Articoli di riviste sul tema "Medieval military architecture"

The article reveals the problem of the development of military architecture in the territory of ancient Fergana, based on the long-term research of archaeologists of Uzbekistan. It identifies the main factors that have contributed to the improvement of this architecture. In each separately taken historical period, starting from the Bronze Age, the author defines the characteristic features of the fortification architecture of Fergana cities based on specific examples. At the same time, a comparative analysis with neighboring historical and cultural regions (Sogd and Khorezm) is performed, and the issues of the continuity of traditions and evolutionary development in this type of structure are revealed using the examples of military architecture of the early medieval period.

The role of Francesco di Giorgio (1439-1501) in developing the forms of artillery fortification marking the transition from late medieval defenses to the mature bastioned forts of the 16th century is becoming clearer as additional research has enhanced our knowledge of the chronology of his interventions, the maturation of design elements, and the interlocking personal, institutional, and political factors in his work for the Aragonese Kingdom of Naples. These efforts by Francesco di Giorgio and his associates focused on Naples, Otranto, Gallipoli, Taranto, Manfredonia, Monte Sant'Angelo, Reggio Calabria, Ortona, Matera, and Brindisi. Archival sources, investigation of the sites, and surviving graphic materials contribute substantially to identifying this "school" of military architects and the evolution of design brought about by the technological challenge of gunpowder, firearms, and siege artillery.

<div><p><em>Forts have played a prominent role in the military system of any Kingdom in Medieval Period. So the Bahmanis did much for military architecture as they had powerful enemies on all sides. Gawilgarh and Narnala are the significant forts of Bahmani Sultanate. These forts are regarded as the greatest and most abiding monuments and superior to European forts of the same period (Circa 1350-1500). Grawilgarh and Narnala in Berar are examples of engineering skill and architecture appropriate for mountain strong holds of good taste and lavish expenditure. Combined with elegant stone carving. The carving of the forts gate at Narnala and Gawilgarh are still in good preservation. </em></p></div><em> Balapur fort was a fair specimen of later Mughal architecture. The fort too was keeping in mind the town’s (Balapur) military responsibilities and position. Balapur hailed as an important military station during the times of the Mughals. Complex architecture used in the fort ensured its safety, as well as eased the discharge of missiles and other ammunition from within the fort rendering it one of the most impenetrable forts in vidarbha region. </em>

No other event in the entire Middle Ages has stirred as much excitement, interest, intrigue, fear, frustration, and religious enthusiasm as the crusades (1096–1291). Medievalists do not need to be reminded of that fact since medieval literature, the arts, music, religion, and countless chronicle accounts are filled with references and allusions to these religious-military endeavors to regain the Holy Land from Muslim control. But this volume, well edited by Anthony Bale, obviously appeals mostly to student and general readers and alerts them to the enormous impact which the crusades really had on medieval imagination and the subsequent world of writing. Other volumes might also consider medieval architecture or music in light of the crusades, but again, there is already much work published in that respect.

The antiquarian Martín de Ximena Jurado was a pioneer in the historical cartography of the old Kingdom of Jaén (Andalusia, Spain), where he tried to represent emblematic areas with their military defences with his particular graphic language. Not surprisingly, this territory has a high concentration of medieval fortifications. The data and drawings that he made of castles, towers, and defensive enclosures show a special interest in the militarisation of sites and places. He went beyond a simple toponymic study aimed only at finding a correspondence between the ancient name and the location of a settlement based on the evidence provided by coins and inscriptions. The medieval fortifications that he mapped were not drawn in ruins as one would expect they would be in the mid-17th century, but with their most characteristic construction elements. This fact gives it great relevance, as it represents the idealised hypothesis of the state of these constructions at the time of the Castilian conquest in the decades following the Almohad debacle in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212).

At a time when the whole of Europe is growing ever more united, the study of cultural phenomena observable all over the continent gains in importance. One such phenomenon is the occurrence of earthworks of both prehistoric and historical date. Initially associated with tribal Europe and with that period of its history when early states began to emerge, these defensive features began to decline with progressing feudalization. Within Latin Europe they were replaced by imperial ‘pfalze’, feudal seats of the motte type, and castles. Built by rulers, ecclesiastical dignitaries and knights all over the area stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to Russia, they were the most outstanding feature of the cultural landscape of medieval Europe. With the decline of the Middle Ages, changes began to affect those castles that were built on an extensive scale as well as smaller defensive features such as the keep on a mound. The picture of European defensive architecture also changed under modern cultural influences from transalpine Italy. One trend led towards ‘military architecture’ in the narrow sense of the word. Modern fortifications became the concern of specialists: engineers and practicians of the battlefield in the period termed by Michael Howard the era ‘of wars of mercenaries, merchants and professionals’ (1976). The other trend was to shape modern civilian architecture, in terms of the development unfortified palaces. The division between architectura civilis and architectura militaris became a fact.

Lviv is one of the cities in Ukraine that had a highly developed system of medieval fortifications. This system of fortifications was built in the XIII-XIV centuries, modernized many times and served until the 18th century. However, today in Lviv, only small remains of the medieval fortifications of the city center have been preserved in the form of architectural objects - several fragments of the defensive wall and only one defensive tower, which was rebuilt into a tower in the 16th century. These preserved objects belong to the so-called High defensive wall. These are: a fragment of the lower part of the defensive wall on 16 Svobody Avenue, a fragment of the wall and the Povoroznyk tower (connected to the building of the City Arsenal), a fragment of the wall on the Pidvalna Street (to the Royal Arsenal is attached), a fragment of the wall and the remains of the corner Rymarska tower, the remains of the foundations of the corner Shevska tower, a preserved and superimposed fragment of the wall near the Vienna coffee house (12 Svobody avenue), the remains of the wall in the basements of the building on 9 Mickiewicz Square. The rest of the remains of the High Wall are underground in the state of archaeological objects. These unique objects of military construction are not registered as architectural monuments. Also, they are not listed as monuments of archeology. Every fragment of city defense fortifications preserved today is, as a rule, a valuable document of its era and requires careful protection and preservation. Therefore, the study of the architecture of the medieval defense complex of the Lviv city center, which was created before the appearance of firearms, is important both for the history of the city and for the history and theory of domestic military architecture. This paper presents an analysis of the first stage of the construction of the High Defense Wall around the Lviv midtown and presents a hypothesis regarding its architectural solution. Special attention is paid to the issue of the planning structure of the fortified belt. The hypothesis that initially the defensive contour of the High Wall had a rounded shape has been substantiated. The argumentation about the towerless nature of the defensive belt at the first stage of the development of its fortifications is presented. There were two gates at the first stage of the construction of fortifications, which were called Tatarska and Halytska. The architectural solution of the gates was specific. The gate was formed by two towers (semicircular in plan). The gate-entrance with drawbridge was located between two high towers. At the second stage of development, the defensive High Wall was modernized, raised and a number of defensive towers were built. At the third stage, the planning scheme of the fortified belt changes. The line of the High Wall in the eastern span acquires a rectangular character with outward-projecting towers and corner towers.

The main purpose of the study is to conduct architectural and historical analysis of the formation of medieval feudal castles as a phenomenon of chivalrous culture of Europe and the Middle East. The task of the study is to analyze the general and special in the evolution of forms in the castle architecture of Western Europe and the Jerusalem medieval kingdom. Creation of architectural and historical typology of castle forms that existed in the regions of medieval Western Europe and the Levant. In the course of the analysis of the formation of Middle Eastern castle complexes of the 12th - 13th century. found that on the one hand they were traditionally based on cultural and construction practices, Introduced to the regions of the Levant by European knights ‒ tower-donjon type of castle, which arose during the conquest in the areas of Israel, Palestine and Syria, on the other ‒ somewhat different from the architectural traditions of Western Europe, local technologies for processing stone quads, the construction of walls that have a boot, the use of cement solution, the creation of a tower-shaped building at the towers-don having a significant amount. Applied in the Middle East construction innovations with the active use of Romano-Byzantine traditions, getting to the territory of Western Europe, developed a chivalrous culture of castle building. As a result of cultural and historical analysis of European and Middle Eastern castle forms of the 12th and 13th century. it was determined that a better system of protection ‒ small wall niches, vaulted system of overlaps ‒ was introduced into the European fortification art by returning crusader knights. Thanks to the acquired building experience, the Crusaders in Western Europe were introduced to a new type of castle, the castel, which was borrowed from the old Roman-Byzantine military architecture during the conquest of the Levant. Based on the study of European castle forms, it was revealed that the new composition of the castle was introduced by knights-pilgrims from the middle east to the lands of Western and Central Europe, where it got its development, thanks to the French masters-fortifiers who formed this classic castle type in the 13th - 15th centuries.

