Graphic Signs of Authority in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, 300–900, by Ildar Garipzanov

Ildar Garipzanov has written extensively on the symbolic languages of authority in the early medieval world, with a focus on the Carolingian empire, examining religious textual sources and the iconography carried on coins and manuscripts. In this new volume, Garipzanov addresses the agency of the cross and monograms over the longue durée in the Byzantine and Western Mediterranean worlds, AD 300–900. It investigates the graphic signs depicted on religious buildings, personal accessories and jewellery, everyday items, funerary monuments and coins. The first few chapters outline past scholarship and theoretical approaches to the study of graphic signs, arguing that they embody abstract ideas—and even transcendent powers—which make them a very different form of communication as compared to text. Garipzanov touches on themes familiar to students and academics of ancient and medieval history and archaeology, including the re-appropriation of the past to legitimise the authority of an individual or group. Magnentius, for instance, appropriated Constantine’s triumphant symbol, the chi-rho, to present himself as the legitimate heir of Constantine. Another key thematic topic is cultural osmosis, that is, shared motifs and meanings. In the Roman empire, magical charms were used to ask for help or protection from the supernatural, and the cross was also adopted as a talisman and symbol of protection. The ankh symbol, meaning eternal life, was appropriated by Christians in Egypt as a sign of the cross, making the transition from pagan to Christian visual culture easier. Even in the fifth and sixth centuries, the line separating Christian symbols and ‘deviant’ apotropaic practices are unclear—demonstrated through the bronze amulet purchased in Syria carrying a holy rider spearing a monster on one side, while on the other is an enthroned Christ with occult characters. While we cannot know whether the wearer was Christian or not, Garipzanov highlights the importance of not thinking of religion as binary, i.e., Christian or pagan. This is particularly crucial in the study of visual culture produced in periods undergoing significant religious and political transformations. Should, for instance, the inclusion of gold and garnet pendant crosses in female graves in seventh-century England be interpreted as a dramatic transformation from ‘pagan’ belief systems to Christianity or as an appropriation of a new talisman in a changing world? Unfortunately, Garipzanov omits any discussion of Anglo-Saxon crosses.

Adornment · Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy) · Ancient history · Appropriation · Art · Art history · Byzantine architecture · Early Christianity · Early Modern Europe · Empire · Iconography · Late Antiquity · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential) · Middle Ages · Roman Empire · Scholarship · Sign (mathematics) · Sociology · Symbol (formal) · Byzantine Studies and History · Classics · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law · Philosophy