Medieval crosses

The paper focuses on the individual silver cross-pendants of the mid 10th–11th century from the Eastern and Northern Europe. The type
was identified for the first time by N. Nedoshivina in 1983. The paper considers new findings (today more than 30) and the hypothesis about their Scandinavian origins is critically analyzed. The actual condition of the research shows the Byzantine origin of these crosses. This fact
became especially clear after the excavations of two-apse medieval church in 2007 in Yedi Evler area near Aluston, the Crimea, where the crosses under consideration, including two made of coins
have been attested. All crosses were brought here as ex-voto offering between the mid 9th–mid 10th century and have a priority in chronology over pendants from Northern Europe. The latest may have been created using a Byzantine example or brought directly from this region in several cases.
During the cultural transformation of the Christianization period, crosses that initially belonged to liturgical public culture and marked the new
post-iconoclasm Orthodoxy as a manifestation of personal activity, were turned into private devotion objects and used as an element in burial
customs.

Bu araştırma projesinde, 2863 sayılı yasaya uygun olarak 30.01.1994 yılından bu yana Kültür Bakanlığı İzmir Arkeoloji Müzesine kayıtlı olan koleksiyoner A. Özkan Arıkantürk’ün koleksiyonunda bulunan haçlar üzerinde çalışılmıştır. Sayın A. Özkan Arıkantürk bu çalışmayı yapabilmem için envanterindeki eserlerin bilgilerini paylaşmıştır.
Haçların toplamı 28 adettir. 2863 sayılı yasaya uygun olarak satın alma yoluyla sahiplenilen bu haçların çıkış yerleri kesin olarak bilinmemekle beraber Burhaniye ve Edremit Körfezi yakın çevresine ait olmaları muhtemeldir. Bu haçlar, bazı kazılarda çıkan benzer haçlarla karşılaştırılarak yaklaşık tarihlendirme yapılmıştır. Farklı materyallerden üretilen haçlar benzerleriyle karşılaştırılarak ve tipolojik özelliklerine bakılarak bir katalog oluşturulmuştur. Haçların 8 tanesi üç yıldır Edremit Kazdağı Özel Müzesinde sergilenmektedir. Bu haçların fotoğraf ve incelemeleri de yerinde yapılmıştır.
              Projede çalışmamda yardımcı olan danışmanım Prof. Dr. Ceren Ünal’a, haç koleksiyonlarını çalışmam için bana izin veren koleksiyoner Özkan Arıkantürk ve ailesine, teşekkürlerimi sunarım. Materyal yardımları ve desteklerini esirgemeyen  Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Sanat Tarihi Bölümü Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Meryem Acara Eser’e (kaynakçalar için), Niğde Müzesi Müdür Vekili Sayın Yakup Ünlüler’e (haçları tarihlendirmedeki yardımları için), Süleyman Demirel üniversitesi Dr. Öğr. Üyesi P. Talloen (fotoğrafları tarafıma göndermiştir), Çanakkale Üniversitesi Öğr. Üyesi Doç. Dr. Oğuz Koçyiğit (internet adresleri yardımında bulunmuşlardır)’e  bu çalışmamdaki yardımlarından dolayı teşekkür ederim.
Dört yıl süren okul hayatım boyunca bana sabır gösteren eşim Ömer ve oğlum Can Savuran’a da ayrıca teşekkür ederim.

Studies the origin of the idiomatic expression "in medio ecclesiae" in Ps 22 ("in medio ecclesiae laudabo te") and its application by frankish theologians to Cross-monuments in carolingian churches and the liturgy of their dedication. The increasing use of such crosses in the liturgical hours and for the meditation of the Passion in carolingian prayer books from the 9th century on may be one reason for the change from the aniconic cross depiction to the later crucifixion image and for the following placement of tombs of founders before the cross and its altar around 1000. Examines the relation of this liturgical development to the first monumental crucifixions in Carolingian and Ottonian Art.

Стаття присвячена ґенезі, походженню, проблемам дослідження, типології та атрибуції хрестоподібних петрогліфів з лунками-просвердлинами у печерах Подністров’я. Залучені матеріали багаторічних досліджень автора та широке коло аналогій з Криму та Болгарії.

