanto, una importante iconología del poder político en la Cataluña medieval.

Thermodynamic model of natural, medieval and nuclear waste glass durability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jantzen, C.M.; Plodinec, M.J.

1983-01-01

A thermodynamic model of glass durability based on hydration of structural units has been applied to natural glass, medieval window glasses, and glasses containing nuclear waste. The relative durability predicted from the calculated thermodynamics correlates directly with the experimentally observed release of structural silicon in the leaching solution in short-term laboratory tests. By choosing natural glasses and ancient glasses whose long-term performance is known, and which bracket the durability of waste glasses, the long-term stability of nuclear waste glasses can be interpolated among these materials. The current Savannah River defense waste glass formulation is as durable as natural basalt from the Hanford Reservation (10 6 years old). The thermodynamic hydration energy is shown to be related to the bond energetics of the glass. 69 references, 2 figures, 1 table

Orgin of Slag from Early Medieval Age Furnaces in Nitra

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Julius Dekan

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Two types of archaeological artefacts from remains of Early Medieval Age furnaces excavated in Nitra are analysed. They are supposed to originate from slag of glass and iron production. Employing Mossbauer spectrometry, iron crystallographic sites are identified and compared. In all samples, Fe2+ and Fe3+ structural positions were revealed. Some of the archeological artefacts including those that were supposed to originate from glass production show a presence of metallic iron and/or magnetic oxides. Based on the results of Mossbauer effect measurements performed at room temperature as well as 77 K (liquid nitrogen temperature analytical evidence is provided that the iron sites identified are not as those usually encountered in glasses. Consequently, a conclusion is proposed that neither of the investigated furnaces was used for glass production.

South German Inspirations in the Armour of Late Medieval Combatants from the Silesian-Lusatian-Brandenburg-Polish Borderland. Iconographic Examples

OpenAIRE

Michalak, Arkadiusz

2017-01-01

There are visible tendencies in the late medieval iconography from the Silesian-Lusatian-Brandenburg-Polish borderland, indicating strong South German inspiration in depicted armour. The presence of this kind of protection on works of art from this region can most likely be connected with political, family and artistic reasons.

Idea e imagen del rey en la diplomática medieval hispana: el valor de los preámbulos = Idea and Image of Kingship in Spanish Medieval Diplomatics: The Importance of Preambles

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Pablo Martín Prieto

2016-06-01

Full Text Available El artículo trata del papel de los preámbulos de diplomas reales en la España medieval, como fuente para establecer varios rasgos definitorios de los reyes y la realeza tal como entonces se entendían. La detenida consideración de una cierta cantidad de tales preámbulos de documentos reales ayuda a caracterizar ideas e imágenes generales que definen la representación de la realeza de acuerdo con la propaganda de la época. Algunas concepciones clave sobre las dimensiones y deberes morales de la realeza pueden seguirse a lo largo de series enteras de documentos reales en la larga duración, al tiempo que adoptan formas diplomáticas diferentes en los preámbulos.This paper deals with the role of the preamble in royal documents of medieval Spain as a source for establishing various defining traits of kings and kingship as they were understood at the time. Thorough consideration of a certain number of such preambles in royal charters allows one to determine the general ideas and images that inform the representation of kingship as portrayed by the propaganda of its era. Some key ideas pertaining to the scope and moral duties of royalty can be traced throughout an entire series of royal charters in the long term, while assuming different diplomatic forms in the preambles.

A medieval physician: Amirdovlat Amasiatsi (1420-1495).

Science.gov (United States)

Gurunluoglu, Aslin; Gurunluoglu, Raffi; Hakobyan, Tatevik

2016-01-01

We aimed to acquaint the reader with a medieval physician, Amirdovlat Amasiatsi, who lived and practiced in the 15th century Anatolia. Amirdovlat wrote several books on medicine mainly focusing on phytotherapy and pharmacology using medicinal plants, animal-derived products and minerals. All his works were written in Middle Armenian, spoken Armenian language of the time. In his writings, Amirdovlat described unique recipes that represent a portrayal of medical knowledge and practice at the time in Anatolia where he lived and worked. He discussed the physical and therapeutic properties as well as geographic distributions of various plants and minerals, using different languages, mainly Turkish, Greek, Arabic, French and Persian. Amirdovlat's works not only enhanced our understanding of Armenian medical practices but also provided great deal of information on those of Ancient Greco-Roman as well as Islamic world, demonstrating close relationship of Armenian medicine with Greco-Roman and Islamic medicine. Amirdovlat accomplished this by amalgamating the past and contemporary practices of his time. In this regard, Amirdovlat's works, in particular "Useless for the Ignorant", are very unique playing a significant role in preserving traditions and heritage of different cultures.

Multiscale Pigment Analysis of Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts

Science.gov (United States)

Sestak, Erica; Manukyan, Khachatur; Wiescher, Michael; Gura, David

2017-09-01

Three medieval illuminated manuscripts (codd. Lat. b. 1; Lat. b. 2; Lat. e. 4), housed at the University of Notre Dame's Hesburgh Library, vary in style, pigments, scribes, and regions, despite all three being Psalters used in the Late Middle Ages. XRF and Raman spectroscopy, which provided the elemental and molecular composition of the pigments, respectively, were used to analyze the pigments' compositions in an attempt to narrow further the manuscripts' possible origins. This experimental investigation emphasizes the importance of understanding the history of the manuscript through their pigments. Codd. Lat. b. 1 and Lat. b. 2 are Latinate German Psalters from the fifteenth century likely used in Katharinenkloster in Nuremberg. While there are visible differences in style within each Psalter, the variations in some of the pigment compositions, such as the inconstant presence of zinc, suggest different admixtures. Cod. Lat. e. 4 is a Latinate English Psalter from the fourteenth century, and it was written by two scribes and illuminated by two distinct painters. It is currently being tested to determine whether there are any correlations between the scribes and painters. These physical analyses will clarify the origins and provenances of the manuscripts.

[The Reception of Medieval Europa in the Baltic Sea Region. Papers of the XIIth Visby Symposium held at Gotland University, Visby] / Stefan Donecker

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Donecker, Stefan, 1977-

2011-01-01

Arvustus : The Reception of Medieval Europa in the Baltic Sea Region. Papers of the XIIth Visby Symposium held at Gotland University, Visby. Viby : Gotland University Press, 2009. (Acta Visbyensia. 12)

A method for estimating age of medieval sub-adults from infancy to adulthood based on long bone length

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Primeau, Charlotte; Friis, Laila Saidane; Sejrsen, Birgitte

2016-01-01

OBJECTIVES: To develop a series of regression equations for estimating age from length of long bones for archaeological sub-adults when aging from dental development cannot be performed. Further, to compare derived ages when using these regression equations, and two other methods. MATERIAL AND ME...... as later than the medieval period, although this would require further testing. The quadratic equations are suggested to yield more accurate ages then using simply linear regression equations. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.......OBJECTIVES: To develop a series of regression equations for estimating age from length of long bones for archaeological sub-adults when aging from dental development cannot be performed. Further, to compare derived ages when using these regression equations, and two other methods. MATERIAL...... AND METHODS: A total of 183 skeletal sub-adults from the Danish medieval period, were aged from radiographic images. Linear regression formulae were then produced for individual bones. Age was then estimated from the femur length using three different methods: equations developed in this study, data based...

Study of medieval enamelling on gilded objects combining SEM-EDAX and PIXE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chamon, J.; Barrio, J.; Arroyo, M.; Gutierrez, P.C.; Climent-Font, A.

2010-01-01

A set of fragments of metallic artefacts from the medieval period excavated from Ciudad Real in Spain has been studied. The objects are gilded copper buckles with a champleve enamelling decoration. The composition of predominantly blue-coloured enamels has been analysed using three non-destructive techniques, SEM-EDAX (scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and PIXE (particle-induced X-ray emission). Analyses show that Co is responsible for the blue colour. The results of the two techniques are compared, as well as the main components which constitute the enamel. Analyses suggest that Cu is responsible for red colour. (orig.)

Experimental Analyses of Yellow Tuff Spandrels of Post-medieval Buildings in the Naples Area

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calderoni, B.; Cordasco, E. A.; Lenza, P.; Guerriero, L.

2008-01-01

Experimental analyses have been carried out on tuff masonry specimens in order to investigate the structural behaviour of historical buildings in the Naples area (Southern Italy). Spandrels of post-medieval buildings (late XVI to early XX century) have been analysed, with emphasis on morphological characteristics according to chronological indicators. Results of the experimentation on scaled models (1:10) are discussed and the better behaviour of historical masonry typologies on respect to the modern one is highlighted. Comparison with theoretical formulations of ultimate shear resistance are provided too

Medieval and early modern approaches to fractures of the proximal humerus: an historical review

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brorson, S.

2010-01-01

The diagnosis and management of complex fractures of the proximal humerus have challenged surgical practitioners and medical writers since the earliest recorded surgical texts. Current knowledge of fractures of the proximal humerus has been obtained through pathoanatomical and biomechanical studies...... within the last two centuries. However, the historical preconditions for this development have not been studied. This paper reviews written sources from the fall of the Roman Empire to the late eighteenth century. Medieval and early modern writers mainly rely on the Hippocratic writings De Fracturis...

Andrić's dissertation in the contexts of East and West

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Đihjang Kim

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Ivo Andrić, Serbian Nobel prize winner for literature, was also famous for his work in studying the Turkish historic sources, especially the Islamic religion and its influence on Bosnia. He dealt with this topic in his thesis The development of spiritual life in Bosnia under the influence of Turkish rule, which he presented in Graz in 1924. His thesis was presented in Austria, shortly after the ruin of Austro-Hungarian empire, at the time of forming the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, when Andrić was a young Yugoslav diplomat. As an intellectual and a writer from the Balkans, Andrić observed all of the important cultural features of the Eastern and Western civilizations. They were specifically opposed throughout the long Medieval period in the region of Balkan, and especially his homeland Bosnia.

The Health Status of the Early Medieval Population of Greater Moravia in Relation to Social and Economic Structures

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Velemínský, P.; Dobisíková, M.; Stránská, Petra; Trefný, P.; Likovský, Jakub

2009-01-01

Roč. 56, č. 6 (2009), s. 91-101 ISSN 0567-8250 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA206/07/0699 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z80020508 Keywords : Early Medieval period * Great Moravian population * social -economic structure * demography * Enamel Hypoplasy * Cribra orbitalia * Harris lines * Dental health state * Degenerative changes joints Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology

As filhas de Eva: religião e relações de gênero na justiça medieval portuguesa Eve's daughters: religion and gender relations in the portuguese medieval justice

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Edlene Oliveira Silva

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Este artigo analisa as representações de mulheres presentes nas Ordenações Afonsinas, código jurídico português elaborado no século XV que definiu e classificou detalhadamente vários crimes considerados tipicamente femininos e estipulou punições rigorosas. Dentre esses delitos, trataremos de alguns aspectos do adultério, do concubinato e da alcovitagem. Informado pelas representações de gênero, o discurso jurídico do Estado monárquico luso legitimou a perseguição empreendida pela Igreja às mulheres "desviantes". O olhar da justiça era influenciado pelo imaginário religioso cristão e medieval, repleto de ideias patriarcais e misóginas que associavam o feminino ao arquétipo da Eva pecadora, a primeira mulher que se deixou seduzir pelos ardis malignos do demônio.This article analyzes the representations of women in the Ordenações Afonsinas, the Portuguese juridical code elaborated in the 15th century that defined and classified in detail several crimes considered typically feminine, and that stipulated rigorous punishments. Among those crimes, we will discuss some aspects of adultery, concubinage, and panderism. Informed by gender representations, the juridical discourse of the Lusitanian monarchical State legitimated the persecution of "deviating" women undertaken by the Church. The view of justice was influenced by Christian/medieval religious imaginary, full of patriarchal and misogynistic ideas that associated the feminine to Eve's archetype of the sinner, the first woman to be seduced by the Devil's evil artifices.

Characterization of a Messer – The late-Medieval single-edged sword of Central Europe

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fajfar, Peter; Medved, Jožef; Klančnik, Grega [Department of Materials and Metallurgy, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Aškerčeva cesta 12, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia); Lazar, Tomaž [National Museum of Slovenia, Prešernova cesta 20, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia); Nečemer, Marijan [Jožef Stefan Institut, Jamova cesta 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia); Mrvar, Primož, E-mail: primoz.mrvar@omm.ntf.uni-lj.si [Department of Materials and Metallurgy, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Aškerčeva cesta 12, SI-1000 Ljubljana (Slovenia)

2013-12-15

Metallurgical characterization of a sword blade fragments dating from the second half of the 15th century found in central Slovenia was performed in order to determine its chemical composition, microstructure, microhardness, and to obtain insight into the methods of manufacture of a late-medieval Messer sword. As the artefact was broken, examinations were limited to six very small fragments that were allowed to be removed from the cutting edge, core and the back of the blade. Light optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry, thermodynamics approach and Vickers micro-hardness tests were employed to analyze the microstructure and mechanical properties. The results show that the sword was manufactured from a single wrought iron billet. The surface of the sword was carburized. No evidence of quenching was found. The ferritic microstructure is concentrated in the core, and the pearlitic in the outer layer of the blade. All metal fragments contained non-metallic inclusions that were derived mostly from slag and some from hammer scale. - Highlights: • A metallurgical characterization of a medieval sword blade has been performed. • The carbon content decreased from the surface to the core of the blade. • The dominant microstructure in the outer layer is pearlite and in the core is ferrite. • The presence of lump shaped and elongated non-metallic inclusions was observed. • The sword was manufactured from a single wrought iron billet.