The article is devoted to the identification of a three-level Indo-Iranian model of the world in the architecture of the Nuzal temple. This corresponds to the theory of three functions formulated by J. Dumisil for Indo-European and, already, Indo-Iranian society and confirmed by researchers in the most important spheres of Scythian-Alan culture. Unfortunately, the semantics of the Alanian religious architecture remains unexplored, so the article attempts to consider it on the example of the medieval Nuzal Church – a reference temple that has great historical significance and carries architectural and semantic features of the widest range of monuments of the Alanian religious tradition. The architecture of the monument is considered from the point of view of religious symbolism, which is the basis of church architecture. The complex symbolism of the Orthodox church involves a comprehensive consideration of its constituent elements. In our case, we are talking about the architectural appearance, fresco painting and funerary character of the Nuzal church. As a result of the conducted research, following the social structure of society, mythology, traditional worship, choreography, heraldry, the concept of ternarity manifested itself in religious architecture. The architecture of the temple contains the idea of a three–level universe, a World Mountain – with divine, human and chthonic spheres that correspond to three social functions – religious (judicial), military and productive. The tribe of Tsarazonta, which owned the Nuzal cemetery, was in the paradigm of this three-functional system. The conclusions drawn seem to be quite justified, since the historical immutability of the idea of an ideal social structure reproducing the three-part structure of the universe traditionally had the character of a worldview axiom for the Scythian-Alanian culture.

The medieval Turks of the eastern Asian steppe are known for funerary finds exalting horsemanship and military heroism that thrived on intertribal warfare. Existing bodies of research on various categories of objects—which include architecture, stelae, grave goods and inhumations—are in depth but highly regionalized. As a result, our understanding of the archaeological culture of the Turks on a spatio-temporal scale commensurate with territorial shifts in their political dominion throughout the period of the Turk khaganates (mid-6th to mid-8th centuries CE) remains disjunct. The present paper addresses this problem of disparate data. We present a synthesis of the archaeological research of medieval Turks spanning Mongolia, southern Siberia, and Xinjiang in view of results of the excavation of medieval burials at Tunnug 1 in Tuva Republic—where Turkic remains are dispersed and not easily distinguishable from other funerary cultures of connecting time periods. We argue that Turkic funerary culture can be better characterized as polymorphic–the presence of different regional amalgams of burial traditions. The horse-and-human burials and commemorative ogradka known to be quintessentially Turkic are but one of the more dominant amalgams. This pattern of differential practices is congruent with the history of medieval Turks evolving as peoples of mixed lineages and political groupings, rather than people of a unitary culture.

The article examines the symbolic meaning of the horse’s stirrup as a sign of taking a vassal oath. The analysis of the problem was carried out based on the study of the broader context of the rituals of European chivalry. In particular, it is shown the distinction between the rank of Officium stratoris and Officium stratoris et strapae. Based on the use of Hungarian medieval monuments, as well as Kyiv and Volhynia chronicles (Ipatian chronicle collection), it was proved that the representatives of the military elite of the Halychyna and Volhynia lands were familiar with the difference in these rites – from showing respect to the rider (when holding the bridle) to indicating a direct dependent position (when holding the stirrup). These customs appeared in England, but were also extremely popular on the territory of continental Europe, primarily in the Holy Roman Empire. Perhaps this tradition came to Rus’ from the German lands, where already from the XIV century similar chivalric rituals began to be recorded in the city laws. So, such traditions passed into the sphere of medieval legislation. In the research, the main emphasis is placed on the case of 1153, when after the death of his father, the prince of Halychyna Yaroslav Volodymyrovych (Osmomysl) offered to negotiate peace with the Kyiv duke Izyaslav Mstislavovych. Through intermediaries, the prince offered the formula «подлѣ твои стремень», which, according to medieval etiquette, meant recognition of his subordinate position. Note that half a century later, the boyars of Halychyna did not forget the significance of this ritual and tried to unite other service people around them. This is demonstrated by the example of the boyar Dobroslav, who in 1241 gathered around his stirrup, according to the chronicler, many other warriors. Dukes Danylo and Vasylko then correctly understood the demonstration of the proud boyar and deprived him of the lands he had seized. It is possible that some of the new servants of the boyar Dobroslav were expelled from the Halychyna land by Romanovids earlier. Thus, the Rus’ military elite understood the rituals of medieval chivalry. It proved the existence of strong connections between the nobility of these princely lands and the European culture of that time.

Aerial imaging of Dutch castles. Due to the increase in the quality and availability of LiDAR images and aerial photography, it is possible to investigate archaeological traces of Dutch medieval castles in detail. These aerial images show that most castle sites are much larger than previously thought. An interdisciplinary approach can help researchers to understand these sites, as the casus for castles with a system of multiple moats and embankments in the Oversticht shows. These were seen by the bishop and his allies – the cities of Zwolle, Deventer and Kampen – as military-functional architecture. Such observations change the conceptualization of castles in the Low Countries. Results like this example can be presented to a larger audience by working more closely with the entertainment industry.

Academic study of eleventh- to thirteenth-century high-status residence in Scotland has been largely bypassed by English debates over origin, function and symbolism. Archaeologists have also been slow to engage with three decades of historical revision of the traditional socioeconomic, cultural and political models upon which their interpretations of royal and lordly residence have drawn. Scottish castle studies concerned with the pre-1250 era continue to be framed by a ‘military architecture’ historio graphical tradition and a view of the castle as an alien artefact imposed on the land by foreign adventurers and a ‘modernizing’ monarchy and native Gaelic nobility. Knowledge and understanding of pre-twelfth-century native high-status sites is rudimentary and derived primarily from often inappropriate analogy with English examples. Discussion of native responses to the imported castle-building culture is founded upon retrospective projection of inappropriate later medieval social and economic models and anachronistic perceptions of military colonialism. Cultural and socio-economic difference is rarely recognized in archaeological modelling and cultural determinism has distorted perceptions of structural form, social status and material values. A programme of interdisciplinary studies focused on specific sites is necessary to provide a corrective to this current situation.

The project is devoted to calculating the number of losses of medieval armies using artificial intelligence methods. Several possible calculation methods have been considered, and historical sources have been analyzed. The analysis of factors that affected combat and non-combat losses and the analysis of scientific and popular science literature have been carried out, and the methods proposed by specialists have been translated into the language of formulas. The process of building neural networks, selecting their architecture, searching and synthesizing data for training samples have been considered, and the process of training and verifying the obtained data have been considered. Two models of neural networks and an information model in the form of UML diagrams of the future web application have been developed. Diagrams of use cases, classes, and components for each element of the web system have been described. The models have been implemented using the modern Django framework. A full-fledged web application with microblogging has been developed and tested. The conclusions have been drawn about the efficiency and scalability of the developed system, and the functionality of the system has been demonstrated using a real historical example. The project has developed the models of an information system for analyzing the number of troops and calculating military losses of the remote past. Mathematical models have been described, historical sources have been analyzed, and detailed models of the application have been created using the UML modeling language, which allows you to understand its interface in detail at the modeling stage. Based on the data obtained in the analysis of historical literature, the neural network architectures have been developed to determine non-combat losses in the medieval army and determine combat losses based on the data on the number of each branch’s soldiers of the armed forces who were involved during the battle. Web applications for calculating combat and non-combat losses have been developed, interface design and mini-block for publishing system News have been developed either. The non-combat losses suffered by the Mongol army in the first month of the Western campaign (1236) have been calculated as the example.

A forgotten aspect of Henry viii’s architectural patronage and of the panoply of early modern European warfare is that of the timber lodging. Through two key case studies, this paper explores King Henry viii’s timber lodgings and demonstrates that not only did they form an important class of ephemeral architecture that successfully employed innovative technologies to make such structures portable for military campaigns, they were also used in conjunction with the royal tents to provide comfortable and secure battlefield accommodation for the king. The paper recreates their construction, functions, symbolism and elaborate appearance, revealing that the earlier timber lodging comprised a two-chambered wooden building which was painted externally to resemble brickwork and which was used at the sieges of Thérouanne and Tournai in 1513, while the later timber lodging was used at the siege of Boulogne in 1544. Through a close analysis of the surviving accounts for the making of the 1544 structure, the article demonstrates that it was an extravagant and architecturally pretentious building that combined the martial imagery of late medieval Gothic with refined touches of classicism. The paper also shows that the lodging used in 1544 is both recorded in the posthumous 1547 inventory of Henry viii’s possessions and appears in the engravings of the Cowdray House murals, held by the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Abstract The Chand Minar (1446) at Daulatabad Fort is one of the tallest pre-modern stone minarets in the world and has long been recognized as a major work of Indo-Islamic architecture. Yet surprisingly little is known about the building: its iconography and the reason for its construction have not been established; even its height is frequently misreported by half. The present article analyzes the building’s architecture and urban context and critically reads its inscriptions against the Tārīkh-i Firishta (ca. 1610), the main primary text for the history of the medieval Deccan. In so doing, the article demonstrates that issues of race shaped the courtly politics in the Deccan at the time of the minaret’s construction. The Chand Minar was commissioned by Parvez bin Qaranful, an African military slave, who dedicated the building to the Bahmani sultan ʿAla⁠ʾ al-Din Ahmad II (r. 1436–58). The article shows that the building commemorated the role of African and Indian officers in a 1443 military victory of the Bahmani sultanate (1347–1527) against the Vijayanagara empire (1336–1664). The construction of the Chand Minar impressed upon Ahmad II the importance of retaining in his court dark-skinned officers from India and Africa (dakkaniyān) at a time when their standing was threatened by the lighter-skinned gharībān, who had immigrated from the western Islamic regions. The article thus presents a detailed study of an important but neglected monument while shedding new light on racial factionalism in the fifteenth-century Deccan.

