Table Of ContentCONTINUATION OR CHANGE?
BORDERS AND FRONTIERS
IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND
MEDIEVAL EUROPE
This volume examines interdisciplinary boundaries and includes texts focusing on
material culture, philological analysis, and historical research. What they all have
in common are zones that lie in between, treated not as mere barriers but also as
places of exchange in the early Middle Ages.
Focusing on borderlands, Continuation or Change uncovers the changing political
and military organisations at the time and the signifcance of the functioning of
former borderland areas. The chapters answer how the fscal and military apparatus
were organised, identify the turning points in the division of dynastic power, and
assign meaning to the assimilation of certain symbolic and ideological elements
of the imperial tradition. Finally, the authors ofer answers to what exactly a
“statehood without a state” was in regard to semi-peripheral and peripheral areas
that were also perceived through the prism of the idea of a world system, network
theory, or the concept of so-called negotiating borderlands.
Continuation or Change is a useful resource for upper-level undergraduates,
postgraduates, and scholars interested in medieval warfare, Eastern European
history, medieval border regions, and cross-cultural interaction.
Gregory Leighton is NAWA Ulam Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of
History and Archival Sciences, Nicholas Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland.
Dr. Leighton studies the Teutonic Order and the Baltic crusades (13th–15th
centuries). He has published in The Journal of Medieval History, Zapiski Historyczne,
and other leading periodicals. His frst monograph will appear with ARC
Humanities Press in 2022.
Łukasz Różycki is Professor of History at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań,
Poland. His main research interests include the study of Roman and Byzantine
theory of warfare, with a particular focus on military treatises, and the study of
the 6th century. He is the author of a number of books – most recently Battlefeld
Emotions in Late Antiquity (2021) – and articles related to the study of late antiquity
and the history of the Byzantine Empire.
Piotr Pranke is an assistant professor who deals with the history of medieval
Scandinavia and Central and Eastern Europe, and is a member of the Faculty of
Historical Sciences at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. His
scientifc interests include the history of trade in the Viking era and the history
of the Otton Empire and its infuence on the shaping of the areas of “younger
Europe”. His most recent book publication is Medieval Trade in Central Europe,
Scandinavia, and the Balkans (2020).
CONTINUATION OR
CHANGE? BORDERS
AND FRONTIERS IN
LATE ANTIQUITY AND
MEDIEVAL EUROPE
Landscape of Power Network,
Military Organisation, and
Commerce
Edited by Gregory Leighton, Łukasz Różycki,
and Piotr Pranke
Cover image: Two towers on the border of Estonia and Russia © Zoonar
GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo
First published 2023
by Routledge
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© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Gregory Leighton, Łukasz Różycki,
and Piotr Pranke; individual chapters, the contributors
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Leighton, Gregory, editor, author. | Pranke, Piotr, editor, author. |
Różycki, Łukasz, editor, author.
Title: Continuation or change? Borders and frontiers in late antiquity and
medieval Europe: landscape of power network, military organisation and
commerce / Gregory Leighton, Piotr Pranke, Łukasz Różycki.
Other titles: Borders and frontiers in late antiquity and medieval Europe:
landscape of power network, military organisation and commerce
Description: New York : Routledge, 2023. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2022012336 (print) | LCCN 2022012337 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032212821 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032212838 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003267638 (ebook)
Classifcation: LCC D104 .C59 2023 (print) | LCC D104 (ebook) |
DDC 911.4—dc23/eng/20220525
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022012336
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022012337
ISBN: 978-1-032-21282-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-21283-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-26763-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003267638
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
List of fgures viii
List of maps xi
List of tables xii
List of contributors xiii
Introduction 1
1 Of beards and men: The archaeology of facial hair in the
Carpathian Basin (6th–9th centuries) 3
Florin Curta and Robert Lierse
2 The Slavs and the conceptual Roman borderland in Macedonia 59
Mitko B. Panov
3 Imperial legacies and multiple borderlands: Was there an
“Adrio-Byzantine” model of identity in the upper Adriatic? 81
Ivan Basić
4 Rulership, warfare and sacrality in medieval Central Europe 103
Dušan Zupka
5 The Danube River between Byzantium and nomadic
confederations (Huns and Avars): The dual role of barrier
and bridge 123
Georgios Kardaras
vi Contents
6 At the gates of the empire: Organization of the Byzantine
borderland in the context of early medieval Bulgaria 143
Kirił Marinow
7 Cross-border cooperation between Óláfr Haraldsson and
the clan of Rǫgnvaldr Úlfsson 166
Maciej Lubik
