Food and Drink – A Reflection of Social Stratification (original) (raw)
Related papers
Great Moravian elites from Mikulčice. (POLÁČEK, L. et al.)
2020
The Great Moravian Elites from Mikulčice (GME) is a collective monograph by 35 authors. It provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary account of the social elites in early medieval Mikulčice. The first part of the book describes Great Moravia as a power-political formation on the periphery of the ninth-century Carolingian Empire from a historical point of view. The following two parts bring archaeological evidence that Mikulčice served as both the seat and burial ground of the Moravian princes, with several categories of finds, primarily from graves, revealing signs of power, wealth and worship. The final part presents the results of bioarchaeological research into the skeletal remains from several hundred supposedly elite graves at Mikulčice.
IANSA 2014.1., 2014
The South Bohemian town of Český Krumlov, a UNESCO world heritage site, the former residence of the noble family of the Rosenbergs, is a unique mirror of the Bohemian Renaissance and Baroque. Extremely rich archives, maintained by both the town and the nobility, were for a long time the only sources providing evidence about the everyday life during the period of the town’s highest prosperity. Thanks to developing post-medieval archaeology and rescue field research conducted in South Bohemia over the last three decades, the original collection of archive documents was substantially enriched by a wide range of archaeological resources – artefacts and ecofacts. The archaeological research at a filled up well at house no. 55 in the area known as Latrán was the subject of interdisciplinary interest from the very beginning. The result of the joint research has become a probe into a burgher household, the rich inventory of which demonstrates that the early modern lifestyle was established in a wide range of both dish-ware (artefacts from glass and pottery) and meals (osteological materials and plant macro remains). The answers to the questions as to what and from what the townspeople ate and drank from on the threshold of modern times reflects the origins of modern consumer society in southern Bohemia.
De Gruyter eBooks, 2007
In his paper of 1973 the historian Dušan Třeštík localised the key market of Great Moravia at Mikulčice. The basis of such a conclusion was the testimony of two written sources. The first and key one is the Raffelstetten customs tariff from 903-904, in which merchants sailing with Bavarian salt to "The Market of the Moravians" are mentioned. The second source is the so-called Anonymous Relation-a lost text used by a series of the Arabic sources dated to the late ninth or early tenth century and later. Here, a ruler of the Slavs S.W.N.T.BLK (Svatopluk) is mentioned living in the town DŽ.RÁT., where a fair was held every month for three days with fellow natives selling and buying all the items they needed. By linking the testimony of both sources, Třeštík came to the conclusion that "The Market of the Moravians" was the significant fair held at Svatopluk´s town. This town was identified as Mikulčice. The fair mainly involved the exchange of goods within Moravia itself; it was not the centre of long-distance trade. 1 The interpretation of the "Market of the Moravians" as the sole central market of Old Moravia and its localisation at Mikulčice has only been adopted by historians and archaeologists with caution. Some of them believe that the "Market of the Moravians" did not refer to a specific fair, but markets in general, which were held at various centres of the Moravians. 2 The localisation of the seat of Moravian sovereigns is a point of extensive historical and archaeological debate. In my opinion the present state of knowledge hardly allows to identify this centre with certainty to any of the archeologically investigated sites. The same applies to Svatopluk´s Town from the Anonymous Relation. Trade and the economic bases of Great Moravia in general represent a rather unknown field of the history of this Slavic state formation. The issues of trade have been discussed mainly in terms of monetary conditions. 3 Archaeology has been offering
Some observations on the social structure of Great Moravia
The Cyril and Methodius Mission and Europe. 1150 Years since the arrival of the Thessaloniki Brothers in Great Moravia, 40-47, 2015
The present paper concentrates above all on problems associated with the ways we might understand the structure and dynamics of society in Great Moravia on the basis of available sources. The author’s main focus is on the problem of the origin of sources and their thematic focus. He sees some solution above all in the analysis of terminology set in a wider European context, in the interpretation of behavioural patterns, as recorded (or, more precisely, presented!) by literary sources, and in the consideration of archaeological finds from burial grounds and settlements situated out of central localities. The answers to these questions, however, are also equally important for understanding the dynamics of power and power-structures in what is now south and central Moravia and west Slovakia. The author supposes that ducal power was already relatively tightly bound with the Mojmirids, who were surrounded by a small group of “princes”. We do not know the source of their power but we can suppose a certain degree of sacred legitimisation of monarchic power and the power of the ruling dynasty. It may well be that this prominent group within Moravian society took part in a similar “game of offices” to that which we witness in the Frankish Empire, where the office of the Count formed an important bond between local elites and the central power. From weapons and personal ornaments found in rural burial grounds it can further be inferred that rural settlements also had their own elites, “free Moravians”, whose social status probably emerged from a combination of many different sources (personal charisma, inertia of social structures etc.). The sources of their loyalty towards the Prince are not known but we can probably consider it another designation of the foundations of ducal power.
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2018
This study explored dietary behavior in the context of the developing medieval power centers of Bohemia (9th-11th Century AD, Czech Republic) with an emphasis on the dietary behavior of elites and the socioeconomic stratification within the population of the central places. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic values were measured in collagen samples from 102 humans and 24 animals excavated from the sites of two castles representing the main power centers and their hinterlands. The Bayesian software package FRUITS was employed to estimate the caloric contribution of C3 and C4 plants, terrestrial animals, and freshwater fish. Statistically significant differences in the consumption of animal products and millet were observed between castle elites versus castle non-elite and hinterland samples. Among burial sites located outside the castle areas, substantial dietary variation in terms of both carbon and nitrogen was observed in males but not in females. These results suggest the deep socioeconomic stratification within the population of centers. The notable consumption of millet was typical of the lower socioeconomic groups buried outside the castle areas. The almost total absence of adult male skeletons at some sites was accompanied by the low contribution of animal products to the diets of the males present. The high dietary variation observed within the ducal family suggests either the rapidly changing position of the Přemyslids during the formation of the Bohemian state structure or the sharp increase in the influence of the Church in terms of elite dietary behavior.
Gombíky: Unique Symbol of the Great Moravian Elites
Great Moravian Elites from Mikulčice, 2020
Nature of the Finds From Mikulčice and Other Great Moravian Sites 3.9.3 Glass of Secular Versus Ecclesiastical Elites in Great Moravia 3.10 Ceramic Vessels 3.10.1 Great Moravian Ceramic Groups-Blučina and Mikulčice 3.10.2 Uherské Hradiště-Sady: Kiln for Firing Tiles and Pottery of Ancient Shapes 3.10.3 "Thick-Glazed" Pottery Find 4 Life, Death and Health: Read From the Bones 4.1 The Anthropological, Demographic and Health Consequences of Living in Early Medieval Great Moravia 4.1.1 Geometric Morphometrics in Bioarchaeology 4.1.2 Exotic Diseases in the Great Moravian Population 4.1.3