The Other Europe in the Middle Ages

Avars, Bulgars, Khazars, and Cumans
Erscheinungsjahr 2007
ISBN: 978-90-04-16389-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 2, 494 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 1049 g

Reihe: East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450

For most students in medieval studies, Eastern Europe is marginal and East European topics simply exotica. A peculiar form of Orientalism may thus be responsible for the exclusion of the Avars, Bulgars, Khazars, and Cumans from the medieval history of the European continent. This collection of studies is an attempt to stimulate research in a comparative mode and to open up a broader discussion about such key themes as material culture, ethnicity, historical memory, or conversion in the context of social and political developments in early medieval Europe. Another goal of this volume is to introduce a number of new approaches to the study of what is known as “medieval nomads.” Without explicitly rejecting the model of raid vs. trade famously introduced by Anatoly Khazanov, many contributions in this volume shift the emphasis on internal developments that have received until now little or no attention.
Contributors are: Tivadar Vida, Peter Stadler, Péter Somogyi, Uwe Fiedler, Orsolya Heinrich-Tamaska, Bartlomiej Szymon Szmoniewski, Florin Curta, Valeri Iotov, Veselina Vachkova, Tsvetelin Stepanov, Dimitri Korobeinikov, and Victor Spinei.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Curta, Florin

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

Florin Curta, Introduction
1. Tivadar Vida, Conflict and coexistence: the local population of the Carpathian Basin under Avar rule (sixth to seventh century)
2. Peter Stadler, Avar chronology revisited, and the question of ethnicity in the Avar qaganate
3. Péter Somogyi, New remarks on the flow of Byzantine coins in Avaria and Walachia during the second half of the seventh century
4. Uwe Fiedler, Bulgars in the Lower Danube region. A survey of the archaeological evidence and of the state of current research
5. Orsolya Heinrich-Tamaska, Avar-age metalworking technologies in the Carpathian Basin (sixth to eighth century)
6. Bartlomiej Szymon Szmoniewski, Two worlds, one hoard: what do metal finds from the forest-steppe belt speak about?
7. Florin Curta, The earliest Avar-age stirrups, or the “stirrup controversy” revisited
8. Valeri Iotov, A note on the “Hungarian sabers” of medieval Bulgaria
9. Veselina Vachkova, Danube Bulgaria and Khazaria as part of the Byzantine oikoumene
10. Tsvetelin Stepanov, From ‘steppe’ to Christian empire and back: Bulgaria between 800 and 1100
11. Dimitri Korobeinikov, A broken mirror: the Kipçak world in the thirteenth century
12. Victor Spinei, The Cuman bishopric – genesis and evolution
13. Florin Curta, The history and archaeology of the “other Europe”. A bibliography

List of contributors

Über Autor(innen)

Florin Curta, Ph.D (1998) in History, Western Michigan University, is Associate Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Florida. He has published extensively on the history and archaeology of Eastern Europe, including Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250 (Cambridge University Press, 2006).