Characterization of a Messer – The late-Medieval single-edged sword of Central Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fajfar, Peter; Medved, Jožef; Klančnik, Grega; Lazar, Tomaž; Nečemer, Marijan; Mrvar, Primož

2013-01-01

Metallurgical characterization of a sword blade fragments dating from the second half of the 15th century found in central Slovenia was performed in order to determine its chemical composition, microstructure, microhardness, and to obtain insight into the methods of manufacture of a late-medieval Messer sword. As the artefact was broken, examinations were limited to six very small fragments that were allowed to be removed from the cutting edge, core and the back of the blade. Light optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry, thermodynamics approach and Vickers micro-hardness tests were employed to analyze the microstructure and mechanical properties. The results show that the sword was manufactured from a single wrought iron billet. The surface of the sword was carburized. No evidence of quenching was found. The ferritic microstructure is concentrated in the core, and the pearlitic in the outer layer of the blade. All metal fragments contained non-metallic inclusions that were derived mostly from slag and some from hammer scale. - Highlights: • A metallurgical characterization of a medieval sword blade has been performed. • The carbon content decreased from the surface to the core of the blade. • The dominant microstructure in the outer layer is pearlite and in the core is ferrite. • The presence of lump shaped and elongated non-metallic inclusions was observed. • The sword was manufactured from a single wrought iron billet

An unusual discovery of human remains from the medieval church of Grevenmacher (Luxembourg).

Science.gov (United States)

Trautmann, Bernd; Bis-Worch, Christiane

2017-12-01

The occurrence of burned human remains on a Christian burial ground is very rare in medieval Europe. Therefore, the discovery of a complex consisting of commingled burned and unburned human bones within the church of Grevenmacher (Luxembourg) is from special interest for anthropological as well as archaeological research. In the current paper we present methods for a comprehensive analysis for such an exceptional case connected with the question if this bone accumulation represents a form of funerary custom or if other factors lead to its composition. Thereof, two possible scenarios for the occurrence of this unusual composition were created and discussed.

La revisión de un cuento medieval en un sitio de Internet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monique Noël-Gaudreault

2003-06-01

Full Text Available This article has as a topic the revision of a text with the help of a Web page. Our question was, “What are the elements of the rewriting phase for a didactical sequence on fiction writing, when using computer tools, in this case to create a tale within a medieval setting?” We summarize the advantages of using a Web site for this, and we go on by tracing out the concepts that underlie rereading and rewriting the tale, and by listing the main objects to check during the revision process, completeness, coherence-cohesion, vocabulary, syntax and spelling.

Sinusitis in people living in the medieval ages.

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Teul, Iwona; Lorkowski, Jacek; Lorkiewicz, Wieslaw; Nowakowski, Dariusz

2013-01-01

Breathing vitally serves body homeostasis. The prevalence of upper airway infections is often taken as an indicator of overall health status of a population living at a given time. In the present study we examined the unearthed remains of skulls from the XIII-XV century inhabitants searching for signs of maxillary sinusitis. Maxillary sinuses of the skulls of 92 individuals were inspected macroscopically and, if necessary, endoscopically. Osseous changes, including the pitting and abnormal spicule formation were present in 69 cases (75.0 %). It was found that, overall, dental infection was a major cause of maxillary sinusitis (18.8 %). Severe bone changes were observed in the adults' skulls, but were also present in the sinus walls of children's skulls. Post-inflammatory changes were manifest as remodeling and damage to the sinus walls. The results indicate that both children and adults of the Middle Ages suffered from chronic sinusitis. These observations confirm that the climate, environment, and lifestyle of the medieval populations contributed to the morbidity of the upper respiratory tract.

The case of the pregnant woman from the medieval site of “Preko Slatine” in Omoljica

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Đukić Ksenija

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the case of the pregnant woman discovered at the medieval necropolis of “Preko Slatine” in Omoljica, a village near Pančevo. The necropolis is dated to the period of the 12th-13th century AD. It deals with a woman aged 25-30 (probably around 28 years old in the advanced stages of pregnancy, discovered in grave No. 13. This paper presents the possible conditions that led to the death of this woman, but also the problems faced by anthropologists when they attempt to resolve individual cases like this. In paleodemographic research, the mortality rate of pregnant woman is an important element of a population’s progress. Pregnant woman mortality is considered an adequate criterion for the social and sanitation conditions of a community and a sensitive indicator of health care and, sometimes, the skill level possessed by midwives or doctors. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. III 45005: Functional, functionalized and advanced nano materials, Grant no. 177007: Romanization, urbanization and transformation of urban centers of civil, military and residential character in Roman provinces on the territory of Serbia and Grant no. 177021: Urbanization processes and development of medieval society

La influencia de la Alquimia medieval hispana en la Europa moderna,

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López Pérez, Miguel

2002-12-01

Full Text Available The pseudolullian texts of german paracelsists in Spain specify the peninsular paracelsism. This texts, and many others, were influenced by other previous texts, like these of the same Lull, Arnau of Vilanova and John of Rupescissa, that's the reason why this ideas made a return trip and the spanish mediaeval alchemy determined directly to the european alchemy.

Los textos pseudolulianos de paracelsistas alemanes en España concretan los años del paracelsismo peninsular. Dichos textos, y algunos más, estaban influenciados por otros anteriores, como los del propio Lulio, Arnau de Vilanova y Juan de Rupescissa, por lo que dichas ideas hicieron un viaje de ida y vuelta y la Alquimia hispana medieval influenció directamente a la europea.

La infanta Urraca y el cerco de Zamora en la historiografía medieval castellana y leonesa

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Martín Prieto, Pablo

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to compose a general panorama over the image of princess Urraca of Leon-Castile as it appears and evolves in the context of Medieval Castilian cronicles. Her outstanding role in Castilian politics of the late 11th century has been object to much attention on the part of historians ever since. In particular, she is to be remembered in connection to the murder of the Castilian king Sancho II, her brother, before the walls of Zamora. This crucial turning point in Iberian history was embroidered in legendary epics, leading to a wide accusation against Urraca as an inductor to her brother’s assassination. The present paper is concerned with a critical examination of the medieval cronicles, so as to verify and trace the progress and oscillations about the construction of Urraca’s posterity on behalf of Sancho’s death.

El presente estudio pretende dibujar un panorama general sobre la imagen de la infanta castellana Urraca, tal como ésta se refleja y evoluciona en las principales fuentes historiográficas castellanas y leonesas de época medieval. Desde aquellos tiempos, los historiadores han prestado mucha atención a la importancia de Urraca en la política castellana del final del siglo XI. Se la recuerda especialmente por su relación con el asesinato de su hermano el monarca castellano Sancho II ante los muros de Zamora. Este acontecimiento crucial de la historia peninsular fue objeto de amplia elaboración épica, resultando en una acusación contra Urraca como inductora de la muerte de su hermano. Nuestro artículo propone un examen crítico de las crónicas medievales, al objeto de verificar y seguir la formación y las vacilaciones en la construcción de la posteridad de Urraca a cuenta de la muerte de Sancho.

Frequency of dental caries in children in the Early Iron Age and the Medieval populations from Ukraine

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Yanko Nataliia Valentinovna

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper we determine the caries frequency in children of the Early Iron Age (EIA (the 9th - the 3d centuries BC and the Medieval populations (the 8th - the beginning of the 15th century AD from the Ukraine area, and compare the results with the data from several European populations who lived at the same time. The EIA is presented by 41 children skeletons, three of which were Cimmerian (the 9th - the 7th centuries BC from the territory of contemporary Poltava region; 38 skulls from the territory of contemporary Poltava region and Crimea represented Scythian period (the 7th - the 3d centuries BC. Remains of 24 children from the Medieval populations were also examined, three of which were the ancient Hungarians from the Poltava region (the 8th - the 9th centuries AD, 6 Khazars from the Kharkiv region (the 8th - the 9th centuries, 1 child related the Old Rus culture from the Kyiv region (the 9th century, and 14 representatives of the nomadic populations in the Golden Horde period (the 13th - the beginning of the 15th century from the Poltava and Zaporizhzhya regions. Taking in consideration the letter archaeobotanical studies we suggest that there were no major changes in the plants exploited during all the studied periods. The frequency of carious lesions in children from the Medieval populations (8.3% in individuals, 0.5% in deciduous teeth, and 0.4% in permanent teeth is only slightly higher than those from the EIA period (2.4% in individuals and 0.2% in deciduous teeth. These indexes were not larger those of majority of European populations dated to the same historic period. Further isotopic, chemical and palaeobotanical studies of the additional sites, with sufficient sample sizes, allow us to learn so much more of the cariogenic factors in children of the past populations from the Ukraine area.

El pecador en el jardín de la salud: La contribución de la medicina a la configuración del modelo antropológico medieval y el carácter filosófico de su sentido

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José Antonio Paredes Osuna

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The recient historiography has carried a change of perspectives about the sense of the Medieval Philosophy and its complex configuration. In the same horizon where only the thelogy ruled like the unique true and view about the man and the world, other disciplines blame for defense their relevance in the building of the medieval cosmology. In present case we’ll be able to searchnhowbn the Medicine supported a special relationship with the philosophy in the process of its definition like the “pagan” reformulation for the Medieval escatology and like a new anthropological model.

Gold and not so real gold in Medieval treatises

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Srebrenka Bogovic-Zeskoski

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to evidence diverse materials and processes used by artisans (and alchemists required to synthesize a visually viable replacement for gold. The emphasis of the research is upon the production of mosaic gold or porporina, a pigment that has survived into modern times, which was used as ink and as paint. Base metals, mostly tin, but also alloys were used both into foils coated with glazes and varnishes and as pigment. The research focuses upon recipes documented in treatises dating from Antiquity to the late Medieval period (ca. 1500 and an attempt is made to answer two questions. In the first place, why was there a need for a surrogate? Secondly, why are there so few tangible examples detected on surviving artifacts? In conclusion, an argument is offered pointing out that, although much can be learned by scientific examination of artifacts, textual analysis is equally important and necessary to unravel mysteries of ancient technologies

A biological stone from a medieval cemetery in Poland.

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Gładykowska-Rzeczycka, Judyta J; Nowakowski, Dariusz

2014-01-01

A review of the literature shows that origination of biological stones as well as their pathogenesis mostly depend on the environmental factors. As a result, the structural spectrum of such calculi and their chemical composition are highly diversified. It is well known that biological stones are formed mostly in the digestive and urinary tracts. However, it has been demonstrated that this kind of stony structure can be also, though rarely, found in circulatory and reproductive systems, skin, mucosa, and tear ducts. Although in palaeopathology, the list of biological stones is enriched by stony tumours and/or discharges, it is very difficult to uncover the small size deposits in excavation material. In the literature such findings, originating from different countries and centuries, are few. The described stone was found among the bones of an adult individual in the medieval cemetery of Gdańsk (Poland). The SEM, X-ray spectrometer and chemical evaluation revealed that it was a bladder calculus.

The Relations between Astronomy and Music in Medieval Armenia

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Vardumyan, Arpi

2015-07-01

In Middle Ages Astronomy and Music were included in the four sciences, together with Mathematics and Geometry. From ancient times philosophers thought that harmony lies in the basis of world creation. The Earth was in the centre of the Universe, and the seven planets went around it, the Sun and the Moon in their number. Harmony was also in the basis of music, with seven sounds due to seven planets. It was considered that owing to harmonic rotation cosmic universal music appears, and it is not attainable for human ear as it is used to it. Medieval connoisseurs of music therapy believed that for healing a person his astrological data must first be cleared out, in order to define in which musical mode should sound the melody in order to treat him/her. Comparing music with astrology they considered easier to practise the first one because the celestial luminaries are much higher and farther from people.

Johannitius (809-873 AD), a medieval physician, translator and author.

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Dalfardi, Behnam; Daneshfard, Babak; Nezhad, Golnoush Sadat Mahmoudi

2016-08-01

The medieval physician, translator and author Abū Zayd Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq al-'Ibādī, best known in the West as Johannitius, is considered the best translator of Greek texts, particularly medical writings, into Arabic. He made great inroads in the art of translation in the Islamic world. In addition to his own translations, Johannitius put significant effort into training pupils and passing knowledge about translation to succeeding generations. He was also a great writer, compiling over 100 books on different subjects, especially medical. Among his own works, the illustrious Kitab al-Ashr Maqalat fil-Ayn (Ten Treatises on the Eye) contains the oldest known illustration of the structure of the eye. It served as the primary source for Galen's theory of vision and subsequent use by Western scholars. © The Author(s) 2016.

