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Arts and Humanities journals’ primary focus is on presenting theoretical and empirical research in these respective fields. The main goal is to encourage educational research and connect academia to the scientific community. Researchers and scholars need to share their research findings with others to help better understand and act on the ongoing social changes in the field. The Arts and Humanities journals aim to provide a platform for everyone who shares a common interest in these fields and to group all the latest field findings in one place.
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
In Pannonia from 122 sites 9867 Central Gaulish samian are recorded so far. The greatest number of this pottery has been published from the towns adjacent legionary fortress. Central Gaulish pottery is usually rare to find in cemeteries. The quantity of this ware everywhere greater than that of South Gaulish samian.
90.66% of the Central Gaulish terra sigillata are from Lezoux and 7.6% of this ware can be related to the workshops of Les Martres de Veyre. There may also have been a small number of Central Gaulish sigillata imported from Vichy, Terre Franche, Toulon sur Allier or Lubie. These samall production centres could be considered as possibilities.
The Lezoux group is represented in Pannonia by 15 plain and 2 decorated forms. The decorated ware can be chronologically divided into three large groups. The earliest ware of Trajanic period is quite rare in Pannonia; they occur only in the western part of the province.
The second chronological group, the Hadrianic–early Antonine one is in Pannonia a total of five times larger, than the Trajanic group. The total number of the third group, the Antonine samian is seven times larger, than the number of Hadrianic–early Antonine sigillata.
Hadrian founded 8 to 9 municipiums in Pannonia. The new cities, mainly the two provinial seats Carnuntum and Aquincum had a large shipment of ware from Central Gaul. After the Marcomannic wars (166–180 AD) Rheinzabern took over a leading role on the provincial markets.
Abstract
Gyula László’s theory, published in 1970, was virtually ignored and received with tacit dismissal by the Hungarian archaeological scholarship and international archaeological community was largely unaware of it. This paper aims to provide clarity for the latter research. Not a single element of the theory was accepted or was acceptable even at the time of its birth: distribution of the late Avar and the Conquest-era sites do not complement each other; István Kniezsa's map is highly discussed and is not suitable for proving that the eighth century Avars were Hungarians; Byzantine sources record the immigration of a military group and not of a people, who later moved on; the “Ugri Bjelii” mentioned in the Russian Primary Chronicle cannot be applicable to this immigration; the so-called of “griffin-tendril” population is about 30 years later as the supposed immigration; there was not a migration from the Káma region in the seventh century) connecting the “Uuangariorum marcha” with the “Onogurs” is highly uncertain; there is no trace of any immigration in the anthropological material of the Avar period.
Errare humanum est.
Abstract
The present paper describes and discusses a group of iron and copper-alloy rotary keys characterised by a moveable joint connecting the shaft and the key-ring, appearing in the seventh-century material record of the Carpathian Basin whose origins can be sought in the Mediterranean. While the few published examples of the class were in previous studies mainly regarded as Roman-period artefacts secondarily re-used as amulets by the Avar-period population of the Carpathian Basin, the present study argues that these pieces in fact have a sixth-to seventh-century production date, being thereby contemporaneous with their deposition in seventh-century mortuary assemblages. Taking this observation as a springboard for further interpretation, an overview of the possible meanings and symbolic associations attached to keys in Roman, late antique, and early medieval times is offered. The main argument presented here is that besides serving amuletic purposes, some of the Avar-period keys could in all probability have conveyed more explicit messages about their owners, such as that of their feminity and of their economic role and authority in their respective households. The Appendix supplementing the present paper seeks to provide a theoretical reconstruction of a wooden casket buried with the woman interred in Grave 119 of the Kölked-Feketekapu B cemetery, one of the burials yielding a Mediterranean hinged rotary key.
The paradigm shift in the later fourth millennium BC. •
Why did life change in the Middle Copper Age in the heartland of the Carpathian Basin?
Abstract
The fourth millennium BC, particularly its second half, saw the advent of major innovations that still affect our life today, sometimes as artefacts still used in a virtually unchanged form. Among these, the most important are wheels and wheeled vehicles, the innovations introduced as part of the Secondary Products Revolution, and the new technologies of metalworking. Initially surrounded by an aura of mystique and reverence, these innovations gradually became part of everyday life and their benefits, such as a more secure livelihood engendering new subsistence strategies, were enjoyed by a growing number of communities. Better life circumstances stimulated population growth, which in turn sparked an increase in the number of settlements as well as an incipient socio-economic hierarchy between them. Improving life circumstances, receptiveness to new ideas and increasingly dynamic contacts with distant regions brought a change in previous norms and social values. This paradigm shift can be best traced in the mortuary realm: various objects signalling the status and/or prestige of a community's prominent members began to be deposited in burials. Daily life became more predictable and was accompanied by a certain measure of wealth accumulation, which, however, also stimulated frugality. Hard-to-obtain exotic commodities were highly prized and usually only their down-scaled versions fashioned from clay accompanied the dead instead of the real-life animal or prestige item. Described and briefly discussed in the present study are certain aspects of this complex process.
