Narrative (narrative) sources on the history of the Middle Ages. Material sources - what are they? Material sources of history
ANNOTATED COURSE CONTENT
Introduction
Characteristic feudal system(Western European version). The conditional nature of feudal land ownership, the method of its implementation through small producers - peasants through feudal rent. Non-economic coercion. Hierarchical structure of land ownership, its forms, connection of ownership with political power. Vassal-feudal relations, the role of personal connections in society. Small peasant farm. Peasant ownership of tools. Medieval craft. The corporate nature of property under feudalism. Social structure of feudal society: class and estate division. State, law, church.
general characteristics medieval Western European civilization. Christianity as a system-forming factor of medieval European civilization. Civilizational features of the region. Continuity of medieval civilization and its role in the formation of modern civilization. The legacy of medieval history in modern times: the emergence of most European peoples and states, the formation of national languages, cultures and characters, the origins of modern parliaments, the legal and democratic foundations of social development, Christian religious traditions and confessional characteristics, the concept of personality, the connection of times in monuments of material and spiritual culture .
The problematic orientation of research into the Western European Middle Ages by Russian and foreign historians.
Sources on the history of the Middle Ages V-XV centuries.
Classification and features of medieval sources. Modern methods their study. Historical information science in medieval studies. The most important sources on the history of the early Middle Ages. "Code of Civil Law". Barbaric truths. Capitularies. Certificates, cartularies. Polyptics. Stories, chronicles, annals. Hagiographical works. Treatises. Epic.
Sources on the history of the developed Middle Ages. Public and private acts. Account books. Land inventories and cadastres. City charters and statutes. Feudal customary law and its codification. Royal (imperial) legislation. Court records. Narrative sources. Rhetoric. Church sources. Genres of fiction.
EUROPE IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES (V - first half of the 11th centuries)
The Roman Empire and the world of barbarians: clashes and interactions.
The crisis of the Roman Empire (III - V centuries), its manifestations and consequences. The state and evolution of socio-economic relations and the political system of the barbarians. Causes of the Great Migration. Movements of Germanic tribes in the 2nd-3rd centuries. The Goths and their invasions of the Roman Empire in the 4th century. The defeat of Rome by Alaric. Formation of the Visigothic Kingdom in South-Western Gaul. Campaigns of vandals. Invasions of the Huns into Western Europe. Battle of the Catalaunian Fields. The Western Roman Empire in the last decades of its existence. Her fall. Formation of the Ostrogothic and Frankish kingdoms. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. General results and significance of barbarian conquests. Early feudal monarchy as a type of state.
Development of feudalism in the Frankish state
Frankish state of the Merovingians. Franks before the invasion of Northern Gaul. Formation of the Frankish state led by Clovis. The nature of the settlement of the Franks in Southern and Northern Gaul. Economic life and social order francs according to Salic Pravda. The Frankish community and its evolution in the VI-VII centuries. Disintegration of ancestral ties, release of allod. Discussions in historiography about the social system of the Franks: communal and anti-communal theories (Fustel de Coulanges, Dopsch, etc.). Social stratification in Frankish society. The growth of large land ownership. Gallo-Roman population and its role in the feudalization of Frankish society. The emergence of the early feudal state among the Franks and its territorial growth. Central and local government. The weakening of central power under Clovis's successors and the reasons for this phenomenon. Fragmentation of the state. Unification of the country by the mayors of Austrasia.
Frankish Carolingian Monarchy . Politics of Charles Martell. The struggle of the Franks with the Arabs. Beneficial reform of Charles Martel, its social prerequisites and consequences. Carolingian dynasty. Conquests of Pepin the Short. Growth of the Frankish state under Charlemagne. Conquest of Lombard Italy and conquest of Saxony; wars with Avars, Western Slavs and Arabs. Formation of the Spanish stamp. The foundation of the empire, its international and domestic position.
Laying the foundations of feudal relations in the Carolingian state. Development and strengthening of feudal property and the ruin of the free peasantry. The role of the state and church in this process. Establishment of feudal land and personal dependence of the peasantry. Precarity, its types and role in the process of feudalization. Natural economy. The structure of the feudal estate.
The role of small estates in the process of feudalization. Forms of annuity. The growth of personal and judicial dependence of peasants. Patronage, immunity. Development of personal contractual and vassal-feudal relations among feudal lords.
Political organization of the Carolingian state. Feudalization of local government. Social orientation of royal policy.
Byzantine Empire in the IV-XII centuries.
