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From the convent to the commandery: The pivotal role of the environment in defining
the medieval Baltic Ordensland
by Aleksander Pluskowski, Alexander Brown, Rowena Banerjea,
Daniel Makowiecki, Krish Seetah, Monika Badura, Marc Jarzebowski, Eve Rannamäe, Juhan Kreem and Kaspars Kļaviņš*
Introduction
The events of the crusades in north-eastern Europe are well known. By the end of the thirteenth century, conquered tribal territories in the eastern Baltic had been re-organised into a theocratic polity, stretching from the northern border of the Polish Kingdom to the western edges of the patrimonium of the Republic of Novgorod (fig. 1).1 Although crusading in this region had originally been initiated by bishops and territory under episcopal control remained extensive, the conquer-ing theocracy was dominated by the Teutonic Order. Northern Estonia remained a duchy of the Danish crown for little over a century, after which it was sold to the Livonian branch of the Order.2 The authority of the new regime was most visible in the construction of castles – better understood as fortified monasteries – where de facto power was exercised by individual commanders and their convents, under the
* The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement n° 263735.
1 The most recent comprehensive studies of the multiple aspects of the Teutonic Order have been compiled by Polish historians; for Prussia: Państwo zakonu krzyżackiego w Prusach. Władza i społeczeństwo, redakcja naukowa Marian B i s k u p /Roman C z a j a [The Teutonic Order’s State in Prussia: Government and Society], Warszawa 2009; for Prussia and Livonia: Zakon krzyżacki w Prusach i Inflantach. Podziały polityczne i kościelne w XIII–XVI wieku, ed. by Roman C z a -j a /Andrzej R a d z i m i ń s k i , Toruń 2013, available in translation as: The Teutonic Order in Prus-sia and Livonia. The Political and Ecclesiastical Structures 13th – 16th Century, Toruń/Köln 2015.
2 Henceforth referred to as the Livonian Order.
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fig. 1: Simplified map of the medieval Baltic Ordensland showing the location of sites mentioned in the text.
overarching leadership of the grand master.3 The architecture and layout of these central nodes of power in the Ordensland have been the focus of research for over a
3 The term ‘castle’ is used in this paper to refer to the fortified houses of the Teutonic Order; the terms Castrum, Domus and German Hus (house) and its variants were typically used in the Or-der’s documents to refer to its fortified convents; Sławomir J ó ź w i a k , /Janusz Tr u p i n d a , Krzyżackie zamki komturskie w Prusach. Topografia i układ przestrzenny na podstawie średnio-wiecznych źródeł pisanych [The Teutonic Order’s conventual castles in Prussia], Malbork 2012, pp. 96–98. See also the references in note 1.
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century, demonstrating how there is a remarkable degree of consistency in the forms of the Konventsburgen or ‘claustral castles’.4 This reinforces the impression of the Teutonic Order as a monolithic theocratic corporation, controlling its territories with a rigid and effective hierarchy. Each convent governed a defined landscape called a commandery or Kommende, which could be further sub-divided into dis-tricts or Ämter. These were ruled by lesser officials based in smaller, fortified resi-dences. Through this network, the Order managed its subjects, a variable mixture of multiple generations of external and internal colonists, and indigenous commu-nities, by the systematic granting of privileges and the use of regulations controlling everything from trade and mobility to property sizes.
The economic basis of the commandery system was entirely dependent on a combination of teneurial dues, duties levied on trade and the export of timber, grain, fur, amber and wax. However, these resources were found unevenly across the Ordensland and there were also differences between the monopoly of gover-nance exercised by the Order in Prussia and Livonia, resulting in contrasting eco-nomic models proposed by historians for both regions. In Prussia, where the Or-der’s organisation was more centralised, the last two decades of the fourteenth century saw a dramatic expansion in agriculture and charges levied on the Order’s subjects, followed by a sudden decline in the fifteenth century, which was not re-versed despite some stabilisation c. 1450.5 In Livonia, on the other hand, where the organisation of the Order’s trade was not as well developed as in Prussia, its eco-nomic basis remained modest until the later fifteenth century which then saw a focus on more intensive grain production. These models are based on syntheses of written sources predominantly surviving from the last two centuries of the medi-eval Baltic Ordens land, but they indicate a fundamental connection between the Order’s power structure and the landscape that has, until recently, been taken for granted.
