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Document Details : Title: A Reliquary Cross from Northwest Anatolia Subtitle: Reflections on Mortuary Practice, Literacy, and Spelling Variants Author(s): VORDERSTRASSE, Tasha Journal: Anatolica Volume: 42 Date: 2016 Pages: 171-198 DOI: 10.2143/ANA.42.0.3178205 Abstract : This paper will examine a Middle Byzantine reliquary cross found in a cemetery at Barcın in the western Marmara region and try to examine the significance of reliquary crosses in their archaeological and linguistic contexts. Byzantine reliquary crosses represent an important aspect of the material culture of the medieval period, not simply in the Byzantine world, but also in the lands beyond its borders, where such reliquary crosses were viewed as a desirable luxury object. Despite their clear importance within and without Byzantine culture, however, reliquary crosses have received less attention than one might expect. Further, they are generally not analyzed except as objects denoting the spread of Byzantine culture amongst its neighbors or as signs of a Christian population in an archaeological record otherwise devoid of such signs of religious affiliation. |
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