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Scandinavian warrior groups labelled as Varangians active in European Russia during the 9–12th centuries were found in different courts of the „East” as sworn bodyguards. The most distinguished place of their service was definitely Constantinople, where possibly from the 10th century, they were responsible for the personal defense of the basileus himself. Examining the history of the notorious Byzantine military formation known as the Varangian Guard, suggests that Varangians had a variety of duties in Byzantium and not acted solely as bodyguards. Th e second aim of this paper is to demonstrate Constantinople’s cultural influence on the Varangians and to illuminate the Byzantine capital’s prominent position in the world of Scandinavian mercenaries. In the case of the Varangians, namely a special identity can be touched upon, which combined traditional Viking mentalities with a Byzantine lifestyle.
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In the first part of this series of papers the author investigates the peculiarities and structure of the graphs of the Khitan Small Script. The graphs are polyvalent, and their phonetic values are based on and reflect the understanding of the Chinese phonetic system of the period. The list of graphs includes allographs and variants, further graphs with the same phonetic value but having different form(s). Some graphs have dotted and nondotted pairs. The Romanisation of the graphs is a convention by modern Chinese and European scholars. In some cases the phonetic value of a given graph is unknown, but its meaning is known; these are called logographs. Dotted forms and the numeric system are also investigated.
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Bohai (698–713) was a mediaeval state in East Asia. It was recognised by the Tang Chinese Empire in 713 and became a kingdom from the 760s. However, its status was unclear. Although Bohai was a formal vassal of the Tang Empire, it followed independent policies and regarded itself as an empire, not only in internal policy, but also in its foreign relations. The provincial system of Bohai imitated an imperial system but the status of provincial powers in the Bohai state was not clear. The aim of this paper is to investigate the position of leaders and their influence on the provincial powers of Bohai, and to analyse the specifics of the development of Bohai administration.
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The Golden History of Chinggis khan (Činggis Qaγan-u Altan Tobči) is an important Mongolian historical work. It was found in 1958, so its research history is not very long. This paper aims at pointing out the problems with its facsimile edition and attempts to define the date of writing of the only existing manuscript of this work. Finally, the author gives evidence that the original work must have been compiled in Qubilai’s era with the purpose of showing his legitimacy.
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This paper discusses the Tangut textual heritage relating to the subject matter of Tibetan Buddhism in Xixia in order to uncover the “systematic nature” of the Tibetan dimension of Tangut Buddhism. That is, in what follows I will try to recover rudiments of the systematic approach which the Tangut Buddhists probably used in dealing with a variety of Tibetan traditions which became available to them during the 12th century.
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After a first failed siege of Constantinople in 674-678, the Ummayad Caliphate continued to fight against the Byzantine Empire, during a period when the latter was affected by a state of anarchy which weakened its defence capability. The imminent danger of a massive Arab invasion determined emperor Anastasios II to inforce the defence and the material reserves of Constantinople in 714. The next emperor, Theodosios III, made an agreement with Bulgaria in 715. In March 717 became emperor Leo III, a capable strategos, who one year before was able to convince the Arab general Maslama that he will accept his sovereignty if he will became emperor. Maslama was gathering a large army in Syria. When he realized that it was cheated by Leo, he started the campaign in June 717, in cooperation with the navy commanded by Admiral Sulayman ibn Muad. The siege of Constantinople began on 15 July 717. The Arab camp was attacked by the Bulgarians, and many ships were destroyed by the „Greek Fire” in Bosphorus. The single chance of Maslama was to set a blockade against the city, and by this reason he prepared the army for an enduring siege. The harsh winter compromised this plan, because the Arabs remained out of resources. The support expeditions sent from Syria and Egypt failed to reach them. In these circumstances, the Arabs were those who suffered the real blockade and the famine, until August 718, when, following a final attack of the Bulgarians, Maslama accepted to retreat. The most part of the remaining fleet was destroyed by a tornado. The failure of this last Arab siege of Constantinople was caused by several reasons: the decisive role of the incendiary weapon of the Byzantines, the lack of provisions, the Bulgarian intervention, the climatic conditions.