From 2010–2014, a multi-scalar, multi-disciplinary and inter-regional project – “The Ecology of Crusading”, investigated the environmental impact of the crusades and the associated processes of colonisation and resulting cultural transformation.6
4 The literature on the Teutonic Order’s architecture, and in particular its castles, is vast. Three works are useful to mention in relation to this: Tomasz To r b u s , Die Konventsburgen im Deut-schordensland Preussen, München 1998; Christofer H e r r m a n n , Mittelalterliche Architektur in Preussenland. Untersuchungen zur Frage der Kunstlandschaft und -geographie, Petersberg 2007, pp. 81–83; and the most recent summaries on Prussia and Livonia by Marian A r s z y ń s k i , Zamki i umocnienia zakonu Krzyżackiego i hierarchii kościelnej w Prusach [The castles and fortifica-tions of the Teutonic Order and ecclesiastical hierarchy in Prussia], and Zamki i umocnienia za-konu krzyżackiego i biskupów w inflantach [The castles and fortifications of the Teutonic Order and bishops in Livonia], in: Zakon krzyżacki (see note 1), pp. 55–80, 183–213.
5 Jürgen S a r n o w s k y, Die Wirtschaftsführung des Deutschen Ordens in Preußen (1382–1454), Köln 1993, pp. 435–436.
6 FP7 grant agreement n° 263735 (2010–2014).
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Drawing on archaeological, palaeoenvironmental and written data, it situated this impact within the longue durée of cultural and environmental change across the eastern Baltic region, and connected the construction and use of castles with their associated landscapes. This paper contains some of the findings of this project to make a case for the significance of the entangled relationship between the Order’s castles and their territories. Focusing on select case studies, rather than a compre-hensive overview, it will firstly characterise the environmental archaeology of the Teutonic Order’s castles in the eastern Baltic and consider the fundamental impor-tance of moving beyond the physical bounds of these sites. This will then be sup-ported by four case studies of select castles in Prussia and Livonia, highlighting the exploitation of different environmental contexts. It is argued that activities taking place within the castles cannot be understood in isolation from their landscape con-text. In fact, in the particular case of the medieval Ordensland, this connection de-fined the nature of the ruling theocracy and its relations with both colonising and colonised populations.
Characterising the Teutonic Order’s castles
Castles in the medieval eastern Baltic were occupied by composite communities, with the larger convents consisting of a nominally regular number of brethren as established in the Order’ rule, although in reality this figure varied dramatically over time, with an extended household which included sergeants, priests and chap-lains, half-brothers, half-sisters, servants and administrators, as well as visiting guests.7 In Livonia, and perhaps in parts of Prussia as well, this household could include a proportion of the indigenous population alongside those recruited from towns and outside the Ordensland. With subsequent generations, the line between colonists and colonising became blurred, and the evident ‘Germanisation’ of the Prussian population resulted in the gradual abandonment of the native language and related identity.8 From an archaeological perspective, the taphonomic complexity of the Order’s castles, resulting from many centuries of occupation and modification after their initial construction, and thus affecting the extent and character of the archaeological record, severely limits our understanding of the socio-topography of
7 Janusz Ta n d e c k i , Zakon krzyżacki [Teutonic Order], in: Państwo (see note 1), pp. 405–419, at pp. 406–411.
8 Sven E k d a h l , Crusades and colonisation in the Baltic: a historiographic analysis, in: Rocznik Instytutu Polsko-skandynawskiego 19, 2004, pp. 1–42, at p. 7; Ēvalds M u g u r ē v i č s , Viduslaiku ciems un pils Salaspils novadā [The medieval village and castle in the district of Salaspils/Kirch-holm], Riga 2008, pp. 170–172; Kaspars K ļ a v i ņ š , The significance of the local Baltic peoples in the defence of Livonia (late thirteenth – sixteenth centuries), in: The Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier, ed. by Alan V. M u r r a y, Aldershot 2009, pp. 321–340.
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these communities. It is sometimes possible to identify specific areas of activity, particularly in outer wards or Vorburgen (see below). Moats were used for waste disposal, but it is difficult to link material from these contexts with specific activity areas. At best, the archaeological record of these sites can be sub-divided into phases.
