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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
On March 24, 2020, the international flower trade association Union Fleurs issued a statement on the situation of the ornamental plants sector hit by the Covid-19 crisis. In a study published in April 2020, Copa-Cogeca (European Farmers and European Agri-Cooperatives) echoed the findings of the above-mentioned international flower trade association, stating that the flower and ornamental plants sector was the agricultural sector most impacted by the coronavirus in the EU, as in most Member States, including Hungary and Romania, there was a historical drop in demand and consumption of almost 80%, and unfortunately the virus hit at the worst possible time, as the spring season would have been the peak period for ornamental horticulturalists. In my case study, I examine the flower growers of Curteni, a settlement in the Mureș region of Transylvania (Romania). How has this global phenomenon caused by the coronavirus manifested itself locally in a settlement where nearly 60 families make their living from growing and selling ornamental plants? Has this community been able to maintain its territorial/regional competitiveness? Have the people of Curteni joined the group of producers known in economic anthropology as farmers who chose to halt and wait, or did they find a quick and resilient response to the obstacles they encountered? How did this crisis become an identity-shaping factor in their lives? The pandemic has also exacerbated the situation in Curteni, made it more difficult to act and make decisions, and has brought new perspectives and values into play. The example of the florist community of Curteni shows that a new situation, and indeed any crisis, can bring about positive changes in the lives of communities. In any crisis, emergency, or exigency, members of a community may almost instinctively, but mostly also consciously, seek innovative responses to their problems. One way is to discover and exploit the opportunities inherent in a crisis, communally re-assessing and utilizing the available values, opportunities, and resources, and finding truly resilient responses.
Abstract
Food culture has played, and continues to play, an important role in the definition of identity and community cohesion. Food is not just a matter of sustenance but is also a cultural element with myriad links to the material world and to festive and everyday customs. Meals and individual dishes also function as mediators, providing a means and a channel of communication. Local communities select, reconstruct, or construct their common food heritage through their social discourse on the past, belonging, and locality. This paper presents the institutional framework for the management, preservation, and transmission of food-related traditions at the national and local levels in Hungary and looks at the practice of heritagization through one specific local example.
Abstract
Vessels decorated with domed metal discs were extraordinarily rare and valuable commodities of the Late Bronze Age. Pottery adorned with bronze discs and tin first appeared in Hungary during the earlier Urnfield period (14th/13th century BC). A vessel adorned with three ring motifs inlaid with a high-tin alloy on its belly is known from Nagykanizsa-Bilkei-dűlő and a cup decorated with bronze domed discs was recovered from Grave 222 of the Vörs-Battyáni-Disznólegelő cemetery, both in southern Transdanubia. The decorative bronze discs similarly had a high tin content. The metal composition was analysed with particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) spectroscopy. Pendant ornaments of “white bronze”, an alloy with a high tin content, are principally known from southern Transdanubia: the elemental composition of two pendants with bird protomes from Grave 51 of the Vörs-Battyáni-Disznólegelő cemetery and of a funnel-shaped pendant from the Pamuk hoard were examined by PIXE for compositional make-up, which indicated a high tin content for all three. These pendants had been worn as adornments. Tin was an important raw material in the production of bronze. Most of the vessels decorated with bronze discs were brought to light in the late Urnfield cemetery uncovered at Budapest-Békásmegyer (boot- and amphora-shaped vessels, a feeding vessel, resin balls). It seems likely that these vessels had once served ritual purposes. Regrettably, they have not yet been submitted to PIXE analyses.
Abstract
The curious shape of the so-called early Christian mausoleum of Iovia, Pannonia has attracted much attention since its discovery in the 1980s. The main part of the building, a hexagon flanked by alternating semi-circular and rectangular rooms was complemented by a bi-apsidal vestibule and a rectangular peristyle courtyard. The hexagon was a relatively rarely used form in late antique architecture compared to the octagon, however, hexagons can still be detected in all parts of the Roman Empire in all kinds of architectural contexts: they appeared in late Roman villae, baths, funerary buildings, early Christian mausolea and baptisteries.