The Islamic Nasrid kingdom of Granada occupied the mountainous areas of the southeastern area of the Iberian Peninsula. There, a natural border was established between the Nasrid kingdom and the Christian kingdom of Castile from 1232 to 1492. To control this frontier and establish visual communication between it and the Nasrid center at the Alhambra citadel, an extensive network of watchtowers and defensive towers was constructed.<br><br> Studies have been done of individual towers, but no comparative study has been undertaken of all of them. Graphic, homogenous, and exhaustively planimetric documentation would bring together existing information on the majority of them and enable comparative analysis. For this reason, this work conducts systematic architectural surveys of all these military structures, using photogrammetry.<br><br> In addition to studying the construction typology and techniques, the structural capacity of these towers has been analyzed. It examines how they have been affected by human and natural destructive forces, especially earthquakes, which are common in eastern Andalusia. Although all the historical military architecture is protected by the Spanish and Andalusian Heritage laws, many of these medieval towers and their cultural landscapes are in severe risk.<br><br> The towers are being studied as individual specimens (emphasizing their differences) and as a unit in a typological group (looking for similarities and unifying characteristics). New technologies for Information and Communication are being used in order to disseminate the results among specialists and to make them available to the general public. Guidelines for restoration projects are also being formulated from the cases analyzed.

The coastal area of the Danube had the greatest strategic importance in the preservation of the waterway, which was the most important road in this part of Europe until the late 19th century. On the banks of the Danube were located the cradle of many civilizations that were built by European values and identities created by different people. As a natural border Danube has played a significant role in military strategy in the struggle for supremacy and domination of European territories, which are the most significant and most monumental fortress in Serbia, built right on the banks of the Danube. Cultural Route ?Fortresses on the Danube?, which floats our sector of the Danube, displays our most important monuments of military architecture in this part of Serbia, the preserved remains of seven fortresses: Bac, Petrovaradin, Belgrade, Smederevo, Ram, Golubacka and Fetislam. Mentioned fortress are an important resource for sustainable tourism development and an important part of the cultural corridor not only in Serbia, but also South-Eastern Europe, which value is recognized by UNESCO. A special segment of the tourism industry in the development of the Danube region represents the development of geotourism as tourism specific niche markets Danube fortresses, and other objects of natural and cultural heritage of the Danube basin is recognized as an interesting tourist destinations and sites worth visiting and retention during a cruise on the Danube. Protection of cultural heritage as a unique and irreplaceable wealth, is very important for the Republic of Serbia and the Danube Region. The development of ?cultural routes? and other forms of cluster connectivity properties of cultural heritage will help better interpretation of heritage and the creation of cooperative networks that will provide obtaining the status of an important heritage resource in the development of cultural tourism and to be involved in politics purposeful tourism planning. Moreover, investments in the restoration of the Danube fortress create the conditions for a greater volume of tourist traffic and a significant share of foreign tourists from cruise ships in their unique offer.

Towards the end of 2020, across the street from what is today Princely Court Openair Museum, the formally Princely Court of Târgoviște, as part of a rescue archaeological research project, on a relatively small surface, several medieval features were discovered. These structures unveiled several historical sequences from the timeframe of XVth– XVIIIth century. The oldest objects, consisting of a few ceramic fragments, indicate the existence of dwellings from the La Tène period and from the IIIrd– IVth centuries, somewhere in the area. Artifacts and features dated to the XVth– XVIth centuries documented the existence of a craftsman’s workshop in the same area. The most important discovery, however, is a necropolis (18 features), partially captured in the surveyed area, previously untraceable in terms of documentary information. The same chronostratigraphic context revealed a sidewalk pavement and a collapsed building, probably a bell tower. These discoveries suggest the existence of an ecclesiastical complex, dated in the second half of the XVIth century, but whose existence, according to some clues, seems to have been rather short. The first‑hand observations during the excavation on the youth of many of those buried were also confirmed by anthropological research. Thus, the interdisciplinary research corroborated information from contemporary documents, about Wallachia and implicitly Târgoviște, between the end of the XVIth and the first three decades of the XVIIth century, a series of military events took place whose negative effect was enhanced by natural calamities, translated into famine and disease. The necropolis and the medieval structures discovered at Strada Calea Domnească nr. 192, on a surface of about 70 square meters, are yet another layer from the complex chronostratigraphy of the city and, at the same time, proves, on one side, still the remarkable archaeological potential of Târgoviște, and on another, that research of its past entered in another stage.

The article is dedicated to the results of 2017 season excavations of Derbent settlement which existed before construction of the Derbent defensive complex at the end of 560-s. This settlement was gradually left after the construction of a new city given the new name Derbent (Darband). The cultural layers and the construction remains (rooms 6, 7, 8, 9) of the 5-th – 6-th centuries AD, the medieval Muslim burials which have been dug in the layer of the settlement were open in the southern sector of the excavation area XXV. The revealed complex of inhabited and economic constructions including 9 rooms is dated the 5th century AD on the basis of chronological indicators (bronze belt buckles, fibula) and other archeological finds (including, Sasanian pottery). Authors consider that this complex has stopped existence during the military-political events of the middle of the 5th century or of the beginning of the 6th century, namely in the period of an anti-Sasanian revolt of 450-451 or Iran-Savir war of 503-508 AD. The materials obtained during excavations shed new light on issues of historical topography and layout, stratigraphy and chronology, architecture and construction, economic activity, culture and life of the inhabitants of the Derbent settlement which is identified with the city-fortress of Chor/Chol known for ancient Armenian, Georgian, Syrian, Early Byzantine and Arab authors and which was the important administrative, military and religious center of East Caucasus. The received materials characterize culture.

The article is dedicated to the results of 2019 season excavations of Derbent settlement which existed before construction of the Derbent defensive complex at the end of 560-s. This settlement was gradually left after the construction of a new city given the new name Derbent (Darband). The cultural layers and the construction remains (rooms No. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) of the 5-th – 6-th centuries AD, the medieval Muslim burials (No. 31-37) which have been dug in the layer of the settlement were open in the southern sector of the excavation area XXV. The revealed complex of inhabited and economic constructions including 11 rooms is dated the 5th century AD on the basis of chronological indicators (bronze belt buckles, fibula) and other archeological finds (including, Sasanian pottery). Authors consider that this complex has stopped existence during the military-political events of the middle of the 5th century or of the beginning of the 6th century, namely in the period of an anti-Sasanian revolt of 450-451 or Iran-Savir war of 503-508 AD. The materials obtained during excavations shed new light on issues of historical topography and layout, stratigraphy and chronology, architecture and construction, economic activity, culture and life of the inhabitants of the Derbent settlement which is identified with the city-fortress of Chor/Chol known for ancient Armenian, Georgian, Syrian, Early Byzantine and Arab authors and which was the important administrative, military and religious center of East Caucasus. The received materials characterize culture.

In this study, we present an unusual instrument that is rarely seen in museum collections. This richly decorated brass triangle belongs to a group of objects used by Ottoman architects and engineers. The level or havāyī terāzū is an instrument that has a wide application in geometry, architecture, military engineering, hydraulic works, and topography. With its rich decoration, it can certainly be seen as a work of applied art and an artifact that – alongside its functional role – also has a symbolic value. Dating of the level is possible based on comparisons with other finds, especially those from the collections of the Pera Museum in Istanbul and the Petrovic Collection at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. However, the level from the Museum in Doboj is significant because it was cast in a form that is unique among levels known to date. Detailed descriptions of the instrument can be found in medieval Persian and Arabic treatises, later Ottoman studies, and Renaissance European publications. Finally, this study provides an opportunity for the wider public to learn about a lesser-known artifact, and to encourage the publication of similarly little-known ones.