Peculiarities of periodization of the history of Byzantium. Founding of Constantinople. Formation of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Territory. Population composition. Agrarian system of Byzantium in the IV-VI centuries. Community-mitrocomia. Emphyteusis. Cities. Features of the development of crafts and trade. State structure in the IV-VI centuries. The Christian Church and its role in the life of Byzantium. Politics and legislative activity of Justinian I. Social struggle. The Nika uprising. Wars of conquest of Justinian I. Slavic invasions. Crisis in the empire at the end of the 6th - 7th centuries. Military administrative reforms. Feminine system. Stratiot land tenure. Evolution of a rural community. Iconoclastic movement. Pavlikians.
Byzantium in the second half of the 9th - 11th centuries. The process of stratification and landlessness of the peasantry. Allelengy. Dinata and wigs. Agrarian legislation of the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty. Cities of the Empire. "The Book of the Eparch". State apparatus and church. "Schism". Foreign policy. The fight against the Arabs and the conquest of Bulgaria. Russian-Byzantine relations. Popular movements and feudal revolts in the 10th-11th centuries. Features of the process of feudalization in Byzantium.
Byzantium at the end of the 11th - 12th centuries. Agrarian relations and social policy of the Comnenians. Byzantine cities. The international position of Byzantium.. Increasing crisis phenomena.
WESTERN EUROPE AT THE END OF THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
Political map Europe in the IX-XI centuries. Raids of Arabs, Hungarians, Normans. Establishment of the feudal system in Western Europe by the end of the 11th century. Dependent peasantry. Feudal lords. Feudal hierarchy. Political fragmentation. Life and customs of feudal lords. Life and daily life of peasants. The problem of the general and the specific in development different countries Western Europe.
France in I X- XI centuries First stage formation of the French kingdom. Completion of the process of feudalization in France and its features. Political fragmentation and royalty during the first Capetians. Major fiefs in France. The situation of the peasantry and peasant uprisings X - early XI centuries.
Italy until the end of the 11th century. Formation of feudal relations. Lack of political unity in Italy. Differences in the nature and pace of the formation of feudalism in Northern, Central and Southern Italy and Sicily. Features of the development of the Italian city, the problem of continuity.
Germany in the 9th - early 11th centuries . Features of the development of the East Frankish Kingdom. Social relations. Saxon dynasty. Italian campaigns of the German kings and their creation of an empire. The problem of universalist monarchies. Imperial Church. The beginning of the expansion of German feudal lords to the East. "Ottonian Revival".
Northern Europe in I X- XI centuries Viking Age. Viking expansion in the 9th - first half of the 10th centuries. Settlement of Iceland by Norwegians. Icelandic Althing. Discovery of Greenland and the Islands North America. Viking campaigns in the second half of the 10th - first half of the 11th centuries. Power of Knut the Great. The originality of the genesis of feudalism in the Scandinavian countries. Social political system Scandinavian states.
England in I X- XI centuries . Weak Romanization of Britain. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in Britain. Two stages of feudalization in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Stability of community orders. The growth of large landownership and the social stratification of the peasantry. Categories of the dependent population. Organization of government in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Fight with the Danes. Processes of feudalization in the 9th - first half of the 11th centuries. The role of royal grants and the distribution of immunity rights (juice) in this process. Resumption of Danish invasions and temporary submission of England to the Danish kings.
Spain in the 8th - mid-11th centuries. Visigothic kingdom at the beginning of the 8th century. Conquest of Spain by Arabs and Berbers. Muslim Spain: specifics of economic, political and social development. Urban culture of Muslim Spain. Battle of Covadonga. The beginning of the Reconquista. Centers of the Reconquista and Christian states of the Iberian Peninsula in the 10th - early 11th centuries. Socio-economic and political system of the Asturo-Leonese kingdom. Catalonia, Navarre and Aragon in the 9th-11th centuries.
The history of the Middle Ages covers a long period, rich in diverse events. It was marked by the emergence and development of new forms of economic and socio-political life, significant progress in the development of material and spiritual culture compared to previous historical eras. Along with the manifestation of feudal violence, ignorance, the dominance of a dogmatic worldview and the brutal persecution of dissent, famine and devastating epidemics, the Middle Ages left in the memory of mankind examples of the heroic struggle of the masses against oppression, patriotic movements against foreign conquerors, and early manifestations of freethinking. The treasury of world culture rightfully includes outstanding works of writers, poets and masters of the Middle Ages, monuments of folk art. The end of this era marks a revolution in the development of natural science, the flowering of humanistic thought, and the appearance of masterpieces of the Renaissance.
The term "Middle Ages"(more precisely, “Middle Ages” - from the Latin medium aevum) arose in Italy in the 15th-16th centuries. in the circles of humanists." At different stages of the development of historical science, different content was put into the concept of "Middle Ages". Historians of the 17th-18th centuries, who consolidated the division of history into ancient, middle and modern, considered the Middle Ages a period of deep cultural decline as opposed to the high rise of culture in the ancient world and in modern times. Subsequently, bourgeois historians were unable to put forward any single scientific definition of the concept of “Middle Ages.” In modern non-Marxist historiography, the prevailing opinion is that the terms “Middle Ages,” “ancient world,” “modern time” are devoid of specific content and are accepted only as traditional divisions of historical material.