Two crosses, dated from the Early Middles Ages,
are preserved in the treasure of Oviedo cathedral. One of them
was donated by Alfonso II (808), the other by Alfonso III
(908). Both of them are cruces gemmatae, the model of which
was the Golgotha cross. The oldest sources do not mention the
Oviedo crosses but they later became the emblems of Asturias,
linked to legendary events. In this article, I will try to explain
how their new symbolic meanings could be related to the
process of the important diocesan activities undertaken in the
Oviedo cathedral mainly by the intelligent bishop Pelagius (1101-1153), who promoted a new interpretation of the Oviedo
crosses: the Cruz de los Ángeles as an acheiropoieton, linked to
the renewed fashion that revived the Lignum Crucis shrines in
the shape of a crux gemmata between two angels; the Cruz de
la Victoria, which became the king’s banner in the battle of
Covadonga.

1. О каменных крестах Тесовской волости.
2. Еще раз о каменных крестах "в круге". Рецензия на статью А.Л. Потравнова и Т.Ю. Хмельник "Каменные кресты в круге на северо-западе России"//Археология и история Пскова и Псковской земли. Вып. 29. М.; Псков; СПБ. 2014.

Арабский дирхем с граффити с поселения Горожане Резюме. В 2016 году в фонды Псковского музея-заповедника поступила частная коллекция археологических предметов, собранных в 2011-2012 гг. на поселении Го-рожане на юге Псковской области. Основная часть предметов датируется X-XI вв. н. э. Монетная часть коллекции состоит из 245 куфических монет. В ней выделяется дирхем с граффити на обеих сторонах, состоящих из изображений ромбоконечного креста, стяга и стрелы. Аналогии изображений встречаются среди граффити на монетах из Гнёздовского поселения и Клейменовского кладов, а также на трапецие-видных геральдических подвесках со знаками Рюриковичей. Ключевые слова: Псков, Гнёздово, дирхем, граффити, знаки Рюриковичей, геральдика, нумизматика M. A. Vasiliev. Arabic Dirham with Graffiti from the Settlement of Gorozhane Abstract. In 2016, the Pskov Museum-reserve received a private collection of archaeological items collected in 2011-2012 at the settlement of Gorozhane in the South of the Pskov region. The main part of the items dates back to the 10 th-11 th cc. AD. The coin part of the collection consists of 245 dirhams. It highlights a dirham with graffiti on both sides, consisting of images of a pointed-rhomboid cross, a banner and an arrow. Analogies of the image are found among the graffiti on coins from the Gnezdovo settlement and Kleimenovo hoard, as well as on heraldic pendants with Riurikid signs.

In the collection of the Herman Ottó Museum, Miskolc, there is a hanging cross, which has been discovered in 1900 at Tiszakeszi‒Szódadomb in an early Arpadian cemetery. It is very likely that this cross resulted from the transformation of another object, because on its base there is a spike or köpü, which was intended to fasten it to some piece of wood. In this paper, after reviewing the possibilities, I conclude that the original object was most probably a so-called blessing cross. This kind of object is still used in the orthodox liturgy, but was certainly more widespread during the Early Middle Ages, since there are many pieces known from Langobard, Merovingian and Carolingian contexts. As the object was secondarily altered and is not a common type of grave good, it can vaguely dated to the 10-11th century, but it is hardly reflecting the religiosity of the buried person nor can the circumstances of its transformation be determined with any certainty

The article considers the origin and functional meaning of four limestone crosses from N. P. Likhachev collection owned by the Hermitage. They had been kept in the collection of the Museum of Writing as the patterns of the Old Russian epigraphy until 1938 when they were given over to the State Hermitage. Two crosses belong to the type of an encircled cross with expanded arms, and the other two are of the four-pointed type with rectangular blades. All of them have the distinctive features that were popular in the Novgorod tradition: relief of the cross in the center, relief border along the rim and the special "wolf's tooth" ornament on the surface. Three of these crosses also have relief inscriptions-monograms which were characteristic of burial crosses.
One of the encircled crosses has no relief inscriptions. Such type of crosses was popular in Novgorod at the time of archbishop Alexei (1360-1388) as the sculptural embedded into the walls of churches. At the same time, the tradition of placing votive encircled crosses inside churches or chapels – the most famous are Lyudogoschinsky wooden cross 1359 (Novgorod) and Borovichsky stone cross 13th century (Russian Museum, SPb) – was widespread in this period, too. There are no traces of mortar on the surface of this cross, which means it was not set into the wall of a church. Besides, this cross was unlikely to be erected outdoors because it does not have the salience for the insertion into a cross-base. This cross is supposed to have been made as a votive one in the 14th century.
Three other crosses with monogram inscriptions are distinguished from the first one: they have smaller size and have the salience for the insertion into a cross-base. They are examples of a local tradition in 14th-15th centuries, which was very common in the rural area of Novgorod lands. The center of this tradition was St. Clement pogost (churchyard) within the Tesovo district, in the closest neighborhood to Novgorod. The crosses have inscriptions which are decorative relief that is the ‘illiterate’ copy of traditional Novgorod burial cross monograms: IС ХС НИКА ЦAРЬ СЛАВЫ.
The analogues of the crosses of the same type were also found in the other museums.

