Human-derived landscape changes on the northern Etruria coast (western Italy) between Roman times and the late Middle Ages

The Holocene ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (11) ◽  
pp. 1491-1502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaetano Di Pasquale ◽  
Mauro Paolo Buonincontri ◽  
Emilia Allevato ◽  
Antonio Saracino
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Republican Period ◽  
Late Medieval Period ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Set Up

Anthracological analysis has been carried out in three sites located on the Tyrrhenian coast of central Italy (ancient northern Etruria: the castle of Donoratico, the town of Populonia and the port of Alberese), spanning between the Roman Republican Period and the Late Middle Ages (3rd century bc–13th century ad). The integrated comparison of three different local charcoal data with the regional pollen and microcharcoal data available from northern Etruria showed well that vegetation changes are completely independent of climate and strictly connected to economic and social dynamics characterising the history of this part of central Italy. Indeed, Quercus ilex forests progressively retracted from the 3rd century bc in favour of open macchia formations just during the growing human impact of the Romanisation when intensive agriculture and livestock grazing characterised the economic system. The transition from macchia to deciduous Quercus forest at the end of the Roman Period from the mid-4th to the mid-5th centuries ad and long lasting until the 9th–10th centuries ad was related to economic and cultural factors which led to a phase of land abandonment. Finally, between the 11th and 13th centuries ad, the vegetation cover shifted again towards an open macchia environment at the same time of a re-settlement phase well evidenced also by intensive orcharding. Charcoal data also showed that the expansion of olive and chestnut in central Italy only began in the Late Medieval Period (11th century ad) and not in the Roman Period. This means that extensive cultivation of chestnut and olive has very recent origins and should be attributed to one and the same macro-factor such as the set-up of the economic establishment of the feudal system and the later political organism of the Medieval town.

scholarly journals Was the Cinta Senese Pig Already a Luxury Food in the Late Middle Ages? Ancient DNA and Archaeozoological Evidence from Central Italy

Genes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Federica Gabbianelli ◽  
Francesca Alhaique ◽  
Giuseppe Romagnoli ◽  
Luca Brancazi ◽  
Lavinia Piermartini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Dna Analysis ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Wild Boars ◽  
Young Females ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Homologous Genes ◽  
Kit Gene ◽  
Ancient Dna Analysis

The Cinta senese is a pig breed, highly esteemed for its meat and derived products, characterized by a black coat with a typical white “belt” and documented by scant iconography, since the 13th–14th century in Italy. A piece of pottery showing a Cinta pig was found in the Graffignano castle (Northern Latium, Italy) dated 15th–16th centuries, spurring us to investigate the diet of the inhabitants. Ancient DNA analysis was carried out on 21 pig specimens on three nuclear SNPs: (1) g.43597545C>T, on the KIT gene, informative for the identification of the Cinta senese breed; (2) rs81460129, on an intergenic region in chr. 16, which discriminates between domestic pigs and wild boars, and; (3) a SNP on the ZFY/ZFX homologous genes, to determine the sex of the individuals. Our results indicate that the Cinta senese was present in Northern Latium in Late Medieval time, although it was not the only breed, and that pigs, including Cinta, interbred with wild boars, suggesting free-range breeding for all types of pigs. Moreover, the unexpected high proportion of young females may be considered as evidence for the wealth of the family inhabiting the castle.

Medieval Latin Arts of Poetry and Prose

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Arithmetic Geometry ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Elementary Composition ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Poetics ◽  
The University ◽  
Level Of Instruction