However, the chronological resolution of activities is not as precise as that provid-ed by individual historical sources. In relation to the Order’s castles, two broad occupation phases can be usefully defined: the period of active crusading (Livonia c. 1198–1291; Prussia c. 1230–1283) representing the first phase of castle construc-tion, often from timber and earth in Prussia, in several instances re-using existing earthworks and fortifications, and largely destroyed or truncated by the second phase of building.9 In Livonia relatively simple stone castles were used from the very onset of crusading, but again their earliest phases are difficult to identify.10 The re-building and expansion of these sites into the better known Konventsburgen saw the widespread use of more durable materials, primarily brick and field stones in Prus-sia, and stone, as well as brick, in Livonia. Timber structures continued to be con-structed into the fifteenth century, both as single tower-houses and as ancillary buildings within outer wards.11 This second phase can sometimes be sub-divided into various periods of expansion and rebuilding. Building work at the Order’s head-quarters in Marienburg (Malbork) (fig. 2, colour),12 for example, took over a century and its final phase was associated with the construction of a massive embankment outside the north-eastern flank of the castle’s lower Vorburg.13 Excavations at Graudenz (Grudziądz) revealed six distinct phases of construction and dismantling from the mid-thirteenth until the eighteenth century.14 The Pflegers residence at Pehen (Pień) on the other hand, constructed by the Order in 1410, had one phase of occupation
9 Aleksander P l u s k o w s k i , The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade: Holy War and Colonisa-tion, London 2013, pp. 97–101.
10 Valter L a n g /Heiki Va l k , An archaeological reading of the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia: Events, traces, contexts and interpretations, in: Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier, ed. by Marek Ta m m /Linda K a l j u n d i /Carsten Selch J e n s e n , Aldershot 2011, pp. 291–316.
11 Dariusz P o l i ń s k i , Krzyżackie warownie drewniano-ziemne w świetle badań archeologicznych [The Teutonic Order‘s timber-earthen fortifications in the light of archaeology], in: Archaeologia Historica Polona 17, 2007, pp. 241–257.
12 For consistency, medieval German names are used to refer to all place names with modern names indicated where appropriate. It is recognised that archaeological sites are referred to in the context of modern geography, but this has not been done here to avoid confusion.
13 Bogdan B o b o w s k i /Patryk M u n t o w s k i /Paweł M i c y k , Wyniki badań archeologicznych na wale Plauena w Malborku [The results of archaeological investigations on Plauen’s rampart in Malbork], in: XVIII Sesja Pomorzoznawca (II), ed. by Ewa F u d z i ń s k a , Malbork 2013, pp. 11–36.
14 Zamek w Grudziądzu w świetle badań archeologiczno-architektonicznych. Materiały i studia [The castle in Grudziądz in the light of archaeological and architectural research. Materials and studies], ed. by Marcin W i e w i ó r a , Toruń 2012, pp. 359–378.
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which lasted no more than a dozen years.15 Virtually nothing is known about the manning of the Order’s smallest outposts, which have survived in the landscape as tentatively identified mounds and remain poorly known archaeologically.16
The Order’s castles had impressive outer baileys, referred to as suburbii or Vor-burgen, where documentary sources record the presence of a diverse range of ser-vice buildings and industrial facilities. However, these were not purely industrial quarters. They could also contain infirmaries, additional chapels and even refecto-ries; the Vorburg of the Königsberg convent contained, most likely, two chapels in addition to the one within the castle, whilst Marienburg had six within its grounds, in addition to the grand master’s private chapel.17 The shape, size, number and char-acter of Vorburgen varied from one site to the next, with smaller residences lacking enclosed wards typically associated with an adjacent farm or Vorwerk. The few ex-cavations of these wards have confirmed the locations of buildings and spaces dedi-cated to specific activities, and more importantly how these changed over time.18 The Order’s inventories also contain precise information about resources located within these precincts.19 Alongside armour and raw materials, this included stores of food and drink, cereals and livestock; the latter categorised further according to their age, sex (especially cattle) and purpose (such as for breeding, fattening or trac-tion). Evidence of storage and the processing of plant products have been less com-monly found during excavations at the Order’s sites due to the limitations of previ-ous archaeological recovery techniques. However, traces of food preparation which includes plants remains, derived from kitchens, have most often been found in exca-vations of moats.
At Marienburg plant macrofossils from the moat adjacent to the inner curtain wall included large numbers of cherry and plum seeds, reflecting consumption of fruits
15 Dariusz P o l i n s k i , Pień: Siedziba krzyżackich prokuratorów w ziemi chełmińskiej [Pień: The residence of the Teutonic Order’s procurators in the Kulmerland], Toruń 2013.
16 Jerzy A n t o n i e w i c z , Z zagadnień ochrony zabytków wczesnośredniowiecznego budownictwa obronnego na warmii i mazurach [On the issues relating to the protection of early medieval forti-fication monuments in Warmia and Masuria], in: Sprawozdań P.M.A. 3/1–4, 1950, pp. 51–77, at pp. 60–64; Izabela M i r k o w s k a /Jerzy M i a ł d u n , Nieznane lub prawie nieznane kopce z okolicy Rynu woj. Warmińsko-Mazurskie [Unknown or barely known mounds in the vicinity of Ryn, Warmian-Masurian voivodeship], in: Badania archeologiczne w Polsce północno-wschodniej i na zachodniej Białorusi w latach 2000–2001, ed. by Małgorzata K a r c z e w s k a /Maciej K a r c z e -w s k i , Białystok 2002, pp. 333–346, at p. 333.
