К возможным византийским импульсам в Западной Европе IX–XI вв.: комплекс христианских древностей из Тура (Франция) [K vozmozhnym vizantiyskim impulsam v Zapadnoy Evrope 9-11 vekov: kompleks khristianskikh drevnostey iz Tura (Francija)]

International audienceThe paper analyses some Christian devotional objects from the excavations of 1973–1977 in the aristocratic residence of the 9th–11th centuries at the place of the medieval castle of counts of Anjou in Tours, France. Their dating has been recently revised according to the stratigraphic and chronological observations made by the research team from the French National Center of Urban Archaeology headed by Henry Galinié. The new chronology, as well as the morphology of cult objects, which is sometimes unusual for Latin Europe, suggest that the analogies to them should be searched for in the Byzantine cultural area. In general, personal devotional objects (especially cross-pendants) were uncommon in France, and the veneration of cross was under strict control by the clergy. Before 1400, all cross-pendants had been either brought to France from abroad or made at place after foreign examples. One of the crosses-pendants from Tours has a close analogy in the Middle Dnieper region of Ukraine. Probably, both objects were produced locally, being modeled after one of thecross types of the Post-Iconoclastic period, the form of which goes back to an earlier prototype from the 6th–7th century. Other Christian objects from Tours aristocraticresidence either were brought by pilgrims from Rome, represented a continuation of the local tradition going back to the Merovingian period. The author stresses that Francia of the 9th–11th centuries was not a culturally closed area. It developed its own Christian heritage using new impulses from Italy and the East. The presence of devotional objects in an aristocratic residence with clearly expressed defensive functions is characteristic of the medieval Christian communities. Finding themselves in politically and/or military challenging situation, Christian warriors usually stressed their religious status with extra number of private devotional objects and liturgical gests