This collection of scientific reports on recent archeological excavations in the lands once ruled by the Teutonic Order was organized by Aleksander Pluskowski, an associate professor at the University of Reading. Pluskowski has earned a solid reputation for his innovative studies of the connections between nature and humans, and for archeological work in medieval Prussia, especially at the castle at Malbork (Marienburg), once the seat of the Order's grandmasters. The combination of these interests is evident here. This is an important step beyond traditional archeology.
Pluskowski summarizes the chief discovery in each local project in his introduction: "Multi-Scalar Impacts of Crusading on the Environments of the Eastern Baltic." Each chapter has excellent maps and good photos of the excavations and the objects found. The individual papers were originally presented at a conference in Riga in 2014, and are grouped under the following sections: "Building in the Conquered Territories"; "Sustaining the Teutonic Order's Houses"; "Life in the Multicultural Towns of the Eastern Baltic"; "Transforming the Physical Landscape"; "Transforming the Spiritual Landscape"; and "The Baltic Ordensland in its Regional Context."
In the first section on building and construction, Joanna Fonferek, "The Environmental Setting of the Earliest Teutonic Order Stronghold in Elbląg," describes the 2012 and 2013 excavations of the early wooden walls and the later brick walls of this city. These established the stratigraphy and recovered animal bones, local pottery and other artifacts. Pollen samples suggest an absence of flooding, increasing agricultural production, and declining woodlands.
Maris Zunde, "Timber and its Use from the Late Iron Age to the End of the Medieval Period in Latvia," summarizes findings from 2007-13. Iron Age wood is rare, but medieval samples are increasingly common. There were 142 castles, numerous manor houses, and structures in the major cities. Oak was the usual wood employed, but pine was brought from as far away as Belarus. Tree ring studies have revealed the impact of the Little Ice Age upon pine tree growth and suggested that two houses constructed in the 17th century (in Riga and Kent) used wood from a similar source.
K. M. J. Hayward with Stuart Black, "Resources for Castle Building in Medieval Prussia and Livonia," is a detailed study of the stone, brick, tile, and mortar used in construction. In addition to the chemical analyses, there are contracts regarding the purchase of these items, and stylistic studies of their use. High quality limestone was brought from Öland, Gotland, and Estonia, and local stone was quarried, but brick was the preferred building material. Tiles were used for roofing. While in general there was considerable uniformity in the structures, there were numerous variations that reflected local building materials. No expense was spared for high prestige stone needed for sculptures and burials.
In the section on diet and food supply for the Teutonic Order, Eve Rannamäe and Lembi Lõugas, "Animal Exploitation in Karksi and Viljandi (Estonia) in the Late Iron Age and Medieval Period," studies the types of animals eaten in the castles and towns, noting the differences in high and low status persons. Domestic animals predominate, especially cattle, chickens, and ducks. Fish were often imported, even from great distances. The transition from the Iron Age was clearly marked, but there is still much to learn about the environmental variables.
Juhan Kreem, "Written Evidence Concerning the Resources of the Teutonic Order in Livonia: The Cases of Karkus and Fellin," concentrates on the handful of visitation reports (most importantly from 1451) that listed the knights, sergeants, priests, animals, weapons, and foodstuffs in each castle; the vast majority of the reports have been lost to war and time, but some informative letters also survive, most from the era of the Livonian War in the middle of the sixteenth century. Scholars have studied these records for generations, but only now can we begin to reconstruct the agricultural resources available to some castles. We can see general trends, but not always the local contingencies.
Charlotte Scull, Gundula Müldner, and Daniel Makowiecki, "Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotope Evidence for Animal Husbandry and Environmental Change in the Medieval Kulmerland," compares animal bones, teeth, and hair from the pre-conquest era to the post-conquest era. The process of isotope analysis provides an opportunity to track land clearance and deforestation, the introduction of new crops, and new breeds of animals. The landscape changed after the conquest, and horses, cattle, and pigs ate better once the land was more settled, but more data is necessary to confirm the full extent of the changes.
Monika Badura and Beata Możejko, "The Plant Element in the Diet of the Inhabitants of Danzig (Gdańsk), Elbing (Elbląg), and Marienburg (Malbork) During the Rule of the Teutonic Order: Historical and Archaeobotanical Perspectives," begins with noting that while meat was the most important food, the large number of fast days required the Order and its citizens to add plants to their diet. In addition, beer required barley and hops, and imported items such as raisins became popular. Charts indicate which grains, vegetables, fruits, and fiber plants were produced.
The first contribution to the discussion of towns, Gary A. King, "A Foul Perspective: Analysis of Invertebrate Remains in a mid-Fourteenth-Century Latrine from Riga, Latvia," describes what was found in privies associated with seventeen timber homes in an area inhabited by native Livs. Bugs indicate what was eaten, what the state of health was (esp. hookworms), what medicines were used, and the immediate environment (wetland or waterside).
