The "Justinian" mosaic

[Constantine IV]

Hello all,

Watched a documentary called "Secrets of the Dark Ages - Barbarians".
Half way through was shown some examples of skulls that had undergone cranial deformation.
In the Old World, the Huns practised this.

However the skulls shown in the documentary came from what was simply described as "non-Hun" graves, i.e. Germanic.

Later in the documentary was discussed the "Justinian" mosaic fragment in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna. Now thought to be an altered mosaic originally depicting king Theodoric of the Ostrogoths.

The main evidence was comparing a medallion known to be of Theodoric with the features on the mosaic.


I decided to overlay the mosaic face onto the medallion, see below.

The tessara on the face are fine, as on the purple, imperial, cloak.
Tessera on other parts have either being rearranged or were replacements.
A sign of this, for example is the way his hair cuts sharp, at a 90 degree angle, by the crown.
If this was of Theodoric, there would not have been a halo, since Theodoric was an Arian Christian, a branch of Christianity that denied any divinity in Jesus, so it would have been highly unlikely the king would have himself depicted with a halo.
The inscription of "IVSTINIAN." is even thought to have been added in the 16th century.

On looking at the medallion, what struck me was the length of Theodoric's skull, the frontal bone looks elongated.
As most of the Ostrogoths had been under the control of the Huns, I wonder if Theodoric had his skull elongated in the Hunnish way?

[Mat]

Interesting stuff. 

[gallienus1]

The remote past was truly an amazing place to the average inhabitant of the 21st century. So much of our understanding is of the ancient world is based on the scholarship of the enlightenment (Gibbon’s Decline and Fall) or the hard work of the worthy Victorians. But although they have much to teach us, they were looking at the past within the limits of their own culture. Archaeology has progressed so much since then and given us the possibility of insights sadly denied to them.

That archaeologists have discovered non-Hunnic Germanic people with elongated skulls is particularly interesting to me. Skull elongation as an esthetic seems to be surprisingly wide spread. Here in Australia the prehistoric Kow Swamp People practiced it, as did South American Indians and tribal Africans. It would not surprise me at all if an early Dark Ages European culture copied the idea from the Huns for a period of time.

The Justinian mosaic does look like the top of the head has been removed to add an imperial crown, making a Byzantine emperor from a Germanic king.

Just for fun I’ve made a crude Photoshop “restoration”.

Best Regards,
Steve

[gallienus1]

Looking at the mosaic again I think the earrings where added with the crown.

Removing them gives a much more convincing Germanic King.

[Maffeo]

The Huns are a mysterious lot and little is know about them - though many theories have been proposed as to their origin all that can said is that they were a nomadic group from the steppes of central Asia.

Though there very likely was an ethnic core of Huns, the Hunnic empire was largely a confederation of Germanic and other tribes (Sarmatians, Alans, etc) united for large-scale raiding and many of whom adopted some Hun customs, such as the elongation of the skull. No wonder that after the death of Attila the Hun empire disintegrated and soon disappeared as these very diverse tribes threw off Hunnic domination and went their merry way.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've a feeling I saw elongated skulls in the Pitt Rivers in Oxford when I was a kid. It's the shrunken heads I mainly remember though, and the trepanned skulls. One of the latter had largely healed over.

[benito]

Elongated skulls was a common practice in some precolumbian cultures,as well as trephination. I own a small figurine showing  on his forehead and back of the head the implements they used  to elongate the cranium. See if I can get a pic.

[Constantine IV]

Looking at the mosaic again I think the earrings where added with the crown.

Removing them gives a much more convincing Germanic King.

Great work!

[Constantine IV]

Was browsing for info on artificial cranial deformation done by the ancient central Asian tribes, such as the Dahe.

Up came a report in our UK "Daily Mail" of the excavation in November 2013 in the Alsace region of France of a "1,650-year-old skull of (an) aristocrat" that had undergone artificial cranial deformation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2509436/The-1-650-year-old-French-aristocrats-skull-deliberately-deformed.html

So this adds further weight to the possibility that the depiction of Theodoric in the medallion (posted previously) shows that he had undergone that, if  "It was particularly popular in Germany" (i.e. amongst the Germanic tribes under Hun control) as quoted in the report.

[cliff_marsland]

This is a fascinating twist to an iconic (no pun intended) mosaic.

So, thus, do we have any idea of what Justinian really looked like, aside from some of the semi-realistic Antioch coins?

[Constantine IV]

For Justinian I, we have the superb mosaic of him and some of his retinue in the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna.

Even though the Ottoman Turks destroyed the "Column of Justinian" and used the bronze statue to make Cannon, it seems the statue was of either Theodosius I or II and remodelled for Justinian.

The now "lost" Multiple Solidus of Justinian I, seems to have had a decent representation of his appearance.