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Numerous finds, excavated from the probably isolated grave along the Lower Tisza, were taken to the Vojvođanski Muzej (Novi Sad, Serbia). The grave can be dated unambiguously to the second half of the 8th century. Drawing a parallel between the silver cup and the 8th-century dish of the Nagyszentmiklós treasure has a considerable significance both for the chronologic and cultural identification of the latter, and for the Avar-Age chronology of tendril decoration with punched background as well. Accordingly, this decoration had been around already in the 7th century, which is an equally important condition for the chronology of the late Avar Period, and especially for the research of the question of continuity between the middle and late periods.
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The pagan Bulgars on the Lower Danube have left only a few belt mounts. After Christianisation (864/865) the situation was changing, a lot of them have been found on the ground of old settlements and fortifications, especially during the last decades with the help of metal detectors. During the 1930s and 1940s the Hungarian archaeologist Géza Fehér was the first who noticed the similarity with the findings of the Conquest Period in Hungary. In the article, prepared nearly 20 years ago, the specimens of a type selection have been collected, which may have formed complete sets. It is proposed that the Bulgarian belt garnitures, being dated between ca. 900 and ca. 1000 AD, are the result of the military conflicts with the Hungarians on the Lower Danube at the end of the 9th century and of cultural adoption by the Bulgarians (or vice versa).
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Portable handheld X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (pXRF) is very effective and widely used technique for chemical analysis in field of archaeometry. The most advantageous feature of this technique is the possibility of analysing objects, artefacts on the spot without any sample-taking. In this study raw materials of 31 buckles from 7th century AD made of various kinds of bronze and silver alloys were analyzed to check similarities or differences between these objects via chemical analysis. Concentration ratios and distributions of alloying (Cu, Sn, Pb, Ag) and minor elements (Sb, Bi, Zn, Au) in material of bronze artifacts may have useful information suggesting important data about provenance and technology. Our recent study 27 bronze and 4 silver buckles were analyzed by pXRF and the results were used in statistical evaluation in order to get closer to provenance of raw materials and alloying technologies.
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Twenty Roman Age home-made sherds from Central Italian San Potito locality were studied by petrographic microscopic method. The ceramics were divided into five petrographic groups on the basis of their composition and structural-textural features. Two groups of the ceramics were tempered with clasts of alkaline volcanic origin, which seem to originate from CentralItalian volcanic territory components. The ceramics belonging to the other three groups contained large amounts of limestone and carbonatic fossils, the origin of the raw material was a marine clayish sediment, perhaps flysch.
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Subjects of research: social-political, economic, morality and spiritual activities of the period 9-12 centuries in Movoraunnakhr, principles of state administration, Khorezm mamun academy and heritage of fikh scientists of the academy, works and doctrines in Eastern Renaissance Epoch.
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This article is devoted to the coinage of Western Turkic Qaghanate (568–740) in the Chach (Tashkent) region and the influence of Byzantine monetary traditions on their formation. Bearing on the newly discovered numismatic material the authors tried to throw light on the stages of coinage of the Western Turkic Qaghanate and elucidate the brief history of their relations with the Byzantine Empire. The Western Turkic rulers minted their own coins (with the titles of żpγw ‘Yabghu’, cpγw x’γ’n ‘Yabghu-qaghan’, the ethnopolitical name of twrk x’γ’n ‘Türk-Qaghan’ and with the rulers’ names of trδw x’γ’n ‘Tardu qaghan’, twn cpγw x’γ’n ‘Tun Yabghu-qaghan’, all in the Sogdian script) in the Chach region and these coins were symbols of the independence of the Western Turkic Qaghanate. On the coins the following three variants of an original tamga can be seen: . The difference in the shape of the tamgas, in our opinion, is connected with the three stages of the formation of the Western Turkic Qaghanate. Stage 1: the Western Qaghanate is a wing or peripheral state within the Turkic Qaghanate under the rule of a Yabghu (the title Yabghu appears on the coins as ); stage 2: during the period when it was related nominally to the Turkic Qaghanate, in the period of the Yabghu-Qaghanate (the title Yabghu qaghan on the coins is ); stage 3: from 630 onward, after the defeat of the Eastern Turkic Qaghanate by Tang China, the Western Turkic Qaghanate existed for a certain time as an independent state (the title Qaghan on the coins is ).
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