Organizatorzy/Organisers: Dobrochna Zielińska, Karel Innemée (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Forma sesji/Session format: stacjonarna/in-person
Język sesji/Session language: English/polski
Data/Date: 18.03.2024 (poniedziałek/Monday)
Miejsce/Place: Budynek Wydziału Archeologii UW, Warszawa, sala 2.12/Building of the Faculty of Archeology UW, Warsaw, Room 2.12
Władza jest jednym ze wspólnych elementów wszystkich archeologicznych. Przejawiała się w najróżniejszych źródłach materialnych, od monumentalnej architektury po monety, ale także niematerialnych, takich jak tytulatura, czy koncepcja boskości władzy. W ramach sesji uczestnicy mogą zaprezentować różne podejścia – metodologiczne, konceptualne czy też studia przypadku. Uczestnicy naszej sesji prezentują studia rożnych obszary kulturowe (Europa, Bliski Wschód, Afryka, Ameryka Południowa) i okresy chronologiczne. Mamy nadzieję, że ta będzie doskonałą okazją do wymiana myśli i doświadczeń, wzbogaci nas wszystkich i będzie inspiracją dla dalszych studiów.
Szczegółowy program sesji tutaj.
Abstrakty/ Abstracts:
Aleksander Bursche, Kyrylo Myzgin (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
The Evolution of Political Power in Barbaricum in the Late Roman Period
The significant intensification of Roman-Barbarian relations in the 3rd century contributed to the formation of a new elite category, as evidenced archaeologically by the graves of the Leuna-Haßleben-Zakrzów horizon. The successful barbarian invasions into the provinces significantly exacerbated processes of social stratification. For instance, after the defeat of the Romans at Abritus in AD 251, the entire imperial treasury, containing substantial amounts of gold, fell into the hands of the Gothic retinues, leading to a sharp increase in the presence of gold artifacts in grave inventories and family treasures. This practice extended from Gothic areas on the northern Black Sea coasts to regions in southern Scandinavia. The nature of political power underwent a gradual transformation following the peace between Constantine the Great and the Gothic societies in AD 332. This transformation was, in many respects, influenced by the service of the Gothic retinues in the Roman army, including representatives of the military leaders. During this period, the power of military elites evolved into various forms of dynastic power, all while these elites remained under Roman influence themselves.
Miłosz Giersz (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Ancient Andean Sovereigns: Gender and Rulership in the Pre-Colonial Americas
In the ancient Andes, ancestors were significant sources of power and legitimacy for emerging elites in complex polities. The ethnohistorical sources suggest that Inka mummified ancestors were of great importance to a kin-based Andean society organized around ayllus: social units built around common ancestors, land claims and reciprocal relations. The archaeological records suggest that such a social construct wasn’t limited to the Inkas. At the time of Wari (AD 650-1050) the impact of new social and religious paradigms gave the corporal ancestors a very special status. Based on the unique data gathered during archaeological investigation of the pre-Columbian site of Castillo de Huarmey – the first known case of a great temple consisting of multiple elite mausolea dedicated to burial and veneration of Wari ancestors – this presentation examines the role of corporal ancestors and monumental funerary architecture that once most likely functioned as a baseline for the affirmation of social order, the materialisation of the hierarchies of power, and the legitimization of the imperial authority in the provincial landscape.
Karel Innemée (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Power, Authority and how to communicate it
In groups, societies, and nation-states leadership plays an important role, both internally and externally. An individual, often male, takes a leading position and needs to maintain this. There are various factors that determine how such a leader comes to power and how this position can be defended, both in arguments and physically. Apart from the need of being accepted by his/her own population, a leader needs a respected or feared position vis-à-vis potential foreign powers. Power and authority are expressed in various ways: in deeds, words and in visual communication. In this paper a short analysis is given of the phenomena power and authority, illustrated by examples from Meroitic and Christian Nubia.
Ireneusz Jakubczyk (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
The glow of power. Princely graves in Łęg Piekarski 90 years after their discovery
In the archaeology of the Roman period the most spectacular discoveries include the burials of the contemporary elite, determined as princely graves. To this category belong, among others, four graves located in Łęg Piekarski.