In 1934, construction began on training centers for the upper echelons of future NS leadership: the Vogelsang in the Eifel, Krössinsee (Polish Złocieniec-Budowo) in western Pomerania, and Sonthofen in Allgäu. Through the enormous efforts of the German Labor Front (DAF) the training centres, called Ordensburgen (literally: ‘castles of the orders’), were completed in 1936. In the meantime, much literature has been published on all of the NS Ordenburgen, yet an investigation of the genesis and analysis of their form is still lacking, which this essay partially attempts to address. The intention was undoubtedly to build Ordensburgen on the southern, western and eastern fringes of the Reich distanced less than 60 kilometres from the border. Rosenberg, who had made a statement to this effect in a speech in 1934, coined the name ‘Ordensburg’ in connection with the Teutonic Order – the proud champion of ‘Germanness’. The name evoked other echoes from history: young men who were trained for warfare and administration and who lived a life closed of from outside influences. The name also recalled the medieval orders of knights who exercised their power as a military authority along the frontiers of Christianity from Spain to Palestine. If we go beyond a formal interpretation of the Ordensburgen, what can be seen in all the three structures is the important symbolic function of towers (two rectangular brick towers were erected in Kroessinsee in 1939). In all of them so-called Tingplätze were built, a kind of open-air theatre for political rallies. Moreover, the architect Clemens Klotz embraced the modern age. In adhering to contemporary thought, he blended the cosiness of the Heimatstil with the monumentality and pathos of Neoclassicism. Other forms are also found, such as oval risalites derived from ‘Neues Bauen’ or the protruding window reveal, or the use of unworked stone blocks, something that was particularly characteristic of NS architecture. Yet despite the name ’Ordensburg’, formal references to medieval architecture are sparse. The most apparent examples are seen in the Sonthofen architecture of Herman Giesler in the proportions of the main tower or the vaulted ceilings of the tavern (the so-called Fuchsbau). After 1945, the Ordensburgen became the military barracks of the victors: Vogelsang was British until 1950, then Belgian; Sonthofen was American until 1956 and then turned over to the German Bundeswehr; Krössinsee was used by the Soviet army from 1947 or 1948, and afterward became the Polish Budowo. Vogelsang was opened to the public in 2006. Today, we face ongoing questions about the preservation and new uses of the Ordensburg structures and facilities. The designation of the former NS training centres as memorial sites, in which the juncture between Ordensburgen and the NS crimes finds physical expression, will presumably be the sole way to ensure their continued existence. Between 1939 and 1940, approximately 260 Ordensjunkers (the name derived from ‘Junker’: a nobleman from the landed class) were sent from Krössinsee on military assignment to the area of Poznań (‘Warthegau’), from where up to a half a million Poles and Jews were expelled to the Government General. Further documentation shows the involvement of the Ordensjunkers in the Holocaust during 1941 in the occupied Soviet territories. In making the buildings of the Ordensburgen accessible to the public, while at the same time laying bare the reality behind the mystique, it seems necessary to proceed on a different path than that which has been taken up to now. ‘Domesticating’ the testimonies of a terror regime has been expressed in ways such as the oversized colourful pillows for visitor seating at the Wewelsburg Castle or the garish plastic forms in Vogelsang. Tus, in addition to taking stock of the buildings and making a case for their preservation, the serious question that must be asked is how to deal with this kind of legacy. (translated by Sharon Nemeth)

In this article we discuss the characteristics of the medieval fortifications of the forest-steppe population from the Tobol-Ishim interfluve region (Trans-Urals). We aim at determining the functions of fortified settlements of the 4th–9th c. AD Bakal Culture. The primary objective is to identify the main features of the defensive architecture, defence and storm of settlements based on archaeological material. Fortresses-hillforts predominated over other types of sites in the Bakal Culture. Only their residential areas have been studied extensively, and the fortification lines have been discovered in trenches due to the high complexity of their study. We have eight objects that have been identified, and the series have been selected for the first preliminary conclusions. Methods for determining the protection levels of fortifications in the light of expert assessment of the state of military science in the early Medieval period (4th–9th c. AD) have been proposed. They have been used taking into consideration the following features: height of the floodplain, height of the rampart, depth of the ditch, presence of ledges, towns and bas-tions, the ratio of the sizes of citadel and outer territory. Hillforts differ in the sum of points in average by three times. The indicators vary as follows: the height of the floodplain from 10 to 54 m, the height of the rampart from 1.5 to 4 m, the width of the rampart from 2 to 7 m, the depth of the ditch from 0.5 to 3 m, the ratio of the citadel to outer territory sizes from 1:1 to 1:9. These figures demonstrate the different functions of the fortifications, sugges-ting that some of the sites were border forts (Ust-Utyak-1 and Lastochkino Gnezdo-1), some were economic and political centres (Ust-Tersyukskoye), and others were shelters for smaller settlements (Kolovskoye, Krasnogor-skoye, Papskoye, Staro-Lybaevskoye, Bolshoye Bakalskoye). Improper carrying out of excavations at some of the sites may be the result of unfinished construction work.

With the rise of Islamic states as the dominant powers of India and Indian Sub- Continent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and South Asia Sultanate and Mughal period (1200-1800 A.D.), by Turkish heroic figure (horsemen), Indian art was subjected to Islamic influence, resulting in a hybrid aesthetics as well as Indo- Islamic art which flourished to varying extends across south and southeast Asia. Bangladesh is world third largest Muslim majority country and situated in South Asia. So the main and primary identity of the notion is mosque architecture and then languages via culture in Bangladesh (past Bengal). Moreover, Traditional history called Mughal and ottoman was the center of all traders and referred as the “Middle Man” due to access to water routes between Asia and Europe. The Ottoman and Mughal Empires were all founded with art and architecture by members of the same ethnically Turkic tribe and originated from Oghuz tribe. Firstly, in the early 14th century, Osman Bey established a small principality in the northeast corner of Anatolia. Despite these many similarities, there are some key difference within the approach to Islamic Art and Architecture from Miniatures Illustrations in Indian Sub-Continent to Mosque architecture in Turkey and the Levant the Mughal and Ottoman empires left their indications.Turkish Military Ikhtiyar Uddin bin Muhammad Bhaktiyer Khilji and his Turkish followers captured Bengal in 1204 A.D. and after then ruled by Turkic. Besides these many Sufis saint-like Khan Jahan Ulugh Khan, Burhan Khan, Gharib Shah, came here and spread Islam and Turkish culture with languages too. The Ilyas Shahi dynasty was the first independent Turkic Muslim ruling dynasty in late medieval Bengal, which ruled from the 14th century to the 15th century. It was founded in 1342 by Shamsuddin Iliyas Shah. As follows still presence many Turkish words which used in the Bengali language as Barood, Nishan, Chaku, Bahadur, Begum, Chadar, Surma, bavarchi, kiyma, Korma, and so on. And then showed their power through art and architecture as Mosques and Tombs follows Adina Masjid at Pandua in 1368 A.D.; Eklakhi mausoleum, Pandua; Tomb of Shah Rukn-e Alam in Multan, Sixty Domed Mosque at Bagherhat of Bangladesh, etc. Based on all evidence present, it can be found that the Turks contributed significantly to Bengali languages and culture as well as art and architecture (Mosques and Tombs). Besides many Jewish people came in here through missionary and business purposes. And also we see that there have been found many designs in mosque architecture especially six-point stars which is mentioned as a David symbol. So my focus is the Connectivity between Turkish and Bangladesh through Islamic architecture and Jewish with six point star/hexagon/seal of Solomon. It is a historical study with a journalistic approach.