Abstract
This paper deals with Muslim places of worship and their evolution during the 164 years of Ottoman rule in Timișoara (1552–1716). The analysis was carried out on the basis of written historical documentation and archaeological results. It is about religious structures such as mosques (câmii) and other places of worship (mescid), but also about monastic centres of dervishes (tekke, zâviye and türbe). The archaeological research that took place in the last decade in Timișoara offered the chance to bring to light the foundations of three mosques: Ali Bey, Cimcime and Sultan Süleyman. The results of these researches are valuable, especially since no building in Timișoara dating from the Ottoman Period has survived. From an archaeological point of view, it was found that only two of the mosques share similar characteristics. Although at all three of them wooden posts were found at the bottom of the foundation ditch, beaten into the ground, the differences were in the techniques of the foundation construction. At two of the foundation walls, was discovered a reinforcement of wooden beams, fixed with iron nails, over which a mixture of mortar with stone and broken brick was placed. At the third foundation wall, a similar mixture was framed by a row of bricks laid on the edge of the foundation ditch. Moreover, two of the mosques were built according to a rectangular plan, and in the third plan the north side was closed with an apse. Archaeological research also indicated a possible minaret, mihrab, but also parts of the floor of one of the mosques.
Abstract
The chemical composition of 42 samples of raw glass from the Komarov settlement on the Middle Dniester was studied by means of SEM-EDS, EPMA and LA-ICP-MS analyses. We singled out groups of colourless glass of Levantine and Egyptian origin, the chronology of which indicates that the workshop could be dated to the 4th – early 5th century. The data on the chemical composition of the raw glass do not confirm that glassmaking industry existed here in an earlier period, as was previously believed. The manufacturing in Komarov combines the use of high-quality perfectly decolourized raw glass with intensive use of cullet, which might point out either different levels of the glassware manufactured here, or selective recycling. The characteristic features of the workshop's raw glass supply are the absence of the HIMT glass and late spread of antimony-decolourized glass.
Abstract
In this paper, the author draws the attention of experts to a new glyphic discovery from Apulum. It is a schematic portrait of the Gorgon Medusa, depicted on a three-layered sardonyx. Based on parallels and the manufacturing technique, the author concludes that the piece originates from the workshops of Viminacium, Upper Moesia. The cameo is dated in the second half of the second century AD, prior the time when the canabae of the XIII Gemina legion rose to the status of municipium (ante AD 197). It is the only glyptic piece that bears the image of Medusa that's Dacian origin is certain. From an artistic point of view, it is a modest quality of execution, below the average provincial level. Furthermore, the author makes some remarks on the gems found in the collections of the National Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia, with a few additions and clarifications regarding the place of discovery and the possibility of the existence of a workshop of cavatores gemmarum at Apulum.
Abstract
In early 2017, an astonishing number of archaeological finds were unearthed during the excavation of two sites in Molnár Street (Budapest), led by the archaeologists of the Budapest History Museum. As the construction works of a new hotel took place on a registered archaeological site, and historical monuments of the city were expected to be found, the presence of archaeological professionals became essential. Even though the location was inhabited for centuries, the early modern and medieval layers were found unaffected.
Because of the nature of the site, the wet and muddy soil layers along the Danube provided a favourable environment for the preservation of organic materials and metals. As the climatic conditions in the Carpathian Basin are less favourable for the survival of organic material, the findings are very special both on a local and a broader regional level. In the Middle Ages, the Danube flowed over a much wider area than it does today. Today's embankment was often under water due to its proximity to the river, especially in the days before its regulation. The population, accustomed to the threat of spring floods, built their houses much further inland and along the river. Only urban landfills and, in safer times, ports and loading docks were established.
The aim of this paper is to specify past ground levels along the river, and changes in the water levels as well as the path of the Danube, with the help of as many environmental archaeological methods as possible. Similar research was already conducted on Margaret Island, in Vác and in Visegrád, so this new case study is hoped to be a useful contribution to reconstructing past landscapes along the river.