scholarly journals The Lashkendar Church and the Alan-Abkhazian Cultural Contacts: Prospects of Studying

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Yu. Endoltseva
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Krasnodar Region ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Silk Road ◽  
Christian Beliefs

The article studies the Alan-Abkhazian cultural contacts by analyzing architectural decorations of these peoples. Actuality of the study is determined by considering the architectural decorations as a cultural marker of Abkhazians and Alans in the period of the 8th—10th centuries. This point of consideration is primarily important for studying the material culture of the ethnic groups living in close proximity to the route of the Silk Road, which is regarded as a powerful catalyst for cultural exchange between the numerous tribes and peoples each having its own unique and diverse artistic skills. The article compares a number of artifacts: some fragments of the altar barrier from Anacopia (Republic of Abkhazia, New Athos) and some fragments of the altar barrier from the Ilyichevskoe Hillfort (Krasnodar Region, Otradnensky District). This allows the author to state that there existed common ornamental schemes in the monumental art of those peoples in the period preceding the 13th—14th centuries. The article analyzes the patterns and zoomorphic images of “animals in a heraldic pose” from the church on Mount Lashkendar (Republic of Abkhazia, Tkuarchalsky District), and a dog from the Alan tomb of the Kyafarskoe Hillfort (Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Zelenchuksky District), providing additional arguments for the animals’ identifi cation. The author explores the system of images of the Alan tomb to determine the semantics of the dog’s image in the Christian church’s decoration and comes to the conclusion that the symbolism of the dog’s image originates from pre-Christian beliefs (namely, those Zoroastrian). The article emphasizes the fruitfulness of studying the Alan-Abkhazian contacts using the example of architectural decoration: it makes possible to identify some images and specify their dates. The author offers a variant of identifi cation of the relief from Mount Lashkendar; defi nes the place of this unique monument in the course of formation of the original artistic culture of the Abkhazian Kingdom; notes the heterogeneous infl uences on this process, coming both from the territories of different regions of the Byzantine Empire (Constantinople, Cappadocia, etc.) and from Transcaucasia (Armenia, Georgia). The Alan-Abkhazian layer of cultural contacts is highlighted.

TECHNOLOGIES OF DOMINATION AT MISSION SAN BERNABÉ, PETÉN, GUATEMALA

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy W. Pugh ◽  
Katherine Miller Wolf ◽  
Carolyn Freiwald ◽  
Prudence M. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Church And Community ◽  
Hybrid Ceramic ◽  
The Church

AbstractThe Spaniards established severalcongregacionesor missions in central Petén, Guatemala, shortly after the 1697 conquest of the region to help control local indigenous populations. Recent investigations at the church and community of Mission San Bernabé revealed details about the entangled relations of Mayas and Spaniards. Foucault's four technologies of domination help explicate these power relations as they were played out in the small settlement and the church at its center. Material culture differed in many ways from that of the pre-conquest Itzas, but was clearly predominantly “Maya.” Spanish-style goods and burial patterns were found as were hybrid ceramic wares, the Spanish-style artifacts most common in an elite residence, reflecting that Maya elite acted as brokers with the Spaniards. The occupants also incorporated Spanish domesticates into their diets. Some changes likely resulted from various ethnic groups residing in the same settlement, but others were the product of indigenous adaptations to the situation of contact. Nevertheless, it is clear that the mission anchored a number of strategies of domination that subdued the occupants of San Bernabé.

scholarly journals The Spread and Integration of Painted pottery Art along the Silk Road

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Kai Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Ancient China ◽  
Mutual Exchange ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Cultural Exchanges ◽  
Painted Pottery ◽  
The Silk Road

The Silk Road is a product of the mutual exchange of material culture and spiritual culture among ancient China and other countries, regions, and nations. It is the result of the contact and collision between Eastern and Western civilizations. Historically, the Silk Road served as a bridge of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, closely linking ancient Chinese culture with the cultures of Central Asia, West Asia, and even ancient Siberian. In various areas along the Silk Road, all kinds of painted pottery art were integrated and developed.

The Kushan Empire

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinru Liu
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Local Institutions ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Silk Road

The Kushan Empire was a political power that started as a nomadic tribe from the Central Asian steppe and became established as sedentary state across South Asia and Central Asia. Migrating from the border of agricultural China in late 2nd century bce to north Afghanistan, by the 1st century ce, the Yuezhi nomads transformed themselves into a ruling elite in a large area from Afghanistan to the Indus Valley and North Indian Plain, embracing many linguistic and ethnic groups. Adapting the Persian satrapy administrative system into Indian kshatrapa administration, the Kushan regime gave much autonomy to local institutions such as castes, guilds, and Buddhist monasteries and meanwhile won support from those local communities. Legacies from Achaemenid Persia and Hellenistic cities, the cultures of various nomadic groups from Central Asia, and Buddhist and Brahmanical traditions merged to create a cosmopolitan Kushan material culture and art. Mahāyāna Buddhist theology and institutions matured in the Kushan economic and cultural environment and were propagated to Central Asia and China from there. Having under their control several important commodities, such as silk, lapis lazuli, and horses, demanded by elites from the Roman Empire, the Han Empire, and the Parthian Empire, the Kushan court sat on a key location of the Eurasian trade networks, or the Silk Road. The Kushan Empire benefited from the Silk Road trade economically and meanwhile received knowledge of faraway countries and facilitated transferring the information to the visions of the Romans, Parthians, and Chinese.

scholarly journals Special Issue: Textiles as Money on the Silk Road

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Ansari
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
The Silk Road

In January 2013 we published our third special issue ‘Perfumery and Ritual in Asia’. As I wrote in the Introduction to that group of articles, the Journal's broad remit, both in terms of historical period and geographical boundaries, affords us the privilege of exploring those elements of human activity that historically ‘bind’ or ‘separate’ different Asian cultures. By the beginning of 2013 we had already published two other special issues, one on a linguistic topic and the other on a politico/religious topic and so we felt it was appropriate to devote space to the exploration of ‘material’ culture, an equally powerful force in shaping a huge range of human interactions.

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