17 J ó ź w i a k /Tr u p i n d a , Zamki (see note 3), pp. 182–184.18 Maria D ą b r o w s k a , Badania archeologiczno-architektoniczne na terenie zamku niskiego w
Malborku w latach 1998–2004 [Archaeological-architectural research in the lower castle in Mal-bork in 1998–2004], in: XV Sesja Pomorzoznawcza, ed. by Grażyna Nawrolska, Elbląg 2007, pp. 303–316.
19 One of the best recent studies to demonstrate the use of this detailed material is Sławomir J ó ź w i -a k /Janusz Tr u p i n d a , Organizacja życia na zamku krzyżackim w Malborku w czasach wiel-kich mistrzów (1309–1457) [The Organisation of Life in the Teutonic Order’s Castle in Malbork during the Time of the Grand Masters (1309–1457)], Malbork 2007.
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from trees most probably located within orchards around or near the Vorburg. Al-though a Gartenmeister is mentioned at the convent in the fifteenth century,20 there is evidence for the early presence of a garden at the site. Sediments from the high castle courtyard include distinct organic layers that in the case of the uppermost, radiocarbon dated to c. 1266–1388, included large quantities of herbaceous pollen of the carrot and cabbage families (fig. 3, colour). Both the carrot and cabbage family comprise a wide range of edible plants – vegetables and herbs – the former including carrot, celery, caraway, coriander, fennel, parsley, and parsnip, and in the latter in-cluding cabbages, mustards and turnip. It seems highly probable that the courtyard of the high castle was being utilised as a herb garden, for vegetables or for a mixture of both. The expansion of the convent of Wenden (Cēsis) in the latter half of the fourteenth century coincides with the installation of a timber structure in the base of the moat, dated by dendrochronology to 1374/5,21 presumably to aid with flush-ing increasing quantities of effluent (fig. 4, colour). Seeds of cereals, vegetables, spic-es and fruits (including fig) were recorded from the moat, along with large quantities of pollen of cereals reflecting both kitchen and human waste, but also the storage of agricultural produce in the Vorburg for both human and animal consumption.
The relatively more abundant quantities of animal bone from these sites represent the end of a process of slaughter, butchery, disarticulation and the segregation of meat from materials used in manufacturing.22 Written sources provide a sense of quantity that is not mirrored in the zooarchaeological record. For example, in Marienburg in 1409 at least 1200 billy-goat horns and 36,000 sinews used in the production of crossbows are documented.23 Archaeologically, more general levels of activity in the Vorburg are visible in diverse evidence for horn, antler, bone and leather working, the latter particularly abundant in undisturbed waterlogged de-posits.24 Building materials have also been uncovered. During the expansion of the convent at Marienburg in the fourteenth century, the outer Vorburg was used for storing building materials, particularly bricks, as suggested by remains of discrete sand deposits, caches of clay as well as fragmentary and loose, whole bricks, which in the case of one example was similar in size to the bricks in the high castle tradi-tionally dated to c.1280.25 Geochemical analysis of soil, virtually absent from past archaeological investigations of the Order’s sites, may also be used to reconstruct
20 J ó ź w i a k /Tr u p i n d a , Organizacja (see note 19), pp. 422–425.21 Date provided by Māris Zunde.22 Mark M a l t b y /Aleksander P l u s k o w s k i /Krish S e e t a h , Animal bones from an industrial
quarter at Malbork, Poland: towards and ecology of a castle built in Prussia by the Teutonic Order, in: Crusades 8, 2009, pp. 191–212.
23 Sven E k d a h l , Horses and crossbows: two important warfare advantages of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, in: The Military Orders: Welfare and Warfare, ed. by Helen N i c h o l s o n , Farnham 1998, pp. 119–151.
24 M a l t b y et al., (see note 22), pp. 198–199, 206–210.25 D ą b r o w s k a , (see note 18).
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specific types of activities and their changing intensity over time, ranging from the presence of animal pens through to smithies.26
If the environmental assemblages from Vorburgen, moats and other internal waste dumps, combined with fragmentary written sources, provide a diachronic represen-tation of the relative importance of environmental resources at the Order’s castles, they cannot be understood in isolation from the landscapes associated with these sites. The main technique used for reconstructing changes in vegetation and landuse is palynology, although this depends on the availability of preserved pollen cores in suitable depositional basins – lakes and peat bogs. Their uneven distribution and preservation limits the reconstruction of entire commandery landscapes, but where possible multiple cores were taken from different locations to provide a broader picture of changing landuse within defined micro-regions. The pollen data can be complemented with geochemistry to identify local soil erosion resulting from vege-tation removal around sites.27 The relationships between sites and their landscape are fundamental to understanding how the Order’s nodes of power were main-tained, and how the activities of castle communities impacted on the territories un-der their administration.