Las denominadas casas de la encomienda constituyen uno de los ejemplos más representativos de la arquitectura vinculada a las órdenes militares. Herederos del castillo, estos inmuebles característicos del período bajomedieval actuaron como las sedes de las encomiendas, las células básicas de administración señorial de las milicias. Como tales, debían servir como residencia a los comendadores, lo que les confirió cierto carácter palatino y una notable entidad en el entramado urbano de las villas. Pero al mismo tiempo actuaban como lugar de percepción y almacenamiento de rentas, para lo que necesitaron de espacios como bodegas o graneros. Finalmente, también aglutinaban toda una serie de dependencias para el servicio de la casa.En este estudio ponemos el foco sobre un conjunto de casas de la encomienda vinculadas a la Orden Militar de Santiago y situadas en sus señoríos de La Mancha. A partir de la información extraída de los Libros de Visita, en conjunción con otro tipo de fuentes y con una metodología interdisciplinar, analizaremos la evolución de estos inmuebles entre la segunda mitad del siglo XV y las primeras décadas del siglo XVI. Seguidamente, trataremos sobre diversas cuestiones comunes a estos singulares edificios como su localización, disposición o los distintos espacios que respondían a las funciones residencial, económica y de servicios. Palabras clave: Órdenes Militares, Orden de Santiago, Cultura Material, Arquitectura, EncomiendasTopónimos: La ManchaPeríodo: Baja Edad Media ABSTRACTThe so-called commandery houses are one of the most representative examples of architecture associated with military orders. Heirs to the castle, these buildings, characteristic of the late medieval period, served as the headquarters of the commanderies, the basic units of seigneurial administration of the militias. As such, they functioned as the residence of the commanders, which lent them a certain palatial character and considerable prominence within the urban structure of the villages. At the same time, they also served as a place for collecting and storing revenue, for which they needed spaces such as cellars or granaries. Finally, they also included a whole series of outbuildings to serve the house.This study focuses on a group of commandery houses linked to the Military Order of Santiago and located in their seigneuries in La Mancha. On the basis of information obtained from the Libros de Visita in conjunction with other types of sources, and employing an interdisciplinary methodology, there is analysis of the evolution of these buildings between the second half of the 15th and the early decades of the 16th century. This is followed by discussion of various issues common to these singular buildings, such as their location, layout and the different spaces that fulfilled residential, economic and service function. Keywords: Military Orders, Order of Santiago, Material Culture, Architecture, CommanderiesPlace names: La ManchaPeriod: Late Middle Ages REFERENCIASArcos Franco, J. M. (2002), “Tipologías de la arquitectura civil de la Orden de Alcántara: la casa de encomienda en el partido de la Serena”, Norba: revista de arte, 22, pp. 101-118.Ayala Martínez, C. (2003), Las órdenes militares hispánicas en la Edad Media (siglos XII-XV), Madrid, La Torre Literaria.Carrero Pérez, L. M. (1990), El castillo y la villa de Fuentidueña de Tajo (Crónica de un asentamiento Santiaguista), Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid.Eiroa Rodríguez, J. A. (2005), “La interpretación arqueológica de los Libros de Visita de la Orden de Santiago: el complejo fortificado medieval de Socovos (Albacete)”, II Congreso de Castellología Ibérica Alcalá de la Selva (Teruel), 8-11 noviembre 2001, Asociación Española de Amigos de los Castillos, pp. 543-562.Ferreras Fincias, F. J. (1996), “Castrotorafe (Zamora): conservación y ruina de la fortaleza santiaguista, 1494-1736”, Actas del I Congreso Nacional de Historia de la Construcción, Madrid, Ministerio de Fomento, pp. 203-209.García Carpintero López de Mota, J. (2020), “La historia de la construcción a través de los Libros de Visita de la Orden de Santiago”, La construcción fortificada medieval: historia, conservación y gestión: Jornadas Técnicas sobre Historia de la Construcción Medieval Montiel (Ciudad Real), 20-22 de septiembre de 2017, Madrid, Instituto Juan de Herrera, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Fundación Cárdenas, Fundación Castillo de la Estrella de Montiel, pp. 113-132.García Carpintero López de Mota, J. y Gallego Valle, D. (2018), “La arqueología de órdenes militares en Castilla-La Mancha y la reconstrucción virtual de su patrimonio”, Virtual Archaeology Review, 9.19, pp. 76-88.Garrido Santiago, M. (1989), Arquitectura Militar de la Orden de Santiago en Extremadura, Mérida, Junta de Extremadura.Gómez de Terreros Guardiola, M. V. (ed.) (2011), La arquitectura de las órdenes militares en Andalucía: conservación y restauración, Huelva, Universidad de Huelva.Gómez de Terreros Guardiola, M. V. y Gómez de Terreros Guardiola M. G. (2010), “Casas tercias o de bastimento de la Orden de Santiago en Andalucía: La Almona de Guadalcanal (Sevilla)”, Temas de estética y arte, 24, pp. 113-142.Josserand, P. (2004), Église et pouvoir dans la Péninsule ibérique. Les ordres militaires dans le royaume de Castille (1252-1369), Madrid, Casa de Velázquez.Matellanes Merchán, J. V. (2000), “Estructuración orgánica del espacio santiaguista en la submeseta sur (1170-1350)”, Las órdenes militares en la Península Ibérica, Cuenca, Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 1, pp. 723-738.Molero García, J. (2006), “Castillos-casas de la Encomienda en el Campo de Calatrava”, Actas del III Congreso de Castellología Ibérica, Madrid, Asociación Española de Amigos de los Castillos; Diputación Provincial de Guadalajara, pp. 657-680.— (2014), “El binomio castillo-casa de la encomienda en la administración señorial de la Orden de Calatrava (siglos XII-XV)”, Castelos das Ordens Militares. Encontro Internacional, Lisboa, Direção-Geral do Património Cultural, 1, pp. 229-250.Molero García J. y García Carpintero López de Mota, J. (2020), “La reconstrucción del castillo y casa de la encomienda de la Orden de Calatrava en Daimiel a finales de la Edad Media”, V Jornadas de Historia de Daimiel, Museo Comarcal de Daimiel, pp. 15-30.Moya García, C. y Fernández-Pacheco Sánchez-Gil, C. (2016), “Las casas de Bastimento y Encomienda del Campo de Montiel en los siglos XV y XVI”, II Congreso Nacional Ciudad Real y su provincia, Ciudad Real: Instituto de Estudios Manchegos, pp. 158-175.Navareño Mateos, A. (1987), Arquitectura Militar de la Orden de Alcántara en Extremadura, Mérida, Dirección General de Patrimonio Cultural, 1987.Oliveira, L. F. (2014), “Dos castelos às Ordens Militares: Os espaços da vida religiosa e comunitária”, Castelos das Ordens Militares. Encontro Internacional, Lisboa, Direção-Geral do Património Cultural, 2, pp. 389-407.Ortiz Rico, I. M. (1996), “Los libros de visitas de órdenes militares como fuentes historiográficas. La Orden de Santiago en Castilla-La Mancha”, La investigación y las fuentes documentales de los archivos: I y II Jornadas sobre Investigación en Archivos, Guadalajara: Asociación de Amigos del Archivo Histórico Provincial de Castilla La Mancha, 2, pp. 1101-1112.Palacios Ontalva, S. (2000), “Los libros de visita de la Orden de Santiago: fuente para una Historia de la arquitectura militar”, Actas del Tercer Congreso Nacional de Historia de la construcción: Sevilla, 26 a 28 de octubre de 2000, Instituto Juan de Herrera, 2, pp. 751-760.— (2006), Fortalezas santiaguistas: la orden en la ribera del Tajo (siglos XII-XVI), Cuenca, J. S. Palacios.Pérez Monzón, O. (2010), “La arquitectura religiosa y civil de las órdenes militares en la Castilla Medieval”, Del silencio de la cartuja al fragor de la orden militar, Aguilar de Campoo, Fundación Santa María la Real, pp. 201-234.Rodríguez-Picavea Matilla, E. (2007), “El proceso de aristocratización de la Orden de Calatrava (siglos XIII-XV)”, Hispania sacra, 59.120, pp. 493-535.— (2008), Los monjes guerreros en los reinos hispánicos: Las órdenes militares en la Península Ibérica durante la Edad Media, Madrid, La Esfera de los Libros.Rodríguez-Picavea Matilla, E. y Pérez Monzón, O. (2006), “Mentalidad, cultura y representación del poder de la nobleza Calatrava en la Castilla del Siglo XV”, Hispania: Revista española de historia, 66.222, pp. 199-242.Ruiz Mateos, A. (1985), Arquitectura civil de la Orden de Santiago en Extremadura: la casa de la Encomienda: su proyección en Hispanoamérica, Badajoz, Diputación Provincial de Badajoz.— (1988), “Un ejemplo de arquitectura santiaguista en Castilla: Alhambra y La Solana”, I Congreso de Historia de Castilla-La Mancha, Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, 5, pp. 261-271.— (1990), “Arquitectura civil de la Orden de Santiago en la provincia de Madrid”, El Madrid medieval: sus tierras y sus hombres, Madrid, Asociación Cultural Al-Mudayna, pp. 213-237.— (2003), “La Casa Tercia de Consuegra”, Actas del Primer Simposio Histórico de la Orden de San Juan en España, Toledo, Diputación Provincial de Toledo, pp. 387-390.

St Michael’s church in Ston is an important monument of medieval architectural heritage within a wider area of Dubrovnik and the only positively attested monument of the so-called southern Dalmatian single-nave dome type in the area of historical Zahumlje. The church stands on the top of the Gradac hill or St Michael’s Mount (107 m.a.s.l.), at the location of an earlier fortification. Based on an analysis of St Michael’s architecture, as well as its stone furnishing, the author has argued that the church is pre-Romaneseque in origin. It has also been suggested that the belfry (the structure to the west) was built together with the church, since the concept of the ground plan (the width-length ratio, the slightly protruding apse), its small dimensions, as well as its vertical stratigraphy (the belfry and the dome) indicate that it was constructed as a ruler’s chapel. It is most probable that the church was dedicated to Archangel Michael from the very beginning, as the cult of the heavenly host-leader as the patron saint of rulers and their military campaigns was widespread among the upper classes in the early Middle Ages. The time of construction should most probably be connected with the first historically attested and significant ruler of Ston – Duke Mihajlo Višević (before 910 – after 928), who raised Ston to an administrative and ecclesiastical centre of this Sclavinia. An analysis of the younger layer of sculpture in St Michael’s (the monumental window frames and a fragment with human face), as well as its murals, has suggested that the ruler’s chapel was furnished more richly around the mid-11th century. Considering the historical sources on Ston in this period, it has been suggested that its renovation took place at the initiative of Stefan Vojislav (before 1018 – 1043/1050), founder of the Vojislavljević dynasty. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that Vojislav, having defeated Byzantium and its allies (among them the distinguished Duke Ljutovit of Zahumlje) conquered the seat of Zahumlje’s rulers. It may be presumed that he spent some time there as well, since the Byzantine writer Kekaumenos mentions that Vojislav was a toparch in Ston and that he captured the strategos of Dubrovnik. Thus, the conquest of Ston, as well as the glorious victory over both Byzantium and Ljutovit leading the allied army, imposes itself as the probable reason why Stefan Vojislav renovated the church in Ston, namely in order to celebrate his military triumph in the chapel of the defeated ruler of Zahumlje. The reconstruction most probably took place between 1042/43 and 1050, after Vojislav’s victory and before his death.

