Renata Holod
Renata Holod is College of Women Class of 1963 Professor in the Humanities at the History of Art Department, and Curator, Near East Section of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Papers by Renata Holod
Close examination of the textiles from the Chungul Kurgan has revealed that they almost certainly represent the reuse of imported silks, gold-woven bands, and gold embroideries that came into the possession of the nomadic K ̇ipčak ̇s as gifts, trade items, or spoils of their raids on their sedentary neighbors. These include a panel of figural embroidery likely cut from a liturgical textile. Another group of embroideries and appliqués once formed a loros, the ceremonial scarf of Byzantine emperors, which was widely imitated in the dress and portraiture of other rulers in the region. A range of possible degrees of intentionality can govern the use of textile spolia—from strictly utilitarian reuse to the deliberately imitative, or victorious, appropriation of the insignia of another culture. The authors conclude that the way in which the textile elements were redeployed on the preserved garments represents at least a partial understanding of their meaning within their original contexts. Their reuse for the decoration of riding caftans incorporates the symbolic language of power and prestige that these insignia conveyed among the neighboring courtly cultures while preserving a distinctive, nomadic sartorial identity.
The present article lays out the phases of the ritual of the burial of the Polovtsian leader as reconstructed by the authors on the basis of the detailed documentation made at the time of the excavation in 1981. Six phases of the burial process can be identified from archaeological evidence. These are as follows. (1) The digging of a ditch that encircles the sacred space for the burial around the perimeter of the previous Bronze Age kurgan. (2) The raising of earthen ramparts in a circle within this ditch, with a bowl-like contour sloping gently toward the center. As soon as the construction of the ramparts was completed, phase (3), the digging of the burial pit began in the center of this enclosed space. This pit, containing the wooden coffin of the deceased as well as supplies of meat and drink, was oriented east-west and closed with a wooden cover. Around the perimeter of the pit, five sacrificial horses were laid out and subsequently sealed within a layer of clay. (4) The erection of a small ritual platform over the level of the horse burials. (5) The erection of a larger ritual platform within the ramparts, which also entailed the construction of a paved floor and an apse with white limestone brought from afar. Probable remains of sacrifices, including a horse skull, the skeleton of a large dog, and a human skeleton, are associated with this phase. (6) The filling and sealing of the kurgan into its final, truncated-cone shape.
The second part of the article, which will appear in the next issue, will treat individual imported artifacts and the nature of their reuse in the context of the burial.
Close examination of the textiles from the Chungul Kurgan has revealed that they almost certainly represent the reuse of imported silks, gold-woven bands, and gold embroideries that came into the possession of the nomadic Ḳipčaḳs as gifts, trade items, or spoils of their raids on their sedentary neighbors. These include a panel of figural embroidery likely cut from a liturgical textile. Another group of embroideries and appliqués once formed a loros, the ceremonial scarf of Byzantine emperors, which was widely imitated in the dress and portraiture of other rulers in the region. A range of possible degrees of intentionality can govern the use of textile spolia—from strictly utilitarian reuse to the deliberately imitative, or victorious, appropriation of the insignia of another culture. The authors conclude that the way in which the textile elements were redeployed on the preserved garments represents at least a partial understanding of their meaning within their original contexts. Their reuse for the decoration of riding caftans incorporates the symbolic language of power and prestige that these insignia conveyed among the neighboring courtly cultures while preserving a distinctive, nomadic sartorial identity.