[The reception of medieval Europe in the Baltic Sea region, Papers of the XIIth Visby Symposium held at Gotland University, Visby] / Juhan Kreem

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Kreem, Juhan, 1971-

2011-01-01

Arvustus: The reception of medieval Europe in the Baltic Sea Region : papers of the XIIth Visby Symposium, held at Gotland University, Visby / editor: Jörn Staecker. Visby : Gotland University Press, 2009. (Acta Visbyensia ; 12)

Evolución histórica del territorio de Santo Adriano y génesis del poblamiento medieval

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Francisco Javier FERNÁNDEZ CONDE

2009-12-01

Full Text Available RESUMEN: Descripción geográfica del territorio de Santo Adriano, cuyos límites coinciden con los del municipio del mismo nombre, en las Asturias centrales: un valle fluvial con zonas de media montaña, perteneciente a la Zona Cantábrica, en el que abunda la "caliza de montaña". Los primeros indicios de poblamiento llegan hasta el paleolítico medio y superior con habitat en varias cuevas, de cuya época se conservan grabados en roca. Está configurado por un sistema de pequeños castros, con sus respectivos "espacios cástrales", que definen bien todo el territorio. La presencia de cultura romana es muy poco relevante. En la documentación medieval más antigua, finales del siglo X, sometida a notables interpolaciones "pelagianas", figuran ya los límites modernos del concejo, con pocas variantes. También se documenta la existencia de habitat troglodítico medieval por hallazgos de algunas, muy pocas, piezas cerámicas. El primer poblamiento altomedieval constaba de varias "villae", localizadas y descritas hasta donde es posible, donadas al monasterio-iglesia de Santo Adriano de Tuñón por Alfonso III yjimena (891. El monasterio fue fundado, asimismo, por estos soberanos, funcionando como el verdadero núcleo articulador de todo el poblamiento antiguo. Se trataba de un territorio vinculado al "Camín de la Mesa", un camino real prerromano, en uso hasta época moderna, que comunicaba Asturias con la meseta. Una localidad, Valdolayés, fue el escenario de una de las batallas más importantes de los astures contra el caudillo musulmán, Munuza, documentada en las Crónicas Asturianas.ABSTRACT: Geographic description of Santo Adriano territory, its frontiers are identical to the municipality with the same name, in Central Asturias: a river valley in mid mountain zones, in the Cantàbric Zone, where the limestone mountain is frequent. The first signals of population go as far back as the middle and high paleolithic with habitat in some caves

The Metallography of Iron Objects from Semonice Stronghold in the Light of Studied Forged Pieces from Medieval Strongholds, Villages and Towns

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Hošek, Jiří

2006-01-01

Roč. 12, 2-3 (2006), s. 207-220 ISSN 0354-6306 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GP404/02/P033 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z80020508 Keywords : medieval tool-making * Semonice * archaeometallurgy Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology

Leprosy in Medieval Denmark--osteological and epidemiological analyses.

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Boldsen, Jesper L

2009-12-01

A total of 3033 skeletons from 11 medieval Danish cemeteries and 99 skeletons from the North Scandinavian medieval site of Westerhus were examined for seven lesions indicative of leprosy. The seven lesions are: rounding to the edge of the nasal aperture, degeneration of spina nasalis anterior, degeneration of the alveolar process of the pre-maxilla, porosity or perforation of the palatine process of maxilla, sub-periostal exostoses on the fibula, general swelling of the shaft of the fibula, and degeneration of the 5th metatarsal bone. The dichotomous scores of these lesions were used to estimate sensitivity and specificity of the lesion scores in relation to leprosy and to estimate sample point prevalence of leprosy at death among adults. In turn the estimates of sensitivity and specificity were used to calculate an individual comprehensive statistic, lamda, indicating leprosy status. Among adults the lamda statistic did not associate with age at death, but this cannot be taken as a sign of lack of selective mortality for leprosy but a combination of the opposing effects of long waiting time before developing leprosy related lesions and short survival with these lesions. In urban communities sufferers of leprosy were institutionalized when the leprosarium was established (in Odense around 1275); in rural communities this did not happen but the pattern of burial does indicate an internal segregation of sufferers. In the early Middle Ages (AD 1150-1350) the point prevalence at death among adults of leprosy was higher in rural (25-40 percent) than in urban (10-20 percent) communities, and villages close to town showed lower frequencies of leprosy than villages situated further away from these centers. Leprosy declined in the late Middle Ages, first in towns and cities, later in rural communities. In Odense and Malmö it appears that leprosy was effectively eliminated by 1350 whereas there were still sufferers of leprosy at Øm Kloster around 1550. Leprosy appears to

Malocclusions in a juvenile medieval skull material.

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Larsson, E

1983-01-01

From a mostly medieval skull material--the "Schreiner collections" in Oslo--juvenile crania were selected as follows: Group A: Crania with complete and intact primary dentition. n = 20. Group B: Crania with early mixed dentition. Incisors only erupted or under eruption. n = 47. Group C: Crania with late mixed dentition. n = 14. The author recorded visually: Sagittal and transversal dental relation, frontal dental contact, anterior cross-bite, rotation and crowding. There was good basal stability. Sagittally 1 moderately postnormal dentition was recorded, transversally there were no anomalies. Slight anterior cross-bite was recorded in 1 case, anterior cross-bite of one and two lateral incisors respectively in 2 others, and tête-à-tête contact in 3 cases. Crowding was recorded in 6 cases, in one of them being general, in the others located solely in the mandibular incisor segment. Broken contact and more or less pronounced rotation occurred in these dentitions. Rotation was also recorded in 2 other cases. The prevalence of malocclusions of the type that can be related to continuing finger-sucking or sucking of dummylike objects was very low in this material. This observation prompted the author to discuss a hypothesis concerning the aetiology of dummy- and finger-sucking habits.

The Works of Modern Russian Historians and the Historiography of Medieval Lithuania before and after the Red October

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Megem M.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This article examines the views of modern Russian scholars A. Dvornichenko, M. Krom, A. Filyushkin, and S. Mikhalchenko on the pre-revolutionary and Soviet historiography of medieval Lithuania. Chronological problem analysis constitutes the methodological framework of the study. Special attention is paid to the priorities of the Russian scholars in the analysis of the pre-revolutionary and Soviet Lithuanian studies. It is shown that the disintegration of the Soviet Union marked a new period in research on the historiography of medieval Lithuania. The activation of historical and historiographical studies was a result of a revision of views of Lithuanian past. The authors believe that modern historiography exhibits a “nostalgic” attitude to pre-revolutionary works, while the reception of the later, Soviet-era publications is more critically inclined. Post-Soviet historians do not restrict themselves by describing previous historiography: they also consider factors behind the change in the attitudes to Lithuani an past. Thus, the scholars pay special attention to studying the connection between the political situation and the evolution of the views of Russian scholars on the events of Lithuanian history.

The Medieval inquisition: scale-free networks and the suppression of heresy

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Ormerod, Paul; Roach, Andrew P.

2004-08-01

Qualitative evidence suggests that heresy within the medieval Church had many of the characteristics of a scale-free network. From the perspective of the Church, heresy can be seen as an infectious disease. The disease persisted for long periods of time, breaking out again even when the Church believed it to have been eradicated. A principal mechanism of heresy was through a small number of individuals with very large numbers of social contacts. Initial attempts by the inquisition to suppress heresy by general persecution, or even mass slaughter, of populations thought to harbour the ‘disease’ failed. Gradually, however, inquisitors learned about the nature of the social networks by which heresy both spread and persisted. Eventually, a policy of targeting key individuals was implemented, which proved to be much more successful.

Repeated catastrophic valley infill following medieval earthquakes in the Nepal Himalaya

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Schwanghart, Wolfgang; Bernhardt, Anne; Stolle, Amelie; Hoelzmann, Philipp; Adhikari, Basanta R.; Andermann, Christoff; Tofelde, Stefanie; Merchel, Silke; Rugel, Georg; Fort, Monique; Korup, Oliver

2016-01-01

Geomorphic footprints of past large Himalayan earthquakes are elusive, although they are urgently needed for gauging and predicting recovery times of seismically perturbed mountain landscapes. We present evidence of catastrophic valley infill following at least three medieval earthquakes in the Nepal Himalaya. Radiocarbon dates from peat beds, plant macrofossils, and humic silts in fine-grained tributary sediments near Pokhara, Nepal’s second-largest city, match the timing of nearby M > 8 earthquakes in ~1100, 1255, and 1344 C.E. The upstream dip of tributary valley fills and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry of their provenance rule out local sources. Instead, geomorphic and sedimentary evidence is consistent with catastrophic fluvial aggradation and debris flows that had plugged several tributaries with tens of meters of calcareous sediment from a Higher Himalayan source >60 kilometers away.

Two cases of joint disease in post-medieval church cemetery of St. Ilija.

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Durić, Marija; Rakocević, Zoran; Bumbasirević, Marko; Lesić, Aleksandar; Kelecević, Julija

2004-01-01

Evidence of disease was analyzed from the skeletal remains of 11 individuals dating to the post-Medieval period from church cemetery of St. Ilija in Serbia. Two individuals showed pathological condition affecting joints. It was supposed that first individual had been suffering from Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease. It seems that this condition remained untreated, with extensive bone remodeling, and that the deformity of femoral head and acetabulum caused secondary degenerative joint disease at a relatively early age of this individual. Second case was related to the bony akylosis of the hand finger, probably caused by Dupuytren's disease. In addition, we discussed development of differential diagnosis in both pathological conditions.

La Hispania antigua y medieval a través del vidrio: la aportación de la arqueometría

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Jorge de Juan Ares

2017-09-01

El creciente volumen de datos analíticos demuestra el potencial de la arqueometría para profundizar en el conocimiento sobre la producción y comercialización del vidrio en la Península Ibérica en particular, y la economía antigua y medieval en general.

Evidence for the Continued Use of Medieval Medical Prescriptions in the Sixteenth Century: A Fifteenth-Century Remedy Book and its Later Owner.

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Connolly, Margaret

2016-04-01

This article examines a fifteenth-century remedy book, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson c. 299, and describes its collection of 314 medieval medical prescriptions. The recipes are organised broadly from head to toe, and often several remedies are offered for the same complaint. Some individual recipes are transcribed with modern English translations. The few non-recipe texts are also noted. The difference between a remedy book and a leechbook is explained, and this manuscript is situated in relation to other known examples of late medieval medical anthologies. The particular feature that distinguishes Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson c. 299 from other similar volumes is the evidence that it continued to be used during the sixteenth century. This usage was of two kinds. Firstly, the London lawyer who owned it not only inscribed his name but annotated the original recipe collection in various ways, providing finding-aids that made it much more user-friendly. Secondly, he, and other members of his family, added another forty-three recipes to the original collection (some examples of these are also transcribed). These two layers of engagement with the manuscript are interrogated in detail in order to reveal what ailments may have troubled this family most, and to judge how much faith they placed in the old remedies contained in this old book. It is argued that the knowledge preserved in medieval books enjoyed a longevity that extended beyond the period of the manuscript book, and that manuscripts were read and valued long after the advent of printing.

La arqueología medieval andaluza y el papel de Manuel Acién

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Malpica Cuello, Antonio

2014-01-01

La Arqueología medieval tuvo en España unos comienzos nada fáciles. No arrancó de medios académicos ni se desarrolló propiamente en ellos. Estaba reducida al mundo de la arquitectura y la restauración, así como acantonada en una práctica en los museos arqueológicos. Antes de mediados del pasado siglo XX apenas tenía presencia en la vida universitaria. Se puede considerar que uno de los primeros focos estuvo en Granada, en donde el profesor Manuel Ríu, discípulo del catedrático de la Univer...

Education and transmission of knowledge in medieval India

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Saiyid Zaheer Husain Jafri

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The various regions of the Indian subcontinent came into contact with the Islamic cultural tradition in the seventh century CE. Indian scholars were able to leave a mark on the world of Islamic scholarship especially in the fields of ḥadīth and other connected disciplines, significantly underlining their recognition for contributions in the Islamic East. An attempt has been made to analyse and to understand the processes of transmission of knowledge through formal and informal means, including the transfer of accumulated experience to the next generation and even the passing of “intuitive knowledge” to the seeker of knowledge. It has been argued that the level of Indian scholarship in certain disciplines was at par with the level of scholarship in the Islamic East. It has also been examined that during the medieval period Sanskrit based studies flourished at important Hindu pilgrimage centres such as Benaras, often described by European travellers as the Athens of India. The Royal and private libraries functioned with firm footings. Finally, it is shown that education and transmission of knowledge was organized in a manner that owes much to the best of Greco-Arab tradition.

Advances in optics in the medieval Islamic world

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Al-Khalili, Jim

2015-04-01

This paper reviews the state of knowledge in the field of optics, mainly in catoptrics and dioptrics, before the birth of modern science and the well-documented contributions of men such as Kepler and Newton. The paper is not intended to be a comprehensive survey of the subject such as one might find in history of science journals; instead, it is aimed at the curious physicist who has probably been taught that nothing much of note was understood about the behaviour of light, beyond outdated philosophical musings, prior to the seventeenth century. The paper will focus on advances during the medieval period between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, in both the east and the west, when the theories of the Ancient Greeks were tested, advanced, corrected and mathematised. In particular, it concentrates on a multivolume treatise on optics written one thousand years ago by the Arab scholar, Ibn al-Haytham, and examines how it influenced our understanding of the nature of reflection and refraction of light. Even the well-informed physicist should find a few surprises here, which will alter his or her view of the debt we owe to these forgotten scholars.

