Dweezil Vandekerckhove
Medieval Fortifications in Cilicia: The Armenian Contribution to Military Architecture in the Middle Ages
(Brill, 2019) 284 pp. $179.00
This book is the most recent volume in Brill’s History of Warfare series. It focuses on the medieval fortifications of Cilicia, especially during the 10th-14th centuries. The book is the product of a decade of scholarly work and excavations conducted by Vandekerckhove, and he is absolutely right when stating that Cilicia has received little attention after the Roman period, and further research is needed. As he has stated, a main reason for this subject being neglected is the political situation in Turkey, which has led to some Turkish historians to claim that the Armenian kingdom in Cilicia never existed. [1]
The book itself starts with a chapter describing the sources and historiography which refer to the area in question. He discusses the ancient sources available to us, the problems with the modern historiography, and what archaeological research has been conducted in the area – all of them he sums up in a clear and succinct way. The second chapter, which may be the best in the book, starts with describing the different geographical areas of Cilicia, and presents the history of the area and especially of the Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia, from the end of the 10th until the end of the 14th century. This is probably the best summary and presentation of this history that is available yet. The chapter is filled with interesting and informative maps – a telling sign on the quality of the book. The only significant issue regarding the maps is that there is no reference to the maps themselves anywhere in the chapter, which is a problem, as many of the maps are usually located a page or two after the relevant section in the text. This does change later on in the book, in the middle of chapter 3 (page 65) and onward.
Chapter 3 deals with different aspects of the civilian settlements, the geography of the area, the different tactics and strategies used by the regime, settlement patterns in the different periods, and more. In this chapter, Vandekerckhove deals with some previous claims made by others, for example the claim that all the forts in Cilicia were part of a large warning system which used beacons (like in Lord of the Rings). He explains that this could have existed for only small, local groups of forts. A large-scale warning system, as he states, would have been ineffective and expensive and that even the Byzantine dismantled such systems. Furthermore, he disproves the claim that due to the Armenians’ dislike for urban life, they withstood for so long against their enemies. Vandekerckhove does so by not only showing that many cities and urban areas existed, but also through explaining that forts and castles in Armenia had similar functions to cities there and elsewhere.
The fourth chapter focuses on the form and function of fortifications in the area. It starts with the different strategies and the different places where we can find evidence of construction and presence of fortifications erected by different nations, such as the Byzantine and Arabs, as well as the Crusaders and their different military orders. He also speaks about the rural settlements which had fortifications, and what remains there today, compared to what existed 30 years ago. He further shows various finds from his archaeological surveys in the area. The fifth and last chapter, called “The Characteristics of Armenian Military Architecture,” deals with Byzantine fortifications in the area, the different elements of the fortifications and which of them can be found in various sites. Unfortunately, these two chapters are not the best in this book. They can be summed up by saying that we need further archaeological surveys, excavations and research in order to learn more. The fifth chapter could also be defined with the statement that the Armenians did not contribute anything unique to military architecture. They only borrowed techniques from other periods and sites, either Byzantine, Arab, Crusader or Hellenistic-Roman. Unlike what is suggested in the title of the book, the book itself never presents any substantial or unique architectural designs in Armenia, or points to other places in the world which borrowed from Armenian design.
After a short conclusion section – a page and a half – which does not sufficiently conclude much, the book arrives at three large appendices. The first is a short glossary of some relevant terms. The second one, Appendix 2, which is titled “A Gazetteer of Medieval Sites in Cilicia,” is a great contribution to the research of medieval Cilicia, as Vandekerckhove lists all the different sites. For each site, all the different known names are listed, a fact which would assist everyone as each site is labelled with so many names, bringing a lot of confusion. Moreover, in this appendix, the coordinates are brought for each site, important publications if there are, and for some he offers a plan of the site. When applicable, Vandekerckhove adds photos of the sites, found in Appendix 3, which correspond with numbers found in Appendix 2 at each relevant site. Appendix 3 contains 90 pages with 180 coloured photographs. This section is valuable for any researcher of medieval studies, as for many sites he can see and check for what was there, and what is there today. It is also extremely helpful for any researcher, or even tourist, who is planning a trip to the area.
To conclude, the book is a very useful addition to the research on medieval fortifications, as well as medieval Cilicia as a whole. The decade of dedicated research that Vandekerckhove invested in this book can be clearly seen in every part and every chapter. It also contains the best and most concise history of the area in that period of time. Furthermore, the Appendices 2 and 3 are invaluable for all future research of Cilicia. Unfortunately, the book itself does not add enough in terms of what we know about the fortifications in the area. As the author says, the research was neglected, and further research is essential. The book actually shows that, until now, we have not managed to find anything significantly unique that the Armenians developed in the field of fortifications. It seems necessary, at least for the book in its current form, to remove the latter part of the title, “An Armenian Contribution to Military Architecture in the Middle Ages.” One can only hope that Vandekerckhove will continue his research in the area, examine further sites that were not included in this volume, and maybe conduct some of the surveys and excavations which he himself suggested. With these inclusions, and the amendment of the problems in this volume, this book will transcend from a decent book to an important one about the medieval Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia.
Haggai Olshanetsky
Bar Ilan University
[1] While the author fought tooth and nail against political intervention by the Turks in the archaeological and historical research in the area of Cilicia, he himself involved politics in the historical and archaeological research on the eastern part of the Mediterranean. He did so by using the term Palestine for the geographical area that is known as the land of Israel (pp. 10, 47, 95, 108, 132-133). It is particularly unfortunate, as the term Palestine is totally inadequate for this era and should not have been used, especially when the neutral term “the Holy Land,” is not only adequate, but actually the most appropriate for the period (as he used in pp. 94, 139). While the medieval era happened to be after the term Palestine was coined, there is no possible way to justify the use of this term, as the author did (p. 123), when discussing the Hasmonean period (2nd-1st centuries BCE), as this period occurred centuries before the term Palestine was introduced (2nd century CE). During this period, the correct terms for the area would have either been the land of Israel or Judaea.