Modern scholarship on the medieval Latin arts of poetry and prose has focused on a number of treatises written in the 12th and 13th centuries: Matthew of Vendôme’s Ars versificatoria; Geoffrey of Vinsauf’s Poetria nova, Documentum, and Summa de coloribus; Gervase of Melkley’s Ars versificaria or poetica; John of Garland’s Parisiana Poetria; and Eberhard the German’s Laborintus. Other documents have received attention as well, notably commentaries and glosses. The art of composition in both verse and prose also evolved as new conceptions of the art emerged. In the 13th century, Latin translations and commentaries on Aristotle’s Poetics led to revisions of the Horatian art in the 14th century; treatises that reflect this development begin with the anonymous Long Documentum, renamed Tria sunt, and Mathias of Linköping’s Poetria, based on instruction Mathias received while studying at the University of Paris. The traditional conception of the art of poetry was derived from rhetorical treatises attributed to Cicero, notably the De inventione and the Rhetorica ad Herennium. The medieval treatises adapted a traditional order of parts in rhetoric: topical invention, disposition based on natural chronological order or artificial rearrangement of the chronological order, amplification and abbreviation using figures and tropes common in ornamentation, and eventually Aristotelian notions of imagination as a poetic faculty. Inclusion of these parts indicates the scope and level of instruction in the treatises. Accordingly, the study and practice of poetic composition in classrooms progressed from elementary composition and study to imitation of exemplary masterpieces. Such instruction fit well into the stages in medieval pedagogy from grammar, rhetoric, and logic on to arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, and beyond to philosophy and theology. The scope of the art on these virtually graded levels of instruction led to study, interpretation, imitation, and, ultimately, emulation of perceived ancient and medieval masterpieces like Virgil’s Aeneid, Horace’s lyrics, Bernardus Silvestris’s Cosmographia, and Alan of Lille’s Anticlaudianus and De planctu Naturae, among others. Introductions to specific works (accessus ad auctores) include model works that exemplify the art’s evolution from Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages. Classbooks and other anthologies collected poems and passages for study and imitation on the student level. Finally, the Latin art found its way into some treatises written for vernacular languages. These diverse documents—commentaries, model works, accessus, classbooks and anthologies, authorial statements inserted into their own writings, vernacular treatises, and other documents—enhance our understanding of medieval poetics.

L'Assetto Rurale in Età Arcaica ed in Età Romana Del Territorio Di Poggio Sommavilla (Sabina Tiberina)

2002 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 79-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flaminia Verga
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Road Network ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Republican Period ◽  
Commercial Exchange ◽  
Pattern Characteristic ◽  
Trade Route ◽  
Tiber Valley

RURAL SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE ARCHAIC AND ROMAN PERIODS IN THE AREA OF POGGIO SOMMAVILLA (SABINA TIBERINA)This paper presents the results of an historical and topographical survey carried out in the middle Tiber valley, more specifically in the Sabina Tiberina, in the area around Poggio Sommavilla. The survey focused particularly on the area under the present-day administration of the Comune of Stimigliano, with the aim of reconstructing the topographical layout of the Roman landscape. The field survey shed important new light on the nature of the archaic and Roman road network. In particular, as well as the Via Flaminia that runs along the western limits of the study area, another road was identified running in a broadly northeast-southwest direction, which appears to have formed the main trade route that served the area during both the archaic and Roman periods. Furthermore, the study of earlier maps, together with the evidence from the survey, has permitted the identification along the Tiber of a number of ancient ports, the positions of which were not known previously.It is interesting to note that the settlement pattern characteristic of the Iron Age, which favoured high plateaux overlooking the Tiber, continued into the archaic period. This appears to have had a significant impact on settlement of the Roman period, in that the earliest attested Roman villas in this area are those situated next to the Tiber. The development of the ‘phenomenon of the villa’ in the area of the Sabina Tiberina from the end of the Republican period (third to second centuries BC) is consistent with the results of studies in other parts of central Italy. The study of the pottery collected from settlements of the archaic period (Colle Rosetta) and the Roman period (San Sebastiano) confirms the importance of the Tiber as a trade route for commercial exchange.

The Bible in the Fourteenth Century: Some Observations

1985 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Courtenay
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Late Medieval Period ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Biblical Commentaries ◽  
English Group

One of the most pressing needs in the field of medieval biblical studies is for an adequate historical overview of developments in the late Middle Ages. One of the pioneers, the late Beryl Smalley, never fully achieved the intended sequel to her magisterial Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, although her English Friars and Antiquity was an excellent beginning, particularly for the early fourteenth-century English group. Other surveys end with Nicholas of Lyra, skip from the thirteenth century to the Reformation, or give only the most cursory attention to the late medieval period.2 And yet the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were rich in biblical commentaries, and scholars, have long considered a more precise understanding of developments in that period to be essential for an adequate appreciation of the character and significance of biblical commentaries in the early sixteenth century.

scholarly journals The Infancy and Development of Hadith in Central Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 4537-4541
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Arab Muslim ◽  
Asian Cities ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic

This article discusses process of beginnings and development of the Hadith study in Central Asia in the Early Islamic period. The first transmitters of hadith in Mawarannahr were the Arabs who participated in the wars of invasion. Among the first narrators of hadith (isnad) in Central Asia, were eyewitnesses the Prophet's life, called as’habs or companions of the Prophet. The second link in the chain of narrators of hadith was represented by at-tabi'in, i.e. followers of the Prophet's companions, who communicated hadith from the words of as’hab. In Mawarannahr, the followers were represented mostly by the ‘Arabs that settled in Marw and settlements in its environs in the second half of the 7th century. The next link in the chain of narrators of hadith is the tubba' at-tabi'in, the apprentice of a follower of the companions of Muhammad the Prophet, many of whom lived in Marw and its environs in the 8th century. Though at the beginning of the 8th century it was mainly the ‘Arabs and their Iranian mawali (pl. of mawla) who narrated hadith, by the mid-8th century this science had already been adopted by representatives of the Central Asian peoples. In subsequent centuries, the study of hadith was widespread in Central Asia and it became one of the leading centers of development of ‘Arab-Muslim scholarship and culture. Besides Marw and the other towns of Khurasan, the most important centers of hadith study in the region were Samarqand, Bukhara, Termiz, Nasaf, Kesh, Khwarizm, and Shash. The development of the science of hadith criticism gave impulse to another branch of science—the historical-biographical one. In the 9th century the first collections containing biographies of famous narrators of hadith were compiled. This practice fasted until the late Middle Ages. Written sources give us the biographies of 3,000 transmitters of hadith that lived in different Central Asian cities before the beginning of the 13th century.

scholarly journals The stronghold on Kirkut Hill in Lublin. The state of recognition of the remains of the former stronghold and its role in the medieval Lublin agglomeration

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 165-185
Author(s):  
Rafał Niedźwiadek ◽  
◽  
Andrzej Rozwałka ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
The State ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Hill

The aim of the article is to present the state of the research conducted on the remains of a medieval stronghold on Grodzisko Hill, also known as Kirkut Hill (due to the Jewish cemetery from the late Middle Ages and early modern period located on its top), as well as to show the latest approach to dating the remains of the stronghold and its role in the medieval Lublin agglomeration. Archaeological research carried out on the hill and at its foot in the 1960s and 1970s was of limited range due to the existence of the Jewish cemetery. However, it can be considered that they provided an amount of data that enables the reconstruction of stratigraphy of the stronghold and recognition of the structure of its rampart running along the edge of the hill. After many discussions, both among historians and Lublin archaeologists, a certain consensus regarding the chronology and the function of the former stronghold on Grodzisko Hill has now been reached. It seems that it was in the 13th century that the stronghold was built and, then, before the century ended, it was destroyed. It coexisted with an older structure – probably built in the 12th century – namely the castellan stronghold on Zamkowe Hill. Recent research indicates that during the second half of 13th century, or at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, a new line of ramparts was built on Staromiejskie Hill. This is how three parts of the Lublin agglomeration were distinguished. Perhaps, in this structure, the stronghold on Kirkut Hill could have functioned as a guard post for a part of the long-distance route located in the area of today’s Kalinowszczyzna Street. The 13th century, and especially its second half, was the time of numerous Yotvingian, Lithuanian, Mongolian, Ruthenian and Tatar invasions.

Markets for Land, Labor, and Capital in Northern Italy and the Low Countries, Twelfth to Seventeenth Centuries

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bas J. P. van Bavel
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
North Central ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Urban Elites ◽  
Factor Markets

Comparative analysis of the markets for land, labor, and capital in north-central Italy and the Low Countries in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period reveals that urbanization in itself was not the crucial variable in the quality and effect of developing factor markets. More important was the counterweight offered in this process by territorial lords and rural interests to the influence of urban elites. Without this counterweight, urban elites could exploit factor markets to their own ends.

Papal Authority and Religious Sentiment in The Late Middle Ages

1991 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 409-428
Author(s):  
David L. d’Avray
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Financial Exploitation ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
Italian Politics ◽  
Papal Authority ◽  
Papal Court

Undergraduate ideas about medieval papal history tend to take the following form. In the late eleventh and early twelfth century the papacy led a reform movement and increased its power. In the mid- to late twelfth century its spiritual authority waned as its legal activities expanded. Innocent III gave a new lease of life to the institution by extending its protection to those elements in the effervescent spiritual life of the time which were prepared to keep their enthusiasm for evangelical preaching and apostolic poverty within the limits of doctrinal orthodoxy. By the middle of the thirteenth century, however, the papacy was more preoccupied with Italian politics than with the harnessing of spiritual enthusiasm. Its power and prestige remained great until the beginning of the fourteenth century, when Pope Boniface VIII was humiliated by the forces of the French King, acting with the Colonna family. The ‘Babylonian Captivity’ at Avignon, which followed shortly afterwards, was a period of grandiose claims and real weakness in relation to secular powers (especially France), of financial exploitation of the clergy, and of costly involvement in Italian wars. The Great Schism and the Conciliar Movement marked a still lower point in the religious prestige of the papacy. In the later fifteenth century the superiority of pope over council came to be generally recognized. Moreover, the papal state, in central Italy, was consolidated to provide a relatively secure base, and popes became patrons of painting and humanism. The patronage was a largely secular matter, however, and the papal court that of a secular prince. As for the popes’ control over the Western Church, it was limited, at least in practice, by the power of kings and princes over the clergy of their territories. Above all, the idea of sovereign papal authority in the religious sphere no longer had any connection with the real forces of religious sentiment and spirituality.

