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Archaeological and epigraphic sources allow to reveal external (state) and internal (administrative) borders between countries of the South Siberian region in the 6th—14th centuries. So, funerary sites with some Turkic sculptures, well distinguishable from similar objects of other Turkic people, seem to be an indicator of external borders of the First and Second East Turkic khaganates. Where they are absent, there was no Turkic domination. The northern border of the Uigur khaganate is noted by pise-walled fortresses and a 230 km long wall that connects them. Old Khakassia stone fortresses protecting passes in Western Sayan Mountains also show that borders of this country passed across ridges. But with expansion of the country from the second half of 9th century, the rivers became borders. It is evidenced by placement of military cemeteries of the ancient Khakass found on only the right coast of the Irtysh River. Two Mongol towns which had typical buildings for the Mongols, appear to be centers of two administrative districts. The old Khakassia family and personal heraldry is familiar to a series 9—10th centuries connected with marks in epitaphs and rocks, specified hereditary land use, outlining borders of possessions in Tuva and in Khakassia.
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The work considers the history of medieval settlements in the steppe between the Dnieper and the Don. It includes the lands of the Donetsk Ridge, the Northern Azov Sea, and the buffer zone between the steppe and the forest-steppe in the middle reaches of the river Severskiy Donets. Steppe open spaces throughout the Middle Ages were the habitat of nomads. In periods of stability, when these lands were part of large state entities, settlements appeared on some of their plots near roads. These roads crossed the steppes in the latitudinal direction, which was connected with the cultural ties of the region, in which the Crimea, the Northern Caucasus and the Lower Dnieper Basin played a prominent role.In the buffer zone, settlements existed during the entire Middle Ages. In the Khazar and Golden Horde times large trade and craft centers grew in the contact zone between the steppe and the forest-steppe. In these settlements, there was also an administration that led the life of the nomadic steppe. The defeat at the end of the 14th century led to the complete collapse of the settled way of life in the region, after which nomadic hordes dominated the lands for two centuries.In this way, the natural factor, cultural and economic traditions, the existence of trade communications and the political situation played an important role in formation of medieval settlements in the Donetsk steppes. The most developed regions were those with long-standing traditions of settled life style.
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Glazed pottery finds from Aigai (Aiolis) excavations during 2004—2014 seasons are important finds from Byzantine settlements of Aigai ancient city. While doing studies to uncover Bouleuterion, Agora region and the road system of the ancient city, cisterns (nos. I—II) located in the acropolis of the city and near the agora, the church and the cistern in the northwest of the church have been discovered. Most of them are fragmentary. They are not contextual finds. Still, they are worthwhile in that they present a relative chronology. Late Roman/Early Byzantine period is represented with few finds for now. This period is followed by Middle Byzantine period which have again few finds. Probably these red fabric groups might have come from distant regions. Some of the finds known as Middle Byzantine groups are distinguished because of their similarity to Khalkis production in terms of their form and ornament. We need further information to evaluate white fabric finds. Other distinctive groups in terms of their quality and quantity are from Late Byzantine period of Western Anatolia. These are very similar to the finds from Pergamon, Sardis, Nif (Olympus-Başpınar Church) and The Agora of Smyrna located nearby Aigai. Aigai was on the list of bishopric till the early 13th century. Finds uncovered in Aigai are the first archeological data regarding Aigai ancient city during Byzantine period. Glazed ceramics must be dated to the mid-12th century — early 14th century.
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The cross disciplinary comparison of sources enables us to ask questions about objects and practices by analysing and describing the functions, often lost, of certain types of pottery. This article is dedicated to pottery used by Islamic physicians — pots and pans, different types of jars. The texts, general medical manuals and dictionary written in Iraq, Syria, Arabia and Iran between the 8th and 15th centuries are an extremely valuable source of information on medicinal substances, recipes for compound remedies and utensils. A number of illustrations in Islamic manuscript depicting physician activities reflect contemporaneous medical practises. They could sometimes help us to understand the use of objects found in excavations. The archaeological material of my corpus comes from a range of sites in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. By comparing the data, I present various pottery used in curative medicine in the Islamic world.
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The article considers the collection of medieval ceramics of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan. It includes finds from archaeological sites of Volga Bulgaria and Golden Horde sites in the Volga region. The author traces the history of this collection back to the second half of the 19th century. Findings from F. Ballod’s digs in the Golden Horde’s capital cities, so far little known to the researchers, are of special interest. The author examines main approaches to studying medieval ceramics by Kazan archaeologists in the 20th century and defines various groups of ceramics, mainly from Bolgar hillfort.