Marxist-Leninist historical science puts a completely different content into this traditional periodization. Considering the historical process as a natural change of socio-economic formations, Marxist historians understand the Middle Ages primarily as a time of the emergence, dominance and decline of the feudal socio-economic formation, which replaced the slave or primitive communal system, and then in modern times ceded the historical arena to capitalism. Nevertheless, the concepts of “Middle Ages” and “feudalism” are not entirely identical. On the one hand, during the Middle Ages other socio-economic structures coexisted with feudalism (patriarchal, slaveholding, then capitalist). Moreover, for a long time in the early Middle Ages in a number of regions of Europe (especially in Byzantium and the Scandinavian countries), the feudal mode of production was not dominant. On the other hand, the feudal structure remained in the economy of many
The term “medieval studies”, which refers to the field of historical science that studies the history of the Middle Ages, originates from this Latin term.
countries centuries after the medieval era. Therefore, only by considering the formation in the dialectics of all stages of its development, we can say that in essence the medieval era was feudal.
Almost all the peoples now inhabiting Europe and Asia, as well as many peoples of Africa and Latin America, went through the stage of feudal formation in their development and, therefore, survived their Middle Ages. Therefore, in Soviet historical science, the concept of “Middle Ages” refers not only to the history of European peoples. It is given world-historical significance. This textbook is devoted to the history of the countries of Western and Central Europe, as well as Byzantium.
Sources on the history of the Middle Ages V-XV centuries.
A historical source means everything created in the process of human activity or affected by it. Everything that has been generated or modified by society in the course of history objectively reflects its development and carries information about it. The historical source is inexhaustible. The problem is how to extract and correctly interpret the information it contains.
Classification of medieval sources. In relation to the Middle Ages, it is advisable to highlight five types sources that differ in the forms of recording social information: 1) natural-geographical, i.e. directly studyable data on landscape, climate, soils, vegetation and other components environment, both affected by human activity and simply important for understanding its specific geographical specificity; 2) ethnographic, represented by ancient technologies, customs, stereotypes of thinking that have survived to this day, the appearance of homes, costume, cuisine, as well as folklore and ancient layers of modern living languages; 3) real, which include material relics of the past obtained by archeology or otherwise surviving: buildings, tools, means of transport, household utensils, weapons, etc.; 4) artistic and visual, reflecting their era in artistic images captured in monuments of architecture, painting, sculpture and applied art; 5) written, which are any texts written in letters, numbers, notes and other writing signs.
In principle, only a combination of data from all types of sources allows us to form a comprehensive picture of medieval society. However, in the practical work of a medievalist they play a different role. Material sources have highest value in the study of the early Middle Ages. Folklore and ethnographic sources, on the contrary, are the most important for the study of the late Middle Ages, since, with rare exceptions, when transmitting information from memory, the realities and ideas of only relatively recent times are more or less accurately preserved. The main ones for all periods of the Middle Ages and
almost all aspects of its history are written sources, and over time, due to the spread of literacy and improved conditions for storing manuscripts, their number, variety and information content are increasing.
It is appropriate to divide medieval written sources into three class: 1) narrative(narrative), describing real or illusory reality in all the richness of its manifestations and in a relatively free form; 2) documentary, recording individual moments of predominantly socio-economic, socio-legal and socio-political life through special, largely formalized vocabulary; 3) legislative, which, being also legal in form, differ from documentary ones in that they reflect not only (sometimes not so much) existing legal practice, but also the transformative will of the legislator who wants to change this practice, and most importantly - an attempt to streamline social relations, systematize social gradations and situations. Gradually, especially during the Renaissance, within the framework of narrative and partly legislative sources, a special class of scientific literature was established, where the description of phenomena gives way to the disclosure of their essence through theoretical analysis.
Somewhat earlier it separated from narrative monuments fiction, reflecting reality by summarizing various phenomena in artistic images.
The named classes of written sources fall into kinds. Thus, among the narrative sources there are historical narratives, specially covering the course of political (mostly) events; various hagiographical works, telling about the asceticism and miracles of saints; monuments epistolary creativity; sermons and all kinds instructions; until a certain time also scientific And fiction. In turn, they can be divided into numerous varieties. For example, among the historical works of the Middle Ages there are annals, chronicles, biographies, genealogies and the so-called stories, i.e., “monographs” dedicated to a specific event or period of time. Chronicles are divided by various signs into global and local, prosaic and poetic, church and secular, dividing the latter into seigneurial, urban, etc.
