In this article we provide an answer to the question why this particular poem, “Ya vas lyubil” by Pushkin, has become so famous. It doubtlessly belongs to the canon of literary love poems in the Russian language. But why? Its fame seems to be in flagrant contradiction with its simplicity. Indeed, many readers may not perceive anything particularly “literary” in the language of the poem. In what follows, we argue that this is a mistake, and that the greatness of the poem lies exactly in the illusion of simplicity that Pushkin creates, while at the same time expressing the deepest emotions to which lovers are able. Addressing the question of how we can verify our argument, we offer some examples of empirical methods by which one can investigate the reaction of readers to the poem.
С поэтического языка на языки других искусств: О семиотических кросс-кодах поэзии, музыки, живописи
Author(s): Olga I. Severskaya / Language(s): English,Russian,Polish
/ Publication Year: 0
Keywords: semiotic transfer; cross-codes; language of poetry; language of music; language of painting; interference between art languages
The article deals with the phenomenon of “interfluve”, which arises in modern poetic books due to the transition from one semiotic code to another. The author discusses the fundamental intertwining of the languages of poetry and other arts, illustrating it by examples of interference between the semiotic systems of poetry and “temporary” music, on the one hand, and “spatial” painting, on the other. At the same time, the paper is concerned not with hybrid discursiveness, but with the presence of semiotic cross-codes in textes-hybrids, i.e. with similar principles of encoding, which allow to represent the transmitted message as if the backlight illuminated by another art form. The inadequacy of the codes becomes in this case the basis of interpretation, of the search for new knowledge.
With the purpose of providing insights into the position of the church on Sai Island among the bishoprics of Christian Nubia, the paper contextualizes archaeologically well-known Nubian cathedrals with monolithic granite columns as roof supports (Old Dongola, Faras and Qasr Ibrim), presenting them against the background of historically known bishoprics from medieval Nubia and archaeologically attested episcopal churches. Four granite columns at the locality 8-B-500 on Sai Island, identified with the site of a medieval cathedral, are compared with like roof supports from other Makurian buildings of the kind to show that the church was constructed at the beginning of the 8th century AD and modeled on the Church of Granite Columns from Old Dongola.
Monks and bishops in Old Dongola, and what their costumes can tell us
Author(s): Karel C. Innemée / Language(s): English,French,German
/ Publication Year: 0
Keywords: religious costume; mural painting; Dongola
In past years numerous wall-paintings have come to light in annexes of the monastery of Dongola and in other buildings in and around the citadel. Some of these paintings represent ecclesiastical dignitaries and the costumes in which they are depicted can give us information about their status, the development of religious dress in Makuria, but also about the intertwinement of the episcopal and monastic hierarchies.
Keywords: Christian Nubia; Oriental Christianity; church architecture; Nubian painting; wall inscriptions; Christian liturgy
A well established program can be observed in the decoration of the northern pastophoria of Nubian churches from the 9th/10th century onwards. It consisted of a painted representation of Jesus Christ blessing with his right hand the chalice held in his left and inscriptions in Greek with prayers from the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. The authors argue that this program was a Nubian creation, alluding to the function of the northern pastophorium as a place for storing oblations, keeping liturgical implements and liturgical reserve, and possibly also celebrating the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.
The article is devoted to the Archangel Raphael and his position in Nubian painting, taking into consideration new archaeological discoveries. The cult of the Archangel Raphael seems to be more extensive than it was thought to be before, given the examples from Banganarti and Old Dongola. His special position was a result of his multiple activities, described in the Book of Tobit and the apocryphal texts. He was a guide, healer, God’s intercessor for mankind, demon tamer and so on. In Nubia, he also seemed to be a special patron and protector of kings.
“To date the research on the church architecture in Nubia has consistently failed to differentiate, territorially and historically, between two different Nubian kingdoms” (Godlewski 2006b) and one could add the third, Alodian, kingdom to this. The author’s involvement in a project to publish the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago excavations at the Qasr el-Wizz monastery has generated this study of the early architectural history of the katholikon at Qasr el-Wizz and its development, analyzed in the context of studies on Nubian Christianity. Due to a rampant misuse of terminology referring to the functional parts of churches in Nubian studies, a review of this vocabulary was deemed essential as a background for a presentation of the late George T. Scanlon’s views on the development of this particular church, followed by the present author’s addenda et corrigenda, and a discussion and conclusions for the study of Christian Nubian sacral architecture.