During the period of active crusading, castles were sometimes built on the rem-nants of existing earthworks where this was strategically useful, often strongholds which had been previously abandoned (e.g. Thorn) or had been destroyed by cru-sading armies (e.g. Fellin). However, more often castle siting was dominated by a series of pragmatic concerns, particularly communications, raw materials and pro-visioning. The thought-process behind this can be glimpsed in the correspondence between the commander of Ragnit (Neman) and the grand master, concerning the construction of a new castrum on the Samogitian frontier in 1406. The survey of the territory where the Dubysa joined the Nemunas included detailed consideration of the topography, suitable timber to provide building materials, concerns over the placement of water-powered mills and concluded that the Dubysa could be easily diverted to power the wheel of the grain mill. The string of correspondence ended by highlighting the importance of siting mills within proximity of the stronghold.28 It is easy to detach such pragmatic observations from the more complex definition of the theocracy, and the inventories, account books, visitations and correspondence
26 Clare A. W i l s o n /Donald A. D a v i d s o n /Malcolm S. C r e s s e r , Multi-element soil analysis: an assessment of its potential as an aid to archaeological interpretation, in: Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 2008, pp. 412–424.
27 Alexander B r o w n /Rowena B a n e r j e a /Amanda D a w n -W y n n e /Normunds S t i v r i ņ š /Marc J a r z e b o w s k i /Lisa-Marie S h i l l i t o /Aleksander P l u s k o w s k i , The ecological impact of conquest and colonization on a medieval frontier landscape: combined palynological and geo-chemical analysis of lake sediments from Radzyń Chełminski, northern Poland, in: Geoarchaeol-ogy, 2015, 30/6, 511–527.
28 Codex Epistolaris Vitoldi, ed. by A. Prochaska, Kraków 1882, nr. 351, p. 136; reproduced in Mar-ian Arszyński, Budownictwo, in: Zakon Krzyżacki (see note 1), pp. 545–573.
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of the Order certainly indicate a sustained and even overwhelming concern with resource management. Indeed, the emphasis placed on exploiting the landscape by the Order frustrated clerics intent on evangelising the indigenous population; as late as 1427, the Bishop of Kulm complained that Prussian peasants had barely any knowledge of Christianity as the Order had forced them to work on holy days.29 The hierarchical character of the commandery system, with discrete, nestled terri-tories run by Vogts, Pflegers and Kämmerer, offices adopted from the Empire, rein-forces this impression of the Order’s houses as, first and foremost, centres of admin-istration. But this was not a wholly one-way, top-down process, despite the corporate authority expressed by the Order, for the landscape and the spectrum of encounters with the conquered indigenous populations of the eastern Baltic, in turn, shaped the lifestyle of individual communities and explains the variability encountered across the Ordensland. This variability, and the importance of the multi-scalar relation-ship, will be demonstrated through case studies of different types of sites in Livonia and Prussia, emphasising key themes.
Castles and the intensification of cultivation
The intensive production of grain in Livonia is only noticeable in written sources from the fifteenth century. However, there is evidence to suggest that both the in-tent and infrastructure was already developing in the thirteenth century. One of the most striking archaeological examples of how this functioned can be seen in the castle at Karkus (Karksi), in the territory of the Sackalians in southern Estonia. Although tribal resistance against the crusaders continued further south in Semi-gallia until 1290, mainland Estonia had already been nominally pacified decades earlier. Work on a new castle within the destroyed ruins of the Sackalian stronghold at Fellin (Viljandi) had begun in 1224, with the associated town first mentioned in 1283, the core element of which may have already been established in previous de-cades.30 At Karkus (Karksi), an official of the order and probably also a Vogt is/are mentioned in 1248, whilst excavations in the central part of the courtyard of the high castle uncovered a marshy hollow used as a rubbish pit during the earliest
29 Joachim S t e p h a n , Prusowie w gospodarstwie krzyżaków [The Prussians in the Teutonic Or-der’s economy], in: Gospodarka ludów morza bałtyckiego starożytność i średniowiecze: Mare Integrans – Studia nad dziejami wybrzeży Morza Bałtyckiego, ed. by Michał B o g a c k i /Maciej F r a n z /Zbigniew P i l a r c z y k , Toruń 2009, pp. 317–325, at p. 329.
