Final Report Summary - TEC (The Ecology of Crusading: The Environmental Impact of Conquest, Colonisation and Religious Conversion in the Medieval Baltic)
In the thirteenth century, crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the last indigenous pagan societies in Europe: tribal groups in the eastern Baltic region. Following the military conquest of these lands, tribal territories were replaced with new Christian states, run by the Teutonic Order and individual bishops – virtually unique in Europe. They constructed castles, encouraged colonists, developed towns and introduced Christianity. At a time of deteriorating climate their impact on the local environment, especially plants and animals, would have been profound. Since many aspects of the natural world were sacred to the Baltic tribes, this impact would be synonymous with the cultural changes that created a new world – a European world – at this frontier of Christendom.
This research project, running from October 2010 – October 2014, investigated the environmental impact of the crusades and the accompanying cultural transformations in the eastern Baltic region. The project was the first of its kind investigating the complex and varied relationships between conquest, colonisation and environmental transformation in medieval north-eastern Europe. The project integrated zooarchaeological, palaeoenvironmental, geoarchaeological, isotopic and historical data in examining the impact of castle construction and maintenance by the Teutonic Order (and its Livonian branch) in the eastern Baltic. This consisted of a comparative study of castles and their associated territories (commanderies) in Prussia (north Poland) and Livonia (Latvia and southern Estonia), and involved targeted excavations aimed at obtaining primary environmental data alongside sampling and archival work.
The results of the project indicated a diverse and uneven sequence of environmental change in the eastern Baltic region following the crusades. The structure of the Teutonic Order’s territories, and the shapes of the castles themselves, only developed in the later decades of the crusades following dynamic responses to the hectic political and economic climate. This partly explains the significant regional variation across the eastern Baltic region, despite the political hegemony of the Teutonic Order promoting a unified, corporate approach to the re-organisation of the landscape in the wake of the thirteenth-century crusades. The hierarchical structure of the Order facilitated the development of inter-regional provisioning networks, aided by the Hanse – a north-European mercantile network driven by German entrepreneurs. This enabled resources to be moved from the borderlands to the central nodes of the Baltic crusader states, which were not only able to sustain their own settlers but also generated a surplus for exporting to Western Europe. This underlies the successful adaptation of the incomers to the harsh landscapes of marshes, forests and fens, but it was also made possible by the earlier achievements of indigenous populations. The early medieval period was characterised by waves of Slavic colonisation in the borderlands of Prussia which prompted the clearance of woodland and the expansion of cultivated land. In Livonia, the process of environmental transformation was much slower, and did not begin in earnest until the fourteenth century. Here a significant proportion of the indigenous population survived the military conquests of the thirteenth century, providing the colonists with an existing system of land management which was only gradually altered. In both regions, local livestock breeds were appropriated, although fodder regimes were improved and husbandry intensified. A local fishing industry sourced from southern Baltic waters gradually replaced the earlier reliance on Scandinavian stock fish. The exploitation of luxury natural resources – amber and fur – was monopolised by the Order.
However, the persistence of pre-Christian cult practices and sacred natural places suggests a level of tolerance within the theocratic crusader states in the Baltic. Sacred sites across the Eastern Baltic appear to have survived where the indigenous population survived, rather than as a result of any sustained programme of transforming the sacred landscape. Overall, it is possible to define the crusades as a regionally protracted event horizon in the ecological history of north-eastern Europe. Although north-western Estonia and the Prussian borderlands saw environmental changes linked to colonisation in the early medieval period, the beginning of sustained and intensive exploitation of the landscape can be seen with the re-organisation of territories following the crusades.
This research project, running from October 2010 – October 2014, investigated the environmental impact of the crusades and the accompanying cultural transformations in the eastern Baltic region. The project was the first of its kind investigating the complex and varied relationships between conquest, colonisation and environmental transformation in medieval north-eastern Europe. The project integrated zooarchaeological, palaeoenvironmental, geoarchaeological, isotopic and historical data in examining the impact of castle construction and maintenance by the Teutonic Order (and its Livonian branch) in the eastern Baltic. This consisted of a comparative study of castles and their associated territories (commanderies) in Prussia (north Poland) and Livonia (Latvia and southern Estonia), and involved targeted excavations aimed at obtaining primary environmental data alongside sampling and archival work.
The results of the project indicated a diverse and uneven sequence of environmental change in the eastern Baltic region following the crusades. The structure of the Teutonic Order’s territories, and the shapes of the castles themselves, only developed in the later decades of the crusades following dynamic responses to the hectic political and economic climate. This partly explains the significant regional variation across the eastern Baltic region, despite the political hegemony of the Teutonic Order promoting a unified, corporate approach to the re-organisation of the landscape in the wake of the thirteenth-century crusades. The hierarchical structure of the Order facilitated the development of inter-regional provisioning networks, aided by the Hanse – a north-European mercantile network driven by German entrepreneurs. This enabled resources to be moved from the borderlands to the central nodes of the Baltic crusader states, which were not only able to sustain their own settlers but also generated a surplus for exporting to Western Europe. This underlies the successful adaptation of the incomers to the harsh landscapes of marshes, forests and fens, but it was also made possible by the earlier achievements of indigenous populations. The early medieval period was characterised by waves of Slavic colonisation in the borderlands of Prussia which prompted the clearance of woodland and the expansion of cultivated land. In Livonia, the process of environmental transformation was much slower, and did not begin in earnest until the fourteenth century. Here a significant proportion of the indigenous population survived the military conquests of the thirteenth century, providing the colonists with an existing system of land management which was only gradually altered. In both regions, local livestock breeds were appropriated, although fodder regimes were improved and husbandry intensified. A local fishing industry sourced from southern Baltic waters gradually replaced the earlier reliance on Scandinavian stock fish. The exploitation of luxury natural resources – amber and fur – was monopolised by the Order.
However, the persistence of pre-Christian cult practices and sacred natural places suggests a level of tolerance within the theocratic crusader states in the Baltic. Sacred sites across the Eastern Baltic appear to have survived where the indigenous population survived, rather than as a result of any sustained programme of transforming the sacred landscape. Overall, it is possible to define the crusades as a regionally protracted event horizon in the ecological history of north-eastern Europe. Although north-western Estonia and the Prussian borderlands saw environmental changes linked to colonisation in the early medieval period, the beginning of sustained and intensive exploitation of the landscape can be seen with the re-organisation of territories following the crusades.