The article analyzes the plan of the city of Lviv by Jean Doetsch from 1770 - one of the first cartographic sources to the history of the city. The significance of the plan for the scientific reconstruction of the state of the architectural and town-planning structures of the city for the second half of the 18th century is revealed. The hypothesis that the map was made for educational and military purposes is substantiated. This is evidenced by a careful fixation of the fortification structure of the city center, indicating the number of lines of defensive walls, fossas, gates, other elements. Many objects depicted on the plan were lost at a later time, so their identification, analysis of the planning structure are important to preserve information about them. Brief characteristics are given for such objects. The peculiarity of Doetsch's map is that the plan of the High Castle which is presented twice on the sheet. The image of the inventory plan of the ruins of the High Castle is placed in a separate vignette in the lower left corner of the map. This image is a unique material that accurately conveys the nature of the fortifications of the complex and indicates its real state in the second half of the XVIII century. This plan of the castle made in a more detailed scale than the map. Another image of the High Castle, painted directly "in situ" on the mountain, does not show the correct configuration and planimetric structure of the object. We consider this image as a project of modernization of the castle fortifications, which was crossed out from an unknown source. Such special attention to the High Castle, a medieval defensive object, also, in our opinion, demonstrates the didactic purposes of compiling the map. The map as a whole accurately conveys the urban structure of Lviv in the second half of the eighteenth century and is a very valuable source for studying its history and architecture. Also valuable is the information with the list of the main objects of Lviv included in the vignette-explication of “Nomina Locorum” to the map, although there are some mistakes regarding the name and numbering of individual objects. The plans of a number of objects of Lviv from that time - St. George's Cathedral, St. John's Church near the High Castle, the Jesuit Garden, Armenian monasteries in the Krakow suburbs, some palace complexes that no longer exist today have a particular value. The question remains why Doetsch's plan does not depict two defensive bastion lines built around the Krakow and Halych suburbs in the 17th century: the so-called F. Getkant's line (from the 1630s) and Jan Berentz's defensive belt (from the 1670s). At the time of compiling the map, they still existed and were the dominant defense complexes in the panorama and landscape of the city. As a separate study, the analysis and identification of the location of the palace of the royal mayor A. Moszinsky on the basis of J. Doetsch's map was performed. We consider this a good example of using the informative potential of the map.

The essay provides a summary overview of the main phenomena of artistic culture during the Middle Ages in the West and the East (from the Birth of Christ to the 13th century). The paper covers the global art culture of the medieval period both from the point of view of the general historical process and in the consideration of individual types of art (sculpture, architecture, painting, literature, music). The author examines the achievements of medieval authors in these types of creativity: the increasing trends towards simplification in depiction of man and mythological creatures in Western art, the progressive development of art in the East (the rise of architecture and urban planning, the development of fine art). There is a turn towards the acquisition of civilizational forms of existence in Western art under the influence of feudalism and monotheistic religion. Special attention is paid to understanding the category of the universe in the medieval period, the construction of fortifications as reflections of the militant mood of the Middle Ages, manifestations of lyrical imagery in the artistic culture of the West and the East. As a result, the author concludes that medieval art represents a huge, richest layer of the artistic culture of mankind, the most important stage for the creation of artistic classics in the East and later in Russia.

Taking as a pretext the publication of two graphic documents concerning the forgotten Hisn of Coina-a-Velha (S. Lourenço de Azeitão), the authors synthesize the available information about this medieval fortifi cation, in its Islamic and Christian course. Although the testimonies of occupation are more remote, the architectural structure reveals a castle built by Muslim forces, around the 9th or 10th century, which survived after being incorporated into the space of the Christian kingdom. The last military events occurred in 1184 and 1191, both with harsh consequences on the fortifi cation, which must have been defi nitively abandoned in the early 13th century.

The Soğanlı Valley is on the main route that connects Niğde and Kayseri. Its arable land, rock-cut dwellings that housed a large population and an openly parochial complex from the tenth century indicate that the settlement contained a Byzantine village. Its masonry church, a rare element from late antiquity, exemplifies the special status of the settlement in early Christianity and foreshadows its ongoing importance in the Middle Ages. The eleventh-century inscriptions are the indicators of the middle and high-ranking soldiers in the settlement. Apparently, Soğanlı was one of the settlements chosen for the military leaders of the century and became a piece of land held by them. The powerful (dynatoi) who settled near this crucial route must have been meant not only to control that route but also to maintain their economic welfare from the territory. Thus, Soğanlı had a twofold prominence as a Byzantine countryside: It was a part of the defence strategy the empire attempted to formulate in medieval Cappadocia; furthermore, it housed important archaeological, epigraphical and art historical data on the medieval period of the region with its monuments of various functions and inscriptions. Soğanlı and its ‘dynatoi’ endured within the new administrative system after Manzikert. The study aims to examine the ‘village’ identity of the settlement especially in the tenth century, and to analyse the activity and continuity of the powerful in Soğanlı and the empire. Within this aim, the study uses the military, historical, legislative texts of the period, and architectural and archaeological data from the valley.

The article presents a comparative analysis of fortification art monuments in such East countries from Ancient Egypt to medieval China. An attempt is made to identify the main stages of the fortification development from a stand-alone fortress (citadel, fort) to the most complex systems of urban and border fortifications, including moats, walls and gates, battle towers. It is shown that the nature of these architectural structures is determined by the status of the city or settlement, its natural landscape, building structures and materials, the development of military and engineering art. The materials from poliorceticon (Greek: poliorketikon, poliorketika), illustrate the main types of siege machines and mechanisms. The advantages and disadvantages of boundary shafts and long walls (limes). The most striking examples are the defensive systems of Assyria, New Babylon, Judea and Ancient China.

La historiografía sobre fortificaciones medievales en el ámbito medieval cristiano es tan amplia como dispersa. Abundan los estudios de carácter local abordados con metodologías y desde disciplinas diversas, empezando por los clásicos trabajos de Historia del Arte e Historia de la Arquitectura, y, por supuesto, los de contenido estrictamente histórico, planteados desde el estudio de las fuentes escritas y, más recientemente, desde la Arqueología. Faltan, no obstante, estudios de conjunto y aunque se ha abordado el tema de la conceptualización y clasificación tipológica de estas fortalezas, creemos que sigue siendo una asignatura pendiente en el ámbito de la castellología. El presente trabajo pretende pues abordar la problemática sobre la definición y límites del castillo medieval, para pasar después a plantear una clasificación tipológica y funcional de los castillos cristianos peninsulares, para lo cual tendremos en cuenta no sólo la producción historiográfica reciente, sino también nuestras propias investigaciones de base fundamentalmente arqueológica. Palabras clave: Castellología, castillo feudal, tipología castral, reinos cristianos peninsulares, poliorcéticaTopónimos: Península IbéricaPeríodo: siglos VIII-XV ABSTRACTHistoriography on the subject of medieval fortifications in the medieval Christian area is as wide as it is disperse. There is an abundance of local studies undertaken employing different methodologies, starting with the History of Art, the History of Architecture and, of course, those of strictly historical content, based on the study of written sources and, more recently, on Archaeology. However, there is a lack of comprehensive studies and, although the problem of the conceptualisation and typological classification of these fortresses has been addressed, I believe that this continues to be an unresolved issue in the field of castellology. This article aims to address the problem of the definition and limits of the medieval castle, and then propose a typological and functional classification of peninsular Christian castles, taking into account not only recent historiographical production but also my own archaeological research. Keywords: castellology, feudal castle, castral typology, peninsular Christian kingdoms, polyorceticPlace names: Iberian PeninsulaPeriod: 8th-15th centuries REFERENCIASAcién Almansa, M. (2002), “De nuevo sobre la fortificación del emirato” en Mil anos de Fortificações na Península Ibérica e no Magreb (500-1500). Actas do simpósio internacional sobre castelos, Lisboa, pp. 59-75.Almedia, C. A. F. de (1991), “Castelos e cercas medievais. 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The cityscapes of medieval Europe were divided by a multitude of towers. However, in addition to ecclesiastical, communal, or military buildings, another similarly complex group of towers can be outlined: the ones erected by various burghers within their plots. These towers still have a special place in the skyline and topographical system of several German cities like Regensburg or its Italian counterparts, including Bologna, Lucca, and Siena. In Central Europe, however, they represent a much more fractured and forgotten source, even though they were once built in good numbers in the cities of the region. Although research quickly recognized their importance, and a series of studies were recently published discussing them, a comprehensive analysis has not yet been carried out. Based on these premises, I examined the urban private towers of the Central European region along with their remaining architectural features and possible functional interpretation.

Given the musical origins of soundscape studies, soundscape preservation might suggest the need to protect specific features-such as prominent soundmarks or long-standing natural sounds-to maintain a sonic environment's composition. However, the identification of a soundscape primarily by its discrete elements misses the importance of relational longevity. A relational lens of identification can distinguish a soundscape's effects on visitors rather than simply the presence of specific components, placing human perception candidly at the center of consideration. For instance, an urban courtyard might no longer echo with hand-drawn carts from the street, yet visitors continue to experience a distanced connection with evolving traffic sounds - here the sonic-spatial relationship persists rather than sonic elements being frozen in time. This paper will discuss longevity in the relationships connecting use, architectural space, and sonic character. The discussion draws from architectural analysis, soundwalking, and psychoacoustic research in exploring soundscape preservation within the orbit of heritage conservation more broadly. Case studies focus on a variety of historic contexts, including a military installation, medieval church, and factory landscape, highlighting the limitations of a compositional soundscape reading, the fundamental role of transit through a soundscape for visitors, and the potentials for relational analysis in soundscape preservation efforts.