Der Beitrag diskutiert die Tafelkreuze Giunta Pisanos im Kontext der italienischen Malerei des Duecento. Aus forschungsgeschichtlicher Perspektive fragt sie nach den Gründen, die zur Bezeichnung der Kreuze Giuntas in der kunsthistorischen Forschung des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts als „byzantinisch“ geführt haben und hinterfragt diese Zuschreibung anhand der Objektevidenz. Der zweite Teil des Beitrags ist als case study dem Tafelkreuz Giuntas für San Domenico in Bologna gewidmet. Ziel ist es, den Aspekt der Materialität innerhalb der Tafelkreuzforschung zu stärken. Im Zentrum der Fallstudie stehen die blauen Kreuzbalken der croce dipinta in Bologna, mittelalterliche Bedeutungszuweisungen an die Farbe Blau und Topographien blauer Objekte.

This article compares two national shrines, the Cross of Dagmar (Denmark) and the Cross of St. Euphrosyne (Belarus), providing novel evidence that both crosses could have been made by the same master. It has long been contended that the Cross of Dagmar allegedly belonged to Queen Dagmar from Bohemia, the first wife of the Danish king Valdemar II, son of Sophia of Minsk and Valdemar the Great. A former director of the Danish National Museum, Fritze Lindahl, was the first to propose a hypothesis that the Cross of Dagmar could have come to Denmark together with Sophia via Minsk, Belarus. The purpose of this article is to verify Lindahl’s hypothesis, combining the Belarusian and Danish sources for the first time. The paper also contributes to queenship studies, taking out of oblivion Queen Sophia—a “forgotten queen” of Danish politics and the Baltic Sea region in the 12th century.

This article compares two national shrines, the Cross of Dagmar (Denmark) and the Cross of St. Euphrosyne (Belarus), providing novel evidence that both crosses could have been made by the same master. It has long been contended that the Cross of Dagmar allegedly belonged to Queen Dagmar from Bohemia, the first wife of the Danish king Valdemar II, son of Sophia of Minsk and Valdemar the Great. A former director of the Danish National Museum, Fritze Lindahl, was the first to propose a hypothesis that the Cross of Dagmar could have come to Denmark together with Sophia via Minsk, Belarus. The purpose of this article is to verify Lindahl’s hypothesis, combining the Belarusian and Danish sources for the first time. The paper also contributes to queenship studies, taking out of oblivion Queen Sophia—a “forgotten queen” of Danish politics and the Baltic Sea region in the 12th century.

The bronze processional cross of the de Nordis Palace Museum in Cividale, generally assigned to a German late-Ottonian milieu, after more careful observation reveals a composite character: probably the copper cross was produced in the Patriarcate of Aquileia in the second half of XIIth century; whereas the bronze crucified Christ was carried out by an high skilled artist of the Salzburg area in the XIth century, showing both relations with monumental crosses of the Salzburg and southern Germany regions, and unusual technical and executive features.

(abstract in English, the article in Finnish)
The Stone Structure in the Early Medieval Church of Ravattula in Kaarina, SW Finland

The early medieval church remains at Ristimäki hill in the village of Ravattula in Kaarina in SW Finland represent the oldest ecclesiastical building identified in Finland. The church was built in the second half of the 12th century. This paper describes and interprets a stone setting that was found in the choir of the church. First, this stone structure was seen as the remains of an altar, with reference to its location and construction. After analysing the structure and all the findings in detail, it was interpreted as a stone-built support and stand for a wooden post. This post was part of a free-standing wooden cross that was erected at the site after the church was abandoned by the middle of the 13th century. According to radiocarbon and OSL dates, the cross was renewed several times, the last occasion being in the 16th century or at the very beginning of the 17th century. As seen by the toponym Ristimäki (’Cross Hill’), the cross played an important role for the locals.