THE ORIGINS OF THE ART OF FORTIFICATIONS AMONG THE SLAVS ACCORDING TO BYZANTINE SOURCES OF THE 6TH-7TH CENTURIES (Pierwociny slowianskiej sztuki fortyfikacyjnej wedlug zródel bizantynskich z VI-VII w.)

• Authors: Szymanski Wojciech
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The present remarks draw from an analysis of the Greek text (with Polish translation and commentary), published a few dozen years ago, of the already well known excerpts concerning the Slavs from Pseudo-Maurice's 'Strategikon'. One finds among the fighting instructions recommendations what to do when faced with specific Slav devices. In this as in other Byzantine sources, these devices were referred to with the term 'ochiretoroi (or derivative), unanimously translated in the various studies as 'fortified' or 'entrenched' places, or more simply 'fortifications'. The complete absence of any kind of information on the appearance of these places opens the field to a variety of interpretations. One of the more common ideas is that these were distinctively defensive settlements of the Balkan Slavs. While not entirely negating this possibility, one should consider another idea suggested by a study of particular episodes from the rich calendar of military Byzantine-Slav confrontation in the 6th and 7th centuries as reported by other authors, mainly Procopius from Caesarea and Theophylactos Simokattes. Thus, a comparative analysis of the sources leads to the proposition that the 'ochiretoroi' of the 'Strategikon' was not so much a fortified settlement as some kind of defensive fieldwork built by the Slavs at the battle site. It could have been foremost a fortified wagon camp, an enclosure not unknown to many different communities, including European ones, at different times starting from Antiquity at the earliest. In a later period, in the age of stabilized Slav settlement on nominally Byzantine land, a similar name is used in the 'Miracula Sanctii Demetrii' under the date of A.D. 678 to refer to some more permanent facility, perhaps an abandoned older stronghold or a refuge fort built from scratch. One should note another aspect of the question at hand, emphasized clearly in Procopius' report: the Slav camp was located on a hill, giving the Slavs an advantage over the attacking 'Romajovie' and winning the day for them in the end. A similarly advantageous situation of the Slav camp deciding about their victory was described in a later source pertaining to a different region; it is the colorful report by Paul the Diacon of the early 8th century, telling of the ignominious defeat of the forces of prince Ferdulf of Friuli attacking some fortified Slavs. Archaeological records of all kinds of hill fortifications among the Slavs in the said period come from territories far afield from those described in the cited written sources. They constitute the next stage in development, the transition to stationary strongholds, which took full advantage of naturally defensive terrain, reinforcing it with primitive fortifications. The strongholds in question are two (Nikodimovo and Zimno) from the eastern Slav territories and one (Szeligi) from the west, generally dated to the 6th-7th centuries and demonstrating, among others, many ties in their object inventories to the southern lands. Finally, one is tempted to ask whether the Slavs' obvious preference, observed in both written and archaeological sources, for hilltop defenses of both temporary and regular nature in the beginning of the Early Middle Ages was an old tradition or a sign of extreme adaptiveness to a specific situation in newly conquered territories.

Keywords

EN

BYZANTINE SOURCES; FORTIFICATIONS; FORTIFIED PLACE; SLAVS' FORTIFIED SETTLEMENTS

Discipline

• ARCHAEOLOGY: ARCHAEOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Archeologia Polski
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 89-96
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Szymanski Wojciech

• Wojciech Szymanski, ul. W. Tatarkiewicza 8 m. 27, 03-988 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09PLAAAA06098