scholarly journals New architectural monument of Middle Age found near Zhornivka village on Irpin river (Ruslan Orlov’s research in 1991–1992)

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 199-256
Author(s):  
Denis Elshin ◽  
Serhii Pavlenko ◽  
Oleksii Starodub
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Ceramic Materials ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
General Plan ◽  
Architectural Monument ◽  
The One ◽  
North And South ◽  
The Church

In 1991–1992 in expedition led by R. Orlov the excavations of a multilayer site was carried out. It was located in Kyjevo-Svjatoshyn district of Kyiv region at 1,6 km from eastern part of Zhornivka village in a direction on South-East. The objects of Zarubynetska culture, the household pits and a Middle Age dwelling, the remains of the foundation of stone cult building, remains of brick sarcophagus near this building, burials on church cemetery dated by Middle Age and Modern Age times were discovered on the site place. In December 2017, during revision of materials at the workplace of R. Orlov in Department of ancient and medieval archeology, A. Borisov found three drawings, made on tracing paper: general plan of the site in Church Place, combined plan of excavation conducted in 1991–1992 and plan of the apse of cult building. It also contained some artifacts, probably selected from the general collection for the creation of illustrations, and in a separate package – anthropological materials from several graves of the medieval cemetery. Single-apse church of the moderate size was constructed using the bar bricks with grooves on its surface. By its features, this brick is very close to the material of the repairs and alterations which were made to certain Kievan churches constructed during the Premongol period. One of the burials cut into the ruins included the types of the ornaments which are limiting the date of destruction of the church to the 13th century. In the course of the excavations, the architectural type of the church was defined as the one without internal buttresses. However the revision of the field records gives the ground for possible remodelling of the cross-in-square church with 4 pillars. The results of these investigations were not published by the author for unknown reasons. In spring of 2019, complex of sites near Zhornivka village was re-examined. In an area of about 5,4 hectares numerous ceramic materials of XVII–XVIII centuries were recorded. They indicate existence here of large settlement in Late Middle Ages, which probably occupied the whole territory of cape-like outlier, bounded from north and south by deep ravines. In 2019 on September, 30 could be a 70th anniversary of Ruslan Orlov. The publishing of the investigation results of 1991–1992 is a best way for honoring memory of researcher on our opinion. Key words: Zhornivka village, Irpin river, multilayer site, hilltop fortified settlement, Zarubynetska culture, Old Rus time, Middle Age, church, cemetery, monastery.

scholarly journals Posvetni latinski natpisi na crkvi sv. Ivana od Birnja

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vedrana Delonga
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
John The Baptist ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Cultural Entity ◽  
The Church

Within the archaeological-historical complex at the hillfort of Biranj (Kaštel Lukšić), the ancient church of St. John the Baptist stands out in particular as a cultural entity. Three architectural phases (Romanesque, Late Gothic, and Modern period) can be perceived in its present appearance. The façade of the church bears a group of late medieval inscriptions in Latin: a donative inscription on the lintel, dated 1444 and also by the reign of the Venetian Doge Francesco Foscari (today placed in the interior of the church), as well as four consecratory inscriptions from the same time on the corners of the church. They were placed by donors (church juspatronatus) on the structure of the church on the occasion of the dedication of the thoroughly renovated original church of St. John, which had been built in the Romanesque period, at the end of the 12th or in the early 13th century, as the endowment of the Ostrog free villagers. From the donative inscription on the lintel it is learned that the ruinous Romanesque church was renovated from the foundations up by the juspatronus and plebanus Grgur Nikolin, the archpresbyter and canon of the Trogir diocese, in the name of a personal vow and the vows of all the juspatroni of St. John of Biranj. The four consecratory inscriptions with the text + Christus venit in pace et Deus homo factus est on the corners of the Late Gothic church from the same period are particularly interesting. On the basis of the contents it is hypothesized that they represent some kind of reminiscence of the possible original epigraphic dedications from the period of the construction of the Romanesque church at the end of the 12th century or in the early decades of the 13th century. The inscriptions and the sacred structure to which they belong are considered in the framework of the site as a cultural-historical complex and multi-century religious shrine and are analyzed in terms of the formal and contextual epigraphic traits. Their context is explored in the framework of the historical and religious-spiritual conditions related to the specific area in the period of the developed (12th and 13th centuries) and late Middle Ages (middle of the 15th century).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document