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The urbanization processes on the Inner Asia during periods of the nomadic empires were studied. Xiongnu had rural settlements and towns, populated mostly by farmers. The Uighur Khaganate had a few fortresses and one imperial trading mega-city. The Liao Empire opened a new stage in the steppe urbanization. The annexation of a growing number of significant agricultural territories to the empire required creation of a more sophisticated mechanism of government. The Khitans built large cities with gorgeous temples and palaces to house the imperial court and the emperor’s officials. There were about fifty known Khitan towns. The excavations of towns show that their population was international. In the beginning of Genghis Khan nomadic empire, the Mongols quite soon felt the deficit of trained specialists in various trades. During the first decades of the existence of their empire, they organized a large scale mobilization of human resources. By means of the forced relocation of large masses of people, or through involving into this process a vast number of adventurers, profiteers and gentlemen of fortune, the Mongols set up the conditions for an unprecedented intercultural exchange and integration of cultures, religions and civilizations. Thus, the Mongol imperial cities appeared.
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This article examines and analyzes the problem of the emergence, formation, and features of the development of the Moldo -Wallachian substrate during the Early Middle Ages — until the beginning of the formation of state entities, which were later called Danube Principalities. The problem is highlighted at the level of civilization and anthropological characteristics, reflected in the Romanian historiography of the 20th century and presented by many well-known researchers. Special attention is paid to the debatable aspects of the ethnic identification of the population of the Carpathian-Danube region during the Great Migration, examined through the prism of methodological approaches, conceptual statements and interpretative perspectives.
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The paper deals with some adornments from cremation graves of the Prague-type pottery culture (PTPC) in Přítluky. Written documents reveal that 3 graves yielded objects identifiable as bronze pendants. One grave contained a trapezoidal sheet-metal pendant with two rows of points at the lower edge, and fragments of another pendant, the second grave most probably contained fragments of a pendant of the same type, and the third grave yielded a part of an unspecified bronze pendant. Similar, mostly undecorated, trapezoidal pendants occurred, sometimes together with large trapezoidal pendants decorated with two rows of tiny points at their lower edge, in contexts of cultures of the Eastern European forest zone since the 5th century. Occurrence of such pendants among the finds of PTPC might represent a contribution of these cultures to emergence of new cultural units during migrations from the east to the west in the 2nd half of the 6th and in the early 7th century. The contacts in opposite west-eastern direction might be indicated by the occurrence of several Merovingian artefacts in Eastern Europe. Attention in this regard has been paid to buckles with trapezoidal shield with crosswise grooves at the base of the tongue, which occur with several cultures of the forest zone and one specimen was also found in a cremation grave of PTPC in the cemetery of Großprüfening, Bavaria.
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The “Volhynian type earrings” are typical for the full jewelry dress of the population of Eastern Europe in the 10th — the beginning of the 11th century. We put the attention for the decorations with a hollow pendant, welded from two halves, which we selected in type “A” of “Volhynian earrings”. Their production on the territory of Old Rus’ is confirmed by finds of dies from the burial of a jeweler in the Peresopnytsky cemetery in Volhynian and at the Gnezdovo settlement in the upper reaches of the Dnieper River. Outside Eastern Europe, such decorations are known from the territory of Poland, Hungary and Sweden.The studied items vary by overall dimensions, design of the rings and suspension. The rings are especially different in size and set the decorating parameters, whereas the suspension, for all its morphological differences, does not differ much in length. There are two variants for rings. The first is a smooth ring. The second one is a smooth ring, unchained in the lower part; one more element is attached to it, creating the effect of “lunula”. Rings with lunula are very characteristic for this type of jewelry. Variants with simple rings are less common, but they bring these products closer to other varieties of “Volhynian earrings”. Pendants are significantly different in proportion (there are more elongated, there are broad, squat) and decor characteristics. Judging by the sufficient variability of the pendants, there were quite a few masters with dies and skills for making these complex elitist ornaments.