1970 MLA Abstracts of Articles in Scholarly Journals, Volume I: General, English, American, Medieval and Neo-Latin, Celtic Literatures; and Folklore.

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Fisher, John H., Comp.; Achtert, Walter S., Comp.

The first volume of an annual series following the arrangement of the "MLA International Bibliography" includes sections on General, English, American, Medieval and Neo-Latin, Celtic literatures, and Folklore. A classified collection of 1,744 brief abstracts of journalarticles on the modern languages and literatures to be used in conjunction with…

The Religion of the Muslims of Medieval and Early Modern Castile : Interdisciplinary Research and Recent Studies on Mudejar Islam (2000-2014)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Colominas Aparicio, M.; Wiegers, G.A.

2016-01-01

The present article examines recent contributions to the study of Islam and Muslim communities in Medieval and Early Modern Castile (2000-2014). Our aim is to identify the main areas of focus, the topics and the key issues addressed by scholars in the field; and to consider the significance of the

Early to high medieval colonization and alluvial landscape transformation of the Labe valley (Czech Republic): evaluation of archaeological, pollen and macrofossil evidence

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kozáková, Radka; Pokorný, P.; Mařík, Jan; Čulíková, Věra; Boháčová, Ivana; Pokorná, Adéla

2014-01-01

Roč. 23, č. 6 (2014), s. 701-718 ISSN 0939-6314 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA404/08/1696 Institutional support: RVO:67985912 Keywords : human impact * medieval * pollen * macrofossils * stronghold * alluvial landscapes Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology Impact factor: 2.648, year: 2014

Medieval Round Churches and the Shape of the Earth.

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Haagensen, Erling; Lind, Niels C

2015-12-01

There is a unique cluster of four medieval round churches, linked by a simple geometry, on Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea. Why so many and why so close together? Immediate simple answers are "Just by chance" and "For no reason." Why are the churches round? "Defense." This essay proposes another hypothesis for this unique situation: the churches are astronomical observatories, meant to solve a scientific problem (Is the Earth really spherical?) and a practical problem (How far is it to sail west to the Orient?). The capacity and desire to find answers, together with other practical needs related to astronomy, can better explain these round churches' special architecture. The geometry that connects them fits the ideal pattern with an angular accuracy of 1 minute of a degree. The round churches may be the earliest astronomical observatories in Christian Europe; other hypotheses have been shown to be untenable. Their location provides for a good method to estimate the Earth's extent in the east-west direction, seemingly the earliest such measurements.

Medieval Settlement Formation in Catalonia: Villages, their Territories and communication paths

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Jordi BOLÒS

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This study focuses its attention on Catalonia and points to the importance of using several literary sources as a means of identifying the main characteristics of Catalan settlements throughout the Early Middle Ages (6th-10th Centuries. Apart from the need to use written and archaeological documents, the study highlights the importance of understanding and interpreting place-names and of reconstructing landscape history. Special emphasis is placed on the interest of interpreting by means of consulting documents, maps and orthophotomaps as witnesses that allow us to know the boundaries of the Early Medieval settlements. At the centre of these boundaries stand several small population centres (hamlets and a church. Several agricultural territories of various villages are reconstructed. Likewise, the study relates population with communication paths, churches and necropolis of the Early Middle Ages.

Repeated catastrophic valley infill following medieval earthquakes in the Nepal Himalaya.

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Schwanghart, Wolfgang; Bernhardt, Anne; Stolle, Amelie; Hoelzmann, Philipp; Adhikari, Basanta R; Andermann, Christoff; Tofelde, Stefanie; Merchel, Silke; Rugel, Georg; Fort, Monique; Korup, Oliver

2016-01-08

Geomorphic footprints of past large Himalayan earthquakes are elusive, although they are urgently needed for gauging and predicting recovery times of seismically perturbed mountain landscapes. We present evidence of catastrophic valley infill following at least three medieval earthquakes in the Nepal Himalaya. Radiocarbon dates from peat beds, plant macrofossils, and humic silts in fine-grained tributary sediments near Pokhara, Nepal's second-largest city, match the timing of nearby M > 8 earthquakes in ~1100, 1255, and 1344 C.E. The upstream dip of tributary valley fills and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry of their provenance rule out local sources. Instead, geomorphic and sedimentary evidence is consistent with catastrophic fluvial aggradation and debris flows that had plugged several tributaries with tens of meters of calcareous sediment from a Higher Himalayan source >60 kilometers away. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Water consumption in Iron Age, Roman, and Early Medieval Croatia.

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Lightfoot, E; Slaus, M; O'Connell, T C

2014-08-01

Patterns of water consumption by past human populations are rarely considered, yet drinking behavior is socially mediated and access to water sources is often socially controlled. Oxygen isotope analysis of archeological human remains is commonly used to identify migrants in the archeological record, but it can also be used to consider water itself, as this technique documents water consumption rather than migration directly. Here, we report an oxygen isotope study of humans and animals from coastal regions of Croatia in the Iron Age, Roman, and Early Medieval periods. The results show that while faunal values have little diachronic variation, the human data vary through time, and there are wide ranges of values within each period. Our interpretation is that this is not solely a result of mobility, but that human behavior can and did lead to human oxygen isotope ratios that are different from that expected from consumption of local precipitation. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Medieval Horse Stable; The Results of Multi Proxy Interdisciplinary Research

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Dejmal, Miroslav; Lisá, Lenka; Fišáková Nývltová, Miriam; Bajer, Aleš; Petr, Libor; Kočár, Petr; Kočárová, Romana; Nejman, Ladislav; Rybníček, Michal; Sůvová, Zdenka; Culp, Randy; Vavrčík, Hanuš

2014-01-01

A multi proxy approach was applied in the reconstruction of the architecture of Medieval horse stable architecture, the maintenance practices associated with that structure as well as horse alimentation at the beginning of 13th century in Central Europe. Finally, an interpretation of the local vegetation structure along Morava River, Czech Republic is presented. The investigated stable experienced two construction phases. The infill was well preserved and its composition reflects maintenance practices. The uppermost part of the infill was composed of fresh stabling, which accumulated within a few months at the end of summer. Horses from different backgrounds were kept in the stable and this is reflected in the results of isotope analyses. Horses were fed meadow grasses as well as woody vegetation, millet, oat, and less commonly hemp, wheat and rye. Three possible explanations of stable usage are suggested. The stable was probably used on a temporary basis for horses of workers employed at the castle, courier horses and horses used in battle. PMID:24670874

The role of Ibn Sina (Avicenna)'s medical poem in the transmission of medical knowledge to medieval Europe.

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Abdel-Halim, Rabie El-Said

2014-01-01

The Medical Poem ("Al-Urjuzah Fi Al-Tibb") of Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980-1037), is the subject of this primary-source study evaluating its scientific value, poetics and pedagogical significance as well as assessing its role in the transmission of medical knowledge to Medieval Europe. In addition to one original manuscript and two modern editions, the English translation by Krueger was also studied. Ibn Sina's poem on medicine consisting of meticulously classified 1326 verses, can be considered as a poetic summary of his encyclopedic textbook: The Canon of Medicine; hence its popularity in the East then the West as a tool in the process of transmitting medical knowledge from master to student. Since first translated by Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187) in the middle of the 12(th) century, the Latinized poem was frequently published in Medieval Europe either independently or combined with the Latinized Canon of Medicine or with the Articella; the famous collection of Greco-Roman and Latinized Arabian medical treatises in use in the universities of Salerno, Montpelier, Bologna and Paris up to the 17(th) century. The study of the Krueger's English edition revealed few places where the full meanings of the original Arabic text were not conveyed. A list of those places is given together with the suggested corrections.

The prevalence and distribution of dental caries in four early medieval non-adult populations of different socioeconomic status from Central Europe

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Stránská, Petra; Velemínský, P.; Poláček, Lumír

2015-01-01

Roč. 60, č. 1 (2015), s. 62-76 ISSN 0003-9969 R&D Projects: GA ČR GB14-36938G Institutional support: RVO:67985912 ; RVO:68081758 Keywords : bioarchaeology * early medieval population * Great Moravia * non-adult individuals * dental caries * socio-economic status Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology Impact factor: 1.733, year: 2015

Ethics in the medieval university: the importance of classics reading for the elaboration of Thomas Aquinas

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Tatyana Murer Cavalcante

2012-05-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to present some considerations about the importance of reading to the development of the ethics conceptions of Thomas Aquinas (1224 - 5? / 1274. At the dawn of the thirteenth century, the townspeople of Medieval West created a new institution designed for knowledge and education: the University. In it, teachers and disciples were debating key issues for the new society using mainly texts of Ancient Philosophy and Christians, but also Arab and Jewish writings. The literacy forms used encompassed mainly lectio and disputatio , and counteracted by distinct theoretical bases, those thinkers eventually recreated the summa , in a original and fundamental form to the philosophical elaboration of that time. To discuss the importance of reading in the formulation of the concept of ethics in the medieval university, we will present some characteristics of the production of knowledge in the thirteenth century linked to its historical context and then discuss some ethical considerations of Thomas Aquinas, one of the most prominent authors of that period. Considering the limits of this article, only one text, “The object of charity” based on Aquinas major work, the Summa of Theology, will be discussed in depth. Preliminarily, it is possible to state that as well as the reading of classical authors by Thomas Aquinas and other masters of the thirteenth century, helped them develop knowledge about ethics conforming to their time, historical reading of these authors helps in the understanding of today.

X-ray, CT and DXA study of bone loss on medieval remains from North-West Italy.

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Borrè, Alda; Boano, Rosa; Di Stefano, Marco; Castiglione, Anna; Ciccone, Giovannino; Isaia, Giovanni Carlo; Panattoni, Gian Luigi; Faletti, Carlo

2015-07-01

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the population differences in osteoporosis observed nowadays is a reflection of the times and modern lifestyle factors, or whether they were also present in the past. The study was performed on the skeletal remains of medieval and post-medieval populations from a burial ground in the North-West of Italy. Some individuals had been buried inside the church (privileged subjects), others outside in the parvis (members of rural population), and others still to the north of the church. X-ray, computed tomography and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry studies were carried out on the lumbar spines and/or femurs of 27 male and 28 female individuals to determine any associations between cortical index, bone mineral density (BMD), gender, age and social status. No statistically significant differences were observed in cortical index values according to gender, age or place of burial. Conversely, statistically significant differences in average BMD values were observed according to place of burial; in particular, among those buried inside the church, a lower BMD was observed compared to the parvis group (1.09 vs. 1.42, p < 0.001) and the north group (1.09 vs. 1.49, p < 0.001). The differences observed in the BMD values may be related to the different lifestyle of the rural population, i.e. more dietary calcium intake, more sun exposure and vigorous physical activity, compared to that of the privileged individuals.

El Diccionario morfológico de francés medieval de Carmen Cortés Zaborras

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Rodrigo López Carrillo

2005-04-01

Full Text Available El sitio web del grupo de investigación Traductología, formado por profesores de las Universidades de Málaga y Granada y de la Escuela de Traductores de Toledo de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, contiene en una de sus páginas la editorial virtual del grupo, en la que se hallan publicados libros en formato electrónico accesibles a cualquier usuario de la red que entre en la dirección http://traductolog.filosofia.uma.es. Entre ellos encontramos los dos primeros tomos, en formato .pdf, del Diccionario morfológico de francés medieval realizado por Carmen Cortés Zaborras, profesora del Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Francesa y Alemana, área de Filología Francesa, de la Universidad de Málaga.Tal como indica la autora en la introducción al primer tomo, que lo es a su vez a la obra completa, la finalidad de este trabajo es eminentemente pedagógica; pretende ser una herramienta para aquellos estudiantes de Filología francesa que se acercan a los textos en lengua medieval. Se trata de un complemento muy útil a los diccionarios de naturaleza léxico-semántica en los que las informaciones gramaticales suelen reducirse a la clase y a la categoría del género y, sólo excepcionalmente, cuando el nominativo y el acusativo son diferentes se recogen como tales...

Raman microscopy: The identification of lapis lazuli on medieval pottery fragments from the south of Italy

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Clark, Robin J. H.; Curri, M. Lucia; Laganara, Caterina

1997-04-01

The technique of Raman microscopy has been used to investigate the pigments used in the glazes of fragments of medieval items of pottery dating back to the second half of the 13th century, which were found buried beneath a church in the abandoned village of Castel Fiorentino, near Foggia, in Southern Italy. The research has led to the first identification of lapis lazuli in a blue pigment pottery glaze; the identification was confirmed for six other shards from the same site. The brown—black pigment in these shards could not be identified.

