Ceremonial has always played a great role among European and Middle Eastern societies, reflecting the value systems cherished by their elites. Embassy instructions and envoys' reports provide valuable material concerning codes of behavior in early modern diplomacy. What was considered "proper," and how was an envoy expected to behave in order to stress his sovereign's dignity and power? Oriental courts in Istanbul and Bahçesaray developed elaborate ceremonials for foreign envoys. Forced into a deep prostration before the Muslim ruler, sometimes even threatened with physical violence, Polish envoys deeply resented their humiliation. Some of them sought comfort in alcohol, others produced fabulous reports of their imaginary altercations with Ottoman and Crimean dignitaries, and others found pleasure and revenge in contemptuous descriptions of their hosts' "barbarous" habits. Until recently, such diplomatic reports have been used in Polish historiography almost uncritically. Yet such reports often tell us more about their authors' mentalities than about the world they pretend to describe....
The present article examines the effect of Lombard occupation of the Apennine Peninsula in the 6th century on everyday life of the local society; traditionally the event thought to usher in the early Middle Ages in Italy....
Jaworski, Piotr(Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2006)
Warsaw University Institute of Archaeology excavations at the so-called Villa with a View in Ptolemais, have contributed significantly to knowledge of town history and development. Numismatics is one field in which substantial verification as well as new evidence has been collected.
Current finds by the Polish mission, have helped to rethink Cyrenaican coinage in both the Hellenistic and Roman periods, especially with regard to local issues from the beginning of Imperial rule, which are presented in the article....