The article presents the phenomenon of affiliating the foraging groups (Danites, Idumaeans) to the virtual Israel, by the Jewish elites (Biblical authors, Josephus Flavius), as well as excluding others from it (in Ezra and Deut. 7:1-8). These processes are discussed in the light of pragmatic actions undertaken by the Judean elites. The conclusions drawn from the presentation point to the fact that religious aspects–present in the inclusion and exclusion accounts–are used merely superficially, because the real reasons based on political calculations. The article highlights also the hypothesis, according to which the discussed phenomenon of readiness to exclude and include certain groups from and in Israel proves to the lack of fixed, and unchangeable limits of such group as Israel. The
very sense of Israel, and its limits, was treated dynamically, and was subject to changes, depending to the political circumstances....
The article is meant as a commentary to the reference in Tacitus (Germania 45,3) to ‘fustis’, i.e., a non-metal trauma weapon of the Baltic Aestii who have been identified with the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture. The word fustis was understood by the Romans as a straight or a wavy stick. From the surviving Roman soldiers’ grave-stones, the fustis appears to have been used as a coercive measure, in restraining an unruly crowd or during tax collecting. The written and the archaeological sources are analysed for evidence on the use of cudgels/clubs from the metal age. Examples are invoked from ethnography of cudgel use in hunting and combat (from a distance and at close range). The Balt fustis has been interpreted also as a battle axe. The author challenges this view stressing that in writing of the fustis Tacitus makes it plain that it was not made of metal. An argument is made for the use of fustis as a hunting cudgel, something that is confirmed in the West Balt Barrow Culture, the predecessor of the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture. One explanation is that when Tacitus wrote his account the latter was still at an early stage when conservative cultural features presumably were still strong; alternatively the information about fustis is an archaism drawn from the period of the West Balt Barrow Culture....
Archaeological excavations of three sections of the inner areas of the fort of Apsaros were conducted by the Gonio-Apsaros archaeological expedition of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency of Adjara in 2014. Remains of several buildings were unearthed in the Roman cultural levels. Artifacts from these layers reflect a Roman presence in the area from the second half of the 1st to the end of the 3rd century AD....
The author recalls the famous princely Sudovian culture grave at Szłvajcaria (today within the administrative limits of Suwałki). Apart from presenting the grave fumishings according to up-to-date typological standards, he tries to reinterpret particular finds' identifying the metal fittings of a saddle and the metal mountings of a possible leather bucket aimed at hiding a horse hamess. Additionally, an engraved omament spotted on the head of a shafted weapon type Vennolum/Ilkjaer 15 is presented....
This paper examines archaeological assemblages containing military artifacts left by the Roman army on the Crimean Peninsula. The analysis allows conclusion on the tasks preformed by the Roman contingent. Dased on the archaeological and epigraphic evidence, acrivites of the temporaty Roman expeditions in the 1 st c. AD are reconstructed. Furthermore, it is argued that in the 2nd c. Roman task forces (vexillationes) served only as a political demonstation intended th show that the allies in the area were not left alone by Rome....
The Roman fort of Apsaros in Gonio (Adjara, Georgia) still holds answers to many issues connected with the Roman military presence on the Chorokhi river in ancient Colchis. In 2014, a Polish team joined the Georgian expedition to carry out excavation in two sectors directly east of the centrally located principia. The sites were chosen based on a study of the results of geophysical prospection carried out in 2012. Two phases, dated to the early and late Roman periods respectively, were recorded. The early Roman architecture was interpreted as part of the installations and structures of a large bathhouse (
balneae
), including a mosaic floor in one of the rooms. The building was destroyed at least twice, most likely in a catastrophic fire. The article discusses the stratigraphy and the dating of the early Roman
balneae
based on glass artifacts and coins....
Social studies and anthropology, based on ethnographical research, take for granted the role of large populous groups in defining ethnicity. Self-definitions of the group, as well as definition by others, are interpreted as the central issues regarding large groups. The paper aims to argue for the key-role of elite groups in self-identification and ethnic creation. Small groups of elite, by defining their own “ethnicity” decided it for larger groups. This hypothesis will be tested and illustrated by test cases of ethnogenesis in Iron Age Palestine....