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Relying on written sources, the author considers the fate of two towns from the Black Sea region — Belgorod and Oleshye. In the “pre-Mongolian“ period, the two towns did not display any close relationship, because by the end of the 10th century, the town located in the mouth of the Dniester River and historically connected with the right bank of the Danube had already completed a whole stage in its history, while the town near the Dnieper, which played an important role in relations between Medieval Russia and Byzantine Crimea appeared only in the 11th century.By the end of the 13th century, under the rule of Mongolian governor Nohay, Belgorod saw a revival of Byzantine traditions and became an important obstacle on the way of the Italians spreading into this region. At the same time, Oleshye (Illiche) was in declining state. Only in the second half of the 14th century, the settlement attracted the Genoeses as a port in which it was possible to buy considerable amounts of food.In the last quarter of the 14th century, Moldova forced the Golden Horde out of the Dniester basin. In Belgorod (Asprocastro), the Greeks took leading positions. In the conditions of instability of 1432—1457, the autonomy of the city increased so much that the local community started running independent business with Italians and even Ottomans.The expansion of the Great Duchy of Lithuania towards the Lower Dnieper region broke the former tenor of life and led Illiche to decline. Only in 1440—1450 the life here became more active as the Mongols and Genoeses re-established their partner relations.The collision between Caffa and Belgorod, with the castle of Illiche just in the center of it, provoked irreparable damage to the urban life in the Lower Dnieper region. In the conditions of Ottoman rule established in the region in 1475—1484, Illiche never revived, and Belgorod (Akkerman) got an entirely new appearance.
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This report analyzes results of excavations at Koksharovka-1 medieval hillfort in Primorye jointly conducted by Russian and Korean archaeologists in 2008—2014. Their main result is the study of an architectural complex consisting of seven buildings that is unique for the archaeology of Primorye. On the one hand, the architectural complex of Koksharovka-1 hillfort site has some analogies with the famous Bohai palaces (the layout, the presence of kangs, etc.); on the other hand, there are some differences (the absence of the tiled roofs and pillared constructions). Multiple artifacts, including original ceramic pagoda-shaped stands were found in excavations. The authors conclude that the architectural complex was probably built in the 10th c. AD. The obtained data allow assuming that the Koksharovka I hillfort was a large administrative centre in this period.
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The study of archaeological and epigraphic monuments of the Middle Ages in South Siberia makes it possible to identify external (state) and internal (administrative) borders of the 8—14th-century state formations of the region. Thus, the northern boundary of the Uyghur Khaganate in the mid-8th — first quarter of the 9th century is determined by a succession of 17 similar fortresses in the mountains of Western Sayan. In the territory of the 9th—10th-century Ancient Khakassian State, the analysis of the tamga marks distribution makes it possible to fix the boundaries of the fiefdoms of six nobility clans. These data find confirmation in runic inscriptions. The expansion of the Ancient Khakassian State in the mid-9th to 10th centuries is marked by the distribution of mounds with specific rites. In the era of the Mongol Empire, urban settlements with elements of administrative and cult centers were located in the territory of Tuva within two clusters, which correspond to the two districts established by the Mongols on these lands, as confirmed by written sources.
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The peculiarities of the Golden-Horde bedding of the Bolgar hillfort in the 10th — 15th centuries are analyzed. It is proposed to consider the 1340s as the boundary between the early and the late horizons of the Golden-Horde stratum, when the administrative and financial reforms of the first decades of the 14th century resulted in further integration of the Bolgar Ulus territory in the economic system of the Golden Horde.
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The author characterizes sites of the Volga estuary, related to the Saqsin domain in the 13th century. The devastation of towns and villages during the Mongol invasion and the rise of the Caspian Sea water level resulted in population redistribution: the outflow of the estuary area inhabitants to its northern regions adjacent to the first capital of the Golden Horde. The period was marked by caravan trade development, which resulted in the rise of the Moshaik settlement that was located by the Volga estuary crossing.
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The report presents differentiate according to the degree of arms 49 male burials kochevnikov medieval (12th—14th centuries), which were identified in 56 cemeteries in the Crimea. Based on the analysis of materials, three groups of military burials of nomads: 1. Heavily armed cavalry with metal protective arms and a full set of weapons and melee; 2. Cavalry without defensive arms, or with a non-metallic armor, also with a full set of chopping weapons and ranged weapons; 3. Light cavalry armed only with bows and arrows, swords rarely. The picture presented of the military organization of the Polovtsian society in Crimea, which existed until the inclusion in the composition of the Polovtsian troops of the Golden Horde.
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(Proceedings of the archaeological seminarium founded by M. B. Shchukin)
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