Puesta en valor de yacimientos arqueológicos amortizados. La hipótesis virtual al servicio de la arqueología de gestión y la difusión cultural. El yacimiento medieval de La Poza. Baltanás (Palencia

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José R. Almeida Olmedo

2012-11-01

Full Text Available The archaeological site of La Poza in Baltanás (Palencia provides new data on medieval rural society in the area of El Cerrato between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. Again emergency archaeology has allowed the recovery of a settlement destined to disappear new data that provide insight into early medieval domestic architecture held in perishable materials.

Il Decameron de Pier Paolo Pasolini: da prosa medieval ao roteiro cinematográfico Il Decameron by Pier Paolo Pasolini: from the medieval prose to the screenplay

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Paula Regina Siega

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Este artigo situa-se no campo das teorias da recepção e trabalha com o conceito de "leitura como ato criativo", desenvolvido por Hans Robert Jauss e Wolfgang Iser. Interpretando o roteiro como estrutura textual produtora de imagens literárias, elegemos como objeto de estudo o texto Il Decameron, escrito por Pier Paolo Pasolini com base na obra de Giovanni Boccaccio. Na análise, investigamos os efeitos poéticos produzidos pela releitura do texto medieval, indicando as transformações que o realismo boccacciano assume na linguagem de Pasolini. Para tanto, evidenciamos a importância que as realidades do sexo e da morte adquirem no roteiro, observando como o autor conjuga estes temas às reflexões que faz sobre a própria contemporaneidade.Questo articolo è situato nel campo delle teorie della ricezione e lavora con il concetto di "lettura come atto creativo", sviluppato da Hans Robert Jauss e Wolfgang Iser. Nell'interpretare la sceneggiatura come struttura testuale produttrice di immagini letterarie, scegliamo come oggetto di studio il testo Il Decameron, scritto da Pier Paolo Pasolini basato sull'opera di Giovanni Boccaccio. Nell'analisi, investighiamo gli effetti poetici prodotti dalla rilettura del testo medioevale indicando le trasformazioni che il realismo boccacciano assume nel linguaggio di Pasolini. Pertanto, evidenziamo l'importanza che le realtà del sesso e della morte acquisiscono nella sceneggiatura, osservando come l'autore concilia questi temi con le riflessioni che fa sulla propria contemporaneità.This article is situated in the field of the reception theories and works with the concept of "reading as creative act", developed by Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser. Seeing in the screenplay a textual structure that produces literary images, we choose as our object the text Il Decameron, written by Pier Paolo Pasolini based on Boccaccio's work. In the analysis, we investigate the poetic effects produced by the rereading of

Hip Dislocation and Dystocia in Early Medieval Times: Possible Evidence of Labor Maneuver.

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Malgosa, Assumpció; Carrascal, Susana; Piga, Giampaolo; Isidro, Albert

2016-12-01

In ancient times, maternal mortality would occur frequently, particularly during labor. Evidence of dystocia resulting in the death of a pregnant woman is very infrequent in paleopathologic literature, with only a few cases being demonstrated. In the early medieval site of Casserres, the skeleton of a young woman with a fetus in the pelvic region was found. Some abnormal findings of the maternal skeleton were evaluated, including a sacral anomaly, femoral head wound, the rare position of the lower left limb with the femoral head dislodged anteriorly and cephalad from the socket, and a fibular fracture. Examining the anomalies all together, a case of anterior hip dislocation related to a McRoberts-like maneuver performed during labor is a plausible explanation of the findings.

Building a Homeland upon the Ruins of Literature: al-Bukāʾ ʿalā al-aṭlāl by Ghālib Halasā as a Case Study

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Fernanda Fischione

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to analyse how the ġurba shapes the idea of the homeland in contemporary Arabic literature and how, in particular, the ġurba itself can take a literary shape and be referred to a specific cultural space rather than a physical one. In order to attain this goal, the paper focuses on al-Bukā’ ʿalà al-aṭlāl (Crying over the ruins, 1980, a novel by the Jordanian author Ġālib Halasā (1932-1989, in which the theme of exile is expressed through a number of issues that remind the reader some crystallized features of modern and contemporary Arabic literature, such as the symbolic role of the mother, the village and the coffee. More interestingly, the novel displays a deep attachment to some major tópoi of the ancient Arabic literary heritage – i.e. the reference to ǧāhilī poetry contained in the title, the verses by Imrū’ al-Qays quoted in the opening, and several other mentions –, which contributes to build up a solid frame of internal literary references and to freshen them up giving them a new content. Given the historical circumstances in which Halasā happened to live and his own continuous displacement to various Arab capitals due to his political activity, it seems clear that to build a new world of words on the old ruins (al-aṭlāl, as quoted in the title of the novel was not simply a literary matter, but the very core of a survival strategy for a whole generation of Arab intellectuals.

Influence of solar activity on the state of the wheat market in medieval England

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Pustil'Nik, Lev A.; Din, Gregory Yom

2004-09-01

The database of professor Rogers (1887), which includes wheat prices in England in the Middle Ages, was used to search for a possible influence of solar activity on the wheat market. Our approach was based on the following: (1) Existence of the correlation between cosmic ray flux entering the terrestrial atmosphere and cloudiness of the atmosphere. (2) Cosmic ray intensity in the solar system changes with solar activity, (3) Wheat production depends on weather conditions as a nonlinear function with threshold transitions. (4) A wheat market with a limited supply (as it was in medieval England) has a highly nonlinear sensitivity to variations in wheat production with boundary states, where small changes in wheat supply could lead to bursts of prices or to prices falling. We present a conceptual model of possible modes for sensitivity of wheat prices to weather conditions, caused by solar cycle variations, and compare expected price fluctuations with price variations recorded in medieval England. We compared statistical properties of the intervals between wheat price bursts during the years 1249-1703 with statistical properties of the intervals between the minima of solar cycles during the years 1700-2000. We show that statistical properties of these two samples are similar, both for characteristics of the distributions and for histograms of the distributions. We analyze a direct link between wheat prices and solar activity in the 17th century, for which wheat prices and solar activity data (derived from 10Be isotope) are available. We show that for all 10 time moments of the solar activity minima the observed prices were higher than prices for the corresponding time moments of maximal solar activity (100% sign correlation, on a significance level < 0.2%). We consider these results a direct evidence of the causal connection between wheat prices bursts and solar activity.

The wall/ ruin: meaning and memory in landscape

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Caroline Lavoie

1997-03-01

. 'Everything is text, and all text is indefinitely ambiguous' (1989, p.148. In this paper I will try to show that neither of the alternatives need be accepted, that there can be a conception of meaning that is neither verificationist (scientistic, nor empty (purely textual. This provides us with room to give levels of meaning to the world and to understand behaviour in a way which is neither scientific nor merely textual. I argue that for space to be intrinsically and authentically meaningful, design must be conceived imaginatively. This imaginative conception will involve and appeal to a metaphorical visual vocabulary which provides a non-literal, but authentic experience of time and space. As a result, an artifact may become an object of authentic aesthetic appreciation. I will illustrate this rather abstract conception with a variety of concrete examples, drawn primarily from landscape architecture using the wall and the ruin as an archetypal form of design language. This example offers a variety of interpretations and meanings, but ones which are necessarily underpinned by the notions (or criteria of truth and falsity. I will consider the implications for design from the perspective of both the designer and the participant. I believe this account opens up levels of meaning, truth and legitimation which help us to understand the true significance and value of design and, in particular, landscape design.

Nobleza e iglesias propias en la Cantabria alto-medieval

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María Isabel LORING GARCÍA

2009-11-01

Full Text Available La documentación altomedieval cántabra, o mejor de Liébana, Asturias de Santillana y Trasmiera, ofrece innumerables ejemplos de donaciones totales o parciales de iglesias a los monasterios de la región, de lo que se desprende que los donantes, en su mayoría laicos, eran propietarios de las mismas. Nos hallamos, por tanto, ante un fenómeno que con mayor o menor acierto se viene designando con la expresión de «iglesias propias», institución típicamente medieval que se caracteriza por el hecho de que la iglesia junto con sus bienes forma una unidad indisoluble dentro del patrimonio del fundador o del de sus descendientes. Estos pueden enajenarlas mediante cualquier negocio jurídico, designar el clero que la sirva y percibir todos o al menos parte de los ingresos producidos. Esta institución remonta sus orígenes al Bajo Imperio, concretamente es resultado de la cristianización del medio rural, donde por regla general las iglesias eran levantadas por los propietarios territoriales en sus dominios pasando a constituir una dependencia más de los mismos.

Potential effects of particulate matter from combustion during services on human health and on works of art in medieval churches in Cyprus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loupa, Glykeria; Karageorgos, Evangelos; Rapsomanikis, Spyridon

2010-01-01

Indoor and outdoor particulate matter (PM 0.3-10 ) number concentrations were established in two medieval churches in Cyprus. In both churches incense was burnt occasionally during Mass. The highest indoor PM 0.5-1 concentrations compared with outdoors (10.7 times higher) were observed in the church that burning of candles indoors was allowed. Peak indoor black carbon concentration was 6.8 μg m -3 in the instances that incense was burning and 13.4 μg m -3 in the instances that the candles were burning (outdoor levels ranged between 0.6 and 1.3 μg m -3 ). From the water soluble inorganic components determined in PM 10 , calcium prevailed in all samples indoors or outdoors, whilst high potassium concentration indoors were a clear marker of combustion. Indoor sources of PM were clearly identified and their emission strengths were estimated via modeling of the results. Indoor estimated PM 0.3-10 mass concentrations exceeded air quality standards for human health protection and for the preservation of works of art. - Particulate matter in medieval churches of Cyprus.

A Historical Center in the Aspects of Identity/Culture/Space: Santa Ruins in the Context of Sustainability

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Murat TUTKUN

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In the historic environments located in rural areas, the difficulty of transportation and physical services causes the active use of these fields be difficult, and over time, these areas are faced with the danger of extinction. In this sense, “Santa Ruins” that is one of the important locations especially in terms of its historical importance, many architectural heritages that it contains and the mountain tourism is an important figure which faces extinction. Santa Ruins is considered as one of the areas to be protected when it’s examined in terms of its history, religious and cultural background, the character of rural settlement, its location at the intersection of important historic routes, the architectural / cultural heritages that it contains, having archaeological value, and the natural value of the region, etc. In the studies done specific to Piştoflu District, the necessary measurements of the buildings in the neighbourhood and the measurement drawings that belong to the buildings were obtained using photogrammetric and conventional methods after the historical researches, photography studies and obtaining the overall work plan. The considerations were done in the context of identity, culture and space by analysing the structural data, building material data, information about its conservation status, living conditions and the data related to in-service spaces and non-advanced spaces of the buildings that are located on this area.

High throughput, multiplexed pathogen detection authenticates plague waves in medieval Venice, Italy.

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Tran, Thi-Nguyen-Ny; Signoli, Michel; Fozzati, Luigi; Aboudharam, Gérard; Raoult, Didier; Drancourt, Michel

2011-03-10

Historical records suggest that multiple burial sites from the 14th-16th centuries in Venice, Italy, were used during the Black Death and subsequent plague epidemics. High throughput, multiplexed real-time PCR detected DNA of seven highly transmissible pathogens in 173 dental pulp specimens collected from 46 graves. Bartonella quintana DNA was identified in five (2.9%) samples, including three from the 16th century and two from the 15th century, and Yersinia pestis DNA was detected in three (1.7%) samples, including two from the 14th century and one from the 16th century. Partial glpD gene sequencing indicated that the detected Y. pestis was the Orientalis biotype. These data document for the first time successive plague epidemics in the medieval European city where quarantine was first instituted in the 14th century.

On the composition and processing of precious metals mined in Medieval Serbia

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Kovačević-Kojić Desanka

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Accounting books of the Caboga (Kabužić brothers 1426-1433 (Squarço/Reminder, Journal and Main Ledger kept at the Historical Archives of Dubrovnik provide new evidence for the composition and advanced levels of processing of precious metals from Serbian medieval mines. Notably, that the residue left after the process of obtaining fine silver was copper. Even the price of the refining process is specified. Two items of a transaction entered in the Squarço in 1430 contain some previously unknown data about auriferous silver (argento di glama. Besides gold, it also contained copper and, moreover, the ratio of the two per pound is specified. Apart from the Caboga brothers’ accounting books, neither the other written sources nor geological research have provided any indication about the presence of copper in the auriferous silver mines.

I. Monographic Section
Hospitals, money and other riches. Writing and practising economy in late medieval Italian charitable institutions

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Marina Gazzini (a cura di); Antonio Olivieri (a cura di)

2016-01-01

The section contains contributions focusing on the practices and records relating to the economics of hospitals in late medieval Italy. Experts from different disciplines – economic historians, historians of the document, historians of the Middle Ages and of welfare institutions – offer a significant overview of hospitals situated in the north, the center and the south of the Italian peninsula between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. They investigate the mechanisms of funding of charit...

Medieval and Renaissance anatomists: the printing and unauthorized copying of illustrations, and the dissemination of ideas.