Although convenient to use, this classification is, of course, quite arbitrary. After all, a coin or a written parchment scroll can be considered simultaneously as a material, artistic, and written source. Medieval narrative sources often include the texts of documents, and the latter - lengthy excursions of a narrative nature. The assignment of a source to a particular category is determined by the specifics of the information obtained when analyzing it from one point of view or another.
2. Subject, chronological framework of “History of the Middle Ages”, the concept of “medieval studies”.
A historical source means everything created in the process of human activity or affected by it. In relation to the Middle Ages, it is advisable to distinguish five types of sources:
1) natural-geographical, i.e. data on landscape, climate, soils, vegetation and,
2) ethnographic, ancient technologies, customs, appearance of homes, costume, cuisine, stereotypes of thinking, folklore;
3) material buildings, tools, household utensils, weapons, etc.;
4) artistic and visual monuments of architecture, painting, sculpture and applied art;
5) written, which are any texts written in letters, numbers, notes and other writing signs.
They play different roles. Material sources are of greatest importance in the study of the early Middle Ages, which are relatively poor in texts and works of art. Folklore and other ethnographic sources, on the contrary, are the most important for the study of the late Middle Ages. The main ones are written sources. Medieval written sources are appropriately divided into three classes:
1) narrative (narrative),
2) normative, reflecting not only existing legal practice, but also the will of the legislator, local customs, resolutions of church councils, statutes of monasteries, craft shops, universities, etc.;
3) documentary, recording individual moments of predominantly socio-economic, -legal -political life through special, largely formalized vocabulary. Within the framework of narrative sources, a special class of scientific literature is gradually emerging. Somewhat earlier, fiction is separated from narrative monuments, reflecting reality by generalizing phenomena in artistic images. The named classes of written sources are divided into types. Thus, among the narrative sources there are historical narratives, hagiographic works telling about the asceticism and miracles of saints; monuments of epistolary creativity; sermons and all kinds of instructions; until a certain time, also scientific literature, represented by all kinds of treatises. In turn, they can be divided into numerous varieties. For example, among the historical works of the Middle Ages, annals, chronicles, biographies, genealogies and so-called histories are distinguished. Chronicles are divided into global and local, prosaic and poetic, church and secular, the latter into royal, city, family, etc.
Medieval written sources, in comparison with sources on the history of antiquity or modern times, have certain features. Due to its low prevalence and generally low level of literacy in the Middle Ages, writing was used relatively rarely. The culture of that era, especially the early Middle Ages, was largely oral and ritual, so information was mainly transmitted from memory. There was a gap between the living spoken language and the written language, which affected the style, terminology and nature of the use of the sources being studied. The situation began to change only in the second period of the Middle Ages, when more and more texts appeared in vernacular languages. By the XIV - XV centuries. in most countries of Western Europe they already predominate, but in some areas of public life (diplomacy, church, science) Latin retains its position until modern times. In addition, in a number of countries Latin coexisted with two national languages at once - local and foreign.
Production technology, agricultural crop yields, wealth stratification, family type, everyday life, worldview of the masses, etc. are poorly described. The required information is present, as a rule, in the form of hidden information, which can be difficult to catch.
Until recently, source studies distinguished between external and internal criticism of a source, but modern source studies are based on a comprehensive, holistic study of the monument.
Indispensable assistance in interpreting a source as a product of a certain socio-cultural environment is provided by non-written sources and auxiliary historical disciplines that study them: historical landscape studies, archeology, ethnography, onomastics (the science of proper names, including geographical names), art history, numismatics, etc. A reliable means knowledge of the past remains a method of combining data, tested by many generations of scientists various types and classes of sources, which, illuminating society from different sides, not only complement, but also correct each other. In recent decades, this method has received additional impetus due to the development of interdisciplinary research.
Quantitative methods of source analysis are widely penetrating into medieval studies.
The history of the Middle Ages covers more than a thousand-year period - 13 centuries. The term “medium aevum” (medium eum) - “Middle Age”, hence medieval studies, conventionally defines the period from the 5th to the 17th centuries and is accepted by world historiography. It arose in the 15th - 16th centuries among Italian humanists, who divided history into 3 periods: ancient, middle and modern. This formal division has been preserved, although in different time and scientists of different directions put different content into this concept.
Periodization of the Middle Ages:
Low point: The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 (in Western historiography, often a century earlier - the era of the triumph of Christianity - is considered to mark the beginning of the Middle Ages).
The top one is more vague. Western historians: The fall of Constantinople in 1453, the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, the beginning of the reformation in Germany in 1527. Currently, historians consider the end of the Middle Ages to be the period preceding the English bourgeois revolution (i.e., the first half of the 17th century), because It was at this time that we can talk about the victory of capitalist relations in Western Europe.