30 The specific chronological development of the town remains disputed, but it was not a substantial settlement until the end of the thirteenth century: Arvi H a a k /Erki R u s s o w, On the develop-ment of the town of Viljandi in the light of earliest archaeological find complexes, in: Estonian Journal of Archaeology 17/1, 2013, pp. 57–86.
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known phase of the site (fig. 5, colour).31 This phase, dating to the last quarter of the thirteenth century, can be associated with a period of increased stability, associated in Livonia (and much more so in Prussia) with a new phase of colonisation and the beginnings of significant investment in castle construction. This new phase reflect-ed the central role of castles in re-organising conquered tribal landscapes. The sig-natures of the colonising, German lifestyle of the first inhabitants at the site are marked by the complete absence of local wheel-thrown pottery and the use of stave bowls. As construction work proceeded within this area that would become the most important part of the castle, the rubbish pit was sealed with a layer of clay and covered with a cobbled surface.
The pit contained a range of organic waste, but three elements in particular could be linked to the management of the local landscape. Given the absence of colonists within the castle’s hinterland, the resident officials of the Livonian Order at this new power centre would have been dependent on a co-operative or subservient in-digenous population. However these relations were managed, the end result was the storage of significant quantities of agrarian produce at the castle. This was particu-larly indicated by the presence of an unusually high proportion of pollen deriving from cereals. The quantity is too high to reflect the pollen rain from nearby agricul-tural fields as most cereals only produce small numbers of large pollen grains which are transported over relatively short distances. It seems more likely that the cereal pollen is derived from cereal processing within the immediate vicinity. Processing waste may have served as animal fodder, as coprolites from sheep or goat found within the pit included millet.32 There were also rare examples of wooden tally sticks, direct evidence of the taxes and tithes which are documented even in the ear-ly years of the Livonian Crusade (fig. 6, colour).
A pollen core from a peat deposit located five kilometres south-east of the castle within the vicinity of Äriküla, shows evidence for changes in vegetation from the early/mid thirteenth century, including a decline in spruce that has been widely linked across Livonia with the clearance of woodland from the most fertile soils.33
31 According to modelled radiocarbon dates, the midden had been used from 1272–1290; Heiki Va l k /Eve R a n n a m ä e /Alex B r o w n /Alexander P l u s k o w s k i /Monika B a d u r a /Lembi L õ u g a s , Thirteenth century cultural deposits at the castle of the Teutonic Order in Karksi, in: Archaeological Fieldwork in Estonia, 2012/2013, pp. 73–92. See also Juhan K r e e m /Märkmeid Karksi linnusepiirkonnast ja selle kirikuelust [Notes on the castle district of Karkus and its eccle-siastic life], in: Järelevastamine. Kaur Alttoale, ed. by Anneli R a n d l a (Eesti Kunstiakadeemia Toimetised 22), Tallinn 2017, pp. 33–50.
32 Rowena B a n e r j e a /Monika B a d u r a , Settlement life in Livonia and the impact on hinterlands: The geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical evidence, in: Environment, Colonisation, and the Crusader States in Medieval Livonia and Prussia, ed. by Aleks P l u s k o w s k i , Turnhout 2018 (in press).
33 Leili S a a r s e /Eve N i i n e m e t s /Anneli P o s k a /Siim Ve s k i , Is there a relationship between crop farming and the Alnus decline in the eastern Baltic? in: Vegetation History and Archaeobot-any 19, 2010, pp. 17–28; Triin R e i t a l u /Heikki S e p p ä /Shinya S u g i t a /Mihkel K a n g u r /Tiiu
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At Äriküla although the decline in spruce pollen is not associated with an increase in pollen from arable or pastoral land, it is likely that cultivation was limited to small plots in the woodland, severely constraining the dispersal of cereal and herb pollen; an intensification in agrarian land-use is only apparent from the second half of the fourteenth century.34 This reinforces the difficulty of rapidly imposing the type of landscape management evident in parts of Prussia on a more diffuse, con-quered population. Karkus castle was situated in a landscape where indigenous strongholds had been destroyed during the crusades, but much of the population remained intact. In many regions of Estonia following the crusades there is evidence for the incorporation of the indigenous elites into the new power structures.35 This suggests that co-operation existed alongside coercion, although the absence of in-digenous material culture from within the castle itself reinforces a picture of a de-gree of social polarisation between colonists and colonised.
