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....
During the Early Dynastic period southern and northern Babylonia followed different courses of political and economic development. In the Sumerian-speaking South, people lived in small, temple dominated theocratic city-states which were (according to the official ideology) the private property of a divine family. The highest southern official (Sumerian "ensik") functioned as the earthly representative of a city-god rather than an independent secular ruler. In the North, which was settled mainly by Semitic peoples, probably the ancestors of the Akkadians, P . Steinkeller believes that a strong, territorial state emerged, centered around the city of Kish. This state, or political configuration, which also included the Diyala region and the Euphrates valley as far as Mari, was ruled by a secular and authoritarian king(s). The first "palaces" known from the archaeological record monumental buildings which were the seat of a ruler largely independent from the temple - sprung up in northern Babylonia and to the north and west of it. In the author's opinion, a large edifice uncovered at Eridu is part of a religious complex rather than a palace. The function of the socalled "Palac e A" at Kish cannot be determined beyond doubt, but it is highly probable that it was in fact the seat of a king. Pre-Sargonid palaces from Mari, Tell Beidar and Ebla can be linked with Semitic city-states. Another palace like building was discovered in Tell Chuera in northern Mesopotamia. No remains of Early Dynastic period palace buildings are known from southern Babylonia. While this may be due to insufficient archaeological work completed in the Sumer region, it is also worth considering that the idea of strong and secular rule, originally alien to the Sumerian civilization, was adopted under the influence of Semitic neighbours from the North....
This paper outlines the influence of the official visual language on the decoration of objects of daily use, and more particularly of the decorated "terra sigillata" ware, produced in "Arretium" (Arezzo in Italy) in the last three decades of the 1st century BC and in the first half of the 1st century AD. The decoration repertoire of this pottery includes triumphal motifs (trophies, pieces of military equipment, personifications of defeated peoples, captives, Victoria standing on a globe, Victoria holding a palm branch, a wreath or both , Venus "Victrix", triumphal quadrigas or bigas) and battle scenes (Roman and Barbarian soldiers). The motifs started appearing on pottery at the end of the 1st century BC. Most of them were in use during Augustus' lifetime and some of them even longer. Pottery with such decoration makes only a few percent of all the known decorated Arretine pieces. However, considering the mass scale of the production, these motifs had to be quite numerous. The group of motifs is interesting also because they were used by more than half of tthe Arezzo potteryworkshops producing relief ware at that time. Yet the phenomenon appears not to have depended solely on the official visual language, because some military and most of the triumphal motifs had already existed in official art and coinage of the later Roman Republic and first years of the Principate. There must have been some other reasons for their much later appearance in pottery decoration. One such reason was the economic situation of the workshops : after many years of prosperity they were forced to fight for new markets against a growing competition from Campania, North Italy and South Gaul. The political situation at the end of the 1st century BC offered a teasing opportunity. The workshops could find new buyers among the Romanized inhabitants of Roman provinces, as well as among the soldiers in legionary camps (especially along the Germanic border). It seems that these new groups of customers and their special needs inspired the craftsmen (not only from "Arretium") to introduce new themes to decorate their pottery....
Smogorzewska, Anna(Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2002)
Cylinder seals appeared in the eastern Anatolia in the end of the 4th millennium BC, together with other elements of late Uruk culture (e.g. Arslantepe VIA). In the Malatya-Elazig region both the cylinder seals of the Syro-Mesopotamian tradition (Norjuntepe, Korucutepe, Tajkun Mevkii, Pulur/Sakyol, Arslantepe) and the seal impressions on the pots are known (Arslantepe, Norjuntepe, Han Ibrahim §ah, Tepecik). In this area the prevailing form are seals and sealings with geometric designs (inter alia, lozenges, triangles, crosshatching, chevrons). Other motifs were also used occasionally: floral and figural (birds, scorpions), as well as quadruple spiral (Arslantepe VIB). The seals from the Upper Euphrates region resemble the "Jemdet Nasr" or "Geometric Style". Many geometric designs derive from the Uruk glyptic tradition. In the Keban area, local geg stamp seals made of clay were popular in the Early Bronze Age. They are distinguished by a characteristic repertoire of designs (swirls, concentric circles, spirals). These motifs are deeply rooted in the Transcaucasian and eastern Anatolian tradition (they were also used as decorative patterns in the "Early Transcaucasian Ware" and EasternAnatolian painted pottery). Cylinder seals and seal impressions from the Upper Euphrates area constitute an important index to the connections, presumably of a trading nature, between Syria, northern Mesopotamia and eastern Anatolia. In the local administration and economy they did not become the important device that they were in the 3rd millennium BC Mesopotamia....
Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski, Radosław(Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytet Warszawski, 2015)
W Bałakławie, w dzielnicy Kadykovka, w XX w. dokonano szeregu znalezisk, których współwystępowanie mogło wskazywać, że gdzieś w pobliżu w starożytności stacjonował rzymski garnizon. Wśród zabytków pozyskanych przypadkowo należy wymienić przede wszystkim fragment greckiej inskrypcji wzmiankującej trybuna L. Arriusza Alkibiadesa oraz nagrobek rzymskiego kawalerzysty Juliusza Valesa z oddziału o nazwie ala Atectorigiana.
W 1992 podczas wykopalisk ratowniczych na miejscu budowy placu targowego odsłonięto część budynku oznaczanego roboczo literą „A” lub numerem 1. Pierwsze systematyczne badania w bałakławie-Kadykovce prowadziła w latach 1997–1999 wspólna polsko-ukraińska ekspedycja kierowana przez T. Sarnowskiego z Instytutu Archeologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego oraz O.Savelję z Muzeum „Chersonez Taurydzki” w Sewastopolu. odkryto wówczas świątynię Jowisza Dolicheńskiego. Podczas wykopalisk pozyskano m.in. inskrypcje łacińskie, detale architektoniczne, fragmenty posągów i dekoracji rzeźbiarskiej. Na tej podstawie możliwe było stwierdzenie, że przybytek zbudowali żołnierze rzymscy. Powstała także rekonstrukcja budowli oraz jej wnętrza. Licznie znajdowane stemplowane dachówki pozwoliły na dopracowanie chronologii i periodyzacji obecności różnych kontyngentów rzymskich w Taurydzie. Wspomniany budynek „A” oraz świątynia funkcjonowały w 2. połowie II w. – 1. połowie III w. badania budynku „A” podjęto na nowo w latach 2009–2013. ze strony Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego wykopaliskami kierował autor niniejszego tekstu.
Podczas prac terenowych odsłonięto m.in. pozostałości kilku budowli. Analiza tych reliktów umożliwiła wyróżnienie faz ich użytkowania oraz określenie ram chronologicznych każdej z nich....
Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski, Radosław; Zawadzka-Pawlewska, Urszula(Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytet Warszawski, 2014)
W latach 2005–2006 interdyscyplinarny zespół
z Instytutu Archeologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego prowadził
nieniszczące, nieinwazyjne badania murów obronnych
Chersonezu Taurydzkiego. Pracami były objęte odcinki
fortyfikacji widoczne na powierzchni gruntu. Pozostałości
umocnień analizowano przede wszystkim pod kątem identyfikacji
rodzajów budulca.
Przeprowadzono także inwentaryzację i dokumentację
pęknięć widocznych na powierzchni murów. Celem tego
drugiego projektu była identyfikacja przyczyn obserwowanych
uszkodzeń. Poszukiwanie domniemanych śladów trzęsień
ziemi na murach obronnych Chersonezu Taurydzkiego
rozpoczęto od wykonania dokumentacji fotograficznej
oraz rysunkowej dostępnych reliktów architektonicznych.
Dokumentacja została następnie porównana z publikowanymi
materiałami z innych obszarów sejsmicznych....