The main stages in the formation of feudal relations are reflected in the division of the “Middle Ages” into 3 main periods: the early Middle Ages (from the end of the 5th century to the middle of the 11th century), the period of developed feudalism (from the middle of the 11th to the end of the 15th century), the late Middle Ages (XVI century - first half of the 17th century).
Main features of feudalism
· Primarily subsistence farming.
· Non-economic coercion of the manufacturer.
· Poor condition of equipment.
There are 2 classes: feudal lords (land owners) and dependent producers (mainly peasants, who include the poorest strata of the urban population). Class relations have taken a step forward in development compared to slave society. The main form of feudal exploitation is RENT. The presence of a fixed rent is a certainty of the progressiveness of the system compared to slavery: feudalism has the possibility of development. Three main types of rent: WORKING (corvée), FOOD (NATURAL) (quitrent), CASH. They could all be combined, but at the early stage corvee predominates, and at the later stage cash rent predominates. The struggle of the peasantry throughout the Middle Ages for a fixed rent and its reduction. A distinctive feature of feudal society is the hierarchical structure of land ownership. At the head is the king, then various social categories of feudal lords, the pyramid rests on the shoulders of the peasantry.
The problem of the genesis of feudalism
GE?NESIS (Greek) - the emergence, origin, process of formation of fundamental problems. The problem of genesis was first seriously raised by enlighteners in the 18th century. Two theories appeared in France in the first half of the century.
1. German. Count Boulainvilliers: feudalism is the result of the German conquest, after which the Germans gained a dominant position.
2. Romanskaya. Abbot Dubos. - The early Middle Ages in Western Europe was a legacy of the Roman (Romanesque) tradition, its bearers were the Halo-Romans.
The enlighteners of the second century also leaned toward the German theory. half of the XVIII centuries saw in medieval society a special political and legal system not related to the economic life of the state. This is what defined the concept of “feudalism”. In Western historiography, the problem of the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages has not yet been resolved. It is interpreted as a continuous development (continuity theory) of Germanic or Romanesque institutions without a qualitative leap.
In domestic historiography, the problem of the genesis of feudalism was solved from a Marxian position, where the study of economic and social prerequisites, rather than legal, ethical or political ones, was of paramount importance. The processes are based on a change in attitudes towards property during the transition from the slaveholding system of the Roman Empire and the primitive communal system of the Germans to feudalism.
Typology of feudalism
There are several types of feudalization.
1. classical - In Gaul (territory of France), similarly in Italy, Spain - the synthesis of later Roman and barbarian socio-economic relations (i.e. the synthesis of Roman and Germanic relations). The path of evolution of land and personal relations under the influence of the relations brought to the land by the barbarians in Gaul.
2. The path of development of feudal relations (they follow England, Scandinavia, Germany, Slavic countries) - follows from the decomposition of the clan community (no or weak Roman element)
3. Type - Byzantine. Characteristic of the South Slavic countries that were part of the Eastern Roman Empire. The starting point of feudalization here was the synthesis of Byzantine land and social relations brought by the Slavic invasion of Byzantium from the 6th century.
Sources on the history of the Middle Ages V-XV centuries.
A historical source means everything created in the process of human activity or affected by it. Everything that has been generated or modified by society in the course of history objectively reflects its development and carries information about it.
Classification of medieval sources. In relation to the Middle Ages, it is advisable to highlight five types sources that differ in the forms of recording social information: 1) natural-geographical, that is, directly studyable data on the landscape, climate, soils, vegetation and other components of the environment, both those affected by human activity and those simply important for understanding its specific geographical specificity; 2) ethnographic, represented by ancient technologies, customs, stereotypes of thinking that have survived to this day, the appearance of homes, costume, cuisine, as well as folklore and ancient layers of modern living languages; 3) real, which include material relics of the past obtained by archeology or otherwise surviving: buildings, tools, means of transport, household utensils, weapons, etc.; 4) artistic and visual, reflecting their era in artistic images captured in monuments of architecture, painting, sculpture and applied art; 5) written, which are any texts written in letters, numbers, notes and other writing signs.
In principle, only a combination of data from all types of sources allows us to form a comprehensive picture of medieval society. However, in the practical work of a medievalist they play a different role. Material sources are of greatest importance in the study of the early Middle Ages. Folklore and ethnographic sources, on the contrary, are the most important for the study of the late Middle Ages, since, with rare exceptions, when transmitting information from memory, the realities and ideas of only relatively recent times are more or less accurately preserved. The main thing for all periods of the Middle Ages and for almost all aspects of its history are written sources, and over time, due to the spread of literacy and improvement of storage conditions for manuscripts, their number, variety and information content increases.