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Lanska, Douglas J; Lanska, John Robert

2013-01-01

The vanguard that began to question Galenic anatomical dogma originated in northern Italy in the latter half of the thirteenth century, and not coincidentally this was where human dissection was introduced, which in turn eventually fostered the origins of realistic anatomical illustration in the late fifteenth century. With the advent of the printing press and moveable type at this time, printed books began to supersede hand-copied medieval manuscripts, and labor-intensive techniques were soon developed to integrate text and illustrations on the printed page. The same technology was used to pirate the illustrations of prior authors with varying fidelity. Specific medieval and Renaissance anatomical illustrations can often be traced from their inceptions through different stages of development to the final printed images, and then through subsequent pirated versions in various abridgements or other compendia. The most important milestone in the development of anatomy and anatomical illustration was the publication in 1543 by Andreas Vesalii of De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body), commonly referred to simply as the Fabrica. With this work, Vesalii succeeded in coordinating a publication production team (author, artists, block cutters, publisher, and typesetters) to achieve an unprecedented integration of scientific discourse, medical illustration, and typography. However, despite Vesalii's valiant efforts to prevent unauthorized duplication, the illustrations from the Fabrica were extensively plagiarized. Although Vesalii found such piracy frustrating and annoying, the long-term effect was to make Vesalii's ideas known to a wider readership and to help solidify his own revolutionary contributions to anatomy. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Towards the Study of the Early Medieval Site Bashanta-II

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Ochir-Goryaeva Maria A.

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The authors offer preliminary results on study of a new early medieval site discovered in the Gorodovikovo District (Kalmykia during a field survey near Bashanta-I hillfort at Chapaevskoe Lake (or Tsagan nur in Kalmyk language. The new site is found 8 km to the south-west from Bashanta-I hillfort, on the bank of the Egorlyk River. The site is dated by two radiocarbon dates by the middle of the 7th – late 8th centuries, i.e. by the time of Khazar Khanate. Some preliminary studies on the site included topographical mapping, collection of stray finds and a few prospection pits. These activities yielded numerous ceramic sherds, roof tiles and debris of masonry. Judging by the existing cultural stratum, remains of stone structures made of shell stone blocks and numerous ceramic finds of good quality, the new site was a settlement of Saltovo-Mayaki Culture, presumably a satellite hillfort. The identity of ceramics and construction materials allowed the authors to name this new site as Bashanta-II.

Solar and Calendrical Symbolism in the Early Medieval Finnish Church Murals

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Ridderstad, Marianna

2015-05-01

The earliest church murals of the first stone churches in Finland were painted at the time when Christianity had only just become the official faith in the region and the old ethnic religion was still widely practiced. The 'pagan' motifs of these Early Medieval Finnish church murals reflect the complexity of the religious beliefs in this transition phase. The church actively transformed the festivals of the vernacular religion by giving Christian meanings to the symbols and rituals, as well as by replacing the ethnic deities with Christian figures. The solar symbolism and the calendrical motifs of the church murals are interpreted as imagery largely based on the Christianized remnants of the pre-Christian annual festivals. The earliest church murals thus provide important insight into the pre-Christian religious beliefs of late Iron Age Finland. Many of the motifs and symbols represented in the murals are related to the annual fertility cult and the solar goddess as one of its central figures.

Max Dvořák and the History of Medieval Art

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Hans H. Aurenhammer

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The intellectual development of Max Dvořák (1874-1921, one of the protagonists of the ‘Vienna School of Art History’, was characterized by a constant process of methodological self-criticism. His changing views on Medieval Art are known above all by two texts: The Enigma of the Art of the Van Eyck Brothers (1904, strongly influenced by Wickhoff and Riegl and by an ‘impressionistic’ view of modernity, and Idealism and Naturalism in Gothic Sculpture and Painting (1918, an essay dating to Dvořák’s late, ‘expressionistic’, period. Knowing only these two texts, the decisive turn undertaken by Dvořák around 1920 could be interpreted as a sudden change of paradigm. As the paper wants to show, this view has to be revised after having read and analyzed Dvořák’s hitherto unpublished university lectures on Western European Art in the Middle Ages which were given four times from 1906 to 1918.

Two cases of neurogenic paralysis in medieval skeletal samples from Croatia.

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Novak, Mario; Čavka, Mislav; Šlaus, Mario

2014-12-01

Osteological changes consistent with neurogenic paralysis were observed in one male and one female skeleton recovered from two Croatian medieval sites - Virje and Zadar. Both skeletons display limb asymmetry typical of neurogenic paralysis that occurs during the childhood. The male skeleton displays atrophy and shortening of the right arm and the right femur, while the female skeleton exhibits identical changes on the right arm and both legs. Additionally, both skeletons exhibit scoliotic changes of the spine, and the female skeleton also displays bilateral hip dysplasia. Differential diagnosis included disorders such as cerebral palsy, poliomyelitis, cerebrovascular accident, and Rasmussen's encephalitis. These are the first cases of neurogenic paralysis (cerebral palsy and/or paralytic poliomyelitis) identified in Croatian archeological series. The Virje skeleton is only the third case of hemiplegia identified from archeological contexts (first with spinal scoliosis), while the Zadar skeleton represents the first case of triplegia reported in the paleopathological literature. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Early Medieval ceramics from the Viile Tecii archaeological site (Romania: an optical and XRD study

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Corina Ionescu

2007-10-01

Full Text Available Mineralogical and petrographic studies of Early Medieval potshards exhumed in the Viile Tecii archaeological site (North Transylvania, Romania show a ceramic body composed of a microcrystalline to amorphous matrix, various clasts and voids. The microscopical features and XRD patterns indicate that illitic-kaolinitic clays were used as raw materials, together with quartzitic sands as tempering material. The ceramic vessels were obtained with the potter’s wheel, but the fabric is only slightly oriented, due either to the fast modeling or to the coarseness of the clayish paste. The thermal alteration of mineral phases points to relatively high firing-temperatures, between 800 and 900°C.

La teoría musical árabe en el marco de la cultura clásica y medieval

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Reynaldo Fernández Manzano

2013-01-01

Full Text Available La teoría musical árabe y de al-Andalus se estudia dentro del contexto de la cultura clásica de Grecia y Bizancia así como en el mundo medieval cristiano de occidente. Los mitos, el papel de la música en la educación y las teorías musicales dentro del mundo científico de la época. Se analizan los principales tratadistas así como sus obras y aportaciones.

Iron Documents. Interdisciplinary studies on the technology of late medieval european plate armour production between 1350 and 1500

OpenAIRE

Goll, Matthias

2014-01-01

Abstract The purpose of this study is to find out details on the production of late medieval European plate-armour for the field-use. Therefore, the author first collected thousands of extant objects in a database. With this stock of data he then was able to cluster and to structure the armour parts by various typological and technological aspects. To ease the access to the topic, the author defined an understandable and standardized terminology and typology for the different variations of...

Bone fractures as indicators of intentional violence in the eastern Adriatic from the antique to the late medieval period (2nd-16th century AD).

Science.gov (United States)

Slaus, Mario; Novak, Mario; Bedić, Zeljka; Strinović, Davor

2012-09-01

To test the historically documented hypothesis of a general increase in deliberate violence in the eastern Adriatic from the antique (AN; 2nd-6th c.) through the early medieval (EM; 7th-11th c.) to the late-medieval period (LM; 12th-16th c.), an analysis of the frequency and patterning of bone trauma was conducted in three skeletal series from these time periods. A total of 1,125 adult skeletons-346 from the AN, 313 from the EM, and 466 from the LM series-were analyzed. To differentiate between intentional violence and accidental injuries, data for trauma frequencies were collected for the complete skeleton, individual long bones, and the craniofacial region as well as by type of injury (perimortem vs. antemortem). The results of our analyses show a significant temporal increase in total fracture frequencies when calculated by skeleton as well as of individuals exhibiting one skeletal indicator of deliberate violence (sharp force lesions, craniofacial injuries, "parry" fractures, or perimortem trauma). No significant temporal increases were, however, noted in the frequencies of craniofacial trauma, "parry" fractures, perimortem injuries, or of individuals exhibiting multiple skeletal indicators of intentional violence. Cumulatively, these data suggest that the temporal increase in total fracture frequencies recorded in the eastern Adriatic was caused by a combination of factors that included not only an increase of intentional violence but also a significant change in lifestyle that accompanied the transition from a relatively affluent AN urban lifestyle to a more primitive rural medieval way of life. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[Stomatologic and maxillofacial pathology in a medieval population (10th-12th centuries) of southwestern France].

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Barthelemy, I; Telmont, N; Crubezy, E; Rouge, D

1999-08-01

We present an assessment of the dental and maxillofacial pathology in a medieval population in southwestern France. One hundred and ninety eight mandibles and 29 craniofacial complexes were analysed. Dental and periodontal infectious pathology predominated. Third molar agenesia was quite frequent, concerning 25% of the mandibles. Third molar eruption was almost constant and in a normal position. Condylar process degeneration concerned 6% of the population. Three cases of traumatic pathology were observed, one case of long mandible was noted, and two cases of hypertrophic inferior alveolar process. Dento-mandibular maladjustment was uncommon. No unwedging of the maxillo-mandibular bone basis was observed.

A motive of the Bull’s Head as a Decoration of the Medieval Churches in Southern Caucasus

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Ekaterina Endoltseva

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the examples of a syncretism of the traditional believes and Christianity in the Middle Ages. There is a representation of the bull’s head in the architectural decoration of some of the medieval churches (f. i. Svetitskhoveli in Mtskheta, XI c., Georgia; the Holy Cross Cathedral on the Island of Akdamar, X c., Turkey; monasteries of Geghard, XIII c. and Sanain, XII c., Armenia; it is obviously connected with an ancient cult of the bull wide-spread in the Mediterranean world from the Neolithic period until modern time.

La imagen del judío en la España medieval

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Enrique Cantera Montenegro

1998-01-01

Full Text Available Desde fechas tempranas de la Edad Media fue configurándose y difundiéndose una imagen peyorativa de los judíos, expresión de la profunda antipatía que hacia ellos sentía la población mayoritaria cristiana. La imagen del judío medieval, que fue conformada a lo largo de los siglos por los derechos civil y canónico, consiste en un estereotipo, con rasgos muy semejantes entre los diferentes ámbitos geo-históricos del Occidente europeo. Lejos de ser un reflejo fiel de la realidad, guarda una estrecha relación con el lugar que la minoría hebrea ocupaba en la conciencia colectiva cristiana medieval: de este modo, pese a que los judíos constituían un grupo heterogéneo desde los más diversos puntos de vista socio-económico, religioso o cultural, aparecían homogeneizados a través de diversos rasgos que el subconsciente de la población mayoritaria convertía en universales. Entre los rasgos que identificaban hacia el exterior a la minoría hebrea se escogían los más llamativos: determinados rasgos físicos y del carácter; el uso de ciertas prendas de vestir; el ejercicio de algunas actividades profesionales, principalmente el préstamo con interés, y la posesión de enormes riquezas; o la práctica de ciertos crímenes rituales. Esta homogeneización del grupo actuaba como un auténtico estigma, y explica en buena medida la actitud hostil hacia la minoría hebrea, tanto desde un punto de vista teórico como en la práctica. En este trabajo se analizan los distintos argumentos que conformaron la imagen del judío medieval, a su vez generadores de odio hacia la población hebrea y legitimadores de las actitudes hostiles de la población mayoritaria.Since the early beginning of the Middie Ages, the jewish bad image spread among the christian - majority population as an expression of a deep feeling of rejection towards them. The middie ages jewish image is a result of the influence of the civil and religious laws through centuries and

The metallographic examination of sword no. 438 as part of a systematic survey of swords from the early medieval stronghold of Mikulčice, Czech Republic

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Hošek, Jiří; Košta, J.; Bárta, P.

2012-01-01

Roč. 32, prosinec (2012), s. 87-102 ISSN 0436-029X R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP405/12/2289 Institutional support: RVO:67985912 Keywords : Mikulčice * Great Moravia * early medieval sword * archaeometallurgy Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology

[Crusading and chronicle writing on the medieval Baltic frontier : a companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. Hrsg. von Marek Tamm, Linda Kaljundi, Carsten Selch Jensen] / Volker Honemann

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Honemann, Volker, 1943-

2013-01-01

Arvustus: Crusading and chronicle writing on the medieval Baltic frontier : a companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. Hrsg. von Marek Tamm, Linda Kaljundi, Carsten Selch Jensen. Verlag Ashgate. Farnham, 2011

High Throughput, Multiplexed Pathogen Detection Authenticates Plague Waves in Medieval Venice, Italy

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Tran, Thi-Nguyen-Ny; Signoli, Michel; Fozzati, Luigi; Aboudharam, Gérard; Raoult, Didier; Drancourt, Michel

2011-01-01

Background Historical records suggest that multiple burial sites from the 14th–16th centuries in Venice, Italy, were used during the Black Death and subsequent plague epidemics. Methodology/Principal Findings High throughput, multiplexed real-time PCR detected DNA of seven highly transmissible pathogens in 173 dental pulp specimens collected from 46 graves. Bartonella quintana DNA was identified in five (2.9%) samples, including three from the 16th century and two from the 15th century, and Yersinia pestis DNA was detected in three (1.7%) samples, including two from the 14th century and one from the 16th century. Partial glpD gene sequencing indicated that the detected Y. pestis was the Orientalis biotype. Conclusions These data document for the first time successive plague epidemics in the medieval European city where quarantine was first instituted in the 14th century. PMID:21423736

Wartime Women Rape: A Means of Moral Attack and Emasculation in Lynn Nottage’s Ruined

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Elaff Ganim Salih

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Women rape at warfare was considered a consequence of war in the social, literary and political world for a long period of time. Some criminals of rape escaped justice and others were persecuted on the basis that they were involved in mass rape because it was a natural consequence of war. But, women are targeted with rape in time of war because they are the symbolic representation of a culture, ethnicity, and the unifying fabric of their people and nation. The objective of this paper is to show that war rape is not a result of war; instead it is a means of human destruction through moral attack and emasculation. It aims to show that women rape in warfare is neither a misogynist act nor a sexual violence but it is a pre-planned weapon used strategically and systematically to fulfill certain political and military agenda. The study focuses on the sexual abuse of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo in time of war in Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize play, Ruined (2007. The study applies Jonathan Gottschall’s Strategic Rape theory, which highlights war rape as a pre-planned military strategy. The enemy emasculates men and attacks them morally by raping their women. Consequently, men’s failure to protect their women causes them to give up resistance, leave their lands and families because of shame and humiliation. The study concludes that women rape in time of war is a tactic followed by conquerors intentionally to facilitate and guarantee the achievement of certain pre-planned goals as was the case of mass rape in the DRC.