The prince’s burials have been attracted interest of researchers of the Roman period for a long time. An important role played the richness of the grave inventories and in particular the large account of Roman imports. Studies on this type of findings have significantly contributed to the development of research on the formation of the elite of contemporary societies and on contacts between the Barbarians and the inhabitants of the Roman Empire. Some elements of the grave inventories, especially the silver vessels, are interpreted as diplomatic gifts to Germanic elites. The adaptation of Roman skills and traditions by barbaric peoples contributed to the easier acculturation of the barbarian population in the Roman provinces during their displacement to the south and west. Barbarian elites, which have developed to a large extent due to contacts with the Roman Empire, played a decisive role in later migrations, overthrowing the empire in the West and creating its own kingdoms on its ruins. One of the most important roles was played by the elite of the Vandals community originating from the Przeworsk culture. Despite 90 years since its discovery, many issues still remain unresolved.
Krzysztof Jakubiak (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
The reasons for the Urartian Kingdom’s expansion toward the Ararat Plain, propaganda, or element of Royal ideology
The idea of power, strength, the creation of power, and the cultivation of propaganda are not elements solely reserved for the great empires of the East such as Assyria and Babylonia. Other state organisms also tried, arguably, to create a vision of power for their local use. This was no different in the case of the kingdom of Urartu, which took shape relatively late in the Middle Eastern political arena. The rulers of Urartu, in an attempt to compete with the centuries-old Assyrian tradition, tried to emulate Assyria in various fields, including the ideology of power. One of the attributes, or tools in creating the image of the ruler, is territorial conquests. Usually, in propaganda, they are a string of successes, but what these expansion of borders actually looked like, and whether one can really speak of the spread of civilisation, as we find in Urartian sources, is what the proposed paper will be about.
Marta Kaczanowicz (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Between tradition and innovation: Egyptian royal women in the Late Period
One of the major changes that occurred in the Egyptian Late Period (ca. 747–332 BCE) was the almost complete disappearance of royal women from temple iconography. This absence of women’s images resulted in the oft-repeated hypothesis of a decline in the role of the king’s spouses, mothers, and daughters in the ideology of royal power and taking their position over first by priestesses known as the God’s Wives of Amun, and then, symbolically, by goddesses. This presentation aims to highlight some less-known evidence that calls this assumption into question. The discussed sources, often fragmentary in nature, attest to significant changes but not necessarily to a decrease in the institution of queenship.
Katarzyna Kasprzycka (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
A ruler worships forever – the thing about royal statues
One of the many manifestations of royal power in ancient Egypt was the performing the role of celebrant in rituals for the gods. In return, the ruler received, among other things eternal life, which gaining is one of the main ideas in ancient Egypt. Achieving this purpose, required using various means, including: writing down names, formulas with wishes all prosperity, and preserving images in paintings, reliefs and sculpture.
In the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari preserves a relatively large number of reliefs depicting rulers in the role of celebrants, and, although in much smaller numbers, statues of Hatshepsut depicted in various poses. Careful analysis of the reliefs in the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, however, reveals that the wall decoration depicts various ruler statues that are not known from the archaeological material.
This presentation will be an attempt to find answers to the questions: Could the statues depicted in the reliefs have actually existed? and if so, what role could they have played? Were they a part of permanent temple decoration, or were they brought to the temple? What size might these statues have been – large or small?
Dorota Ławecka (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
First Mesopotamian „palaces” – interpretative issues
A building that can be described as a “palace” – the seat of a ruler who, apart from holding a number of important cult-related functions, governs a state (in a political and economic sense) in relative independence from the temple – is archaeologically visible evidence of autonomous royal power. The earliest of such buildings (Early Dynastic III period, around the middle of the third millennium BC) are not easy to identify, especially if they are poorly preserved or just partly unearthed. Since there are no clear, unequivocal features denoting such an edifice at such an early date the attribution of incomplete remains of a few monumental buildings known to us so far is debatable. Unfortunately, written sources also do not provide any firm conclusions in this respect.