It is appropriate to divide medieval written sources into three classes: 1) narrative(narrative) 2) documentary, 3) legislative,
Types of narrative sources
· historical narratives (annals, chronicles, biographies, genealogies)
· hagiographical works,
· epistolary
· sermons and all kinds instructions;
scientific And fiction.
Humanity is many thousands of years old. All this time, our ancestors accumulated practical knowledge and experience, created household items and masterpieces of art. They made mistakes and made great discoveries. How can we find out about their lives? Can we take something useful for ourselves to avoid mistakes in the present?
Of course it is possible. Today there are many sciences that study material sources. Let's look into it in detail.
Definition and classification
So, material sources are all material objects that reflect various spheres of human life and activity. Anything that characterizes what is happening now or in the past, be it inscriptions, remains of household items or human remains, can provide invaluable information for researchers.
Thus, we have defined the broadest scope of this concept. Let's now look at the classification for greater order.
At first, the picture was quite simple: an era of savagery, which was replaced by the time of barbarians, and then the emergence of civilization. However, such a harmonious classification was broken by the material sources of the Middle Ages. They came in quite inopportunely after the amazing flourishing of the ancient states.
Today, researchers are increasingly inclined to the following division of cultural monuments. There are three main groups (each of them has subsections):
Material sources, examples of which will be given below.
Fine monuments - drawings, photographs, symbols on coins, etc.
Verbal. They are divided into oral and written. The former are studied by ethnography.
Features of proper operation
Material sources are a wide variety of monuments, finds, mentions, songs and legends. How to deal with them and combine them into a system?
Such a task is beyond the capabilities of one science or group of people. To develop such a broad area in the process of social development, several disciplines were created, which we will get acquainted with later.
What methods are used when studying material sources? First, let's mention the human factor. Any result is always presented through the prism of the worldview of the researcher or the author of a written document. Therefore, scientists often do not receive objective information, but only confirm or refute their guesses.
The main method in working with sources is the following: all conclusions are drawn only after studying the entire complex of finds, evidence, and facts. You can't take something out of context. The overall picture comes together like a puzzle. Let's figure out which disciplines are engaged in such research.
Archeology and anthropology
These two sciences work most closely with material sources. The first of them has the goal of understanding the evolution of man and society, studying the process of formation of the main spheres of life from the beginning of centuries to the present day.
Anthropology is the study of man himself (races, traditions, culture and way of life). However, such a wide field of activity of this science exists mainly in the countries of the Western world. In the CIS, this knowledge covers several industries. In addition to anthropology, ethnography and archeology are involved here.
This particular science, in our understanding, deals more with evolution and temporal-spatial differences in the physical type of a person. So, let's take it in order.
Archeology is a science that studies material historical sources. Her areas of interest include several research groups:
Settlements (this also includes dwellings). They are divided into fortified (more often called fortifications) and unfortified (settlements). These can be cities and fortresses, camps and agricultural or craft settlements, army camps and fortified castles.
Most of these monuments are static; they are (and were) constantly in one place. However, parking lots and other temporary settlements often do not have the same location. Therefore, their discovery is mainly a matter of chance.
Fortifications are usually discovered by the remains of ramparts and walls. At all, most of The archaeologist's work takes place in the archive. Here you can find information in various written sources - from legends and epics to scientific intelligence reports. Legends, by the way, play a significant role. Troy was discovered by Heinrich Schliemann precisely because of his exact adherence to Homer's Iliad.
The next place where material sources of history are well preserved, oddly enough, are burials. Under a layer of earth in dry areas of the planet, some objects can lie for thousands of years and retain their shape. Wetter locations will, of course, destroy many materials. However, for example, some types of wood become petrified in water.
So, in burials, archaeologists find not only household items of ancient people, but also various elements that speak about beliefs, rituals, the social structure of society, and so on.
Monuments also include ritual places (sanctuaries, temples) and workshops. If you know how to interpret finds, you can get a lot of interesting and important information.
Last, but not least, are the chance finds. Everything - from treasure to an accidentally lost button - can tell a professional researcher about the past.
As we have already seen, most knowledge about ancient societies is material. They do not always reach our time intact, so archaeologists and anthropologists often have to turn to restorers for help, who help them restore the original appearance of objects.
Ethnography
In the Soviet era it was a separate science, but today it is more often considered one of the components of anthropology. She studies (more precisely, describes) the peoples of the world. The data with which anthropology works is not only material sources. Examples of intangible monuments are songs and oral stories. Many tribes simply do not have a written language, and such information is passed on from parents to children by word of mouth.
Therefore, ethnographers often work not as researchers, but as collectors and guardians of the diverse traditions of the peoples of the world. If you look at the records of the Spaniards and Portuguese of the 15th - 16th centuries, you will be surprised. Many of the described things and phenomena no longer exist.