Medieval Victoria-Gasteiz Interaction between virtual and augmented reality in the 16th century

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Ainhoa Pérez-Valle

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Medieval Vitoria-Gasteiz’s game provides information about the history and lifestyle of this town in the 16th century, which has been rebuilt through procedural software. This interactive application allows you to enjoy an experience that merges the virtual party with an ‘in situ’ visit to the city’s streets nowadays, enabling travel through time. The game becomes a competition in which users have to overcome challenges and could enjoy Augmented Reality’s benefits. The main goal of the project is the cultural heritage transmission. And this is done through one of the best ways to do this, in a funny way. Learn “playing”. Being education and tourism the main application fields.

Socio-cultural factors in dental diseases in the Medieval and early Modern Age of northern Spain.

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Lopez, Belen; Pardiñas, Antonio F; Garcia-Vazquez, Eva; Dopico, Eduardo

2012-02-01

The aim of this study is to present, discuss and compare the results of pathological conditions in teeth from skeletal remains found in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) in four Medieval cemeteries (late 15th century) and three cemeteries from the Modern Age (late 18th century). The final objective was to evaluate the impact of socioeconomic and cultural changes that took place during the early Modern Age in Spain, on oral health. Dental caries and antemortem tooth loss were considered as indicators of dental disease. A significant increase of both dental caries and antemortem tooth loss occurred in Modern Age individuals when compared to Medieval values, as reported for other regions. Increased trade with other continents may explain this deterioration of dental health, as food exchanges (mainly with America) contributed to diet changes for the overall population, including higher carbohydrate consumption (introduction of potatoes) at the expense of other vegetables. A sex-specific increase of dental disease with age, and a significantly higher prevalence of carious lesions in Modern Age females than in males, were also found. These changes can be explained by women having had limited access to dental care after the Middle-Modern Age transition, as a consequence of socio-cultural and political changes. In these changes, an increasing influence of the Catholic Church in Spanish society has to be noted, as it can contribute to the explanation of the unequal dental health of men and women. Women were socially excluded from dental care by regulations inspired by religious precepts. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Ascertainment of Customs and Personal Laws in Medieval Italy from the Lombard Kingdom to the Communes

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Claudia Storti

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The medieval systems of law in Italy and Europe have been proposed as a sort of virtual laboratory to deal with the issue of ensuring that the principle of equality in the rule of law be compatible with the recognition of indigenous peoples’ customs. The legal framework of the medieval communes sought to strike a balance between the general interest in having legal certainty and uniformity with the citizens’ interest in ruling their family life and economic assets according to their cultural and social values. Up until the 14th century, in Lombardy an individual’s legal status, family and inheritance continued to be ruled according to the customs of the individual’s natio, be they Lombard or Roman. The ascertainment of customs is an arduous task, as oral customs are fluid and vary from place to place and from family to family. For this reason, in the Middle Ages ascertainment was always entrusted to judges and legal experts (sapientes. Until a few decades ago, recognising and enforcing customs was mostly unthinkable due to legal positivism and the principle of equality. Now, however, the limits of the principle of legal equality are well known: »Legal positivism was not able to abolish status« (G. Alpa. The recognition of »legal Indigenous status« provides continuity between the past (the Middle Ages and present (Indigenous Peoples Basic Law. Just as in the past, when living according to a given natio’s laws and customs did not mean self-government, so today the enforcement of an indigenous peoples’ basic law should not undermine the sovereignty of the State.

Trepanation Procedures/Outcomes: Comparison of Prehistoric Peru with Other Ancient, Medieval, and American Civil War Cranial Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Kushner, David S; Verano, John W; Titelbaum, Anne R

2018-06-01

More prehistoric trepanned crania have been found in Peru than any other location worldwide. We examine trepanation practices and outcomes in Peru over nearly 2000 years from 400 BC to provide a perspective on the procedure with comparison with procedures/outcomes of other ancient, medieval, and American Civil War cranial surgery. Data on trepanation demographics, techniques, and survival rates were collected through the scientific analysis of more than 800 trepanned crania discovered in Peru, through field studies and the courtesy of museums and private collections in the United States and Peru, over nearly 3 decades. Data on procedures and outcomes of cranial surgery ancient, medieval, and during 19th-century through the American Civil war were obtained via a literature review. Successful trepanations from prehistoric times through the American Civil War likely involved shallow surgeries that did not pierce the dura mater. Although there are regional and temporal variations in ancient Peru, overall long-term survival rates for the study series were about 40% in the earliest period (400-200 BC), with improvement to a high of 91% in samples from AD 1000-1400, to an average of 75%-83% during the Inca Period (AD 1400s-1500). In comparison, the average cranial surgery mortality rate during the American Civil war was 46%-56%, and short- and long-term survival rates are unknown. The contrast in outcomes highlights the astonishing success of ancient cranial surgery in Peru in the treatment of living patients. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Potential effects of particulate matter from combustion during services on human health and on works of art in medieval churches in Cyprus

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Loupa, Glykeria, E-mail: gloupa@env.duth.g [Laboratory of Atmospheric Pollution and Pollution Control Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, P.O. Box 447, Xanthi 67100 (Greece); Karageorgos, Evangelos, E-mail: vkarageo@env.duth.g [Laboratory of Atmospheric Pollution and Pollution Control Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, P.O. Box 447, Xanthi 67100 (Greece); Rapsomanikis, Spyridon, E-mail: rapso@env.duth.g [Laboratory of Atmospheric Pollution and Pollution Control Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, P.O. Box 447, Xanthi 67100 (Greece)

2010-09-15

Indoor and outdoor particulate matter (PM{sub 0.3-10}) number concentrations were established in two medieval churches in Cyprus. In both churches incense was burnt occasionally during Mass. The highest indoor PM{sub 0.5-1} concentrations compared with outdoors (10.7 times higher) were observed in the church that burning of candles indoors was allowed. Peak indoor black carbon concentration was 6.8 {mu}g m{sup -3} in the instances that incense was burning and 13.4 {mu}g m{sup -3} in the instances that the candles were burning (outdoor levels ranged between 0.6 and 1.3 {mu}g m{sup -3}). From the water soluble inorganic components determined in PM{sub 10}, calcium prevailed in all samples indoors or outdoors, whilst high potassium concentration indoors were a clear marker of combustion. Indoor sources of PM were clearly identified and their emission strengths were estimated via modeling of the results. Indoor estimated PM{sub 0.3-10} mass concentrations exceeded air quality standards for human health protection and for the preservation of works of art. - Particulate matter in medieval churches of Cyprus.

Topografía medieval de la casa toledana de los Laso de la Vega en la parroquia de San Román

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Passini, Jean

2008-06-01

Full Text Available This article reveals the evolution of the medieval houses that were successively of the bishop don Vasco Ramirez de Rivera (1480-1492 and of Laso de la Vega family (1491-1616. It draws from various medieval documentary sources particularly of the Mercy’s Hospital. This article examines also some actual houses of san Roma’s hill. It proposes a plan of the houses at the end of the 15th century and the situation of the native house of the poet Garcilaso.Los documentos medievales del Archivo del Hospital de la Misericordia favorecen la reconstitución de la evolución de una manzana, en la parroquia de san Román donde se elevaban las casas mayores que fueron sucesivamente del obispo de Coria, don Vasco Ramírez de Rivera y de la familia de los Laso de la Vega. Aunque esta casa ha sufrido varias transformaciones hasta su destrucción en el siglo XX, el autor ha podido restituirla al final del siglo XV, usando el estudio del parcelario, y situar la casa donde nació el poeta Garcilaso.

Charcoal analyses as an environmental tool for the study of Early Medieval sunken houses infills in Roztoky near Prague, Czech Republic

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Novák, J.; Lisá, Lenka; Pokorný, P.; Kuna, Martin

2012-01-01

Roč. 39, č. 4 (2012), s. 808-817 ISSN 0305-4403 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP405/10/2289; GA AV ČR IAAX00020701 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30130516; CEZ:AV0Z80020508 Keywords : anthracology * geoarchaeology * pollen analysis * Early Medieval sunken houses * vegetation * firewood * post-depositional processes Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology Impact factor: 1.889, year: 2012

Infrared and Raman Vibrational Spectroscopies Reveal the Palette of Frescos Found in the Medieval Monastery of Karaach Teke

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zorba, T.; Paraskevopoulos, K.M.; Pavlidou, E.; Andrikopoulos, K.S.; Daniilia, S.; Popkonstantinov, K.; Kostova, R.; Platnyov, V.

2007-01-01

Vibrational spectroscopy is applied on samples obtained from the excavation area of the medieval Monastery (10 th century) of Karaach-Teke in Bulgaria. The results of the corresponding study, reveal the type of materials used for the creation of the wall-paintings and give evidence of Byzantine influence, a fact that further supports the well known impact of Byzantium on the technology and thematic-aesthetic features of iconography in Bulgaria during this era. In addition, the complementarity of FTIR and -Raman spectroscopies in the identification of pigments is indicated

Tipología y caracterización del pensamiento apocalíptico en la literatura Medieval Inglesa

OpenAIRE

Castro Carracedo, Juan Manuel

2010-01-01

[ES] Esta tesis consiste en un estudio de la identificación y clasificación de los distintos elementos procedentes del pensamiento apocalíptico que se pueden hallar dentro del marco específico de la literatura inglesa medieval, o lo que es lo mismo, una determinación más concluyente del fenómeno apocalíptico en esta época y en este ámbito. [EN] This thesis is a study of identification and classification of the different elements from the apocalyptic thinking that can be found within the sp...

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photography: Exploring the Medieval City of Merv, on the Silk Roads of Central Asia

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Tim Williams

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The Ancient Merv Project is a collaboration between the Turkmenistan Ministry of Culture, the Ancient Merv State Park and the UCL Institute of Archaeology. It aims to research, protect and conserve the remains of one of the great historic cities of the Silk Roads. This paper explores a new survey of the Islamic city using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to take comprehensive and systematic vertical photographs to assist in the analysis of the medieval cityscape. The background to the research and the application of the technology are presented, together with our initial conclusions.

Algunas cuestiones epistemológicas a propósito de la teología monástica medieval en Jean Leclercq

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Pedro Edmundo Gómez, osb

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Este artículo plantea cuatro cuestiones epistemológicas a propósito de la teología monástica medieval: existencia y significado, distinción de la escolástica, noción de ciencia y crítica neoescolástica, exponiendo reverentemente lo que Dom Jean Leclercq, osb. monje, historiador y teólogo, enseñó especialmente en L'amour des lettres et le désir de Dieu, que es a la vez el título y la conclusión de un hermoso libro publicado hace ya cincuenta años, mostrando la posible "complementariedad" y "coexistencia pacífica" entre modos diversos de hacer teologíaThis article outlines four epistemological questions apropos of medieval monastic theology: existence and meaning, the scholastic distinction, the notion of science and neo-scholastic criticism, expounding reverently what monk, historian and theologian Dom Jean Leclercq, o.s.b., taught, especially in L'amour des letters et le désir de Dieu, which is at the same time the title and the conclusion of a beautiful book published 50 years ago, showing the possible "complementarity" and "peaceful co-existence" between different modes of doing theology

Coexistencia del autor medieval y el autor contemporáneo en Aura

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Maite Pizarro Granada

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Este artículo plantea para la novela Aura, una entrada de lectura según la cual el lector se transforma en protagonista, encarna la esencia marginal del autor medieval y al mismo tiempo muestra su evolución para transformarse en el autor contemporáneo. El objetivo es plantear una reflexión sobre la evolución que ha experimentado la noción de autoría a lo largo de la historia y mostrar cómo en la novela, la memoria actual (representada por la figura del historiador se apropia de la realidad a través de la concreción de la fantasía y de las invenciones o cambios sujetos al proceso de remembranza. Interesa, en última instancia, mostrar que recordar el pasado supone un ejercicio creativo en el que, el historiador también se comporta como autor en la medida en que ofrece una nueva perspectiva anclada en el presente.