The only south-Babylonian Early Dynastic building often regarded as a palace is a structure discovered on tell 2 in Eridu. It is still, even in recent publications often considered as a palace without any reservations or comments, and – what is equally important – it serves as a main argument on the function and as a decisive analogy with some currently discovered edifices (Kish, Abu Salabikh). In the opinion of the author of the presentation, despite its monumental appearance, there are crucial reasons against such an interpretation, precluding the use of an Eridu building in the discussion on Mesopotamian palatial architecture.
Adam Łukaszewicz (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Language and power in Greco-Roman Egypt (and elsewhere)
Rulers and their representatives, when addressing their subjects used a language which followed certain patterns and some established rules. Also the average citizens had to respect the linguistic customs required in contact with the governing class. These linguistic rules had their roots in remote past. Such phenomena can be observed in Greek papyri from Egypt and may be compared with some more recent parallels.
Marcin Matera (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
The king on the roof, or a few words about stamped Bosporan roof tiles
Nowhere in the Greek oikumene stamping of roof tiles was as widespread as in the Bosporan Kingdom. Compared to other centers, the practice of stamping roof tiles stood out there both in terms of the variety of used dies and the regularity. The Bosporan Kingdom was the only place in the entire Black Sea basin where roof tiles were not only stamped with the names of kings but were doing so regularly for at least 200 years. Despite nearly a century of studies on stamps on Bosporan roof tiles, many issues remain unresolved.
Tomasz Nowakiewicz, Vital Sidarowich (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland), Aleksandra Rzeszotarska-Nowakiewicz (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland)
Phallus imperatoris – an essential Gothic (?) instrument of power
The increasing intensity of contacts between barbarians and representatives of imperial Rome at the end of Antiquity is manifested by various types of archaeological sources. In particularly significant cases, they bring new quality to the recognition of phenomena unlighted by the meaning of written sources – which is well exemplified by the recently identified numismatic phenomenon associated with the secondary use of Roman mint stamps by the Goths. Research by A. Bursche and K. Myzgin have indicated that the perceived fascination in this milieu with aurei – probably perceived in terms of symbols of Roman power, strength and prestige – took on the characteristics of a mass phenomenon in the society of the eastern Goths, traced by hundreds of self-made coins functioning outside the economic system of commodity exchange.
On the far fringe of this phenomenon is a find from the remote, north-eastern periphery of ancient Barbaricum, which should be considered the region of present-day Lida. The recently discovered deposit from there contains, among other things, the destructs of a silver and partially gilded Roman vessel with the distinct stigma of barbarian aesthetics and showing, among others, the figure of the emperor with the attributes of his power, made by hand of a barbarian craftsman. It is significant that the content, surprisingly rich in detail, although executed rather clumsily, does not draw on the space of licentia poetica, but on the contrary is a reproduction of original Roman motifs, enriched with barbarian themes. Arguably, it can also be seen, by its explicit reference to imperial splendour, as a manifestation of the aspirations of a local chieftain, stimulated by the imagery of the familiar coinage but still somewhat abstract figure of a distant, powerful ruler. The barbarian craftsman, however, took care to ensure that this 'great white father from Washington’ (an analogy obvious to all readers of Indian readings) was seen as befitting a ruler, creating an object unique in its significance.
Grzegorz Ochała (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
“When King Moses George was King of Dotawo”: Nubian rulers in indigenous written sources
Christian Nubian kings are best known from their painted representations preserved on the walls of churches. It seems that for the majority of the population these images were the only way to see their monarchs. However, Nubian kings also occurred, albeit rarely, in local written sources, both epigraphic and papyrological, sometimes personally, as authors, but mostly simply mentioned in different contexts. My paper will explore all these contexts and the roles in which the kings appear in order to see what they can tell us about the social perception of the sovereign in Christian Nubia.