Hui-Yuan Yeh and Piers D. Mitchell, "Parasites and Baltic Crusading in Medieval Riga: Insights into Disease, Diet, and Hygiene," continues the preceding account. Emphasis was given to investigating eggs of parasites. This indicated a high consumption of fresh-water fish in this native community; eaten raw, pickled, or smoked, this would have caused bleeding diarrhea (while beef or pork tapeworms would have been killed by cooking). Some pinworms associated with horses and donkeys were discovered.
Looking at physical landscapes, Laimdota Kalniņa, Aija Ceriņa, Kristaps Kiziks, Karina Stankeviča, Agnese Pujāte, and Anda Dručka, "Evidence of Human Impact and Vegetation Change during the Late Iron Age and the Medieval Livonian Period at Some Sites along the Lower Course of the River Daugava," studies the sediment in several lakes, concluding that "multiproxy data, including sediment age determination, allow the traces of variable types of impact to be identified." In one area pollen indicates that forest cover increased in spite of human activity, together with more charcoal and cultivated plants; and that climate change was important. In general, however, little changed after 1200, despite the decline in woodland and evidence of greater cultivation.
Normunds Stivriņš, Siim Veski, and Triin Reitalu, "Palaeoecological Evidence of Crusades and Subsequent Impact on the Livonian Landscape," show that the continued presence of native peoples moderated changes in agricultural practices. In one area there was a significant increase in grain production, but in general changes were minimal.
The section on transforming the spritual landscape begins with Heiki Valk, "Sacred Landscapes of Medieval Livonia: Lands of the Teutonic Order in Southern Estonia," looked at five castle districts, locating both pre-Christian and Christian sacred sites. Natural sacred sites included ancient trees, groves, stones, healing springs, and hills. These were distributed evenly across the cultivated regions, where natives would offer gifts (often first fruits of harvest, young cattle). Most of these continued to exist through the rule of the Teutonic Order, though their importance was reduced to that of their locality; they were destroyed only in the nineteenth century, when modern attitudes came to prevail. There were also Christian sites--parish churches, cemeteries, chapels, and crosses at road intersections. In contrast to most of Christian Europe, there was no division of the spiritual world into good and evil; only communal pagan practices were banned.
Seweryn Szczepański, "Surkapurn and Kreken: The Phenomena of Name and Place and the Organization of Sacred Space in Prussia Using Archaeology and Other Sources," noted that the earliest Christian chronicles described paganism as nature worship (forests, lakes, rivers, meadows). These can be identified through the names in records and local usage. Excavations of cemeteries by Carl Engel that began in 1930 were to be the basis of a book, but his work was dispersed after the Second World War, with only parts surviving relating to the cremation burials of the pre-Christian era. This is connected to the "Prussian kings" mentioned in medieval documents, undoubtedly prominent individuals, and to Christian burials nearby. The ancient names survived.
Vykintas Vaitkevičius, "Continuity and Discontinuity in the Sacral Landscape of Lithuania," notes that while names are better guides to pagan sites than archeological excavations, these are unreliable for understanding the totality of pagan beliefs. A map shows that most of the identified locations are in Lower Lithuania (Samogitia). In contrast to Marija Gimbutas (who argued that the ancient religion survived as folklore) and Darius Baronas and Stephen Rowell (who argue that paganism had been thoroughly eroded before the official adoption of Christianity), it is here argued that the process of Christianization was accompanied by the destruction of sanctuaries and holy sites, the cutting down of trees and groves, and with some sites being declared evil while yet others were incorporated into Roman Catholic practices.
Kaspars Kļaviņš, "Reorganizing the Livonian Landscape: Some Issues and Research Perspectives," sees feudalism as chaotic and dynamic, with internal contradictions, yet effective in organizing military and administrative resources; but it was not a unified system in the modern sense. Under the rule of the Teutonic Knights, natives expanded their holdings into virgin lands, reflecting the feudal governments' emphasis on practical solutions to problems rather than imposing ones brought from abroad. Catholicism united diverse peoples and social strata.
The final section on the Ordensland in a regional context begins with Mark Maltby, "Exploiting Animals in the Medieval North-Western Russian Frontier," which emphasizes the need for a holistic approach that uses written records in combination with archeology to understand the role of cattle, pigs, sheep, horses, dogs, fish, and birds in the broad area from Novgorod to the sea.
David Orton, Eve Rannamäe, Lembi Lõugas, Daniel Makowiecki, Sheila Hamilton-Dyer, Aleksander Pluskowski, Tamsin O'Connell, and James Barrett, "The Teutonic Order's Role in the Development of a Medieval Eastern Baltic Cod Fishery: Evidence from Fish Bone Isotopes," confirm that cod imported from distant seas was common in cities in Livonia and Prussia, but there is now evidence that the Teutonic Order began exploiting local resources much earlier than believed.
All in all, this is an attractive publication that poses interesting questions for future research as well as summarizing recent results in environmental studies. It will have significant value for scholars writing political and social history and serve as a model for similar studies elsewhere.