Melancholia in medieval Persian literature: The view of Hidayat of Al-Akhawayni.

Science.gov (United States)

Dalfardi, Behnam; Yarmohammadi, Hassan; Ghanizadeh, Ahmad

2014-06-22

"Melancholia" seems to be the oldest term used to describe the manifestations of depression. Throughout the history of medicine, melancholia has been the focus of consideration of many scholars who have provided varying definitions of this disorder and its manifestations. This continual process has resulted in the gradual development of the concept of melancholia over time. Persian scholars were among the scientists who have studied the melancholia and contributed to its concept. One figure, Al-Akhawayni Bukhari (?-983 AD), a Persian physician whose reputation was based on the treatment of patients with mental problems, investigated this disorder. He described Melancholia and explained its clinical manifestations and treatment methods. Al-Akhawayni provided an early classification of the patients suffering from this disorder. Since the medieval Persian concept of melancholia is not well-known, this paper aims to review Al-Akhawayni's 10(th) century knowledge on melancholia which can represent the early concept of this disorder in the Near East.

Thermally and optically stimulated luminescence of early medieval blue-green glass mosaics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Galli, A. E-mail: anna.galli@mater.unimib.it; Martini, M.; Montanari, C.; Sibilia, E

2004-12-01

The preliminary results of a study related to luminescent mechanisms in glass mosaic tesserae are presented. The samples came from a medieval glass deposit found during archaeological excavations in the S. Lorenzo Church in Milan. Energy Dispersive X-rays Fluorescence (EDXRF) measurements were performed to obtain information on the elemental composition of the materials. Thermally Stimulated Luminescence (TSL, both conventional and wavelength resolved) and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) analyses allowed to get information about traps and luminescence centres. The observed luminescence characteristics were close to that of quartz, showing the presence of an easy to bleach trap (300 deg. C, 1.95 eV) and of a hard to bleach trap (350 deg. C, 2.20 eV); charge transfer phenomena, involving the low-temperature peaks have been observed. There is a strong indication that the easy to bleach traps are responsible for both OSL and TSL emission at 300 deg. C.

Thermally and optically stimulated luminescence of early medieval blue-green glass mosaics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galli, A.; Martini, M.; Montanari, C.; Sibilia, E.

2004-01-01

The preliminary results of a study related to luminescent mechanisms in glass mosaic tesserae are presented. The samples came from a medieval glass deposit found during archaeological excavations in the S. Lorenzo Church in Milan. Energy Dispersive X-rays Fluorescence (EDXRF) measurements were performed to obtain information on the elemental composition of the materials. Thermally Stimulated Luminescence (TSL, both conventional and wavelength resolved) and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) analyses allowed to get information about traps and luminescence centres. The observed luminescence characteristics were close to that of quartz, showing the presence of an easy to bleach trap (300 deg. C, 1.95 eV) and of a hard to bleach trap (350 deg. C, 2.20 eV); charge transfer phenomena, involving the low-temperature peaks have been observed. There is a strong indication that the easy to bleach traps are responsible for both OSL and TSL emission at 300 deg. C

Two case examples of pelvic fractures in medieval populations from central Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmann, Maria Ines; Papageorgopoulou, Christina; Böni, Thomas; Rühli, Frank J

2010-01-01

Pelvic fractures are considered to be uncommon and difficult to treat, even in the modern medical literature. Serious and eventually life-threatening associated injuries may occur, requiring emergency abdominal, vascular or neurologic surgery. Pelvic fractures can also be managed non-operatively; however, a considerable dispute exists on the suitable management strategy. The treatment and healing of such injuries in the bioarchaeological record, is therefore of great interest for anthropological and medico-historical studies. Fractures of the pelvis are rarely reported in the anthropological literature either due to poor preservation of the innominate bone or lack of adequate examination. Here we present two cases of pelvic fractures observed on two adult male individuals from two European medieval sites. They differ in severity and in the pattern of healing. They are both adequately healed and probably had no acute life-threatening consequences, which gives us some insight into the medical knowledge and means of management of past populations.

Melancholia in medieval Persian literature: The view of Hidayat of Al-Akhawayni

Science.gov (United States)

Dalfardi, Behnam; Yarmohammadi, Hassan; Ghanizadeh, Ahmad

2014-01-01

“Melancholia” seems to be the oldest term used to describe the manifestations of depression. Throughout the history of medicine, melancholia has been the focus of consideration of many scholars who have provided varying definitions of this disorder and its manifestations. This continual process has resulted in the gradual development of the concept of melancholia over time. Persian scholars were among the scientists who have studied the melancholia and contributed to its concept. One figure, Al-Akhawayni Bukhari (?-983 AD), a Persian physician whose reputation was based on the treatment of patients with mental problems, investigated this disorder. He described Melancholia and explained its clinical manifestations and treatment methods. Al-Akhawayni provided an early classification of the patients suffering from this disorder. Since the medieval Persian concept of melancholia is not well-known, this paper aims to review Al-Akhawayni’s 10th century knowledge on melancholia which can represent the early concept of this disorder in the Near East. PMID:25019055

MKHITAR GOSH'S MEDIEVAL LAW CODE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ARMENIAN COMMUNITIES ABROAD.

Science.gov (United States)

Davtyan, Susanna; Khachatryan, Mikayel; Johrian, Ara; Ghazaryan, Karen

2014-07-01

The Law Book of the medieval Armenian legal and economic thought is an exceptional work that encompasses valuable information of the Armenian nation's domestic life. Mkhitar Gosh was considered to be one of the most outstanding figures and lawyers (lawmakers) of all times. Armenian Law Code after Mkhitar Gosh is writhed at 12 century. One of the primary sources for the law code was Armenian customary law. This Code became moral code for guiding for hall Armenians over the world because of high moral spirit reflecting Armenian mentality. This article presents the brief history of extension of legal rules setting out in the Law Code. The Law Code was established and widely used not only in Armenia but also in a number of Armenian communities abroad (Russian, Poland, Georgia, Latvia, India etc.). Law Code was accepted by all Armenians. Moreover, it served for the development of legislation for a number of civilized European and Asian countries.

Acoustic emission monitoring of medieval towers considered as sensitive earthquake receptors

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A. Carpinteri

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Many ancient masonry towers are present in Italian territory. In some cases these structures are at risk on account of the intensity of the stresses they are subjected to due to the high level of regional seismicity. In order to preserve this inestimable cultural heritage, a sound safety assessment should take into account the evolution of damage phenomena. In this connection, acoustic emission (AE monitoring can be highly effective. This study concerns the structural stability of three medieval towers rising in the centre of Alba, a characteristic town in Piedmont (Italy. During the monitoring period a correlation between peaks of AE activity in the masonry of these towers and regional seismicity was found. Earthquakes always affect structural stability. Besides that, the towers behaved as sensitive earthquake receptors. Here a method to correlate bursts of AE activity in a masonry building and regional seismicity is proposed. In particular, this method permits to identify the premonitory signals that precede a catastrophic event on a structure, since, in most cases, these warning signs can be captured well in advance.

Neolithic and Medieval virus genomes reveal complex evolution of Hepatitis B.

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Krause-Kyora, Ben; Susat, Julian; Key, Felix M; Kühnert, Denise; Bosse, Esther; Immel, Alexander; Rinne, Christoph; Kornell, Sabin-Christin; Yepes, Diego; Franzenburg, Sören; Heyne, Henrike O; Meier, Thomas; Lösch, Sandra; Meller, Harald; Friederich, Susanne; Nicklisch, Nicole; Alt, Kurt W; Schreiber, Stefan; Tholey, Andreas; Herbig, Alexander; Nebel, Almut; Krause, Johannes

2018-05-10

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the most widespread human pathogens known today, yet its origin and evolutionary history are still unclear and controversial. Here, we report the analysis of three ancient HBV genomes recovered from human skeletons found at three different archaeological sites in Germany. We reconstructed two Neolithic and one medieval HBV genomes by de novo assembly from shotgun DNA sequencing data. Additionally, we observed HBV-specific peptides using paleo-proteomics. Our results show that HBV circulates in the European population for at least 7000 years. The Neolithic HBV genomes show a high genomic similarity to each other. In a phylogenetic network, they do not group with any human-associated HBV genome and are most closely related to those infecting African non-human primates. These ancient virus forms appear to represent distinct lineages that have no close relatives today and possibly went extinct. Our results reveal the great potential of ancient DNA from human skeletons in order to study the long-time evolution of blood borne viruses. © 2018, Krause-Kyora et al.

Archaeometrical studies on medieval silver coins at the Bucharest Tandem Accelerator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bugoi, Roxana; Constantin, Florin; Constantinescu, Bogdan

2002-01-01

The analysis of archaeological objects requires simultaneously, non-destructive, fast, versatile, sensitive and multielemental methods. The purpose of our work is to help Romanian curators to identify objects' provenance (workshops, technologies, mines) and to establish commercial, military and political connections. Medieval Moldavian (XIV-XVI Centuries) silver coins (groschen) were studied to determine the evolution of the coinage (debasement, metal sources, minting technologies). For these coins, two methods were used: 3 MeV protons PIXE (Proton Induced X-ray Emission) and 241 Am source based XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence). XRF was used to determine the heavier elements concentrations. Comparing the trace elements results (Bi, Pb, Zn, Au, Sb) obtained on these samples with the ones on coins from the neighboring countries (Hungary, Poland, Tatar Khanate, Bohemia) we concluded that a lot of Moldavian emissions were made by melting foreign coins, probably obtained as customs taxes. For some coins, the Hg presence is an indication of the use of local silver ores to manufacture local money. The relationship between the silver content of the coins and the military conflicts during various periods is discussed. (authors)

Concept And Its Implementation During The Reconstruction Of The Church Of Blessed Virgin Mary In Chojna

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Płotkowiak, Maciej

2015-12-01

St. Mary's parish church in Chojna was erected at the turn of XIV and XVc. in a shape of three aisles, hall church without transept, completed from the west with a single tower and from the east with polygonal presbytery with an ambulatory attached. The convergence of characteristic structural and decorative features with employed ones in medieval churches being attributed to Hinrich Brunsberg's fabric resulted in such a way, that also authorship of St. Mary in Chojna was assigned to this legendary architect and master builder of late Middle Ages period. The church was destroyed by fire during WWII in February 1945 and since then had remained as an open ruin. In 1997 reconstruction procedure of the church was begun under the leadership of the author and it still continues. This text consists of the sum of experiences connected with confronting design ideas and solutions with their executions on the site during construction works.

Portraits of aging men in late medieval Italy.

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Cossar, Roisin

2012-08-01

 This essay examines the human experience of aging in the distant past by investigating a group of aging men during the 14th century in an Italian city, Bergamo, using notarial "documents of practice" from that community. Studying the aging process and its effects on the lives of people in the medieval era has three-fold significance: it broadens our understanding of aging as a human construct and a human experience, challenges an antihistorical theory of aging, and reinforces the importance of studying the specific experiences of aging individuals in both the past and the present.     A qualitative study. Methods of analysis include nominative linkage and an investigation of the physical effects of aging on an individual, as seen in the documents of 1 long-lived notary.   Aging clerics and notaries in Bergamo took on positions of increasing authority in the church and related institutions in the last decades of their lives.   The documented activities of a group of affluent men in 14th-century Bergamo suggest that although there was little recorded discussion of "old age" as a life stage in that community, for these men, aging was a real social process with both positive and negative impacts on their lives. Giving a human face to these aging men of the distant past models an approach to the study of the aging process that has relevance for both historians and gerontologists alike.

Dementia, personhood and embodiment: what can we learn from the medieval history of memory?

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Katz, Stephen

2013-05-01

Memory and dementia are historical ideas that preceded the development of modern neuroscientific, psychogeriatric and medical approaches to aging and cognitive impairment. This article explores the value of such historical ideas in order to understand the discourses and metaphors by which Western thought has individualized memory as the guarantor of rational personhood, while at the same, treating memory decline as a threat to healthy and successful aging. Discussion focuses on the relationship between memory and the body in the classical and medieval ars memoria (the art of memory) and in the early modern philosophies of personhood, particularly the work of John Locke. Conclusions consider the significance of Western culture's history of embodied memory as it moved from cosmic to individual to neurocognitive sites for our wider views about the treatment of dementia.

Clothing as a symbol of charity and soul salvation in late Medieval Kotor (Cattaro

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Živković Valentina

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Religious practices in late medieval Kotor included charitable acts of donating clothes to the poor as a form of imitatio Christi. The model of charity for the faithful to follow was set in the vitae of widely-favoured saints such as Sts Martin of Tours, Francis of Assisi and Catherine of Sienna, whose portraits were painted on the walls of Kotor’s church of St Anne in the second half of the fifteenth century. Evidence for the prac­tice and purpose of this particular form of charity is found in the surviving wills of the citizens of Kotor. Apart from giving clothes to the poor out of concern pro remedio animae, the motif of clothes features in the deceased’s testamentary instructions for burial in the habit of a mendicant order.