It is clear that select castles in the Ordensland became major repositories for agrarian produce, with grain regularly recorded in their inventories and visitation reports.36 A portion of this would be intended for the use of the castle’s household, as indicated by the presence of mills situated within or nearby Vorburgen. At the frontier castle attached to the town of Memel (Klaipėda) for example, the invento-ries from 1404–1447 record rye, barley, oats, malt, hops, flour, peas and salt along-side the more exotic onions, figs, raisins, almonds, mustard and vinegar.37 Whilst Memel’s precarious position on the Samogitian border required certain staples to be imported,38 in the more stable heartlands of the Ordensland there is evidence for the collection of grain, and in particular rye, for export. As a result, grain also became concentrated in major port towns. Aside from discrete quantities of cereals surviv-ing in well-preserved archaeological contexts within castle grounds, it is possible to see evidence for differentiation in produce intended for the castle community and
K o f f /Kersti K i h n o /Jüri Va s s i l j e v /Hans R e n s s e n /Dan H a m m a r l u n d /Maija H e i k-k i l ä /Leili S a a r s e /Anneli P o s k a /Siim Ve s k i , Long-term drivers of forest composition in a boreonemoral region: the relative importance of climate and human impact, in: Journal of Bioge-ography 40, 2013, pp. 1524–1534.
34 Heiki Va l k /Aleksander P l u s k o w s k i /David T h o r n l e y /Alex B r o w n /Chantel S u m m e r -f i e l d , Fluxgate gradiometry survey in the ruins of Karksi Castle and palaeoenvironmental anal-ysis in its hinterlands, in: Archaeological Fieldwork in Estonia, 2009, pp. 134–140, at p. 138.
35 Aleksander P l u s k o w s k i /Heiki Va l k , Conquest and Europeanisation: The archaeology of the crusades in Livonia, Prussia and Lithuania, in: The Crusader World, ed. by Adrian B o a s , London 2015, pp. 568–592.
36 Friedrich B e n n i n g h o v e n , Die Burgen als Grundpfeiler des spätmittelalterlichen Wehrwesens im preußisch-livländischen Deutschordensstaat, in: Die Burgen im deutschen Sprachraum. Ihre rechts- und verfassungsgeschichtliche Bedeutung, tom.1, ed. by Hans P a t z e (Vorträge und For-schungen 19), Sigmaringen 1976, pp. 565–601.
37 Gerhard W i l l o w e i t , Die Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Memellandes I (Wissenschaftliche Beiträge zur Geschichte und Landeskunde Ost-Mitteleuropas 85/1), Marburg 1969, pp. 79–80.
38 Vladas Ž u l k u s /Linas D a u g n o r a , What did the Order’s brothers eat in the Klaipėda castle? (The historical and zooarchaeological data), in: Archaeologica Baltica 9, 2010, pp. 74–87.
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for export within the inventories. At Rehden (Radzyń Chełmiński) in the Kulmer-land, large quantities of unspecified grain documented between 1377 and 1449 con-trast with more diverse but significantly smaller amounts of named cereals. These can plausibly be interpreted as distinguishing between produce intended for the convent and its household, and that which was segregated for export (fig. 7, colour). A large proportion, if not all of this grain would have been obtained from the con-vent’s commandery. However, the same inventories record significant quantities of livestock, particularly sheep. This would have required access to both cultivated fields and pasture, which are represented diachronically on pollen profiles of cores taken from the lake next to the castle.39 Combined with the geochemical evidence, the pollen suggests some reduction in the intensity of agricultural activity within the immediate hinterland of the castle particularly during the mid-fourteenth cen-tury, despite the intensification of settlement within the wider landscape. This may reflect a shift in the focus of agricultural production away from the immediate castle hinterland and its conversion to pasture, particularly given the fact that livestock were housed within the castle’s island Vorburgen as suggested by documentary ref-erences to stables and pig sties. This shift must surely reflect changes in the wider organisation of landuse within the commandery, the establishment of mills and dedicated farms or Vorwerken, and the choice to invest in substantial herds.40
Castles and the intensive husbandry of livestock
Whilst a convent such as Rehden concentrated a diverse range of resources from its commandery within its precincts, a more specialised relationship with the landscape can be seen in the functioning of the castle at Arrasch (Āraiši) (fig. 8, colour). The lo-cation of this small castle at the southern edge of Wenden’s commandery and its prox-imity to the route linking the convent with Riga clearly defined its strategic roles. The impact of the castle is evident from multi-proxy analyses of cores taken from the lake, as well as from peat deposits within the nearby landscape.41 This points to a continui-ty, perhaps even a slight decline, in agricultural practises from the Late Iron Age into the Livonian Order’s period, and cultivation would only intensify from the eighteenth century. At first the Order would have encountered a developed landscape already
39 B r o w n et. al (see note 27).40 Jan G a n c e w s k i , Rola zamków krzyzackich w ziemi chelminskiej od polowy XIV wieku do
1454 roku [The role of the Teutonic Order’s castles in the Kulmerland from the mid-14th century to 1454], Olsztyn 2001, p. 46.