8 The “barbarian” borderlands between East and West: The
frst Piast dynasty as an organiser of interregional trade – a
comparative approach 179
Piotr Pranke
9 Polish Piast rulers and the prayers of monastic communities 197
Piotr Oliński
10 Public Military Service of Bishops in the Piast Monarchy
(Twelfth to Early Thirteenth Centuries) 206
Radosław Kotecki
11 Confict and Contact Zone: The Lower Middle Elbe
(Northern Germany) as a Border in the Carolingian and
Ottonian Periods 238
Felix Biermann
12 Who are you calling peripheral? The creation of
Piast central power, on the example of the Lednica
settlement complex 265
Andrzej Pydyn and Konrad Lewek
13 Discovering traces of possible early frst millennium ad
Nordic settlements in the lower Vistula River Basin:
Interdisciplinary archeological research at the site in Osie,
northern Poland 275
Mateusz Sosnowski, Jerzy Czerniec, Paulina Lewińska,
Krystian Kozioł, Stanisław Szombara, and Olaf Popkiewicz
14 A time of change: Puck harbour in the context of the
growth of the early Piast monarchy 284
Mateusz Popek
Contents vii
15 Between the world of Christians and Pagans: Galician-
Volhynian Rus’ towards Lithuania in the 13th century 296
Dariusz Dąbrowski
16 Foundations, frontiers, and sacral history in Peter von
Dusburg’s Chronicon terre Prussie (c. 1326) 316
Gregory Leighton
17 Tribute as a political instrument in the borderlands: The
example of the “tribute of Dorpat” 336
Dmitriy Weber
Index 343
FIGURES
1.1 Tamási (Hungary), grave 34 – plan and selected grave goods:
razor, bronze ring, arrowheads, and fint steel. 7
1.2 Pohansko (Czech Republic), grave 375 in the cemetery by the
Magnate Court – plan and selected grave goods: razor, battle
axe, and spurs. 11
1.3 Pohansko (Czech Republic), grave 120 in the cemetery by the
Magnate Court – plan and selected grave goods: razor and spurs. 12
1.4 Mikulčice (Czech Republic), grave 553 in the cemetery by the
three-aisled basilica – plan and selected grave goods: battle axe,
spur, and razor. 13
1.5 Pohansko (Czech Republic), grave 174 in the cemetery by the
Magnate Court – plan and selected grave goods: sword, fint
steel, battle axe, spurs, fint stones, awl, and razors. 14
1.6 Pohansko (Czech Republic), grave 65 in the cemetery by the
Magnate Court – plan and selected grave goods: razor and sword. 15
1.7 Kašić (Croatia), grave 47 – plan and grave goods: razor and seax. 16
1.8 Lužice (Czech Republic), grave 66 – plan and selected grave
goods: arrowheads, fint steel and small fragments of iron
artifacts, and tweezers. 17
1.9 Lužice – cemetery plan with the distribution of tweezers. 18
1.10 Szentendre (Hungary), grave 25 – plan and selected grave
goods: tweezers, fint stones and fint steel, sword, fragment of a
silver mirror, and spearhead. 19
1.11 Szentendre – cemetery plan with the distribution of tweezers. 20
1.12 Tamási (Hungary), grave 39 – plan and selected grave goods:
spearhead, belt buckle, fint steel and awl, comb, and tweezers. 22
1.13 Tamási – cemetery plan with the distribution of tweezers. 23
Figures ix
1.14 The distribution of tweezers in the Carpathian Basin and the
surrounding regions during the 6th century. 24
1.15 Hajdúszoboszló (Hungary), male grave – plan and selected
grave goods: spearheads, tweezers (with two rusted rings
attached), sword, and shield boss. 25
1.16 Sady – cemetery plan with the distribution of razors. 32
1.17 Pohansko (Czech Republic), Magnate Court – cemetery plan
with the distribution of razors. 33
1.18 Pohansko (Czech Republic), grave 280 in the cemetery by the
Magnate Court – plan and selected grave goods: razor, fint
steel, spurs, and fint stone. 34
1.19 The distribution of tweezers in the Carpathian Basin and the
surrounding regions during the Avar Age (late 6th to late 8th
centuries). 36
1.20 The distribution of razors in the Carpathian Basin and the
surrounding regions during the 9th century. 37
11.1 View along the Elbe to the north towards Magdeburg
Cathedral. In the area of the cathedral was the early medieval
fortifcation (photo O. Cleynen). 242
11.2 View from the Havelberg city island, where the centre of the
Slavic settlement agglomeration was located, to the “Domberg”
with the Romanesque cathedral (photo by the author). 243
11.3 View from the Slavic ringfort Lenzen-Neuehaus westwards to
the Höhbeck mountain range. The early medieval strongholds
“Vietzer Schanze” and “Schwedenschanze” are located to the
right of the transmitter masts in the forest (photo by the author). 246
11.4 View from the “Vietzer Schanze” on the Höhbeck across the
Elbe (photo by the author). 246
11.5 Digital terrain model of the rectangular “Vietzer Schanze”
(Geobasis-DE/LGB, processing by the author). 247
11.6 The stronghold of Lenzen-Neuehaus, reconstruction view in
the second main phase around 900 (drawing O. Blum, after
Biermann/Kieseler 2021: 142, fg. 120). 247
11.7 The stronghold of Lenzersilge, reconstruction view around 830
(drawing O. Blum, after Biermann/Kieseler 2021: 141, Fig. 118). 248
11.8 The ringfort of Ottersburg, aerial view from the the north with
an excavation trench, 2008 (photo E. Risch, after Biermann
2016a: 315, Fig. 7). 249
11.9 Reconstruction view of the castle on the “Weinberg” near
Hitzacker (drawing W. Sättler, after Wachter 1998: 62, Fig. 60). 250
11.10 View to the north on Arneburg. The stronghold is located on
the hill in front of the church (photo G. Tschuch). 252
11.11 Ottersburg, ringfort, rampart extension of the 920s, a paddle in
the moat (photo by the author, after Biermann 2016a: 336, Fig. 25). 253