This article concerns the study of power and space within the Archbishop's Palace in Trondheim and, in particular, how the structure and organization of the precinct in the late medieval period formed a medium through which the archbishop's powers were exercised. Its aim is to explore the ways in which the spatial patterning of occupation, as revealed by the recent excavations in the palace, can cast light on the articulation of the archbishop's wealth, status and authority during the turbulent period prior to the Reformation.The theoretical starting point is a reformulation of Michael Mann's theory of social power and Anthony Giddens's concept of ‘locale’ within a Marxist framework. It is suggested that, in the historical context of the crisis of Scandinavian feudalism, the palace at Trondheim became the focus for overlapping networks of ideological, economic, military and political power. These developments were expressed through the reorganization of the architectural space and the construction of a series of workshop complexes within the walled precinct between c. AD 1500 and 1537. By analysing the archaeological evidence for craft production, in particular minting, this paper considers how the palace formed a locale for the interaction of a specific set of social relations. It consequently examines some of the processes underpinning the expansion of the archbishop's power during the late medieval period, and discusses the social dynamics behind the conflict between the Church and the centralizing, Protestant-leaning forces of the Danish-Norwegian state.

This article is a critical input to the national and international debate on Gun Control and the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution since 1791. Auspiciously, the paper interrogates the historical, ideological, and socio-cultural roots of the Gun Rights from Medieval Europe to modern America as well as its implications for homeland security in 21st Century American society. The whole legalistic, philosophical and socio-cultural rationale for and against the Gun Control Question in mainstream American politics elicits many questions: Why has it been legislatively infeasible to address the frailties inherent in the 2nd Amendment texts? Is the Second Amendment immutable amid post-1791 realities? Has morality lost its place in American politics? Was the rights prescribed under 2nd Amendment vested on the individuals as construed impliedly or on the people as expressly stipulated in the constitution? And why has America with the most sophisticated military and intelligence architecture in the world failed to demonstrate the capability to contain sectarian killings in the land? The paper submits that the Gun Control Debate lays bare, one of the internal cleavages within the American political and social system, a nation so admired not just by her military, economic and diplomatic clout but also by the valued she stresses and defend world over: freedom, justice, equality and global peace, ideals for which the United States supplanted pax-Britanica for Pax-Americana. The appalling antecedents of gun killings in America knows no rank with 11 presidential assassination attempts for which four American presidents died: Abraham Lincoln (1865), James Garfield (1881); William McKinley (1901) John F Kennedy (1963) with Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan seriously injured in the 1912 and 1981 assassination attempts. The quartet presidential assassins: John Wilkes Booth; Charles J. Guiteau; Leon Czolgosz and Lee Harvey Oswald were all some of the first high profile abusers of the 2nd Amendment and the gun rights it granted. The death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X among many also resonates one of the foundational flaws of a nation globally reputed as the policeman of the earth. When will this trend ever end?.Millions have gone yet there seems to be hyper-partisanship about the Gun Control Question. This political cleavage represents a failure of the present generation of the political elites, the people and the American institutions to rise above and repeal the frailty of the 2nd Amendment, couched in one of the most nebulous languages in constitutional framings since the first ten Amendment to the world’s first-ever written constitution was ratified on 15 December 1791.The lessons from the government response to the Gun Question never placed America as a society developing societies should aspire to become, it is totally antithetical to the admirable values known about the greatest nation since the collapse of Nazism, Fascism and in the last decade of the 20th Century Communism for which in the submissions of Francis Fukuyama, Liberal Democracy became the Last Man metaphorically outlasting all other contending ideological contemporaries thus: “The End History”. The moral, spiritual, political leaders of America must converge on one front on the Gun Question, the Republicans must not hide under conservative garb and watch the blood of innocent generation of Americans been wasted by abusers of the Second Amendment. The appropriate measures to put a permanent lid on the mindless gun-related deaths must be carried out. The Democrats must forge a bipartisan consensus to arrest the moral drift in the land under the guise of the 2nd Amendment’s immutability clause: “shall not be infringed upon”. American political leaders must not under whatever guise send the wrong signal to the international community that will characterize the state as a policeman that cannot police his home, Charity begins at home, it is contradictory, antithetical and undermined every value upon which America prides herself under the rubric Pax-Americana. Historical antecedents show that the National Rifle Association is a shadow of itself, haven being skewed from its original goal to promote martial qualities and marksmanship to a lobbyist group without conscience for humanity. The American Institutions must live up to their mandate to tame the sinister and overbearing influence of the group. To the political leaders of the land the patriots of the 1775 Revolution fought for a land of the free it is your bounden duty to ensure their labor never be in vain: Lincoln was conscious of this during the heady days as was Andrew John who put their differences aside to restore national psyche, President Trump must not trade the blood of the children of America with his 2020 presidential re-election ambition as the NRA pro-Trump for 2020 billboards suggests. The Gun-Control debates further lays bare one of the antinomies of American Conservatism “being pro-life, anti-abortion and at the same time, pro-gun” as the abuses and defense of the 2nd Amendment represent one of the Ideological conspiracies against under the garb of Classical Liberalism propagated by contemporary votaries of American conservatism.

Built in the years between 1915 and 1918, and located on the west bank of the “Varano” Lake, a bay running along the village of “Cagnano Varano”, the “Ivo Monti” seaplane base was erected on a pre-existing medieval settlement which belonged to the Benedictine Monks from the town of “San Nicola Imbuti”. <br><br> During WWI, this seaplane base was turned, from a simple water airport, into a strategic military base for floatplanes. As a matter of fact, the large lagoon could be used as landing spot for the planes sent off to patrol the dalmatic coast, one of the historical regions of Croatia, then controlled by the Austrians. <br><br> After WWI, after the seaplane became an outdated technology, the “Ivo Monti” base was progressively dismantled and then totally abandoned at the beginning of the 1950s. <br><br> In 2014, considering the historical relevance of this site and the unmistakable architectural value of its elements, a research framework agreement was signed between the “DICEA” Department of Marche Polytechnic University and the city council of the town hosting the site, aimed at the development of shared scientific research projects revolving around the study, the valorisation, and the restoration of the military complex in question, which had been in a complete state of decay and neglect for too long. <br><br> The still ongoing research project mentioned presents two main missions: the first is the historical reconstruction, the geometric mapping, and the robustness analysis of the ruins, by studying and faithfully representing the state of deterioration of the building materials and of the facilities; the second is the identification and the testing of potential architectural solutions for the conversion and the reuse of the site and of its facilities.

Se presenta el estudio de un conjunto de estructuras medievales y modernas que resulta fundamental para conocer la historia de Fez la Nueva y la arquitectura defensiva del Occidente islámico. En este punto de la ciudad, permanecen los restos de un dispositivo militar novedoso en su contexto histórico, de modo que es preciso analizarlos con el objetivo de confirmar la cronología insinuada por las fuentes escritas, así como precisar su configuración y evolución.

The article is devoted to the issues of Ahsikent’s archaeological sites museumification. The aim of the article is to consider Ahsikent, which is the only thoroughly explored historical city of Ferghana, where as a result of archeological studies pottery in which iron and copper from Shakhristan were melted, as well as metal furnaces from artisans’ trade shops were found. Methods of study. The archaeological study of the site, which is described as "Fergana Afrosiyob", began in 1885. The results of the research. Excavations have shown that in the trade shops of Ahsikent various objects made with simplest metal and used for building and housekeeping, as well as swords and kargases that are capable to cut stones and not break when bending. The author also outlines that items found on the territory of Ahsikent indicate a high level of development of various crafts: pottery, metallurgy of bronze, contexture, jewelry, etc. The article also describes the methods of chemical conservation of sites, in particular, specific steps to restore the historical site of the The article also describes methods of chemical preservation of sites, specific steps to restore the historical site are proposed, among them: restoration of the ancient medieval appearance of Ahsikent with drawings and reliefs that depict the landscapes of Ahsikent; demonstration of the political, social and economic state of Ahsikent (writing, medical articles, coins); publication of decorative and applied art created by artisans (ceramics, glassware, jewelry), items related to military art (weapons of soldiers, arrows, bows), architectural structures (fragments of architectural decoration, foundations, stone products, ceramic pipes, wall paintings). It is concluded that it would be advisable to organize a multi-sided, deep and thorough study of the site of Ahsikent by attracting appropriate different specialists, turn Ahsikent into an open-air museum and introduce this area to international tourist destinations.