The present article lays out the phases of the ritual of the burial of the Polovtsian leader as reconstructed by the authors on the basis of the detailed documentation made at the time of the excavation in 1981. Six phases of the burial process can be identified from archaeological evidence. These are as follows. (1) The digging of a ditch that encircles the sacred space for the burial around the perimeter of the previous Bronze Age kurgan. (2) The raising of earthen ramparts in a circle within this ditch, with a bowl-like contour sloping gently toward the center. As soon as the construction of the ramparts was completed, phase (3), the digging of the burial pit began in the center of this enclosed space. This pit, containing the wooden coffin of the deceased as well as supplies of meat and drink, was oriented east-west and closed with a wooden cover. Around the perimeter of the pit, five sacrificial horses were laid out and subsequently sealed within a layer of clay. (4) The erection of a small ritual platform over the level of the horse burials. (5) The erection of a larger ritual platform within the ramparts, which also entailed the construction of a paved floor and an apse with white limestone brought from afar. Probable remains of sacrifices, including a horse skull, the skeleton of a large dog, and a human skeleton, are associated with this phase. (6) The filling and sealing of the kurgan into its final, truncated-cone shape. The second part of the article, which will appear in the next issue, will treat individual imported artifacts and the nature of their reuse in the context of the burial.
This article interprets as trophies many of the grave goods excavated from the burial of a steppe leader — likely a Polovtsian ‘prince’ — within the Chungul kurgan in southern Ukraine. The current study focuses on three kinds of objects: those embellishing horses, embroideries on vestments, and belts. Written sources about the culture of the Eurasian steppe of the 11th —13th centuries CE, comparative study of items in European collections, and the archaeological details of the exact manner of deposition have allowed reconstructions of the meanings of these finds in daily life. Moreover, it is now possible to propose their distinctive role in the burial ritual.
Two items found among the horse trappings can be shown to have originated as disassembled parts of objects made in northwest Europe for Christian ritual use. A similar re-purposing can be observed in the embroidery on one of the caftans. Originally embroidered as part of church furnishings, a fragmentary Deesis scene showing an archangel with a donor figure was attached to a caftan — cutting off the hands of the donor — and was rearranged into a new composition that presented the originally secondary winged figure as a victory or a Turkic divinity. Finally, three of the five belts found in the burial can be definitively attributed to northwestern European production. Their dispositions on and around the body allow them to be interpreted as symbols of Turkic charisma in their new location. The electrum belt around the neck, likely of Anatolian manufacture, marks the submission of the deceased before the divinities and spirits of the Turkic afterlife.
The grave goods discussed here, as well as the total burial inventory, allow us to propose a possible identity for the deceased. He could likely have been a Polovtsian leader allied to the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan. The joint Polovtsian and Bulgarian forces defeated the Crusader army at Adrianople in 1205, and led Baldwin I of Flanders, first emperor of Constantinople, into captivity.
The present article lays out the phases of the ritual of the burial of the Polovtsian leader as reconstructed by the authors on the basis of the detailed documentation made at the time of the excavation in 1981. Six phases of the burial process can be identified from archaeological evidence. These are as follows. (1) The digging of a ditch that encircles the sacred space for the burial around the perimeter of the previous Bronze Age kurgan. (2) The raising of earthen ramparts in a circle within this ditch, with a bowl-like contour sloping gently toward the center. As soon as the construction of the ramparts was completed, phase (3), the digging of the burial pit began in the center of this enclosed space. This pit, containing the wooden coffin of the deceased as well as supplies of meat and drink, was oriented east-west and closed with a wooden cover. Around the perimeter of the pit, five sacrificial horses were laid out and subsequently sealed within a layer of clay. (4) The erection of a small ritual platform over the level of the horse burials. (5) The erection of a larger ritual platform within the ramparts, which also entailed the construction of a paved floor and an apse with white limestone brought from afar. Probable remains of sacrifices, including a horse skull, the skeleton of a large dog, and a human skeleton, are associated with this phase. (6) The filling and sealing of the kurgan into its final, truncated-cone shape.
The second part of the article, which will appear in the next issue, will treat individual imported artifacts and the nature of their reuse in the context of the burial.
Featuring previously unpublished documents and illustrating over 80 photographs from the Qasr al-Hayr dig, City in the Desert, Revisited recounts the personal experiences and professional endeavors that shaped the fields of Islamic archaeology, art, and architectural history during their rise in the U.S. academy.