When epigraphy meets art history: On St Phoibammon from Abdallah-n Irqi
Author(s): Grzegorz Ochała / Language(s): English,French,German
/ Publication Year: 0
Keywords: Abdallah-n Irqi; St. Phoibammon; wall inscriptions; Era of Diocletian; stylistic dating of Nubian wall painting
The article offers a new reading of one of the wall inscriptions discovered during Dutch excavations in the central church of Abdallah-n Irqi. According to the new interpretation, the text includes an annual date, a fact that is extremely important for the dating of not only the text itself, but also of the wall painting (mounted St Phoibammon) it accompanies. In more general terms, the inscription has helped to verify methods for the stylistic dating of Nubian murals.
Author(s): Marta Osypińska / Language(s): English,French,German
/ Publication Year: 0
Keywords: medieval Nubia; pig husbandry; archaeozoology; animals in Makuria; economy
Regular archaeozoological research at key sites from the region of Makuria has contributed significant data on animal breeding and meat consumption in this Nubian kingdom. The appearance of the domestic pig, absent earlier from sites in the Middle Nile Valley, was one of the most distinctive features of the Makurian economy. Pig has been demonstrated to be the third most important meat for consumption, likewise in historic Dongola and in Banganarti (after cattle and ovicaprids) in all phases of Nubian history, including sporadic occurrence in contexts dated to the Funj period. The article looks at the origins and importance of the pig as a species in Makurian animal economy and the tentative socio-economic implications of this unique phenomenon in Nubia.
This article proposes speculative reconstructions of the genealogies of the royal families of the medieval Nubian kingdom of Dotawo. It synthesizes the literary, documentary and epigraphic evidence for Nubian kings and their families in the 1100s–1300s. The result is a series of family trees intended to produce a testable model. That model proposes that despite the apparent conflict between various contenders for the throne dynastic succession was the standard operating principle in Dotawo throughout the late medieval period; that peaceful stability was normative; and that a single family dynasty may have ruled Dotawo through the entire span of these several centuries.
Until recently, the list of Nubian towns and territories allegedly conquered by the Mamluks during Baybars’s reign (1260–1277) was known only through late or corrupt versions such as the one preserved in the chronicle of al-Mufaḍḍal b. Abī Faḍā’il (completed before 1358). Recent research by the author in the corpus of Mamluk annals and chronicles allowed the original source to be identified as Ibn Šaddād’s biography of Baybars completed shortly after the sultan’s death in 1277. The present contribution provides a critical edition of this text based on the unique manuscript of this work (Edirne, Selimiye kütüphanesi, 2306) followed by a detailed commentary, which aims at identifying or locating the many place names mentioned in it. The list may also offer new insights into the settlement history of the kingdom of Makuria in the late medieval period.
Several large cemeteries of the medieval period were excavated either extensively or in their entirety by the missions of the Sudan Archaeological Research Society in its concession at the Fourth Cataract. The data collected allows an assessment of developments in funerary culture spanning from the pagan into, and throughout, the Christian period. It highlights the generally dramatic changes in burial practices between the Post-Meroitic and Christian periods alongside the similarities between some of the later Kushite and Christian graves. These changes and similarities are discussed in connection with the physical continuity of cemeteries which demonstrate a close link between Post-Meroitic and Christian burials, the former often forming a focus for the later burials and being respected by the later grave diggers.
The chronology of the eastern chapels in the Upper Church at Banganarti. Some observations on the genesis of “apse portraits” in Nubian royal iconography
Keywords: apse portrait; Banganarti; iconography of power; royal costume
The article deals with a specific type of Nubian royal iconography, namely, the “apse portraits”. The paintings discovered in 2001 at Banganarti (Sudan) form the most numerous and complete ensemble of such portraits. The author follows the evolution of royal power through the prism of its imagery, comparing the Banganarti set with earlier royal portraits from Faras and Old Dongola. She demonstrates the progressive affirmation of the king’s prerogative as the leader of the Nubian church and privileged mediator between God and his people. The examination of royal costume as well as decorative motifs leads the author to propose a more detailed chronology of the eastern chapels of the church.
Keywords: Nativity; Christian iconography; Middle Nile; Middle Ages; pilgrimages
The slate enkolpion engraved with the Nativity scene was found in one of the dwellings to the east of the Upper Church (Raphaelion II) in Banganarti. On the reverse, it was inscribed with the names of the three main protagonists of the scene carved on the obverse. It seems to have been used very briefly before being lost. Distinctive features include a figure of St Joseph represented as a herm and the putative Star of Bethlehem rendered as a round object hovering above the manger. The Magi and the scene of the Bathing of Jesus are missing. There is also one animal instead of two at the crib and one adoring shepherd not two (or even three). The aim was evidently to present the entire theological canon of the Nativity dogma using a minimum of iconographic elements, which is hardly surprising owing to the scarcity of space. Dating on stylistic grounds is highly speculative owing to the sketchiness of the scene, but the archaeological context seems reliable, yielding pottery from AD 1020–1172, which was a time of vigorous development of the pilgrimage movement to Banganarti.