Anna Smogorzewska (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
”Woman of the palace” – royal attributes of Assyrian queens
A king was a major figure in the Neo-Assyrian art, while „woman from the palace” as a king’s wife was named, was rarely represented. There is still possible to reconstruct some aspects of the Assyrian queens attributes related to their position and roles on the royal court taking into consideration both textual and iconographical evidence. Unique data come from Neo-Assyrian queen burials at Kalhu. Assyrian queen regalia, royal dress and jewelry were not solely a visual aspect of her status. Dress elements can be seen as expressions of courtly, queenly, and individual identity of a queen closely related with a role a queen played on the royal court. The queen’s robe and jewelry also manifested Assyrian imperial power and ideology. Finally, queenly dress reflects diverse styles and foreign inspirations which are also visible in the Neo-Assyrian art.
Maciej Sobczyk (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
The Mystery of the Yucay Valley. Traces of the dualism of Inca power after the fall of Tawantinsuy – considerations based on archaeological and ethnohistorical sources
Andean dualism is clearly visible in many aspects related to pre-Columbian cultures. We find its traces among movable archaeological objects, in architectural solutions, as well as in the organization of the social structure described by Spanish chroniclers. Various, sometimes surprising aspects of dualism can be found in the small town of Yucay, which is located in the Urubamba Valley in the Cusco department in Peru. The history of Yucay begins with a unique colonial document from 1551, which is an example of Inca cartography. In order to determine the topography and ownership structure of these areas, Corregidor (the governor of Cusco) called in former Inca „cartographers”. Who in Cusco built a clay model of the Yucay Valley, marking on it individual parts of arable land, their values, vegetation and owners (current and former), as well as water sources, rivers and streams. The Spanish commission then drove through the valley and verified the map reading protocol, comparing the model with reality. To their surprise, everything fit…
With the support of local colleagues and informants, I decided to compare data from the document with contemporary information from the „field”. After verification and linguistic consultations, traces are revealed that concern the functioning of the Inca authorities after the withdrawal of the Inca rulers from Cusco to Vilcabamba.
Tomasz Waliszewski (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland), Karol Kłodziński (Institute of Archaeology, University of Gdańsk)
Pokój, bezpieczeństwo i dobrobyt Afryki rzymskiej. Auctoritas cesarska w życiu religijnym Mustis koło Thugga
Władza przyciąga uwagę ludzi. Władza polityczna i władza ekonomiczna. Władcy Cesarstwa rzymskiego stworzyli efektywny system kultu osób rządzących, który przez kilka wieków skutecznie wspomagał procesy integracyjne organizmu polityczno-społeczno-gospodarczego większego od dzisiejszej Unii Europejskiej. Od 2018 roku Wydział Archeologii UW oraz Centrum Archeologii Śródziemnomorskiej prowadzą w ramach grantu NCN nr 2020/37/B/HS3/00348 pt.: „(Czytając) Afrykański Palimpsest. Dynamika miejskich i wiejskich społeczności numidyjskiego i rzymskiego Mustis (AFRIPAL), kompleksowe badania nad przeszłością jednego z miast prowincji Afryka Prokonsularna”. Jednym z centralnych obiektów badań w Mustis (Municipium Iulium Aurelium Mustitanum) pozostaje świątynia identyfikowana jako sanktuarium Fortuny Augusta. Celem prezentacji jest krótka charakterystyka fenomenu kultu cesarskiego w tym mieście w oparciu o badaniach archeologiczne i ewidencję epigraficzną oraz ukazanie tego zjawiska w szerszym kontekście afrykańskim i śródziemnomorskim.
Dobrochna Zielińska (Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland)
Veneration of propaganda? Official portraits of Nubian authorities in the iconographic programme of Nubian churches
Among the most recognisable artefacts of Nubian Christian culture are the monumental wall paintings. From the ninth century, portraits of rulers, their mothers and bishops began to be placed among the depictions of saints that decorate the walls of churches. The images of these figures were placed on an equal basis with the most important religious figures, and soon figures of kings began to take a central place in the apse, the theologically most important place in the church. What was the nature of these representations? What was intended to be manifested by depicting the main 'pillars’ of state and church in this way?