<p>La irrupción de la artillería marcó el comienzo de un acelerado proceso de refundación de la arquitectura militar durante el Renacimiento. Esta necesidad trascendía el plano funcional al que se vincula tradicionalmente la fortificación, poniendo en riesgo las connotaciones simbólicas y representativas que hasta ese momento representaban las murallas medievales en el imaginario colectivo. El dibujo, como medio por el que comprender la nueva realidad impuesta por la artillería y herramienta con la que guiar las reflexiones de los arquitectos participes de este desafío, tomó un papel activo en la refundación de lo que hoy en día conocemos como la fortificación bastionada, definiendo las bases de una nueva lógica geométrica y formal de la que trata este artículo. Dos proyectos de Leonardo da Vinci reconstruidos por el autor, sirven de base para estudiar la base geométrica y formal que fundó esta nueva idea de la fortificación.</p>

The article analyzes the formation of the Turkic political elite, their features and position in the complex and large-scale management system of the Golden Horde.The administrative structure of the Golden Horde had its own characteristics in comparison with all the states that emerged after the collapse of the Mongol Empire. Including the active role of nomadic Turkic-Mongolian aristocrats in the structure of the administration of the Golden Horde and its social and political life, was reflected in the ranks of the military aristocracy (noyons, beks, emirs). In the article, the main attention in the analysis of the activities of the Turkic political elite was paid to the information of geneology, heroic epics and legends, as well as medieval written sources. Information from written sources was compared with samples of historical epics and Kazakh genealogies. The article analyzes several ways and factors that contributed to the transformation of natives of nomadic Turkic-Mongolian tribes into the political elite of the Golden Horde. The Beks, who came from local tribes, went down in history as influential figures who played a special role in the history of the Golden Horde.As a result of Kypchakization, the ideology of Genghis Khan underwent changes. However, it formed its worldview in the post-Golden Horde, including in the late period of the Kazakh Khanate, and remained in the history of our people to this day in the form of legends, epics, architectural monuments.

Lying near the heart of Bremen, the St. Katharinen district is bounded by two of the city’s principal medieval, and now modern, streets. As one of the earliest documented structures on the site, the Dominican monastery of St. Katharinen has come to define much of the urban fabric of the district. A substantial building complex, it served a variety of scholarly, commercial, military and domestic roles following the Reformation, not least housing the city armory, State library and the city’s first university. Subject to periods of extensive redevelopment, much of the complex was finally lost to the bombing raids of the Second World War and a traffic-widening scheme of the 1970s. Only a fragment now remains of the original claustral buildings, a multistory car park erected on piloti rising overhead.Over successive redevelopments, the site was cleared with minimal archaeological investigation. Further, little scholarly research been conducted on the site to date. As such, any attempt to reconstruct the appearance of St Katharinen is now an act of inference from archival sources: a process of archival archaeology. As part of ongoing work, I will present a new and emerging understanding of the St Katharinen district and its urban transformation across the centuries, drawing on the most extensive body of construction, land registry, visual, textual, laser scanning and Lidar data yet assembled for the site. Whilst a project of this kind is grounded in the traditional approaches of historical architectural research, it is the capacity to assemble and analyze these diverse data sources within common digital environments that makes this conjectural reconstruction work possible.

Ключові слова: система укріплень, фортеця Тягин, археологічні дослідження, фортифікаційна лінія, Північне Причорномор’я. Анотація Історико-археологічне вивчення маловідомого періоду перебування українських земель у складі Великого князівства Литовського і Руського : розбудови фортець, організації транснаціональної торгівлі, матеріальної культури є актуальним завданням сучасного етапу наукових досліджень. Завдяки археологічним розкопкам останніх 2016-2021рр. зроблені видатні відкриття у галузі вивчення комплексу пам’яток Південної фортифікаційної лінії, які засвідчують наявність спільної історичної спадщини Литви і України у Північному Причорномор’ї. У статті показано, що дослідження 2016-2021 рр. довели надзвичайну важливість вивчення археологічних пам’яток українських земель доби середньовіччя у Північному Причорномор’ї. Знаковим відкриттям, визнаним українською та світовою спільнотою, постало створення доказової бази існування будівельних залишків фортеці Тягинь, архітектурно-археологічних об’єктів та ознак литовської присутності. Її розташування на крайньому Півдні території Великого князівства Литовського та Руського уособлювало важливий форпост захисту українських земель, важливого чинника створення передумов становлення нового суспільного стану козацтва та його використання у захисті батьківщини. Посилання Аrhiv, 1854 – Аrhiv sctoriko-yuridichnyh svedeniy, otnosyaschihsya do Rossii, izd.Nikolaem Kalachovym. M., 1854. kn. 2., 544 s [in Russian] Biliaieva, Fialko, Hulenko, 2017 – Biliaieva S.O., Fialko O.Ye. Hulenko K.S. Arkheolohichni doslidzhennia poselennia bilia s. Tiahynka u 2016 r. [Archaeological investigationsof the settlement andfortress tiagin: some resultsand problems] // Novi doslidzhennia pam’iatok kozatskoi doby v Ukraini. Vyp. 26. 2017. S. 495-502. 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Architectural and urban organization of Przemyśl in the era of Kievan Rus' remains a little-studied topic. Significant changes that city has undergone throughout history have almost completely leveled the spatial structure of the first centuries of its history, when it was the capital, and later, the second most important city in Halician Rus'. One of the few covered topics are the identification and localization of religious buildings of the X-XIV centuries. Sometimes, data about them is obtained from small crumbs of information preserved in medieval sources, as well as in archaeological materials. The articles summarize the sources and archaeological materials about probable existence of ancient Rus` Ascension church on so-called "Tatar Hill" in Przemyśl. On their basis it provides arguments on this hypotheses. Such arguments are: onomastic (historical dominance of the name of the Ascension and its derivatives in the area), necropolic (presence of traces of the churchyard), ritualistic (ancient tradition of religious processions that ended here), conversionalistic (existence here in the XVI - XVII centuries roman-catholic chapel of St. Leonard may be associated with the practice of transformation of Latin temples from old Rus` ones). Additionally, it is supported by the practice of building rocky-wooden objects in Нalician Rus', a number of which were discovered in the second half of the twentieth century. Due to the exceptional location of the hill in terms of survey of the area and archaeological material, it was suggested a military nature of its use. However, in all the archaeological research conducted here since the nineteenth (and possibly eighteenth centuries), no object of military purpose has been found. This is a stark contrast, for example, to the archeological material found on Stare Zamchysko Hill (or the hill of the Three Crosses), one kilometer to the north-west. Probable structure of the Ascension Hill in ancient Rus` times can be outlined as such. The church could be part of a small monastery complex and was located on the highest rock from the west. The rock was partially covered with earth to eliminate cracks and level the surface. Further to the east there was a reduction, on which, on the loose soil, there were living quarters. The complex could protect the fence, both at the top and around the hill.

The article analyzes the main features of the interaction of functional filling and planning urban planning techniques in the central parts of major historical cities in the course of their development. Such an analysis is essential to the choice of optimal reconstructive solutions, with the necessary preservation of the historical and aesthetic value of the urban heritage. Similarly to the influence of the functional purpose of the building on the whole complex of planning and composite solutions, the primary definition of the semantic meaning of urban formation is directly influenced by the drawing and its plan, the logic of the interaction of the main urban planning categories from antiquity to our time. Thus, the main functional designation of medieval European cities as trading, defense and military ports has developed characteristic forms of their plans, optimal for the proper functioning of urban entities. Subsequently, after the destruction of irrelevant fortifications and in the process of territorial growth of cities significantly increases the range and volume of city functions and takes advantage of an open flexible scheme of microstructures in the developed system of the center outside the central core, which should maintain a high rank of historical and cultural emphasis of the city. In order to avoid the phenomena of functional degradation of separate spaces of the center or excessive dynamism of functions capable of distorting the value of historical and architectural substance, it is necessary to estimate the optimal capacity of the city center, that is, the quantitative and qualitative optimum of functions, which can perceive the historical environment without reducing its cultural and aesthetic values due to the harmonious interaction of functional and planning categories. This harmony can be achieved not only by adapting the contents and form of the city center to new needs, but also by adjusting these needs to the optimal possibilities of the historical environment, which may partially offset the comfort of the home by its special advantages.

As a result of archaeological observations in Derbent, carried out in 2020, a Muslim burial ground was discovered, representing a section of the medieval northern city necropolis, located behind the northern city defensive wall. More than 80 sarcophagus-like gravestones were discovered, made of a single stone monolith and consisting of an upper part - a body and a protruding rectangular plinth. They are of three main types: 1 - with a semicircular cross-section of the body (semi-cylindrical), 2 - with a lancet cross-section, 3 - with a rectangular cross-section of the body. There are sarcophagi nos. 1-3, two of which (sarcophagi nos. 1, 2) have figured images on the top of the case - this is an eight-pointed star or a simplified octogram - the famous Muslim symbol rubʿ al-Hizb or najmat al-Quds, associated with one of the main Muslim shrines - the Dome of the Rock (Masjid Qubbat as-Sahra) mosque in Jerusalem, but also known in the literature as the “Selçuklu Yıldızı” (Tur. Selçuklu Yıldızı), which became widespread in the Seljuk Empire in architectural decor and decorative and applied arts art ceramics, metal) in various variations. The length of the body of the identified sarcophagi ranges from 52 to 266 cm with a width of 19 to 68 cm and a height of 13 to 56 cm; the length of the plinth ranges from 68 cm to 288 cm with a width of 40-95 cm and a thickness of 5-10 cm. Obviously, the size of the sarcophagi reflects three age categories of the buried: children, adolescents, and adults. Sarcophagus No. 40 has an epitaph in Arabic in the Kufi script of the 11th-12th centuries.All in situ sarcophagi are oriented to the west and indicate the location of burials beneath them, apparently having the same orientation and made in elongated rectangular stone boxes (cysts).The revealed sarcophagi dating back to the last third of the 11th - 12th centuries. and their appearance in Derbent and Dagestan is associated with the Seljuk military-political and ethnocultural expansion in the Eastern Caucasus.