This article describes several fragments of woolen textile that were excavated at the medieval site of Qasr Ibrim. Their outstanding feature is the depiction of numerous lion figures, shown in miniature. The pattern is organized in horizontal rows of rectangles, each enclosing a lion. In alternating rows, the lions face in opposite directions. The lions are quite clear and in many places the colors of blue and yellow are still strong and bright. These specimens were part of a large cache of discarded materials which are believed to have been ransacked from the tombs of bishops.
Keywords: ostrakon; Deir el-Bahari; Temple of Hatshepsut; offerings
The paper presents a new rendering of the text of ostrakon Deir el-Bahari Inv. No. 85/75, originally published by the late Marek Marciniak. The context of the offerings recorded on the ostrakon is discussed and the supposed date of the festivities connected with this particular occurrence is reconsidered.
A stray late Roman coin from the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari
Author(s): Barbara Lichocka / Language(s): English,French,German
/ Publication Year: 0
Keywords: Deir el-Bahari; Temple of Hatshepsut; Southern Chamber of Amun; Theodosius I; Constans; coin; ironworkers
Examination of the east wall of the Southern Chamber of Amun on the Upper Terrace of the Temple of Hatshepsut led to the discovery of a single vota coin, possibly of Theodosius I, AD 379–383. It is not clear whether the coin was lost where it was discovered or taken there with the rest of the material found in the fill. An assemblage of six coins minted in AD 330–348 was also discovered on the Upper Terrace, but this time at the Bark Hall. Hidden or lost, the coins testify to a late-Roman interest in the Temple of Hatshepsut.
Author(s): Adam Łukaszewicz / Language(s): English,French,German
/ Publication Year: 0
Keywords: Ptolemaic Egypt; Roman history; Cleopatra VII; Meroitic Kingdom; women rulers in antiquity
The author discusses the circumstances of Cleopatra VII taking power as the sole ruler of Egypt in 49/48 BC. The queen was forced out of Alexandria by her brother and co-regent Ptolemy XIII. When she reappeared in Egypt, it was from Palestine. The author considers the possibility that she traveled from Alexandria through the Thebaid, the Meroitic Kingdom and Arabia to Palestine, where she expected to obtain financial support necessary for recruiting mercenaries. She need not have modeled her political activity on that of the Meroitic kandake, but personal contacts between the two queens are plausible. The author suggests that a woman’s head represented on the cover of a box containing a mirror, found at Faras in Nubia, may be a portrait of Cleopatra.
Wielojęzyczność i różnojęzyczność – przyczyny i skutki
Author(s): Hanna Komorowska / Language(s): English,French,Polish
/ Publication Year: 0
Keywords: identity; language choice; plurilingualism; multilingualism; borderlands
The chapter contains an analysis of social, national and ethnic identity formation, special attention being given to the dynamic character of group identity reflected in autobiographic narratives of the inhabitants of borderland territories which tend to be delineated not only by state, but also by geographic, cultural and mental borders. Factors are then identified contributing to the development of social and individual multilingualism together with their consequences for the type and quality of interaction. The relationship between the degree of identity cristallization and the choice of a dominant language is also discussed on the basis of selected examples from the history of Central and Eastern European border regions.
Entre la Pologne et Haïti: regards et ouvertures sur l’autre
Author(s): Józef Kwaterko / Language(s): English,French,Polish
/ Publication Year: 0
Keywords: Poland; Haiti; Napoleon’s expedition; cultural creolization; Halka
This paper is devoted to the historical and cross-cultural filiations between Poland and Haiti. I will start with the analysis of the historical context and I will focus on the historiography based on official reports and epistolary correspondence of the Polish soldiers sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to the French colony of Saint-Domingue (1802-1804) as well as on their perception of the need of freedom and national independence claimed by ancient slaves. Next, I will attempt to highlight some affinities between Polish and Haitian cultures such as the appropriation of the Polish Catholic virgin, transfigured into a voodoo goddess, the collaboration between a drama performer Jerzy Grotowski and Haitian naïve painters from the group Saint-Soleil or the film recording of the Polish romantic opera Halka in a small village of Cazale, inhabited by mulatto descendants of those Polish soldiers who remained in Haiti.
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