Interdisciplinary research into the ecology of crusading in the Baltics 1200 -1500 document a massive ecological shift in landscape, settlements and way of life. 

Archaeologists just love garbage. However, something special was in the air when archaeologists last year uncovered half a meter of rich black dirt in the inner courtyard of the Castle of Karksi in Estonia. Shovelling deeper, they realized that they had discovered the remains of the first garbage pit, stemming from the Teutonic Knights, who built the castle at the beginning of the 13th century (The castle is mentioned for the first time in 1248).

The wet pit had preserved a wide variety of leftovers from the meals at the castle: hazelnuts, fishbones –scales and animal bones, to name a few. 

However, the archaeologists were somewhat puzzled: According to an interview with Heiki Valk at the University of Tartu in Estonia, the pit lacked leftovers of the local pottery. The Teutonic knights, who had built the castle on top of an Estonian fortification, obviously lived according to their own cultural values and habits.

Comparing the finds from these castles with those of local traditional settlements, archaeologists have repeatedly encountered the same pattern. On the one hand, the inhabitants of the castles lived in a distinct way characterized by the consumption of domesticated animals and grains of their own choice, while – on the other hand – the local pople lived off a mixture of farming and hunting. Here rye, wheat, barley and millet grew in small plots while large wild animals like aurochs, roe deer, elk and bison contributed significantly to their diet.

However, this traditional lifestyle seemed to disappear from one day to another when the Baltic Crusades brought heavily armed forces into the region. Accompanied by German settlers, more intensive farming took over. During the later middle ages, the region was known for its export of grain, pelts from wild animals and timber organized by the Teutonic knights inhabiting their massive castles and the Germans, who migrated to the new prosperous frontier-land.

During this period, the landscape fundamentally changed its character from being extensively forested to be deforested and farmed. One result was a changed flora and fauna. While aurochs – forerunners of our modern cows – were hunted to extinction, other species like elk and bison were severely reduced. At the same time, the flora changed dramatically.

However, the shift is not only studied from an ecological perspective. 

In the 13th century, when crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the last indigenous pagan societies in Europe, they also attacked and, to some extent, wiped out a people whose connection with nature must have been dramatically different. 

At a time of deteriorating climate, the conquerors’ impact on the local environment, especially plants and animals, appears to have been profound. Since many aspects of the natural world were sacred to the Baltic (Slavic) tribes, this shift must have been experienced as synonymous with the creation of a whole new European world at this frontier of Christendom. Perhaps, we may compare it to the cultural and mental shifts caused by the immigrants settling on the American Prairie in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Currently, this dramatic ecological shift is being studied by an interdisciplinary group of researchers: Zoo-, geo- and just plain archaeologists plus paleobotanists and historians are part of an international team working on the project “The Ecology of Crusading”. Funded by the European Research Council, it is scheduled to run from 2010 – 2014.

SOURCE:

The Ecology of Crusading

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Crusader Crisis: How Conquest Transformed Northern Europe.
By Andrew Curry.
Science Vol 338 30 nov 2012 pp  1144-45.

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