Tribes are destroyed and assimilated (which means one of the original cultures disappears). As a result of globalization, differences between peoples are being erased. Even languages can disappear. And if they were not recorded, then no one else will ever know about them.
What does ethnography offer us? What are the material sources? Photos, audio recordings of songs, videos of rituals, written recordings different areas the life of the people - all this is studied and compared.
Such descriptions began to be made a very long time ago, but in the ancient world they were more like fairy tales with an incredible amount of speculation. And only in the late Middle Ages did researchers appear who compared the life of remote tribes, for example, Indians, Australian aborigines, Bushmen and other hunter-gatherers.
It turns out that by observing the life of peoples at the stage of “pre-civilization” in its modern sense, we can find out what relationships were like in the Stone, Copper, Bronze, and Iron Ages.
An important point is that at school children are taught material sources (examples). 5th grade is the right time to study the traditions of your people and gradually transition to general information about the formation of humanity.
Epigraphy
The second largest material from which we can draw knowledge about ancient people is written and drawn material sources - pictures, chronicles, memoirs, clay tablets, petroglyphs, hieroglyphs,
It would take a long time to list the ways that humanity has used to preserve information. Without them, we would not have the slightest idea about the events of the past. We can talk about this with complete confidence, since archaeological finds are simply not able to provide as much information as is contained in one, even the shortest note.
One of the oldest studies that has come down to us is the well-known “History” of Herodotus. It dates back to the fifth century BC. One of the first memoirs was written by Gaius Julius Caesar. Their title is “Notes on the Gallic War.”
But in general, biographies and memoirs are more characteristic of the Renaissance.
Of course, written monuments are very rich in information, but they also have their drawbacks.
Firstly, the data in them relates to a maximum of five thousand years of human history. What happened before is either not recorded or not deciphered.
The second is bias and Special attention to the upper strata while almost completely ignoring the common people.
Third, we know the bulk of ancient texts in the form of translations and rewritten copies. Unit originals. In addition, no new revenues can be expected. But people regularly discover archaeological material sources.
The complex of sciences that study written monuments includes various disciplines. The first one worth mentioning is paleography. She collects and deciphers ancient alphabets, fonts, and writing methods. In general, without her efforts, scientists would not be able to work efficiently with texts.
The next science is numismatics. She works with inscriptions on coins and banknotes (subsection - bonistics). Papyrology studies the information contained in papyrus scrolls.
However, household inscriptions are considered the most reliable. They are short and do not contain boasting or exaggeration.
Thus, we have discussed with you the sciences that study material sources, what they are, what types of monuments exist, and how they work with them. Next, let's talk about materials relating to the three most striking eras in human history - Ancient Greece, Rome and the Middle Ages.
Written sources of Ancient Greece
As we said above, information about the past is contained in many artifacts. However, it is the inscriptions or records that are the most informative.
The period of antiquity in general and Ancient Greece in particular were marked by the emergence of scientists and researchers. The beginnings of most sciences that are successfully developing today are rooted in this era.
So, what material sources of the history of Hellas do we know? We’ll talk about it directly a little later, but now let’s plunge into the world of ancient Greek literature.
The most ancient are the records of Hecataeus of Miletus. He was a logographer, describing the history and culture of his city and the neighboring policies through which he traveled. The second explorer known to us was Hellanicus of Mytilene. His works have reached us in fragmentary records and do not carry much historical value. In the work of logographers, legends and fiction are often intertwined with reality, and it is difficult to separate them.
The first reliable historian was Herodotus. In the 5th century BC, he wrote a multi-volume work, History. He attempted to explain why the war between the Persians and Greeks began. To do this, he turns to the history of all the peoples that were part of these empires.
Second in chronological order was Thucydides. In his works he tried to highlight the causes, course and consequences of the Peloponnesian War. The merit of this Greek is that he did not turn to “divine providence” to explain the reasons for what was happening, like Herodotus. He traveled to memorable places, policies, talked with participants and eyewitnesses, which made it possible to write a truly scientific work.
Thus, written material sources are not only hypotheses, ideological machinations or political propaganda. Among them there are often thorough works.
Material culture of Hellas
Today, the study of ancient states occupies one of the leading places among areas of research in archaeology. Many universities began studying Greece at the end of the 19th century, and today there are entire schools in the Balkans engaged in the development of methods and in-depth research.
During this century, enormous experience and factual material was accumulated on the history of the Balkan cities, such as Delphi, Athens, Sparta, the islands and the Malaysian coast (Pergamon, Troy, Miletus).