The architectural parallels of the mausoleum of Iovia are traced among the thin-walled hexagons that were flanked by protruding semi-circular and rectangular rooms. The buildings closest in shape were the pagan mausoleum of Louin in France and the trefoil hall of the Villa of Aiano in Italy. Other related structures include the so-called Stibadium A of the Villa with Peristyle in Mediana in Serbia, the reception rooms of the Keynsham villa in England, the hexagonal hall of the Palace of Antiochus in Constantinople, the Domus delle Sette Sale in Rome, the baptistery of Limoges in France, and the cella quinquichora of Aquincum in Hungary. Although similar in general layout, they had different functions: early Christian mausoleum, baptistery, pagan mausoleum, and foremost dining halls or reception rooms. This warns us that it is essential to study early Christian buildings in the context of late antique architecture in its complexity and not only in the limited context of other early Christian buildings. Late antique architects seem to have been fascinated by the opportunities offered by the different polygonal or central-plan halls and buildings and used them for different purposes.
The investigation of ninth–eleventh century burials from Himod (NW Hungary)
Physical anthropology data in the light of artifact typology
Abstract
This study presents the results of a classic physical anthropological and paleopathological study of the early medieval human bone material from the Himod-Káposztáskertek site. A smaller part of the graves can be dated to the ninth century but the majority of graves dates to the tenth–eleventh century. Since the possibility of population continuity was raised, the archaeological data related to the question were also reviewed (with special emphasis on the typology of a knife found in Grave 68), with the intent of seeing whether the anthropological data supported this hypothesis. Both samples represent only a small number of cases and the remains are poorly preserved. The ninth century series especially provided very little data, ultimately making comparison impossible. The remains of 25 individuals were found in the Carolingian cemetery section: childburials number 15, the juvenile age group is not represented by any skeletons, there are ten adult burials (4 males, 5 females, 1 of undeterminable sex). The skeletons from 87 individuals were excavated from the tenth–eleventh century section of the cemetery, of which 25 were children, 5 were juveniles, and 57 were adults (29 males, 28 females). For both men and women, people of tall stature form the majority; male skulls are characterized by large absolute dimensions, mainly a broad forehead and a broad face. Fractures, degenerative changes of the spine and extravertebral joints (especially the elbow joint) were common. Tuberculosis infection was suspected in the case of one individual. Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease with bilateral involvement and a rare developmental disorder, congenital scoliosis, occurred in the material as well.
Abstract
The main goal of this paper is to study a specific element of women's depicted costumes. Pictures on stone monuments present local, so-called native women wearing complex attire of cloth, headwear, brooches, jewels, and other dress accessories. Thirteen stone monuments from Hungary depict local women with headwear-related accessories. The main questions are: what kind of accessories are they, and how can we evaluate their presence on depicted attires? I collected analogous depictions from other Provinces and studied archaeological material. Finally, I concluded that these headwear-related accessories connect to new cultural effects and the complex phenomenon of acculturation.
Abstract
In his paper the author summarizes the research of Roman Pannonia in the recent decades, mainly after 1986 when Pavel Oliva edited his volume of the series Tabula Imperii Romani, He examined the most important historical and administrative events of the province. Kovács also delt with the new historical monographs that studied the entire history or administration of Pannonia and the most important towns. The author separately examined the new epigraphic works, corpora and the new inscribed finds. In the last part of his paper he delt with the new archaeological discoveries from Brigetio to Sirmium.
Abstract
This paper covers the glass bowl fragments brought to light at Intercisa (Dunaújváros, Hungary). Bowls occur in relatively high number among the finds from the vicus and the military fort of Intercisa. The open vessels assigned to this category have a rim diameter exceeding the vessel height or exceeding the vessel height by at least 60%. Of the roughly 700 glass fragments known from the site, no more than 72 represent bowls, accounting for about 10% of the vessel glass, a relatively high proportion. Facet-cut bowls are the most frequent type among bowls: 40 pieces can be assigned to this category. Mosaic and ribbed bowls, as well as some cast and mould-pressed bowls are typical of the early Roman period. The vast majority of the bowls are blown vessels and date to the later second and the third centuries, with a few exemplars dating to the fourth century. Two bowl types stand out from among the finds, namely the facet-cut bowls and the scallop bowls of the late Roman period, which, judging from their regional distribution, had probably both been produced in a glass workshop active on the Intercisa settlement. One remarkable fragment from a hemispherical bowl bears a male head with a hedgehog hairstyle; it is paralleled by several vessels not only from the Cologne area, but also from Pannonia.