Domestic scientists since the times Russian Empire were engaged in the consideration of the city-colonies of the northern Black Sea region. The most famous are such policies as Olbia, Panticapaeum, Tauride Chersonesus, Tanais and others.
Over the years of research, a lot of material has been accumulated - coins, jewelry, weapons, inscriptions on solid material (stone, clay, gems), remains of buildings, etc.
All these material sources on the history of Ancient Greece allow us to imagine the way of life, life, and activities of the Hellenes. We know about hunting and feasting because such scenes were often depicted on vessels. From the coins one can judge the appearance of some rulers, the coats of arms of cities, and the relations between policies.
Seals and inscriptions on vessels, houses, and things also tell a lot about that era.
Finds related to the ancient world (Egypt, ancient states, Mesopotamia) are some of the most beautiful. After the fall of Rome, an era of decline began, when beauty ceased to be valued, so the beginning of the Middle Ages was marked by rougher things.
Written sources of Ancient Rome
If the Greeks were more inclined to philosophy, reflection, study, then the Romans strived for military victories, conquests and holidays. It is not for nothing that the saying “bread and circuses” (namely, what the plebs demanded from the emperors) has survived to this day.
So, this stern and warlike people left us numerous material sources. These are cities and roads, household items and weapons, coins and jewelry. But all this would not give even a hundredth of what we know about Rome if it were not for written cultural monuments.
We have a variety of material at our disposal, so researchers can become thoroughly familiar with most facets of Roman life.
The first surviving records tell about weather conditions and harvests. They also contain hymns of praise from the priests. In general, materials related to early history that have come down to us are presented in poetic form.
Publius Scivolla wrote the Grand Annals, a volume of eighty books. Polybius and were noted for their works of forty volumes. But Titus Livius surpassed everyone. He wrote the history of the city of Rome from its foundation to its present day. This work resulted in 142 books.
Orators and poets, generals and philosophers - everyone tried to leave a memory of themselves for posterity.
Today you can find the influence of Roman material sources in almost all social spheres. Examples relate to the fields of law, medicine, military affairs, etc.
Monuments of Ancient Rome
No less fascinating material is the archaeological finds made in all parts of the once huge empire. Space from Atlantic Ocean east to Central Asia, Europe and North Africa - all this was once within the borders of one state.
Material sources from history illustrate to us an era of great achievements, conquests and no less debauchery, especially in large cities.
Thanks to the finds, it became known that Italy had been inhabited since the Paleolithic. Pile settlements and sites with stone tools leave no doubt about this.
An equally interesting layer of the pre-Roman period is the Etruscan era. A fairly highly developed culture, the bearers of which were subsequently conquered and assimilated by the Romans.
Gold plates with texts say that the Etruscans maintained peaceful relations with the Greek city-states and Carthage.
The Roman Forum, roads and aqueducts are still breathtaking today, what can we say about the time when they were not in ruins?!
This is only part of what material sources reveal to us about the past.
The most famous monument is undoubtedly Pompeii. The city died overnight due to the eruption of Vesuvius, which is located nearby. Thanks to many tons of ash, scientists have discovered well-preserved remains of inhabitants and stunning interiors of Roman estates. The colors have just faded a little! Today you can stroll along the streets of the ancient city and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of that time.
Medieval sources
These are the “dark” centuries, during which humanity recovered from its decline after the fall of ancient states.
Material sources of the Middle Ages can be divided into several groups.
The first includes, undoubtedly, the largest and most noticeable ones - cities, defensive structures, fortresses.
Next come monuments that carry a lot of information, namely written evidence of the era. These include annals, chronicles, musical notations of hymns, decrees of rulers and working documentation of artisans, merchants, etc.
However, the material sources of the Middle Ages are not as numerous as we would like. There are practically no written references to the fifth to ninth centuries. We get most of the information about this time from legends and tales.
The humid climate, low level of production, and the actual return to the primitive communal system took their toll. The finds look terrifying when compared with ancient monuments and material sources of the Middle Ages. Photos of museum exhibits confirm this fact.
The peculiarity of the era was that the peoples inhabiting the outskirts of the Roman Empire were illiterate. They passed on their customs from their grandfathers to their grandchildren orally. Records at this time were kept mainly by the descendants of noble patricians or monks, often in Latin or Greek. National languages break into books only at the end of this period.
We do not have all the information about the social status of the tribes of the early Middle Ages. Neither technology nor public life, neither class structure, nor worldview - nothing can be fully restored.
Basically, based on the findings, it is possible to understand only beliefs, military and craft spheres. Only these three areas are illuminated by the found material sources of the Middle Ages. Examples can be given from the field of tales, legends, weapons and tools with names, as well as burials.
In the article, we figured out such a difficult concept as monuments of material culture, got acquainted with the sciences that study such finds, and also looked at several examples from two historical periods.