41 Normunds S t i v r i ņ š /Alex B r o w n /Triin R e i t a l u /Siim Ve s k i /Atko H e i n s a l u /Rowena B a n e r j e a /Kati E l m i , Landscape change in central Latvia since the Iron Age: multi-proxy anal-ysis of the vegetation impact of conflict, colonization and economic expansion during the last 2,000 years, in: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 24, 2015, pp. 377–391.
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cleared of much woodland, and the decline in agricultural productivity may have been symptomatic of the demographic impact of the crusades in the region. Rather than seeking to intensify cereal production, an adaptive strategy was implemented. The faunal assemblage recovered from excavations inside the castle indicated that, along-side the virtual absence of wild species, the rest of the peninsula, cut off from the castle by a moat and embanked on its western flank, would have functioned in part as pasture for the household’s livestock, particularly sheep and goats. The low quantities of coprophilous fungi from the pollen core suggests this would have been limited, compared to the intensity of animal activity around the lake in the eleventh century. It is also clear the animals were slaughtered, butchered and processed within the castle precinct itself, but the presence of multiple age groups points to a selective process of culling for different types of primary products. Older animals supplied wool, in this case of a relatively low-grade intended for local consumption.
This faunal signature is typical of many of the Order’s sites. The range of skeletal elements from skull to tail indicates that live animals were brought into, housed and slaughtered within the Vorburgen, and almost certainly derived from the herds rou-tinely listed in castle inventories. The register of the Viehmeister of Marienburg, the official in charge of livestock and dairy, records 250 horned cattle, 925 pigs and 2300 sheep in 1381.42 At the same time, this was supplemented by meat purchased from suppliers in towns and villages, or provided as payment in kind for taxes or tithes. The range of tools evident in the cut marks on bone indicates the presence of spe-cialist butchers in both castles and towns, a group that is rarely mentioned in docu-mentary sources until the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries.43 Butchery marks are most often linked to food preparation, providing direct evidence of the household’s diet. By 1264, the Order had officially clarified a new dietary regime, distancing it-self from the initial model based on the Templars.44 This regime allowed the con-sumption of more meat – three times each week, with two weekly fast days when fish and other aquatic species such as beaver could be eaten.
The widespread presence of horse bones at the Order’s sites also indicates that carcasses of older individuals, considered surplus to requirement, were disarticulat-ed and dumped in waste pits. The strategic role of the horse during the crusading period and the mass breeding of horses in the Ordensland is well documented, standing out in the Order’s inventories as having the most diverse roles of any ani-
42 J ó z w i a k /Tr u p i n d a , Organizacja (see note 19), p. 426.43 Krish S e e t a h /Aleksander P l u s k o w s k i /Daniel M a k o w i e c k i /Linas D a u g n o r a , New
technology or adaptation at the frontier? Butchery as a signifier of cultural transitions in the me-dieval eastern Baltic, in: Archaeologia Baltica 20, 2014, pp. 59–76.
44 Indrikis S t e r n s , The Statutes of the Teutonic Knights: A Study of Religious Chivalry, Universi-ty of Pennsylvania (unpublished dissertation) 1969, pp. 70–71.
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mals.45 Whilst mares were largely kept on the Order’s rural estates, stud-horses were usually stabled within castle wards.46 In the largest convents, such as Marienburg, these stables were impressive buildings, although herds may have been housed in a number of structures; an estimated thousand horses could have been stabled within the confines of Marienburg in the mid-fifteenth century.47 Horse meat was not typ-ically consumed except in times of crisis usually associated with active military zones; during the Second Prussian Insurrection, some of the Order’s garrisons were reduced to starvation and were forced to eat even the hides of their horses.48 Disar-ticulation was therefore the most effective means of disposing of large carcasses, and the absence of gnawing marks or meat removal cuts suggests horses were not typi-cally knackered for feeding to dogs. This contrasts with indigenous horse consump-tion which continues into the post-crusade period, as indicated by butchered re-mains from the Liv quarter in Riga and the nearby riverine island of Mārtişala.49
The animal resources controlled by the Order were formidable. Numbers of live-stock have been estimated for its Prussian estates during the economic boom of the Ordensland; in 1370, there were 10,482 cattle, 18,992 pigs and most of all, 61,252 sheep. By 1400, numbers of documented cattle had decreased whilst sheep and pig had increased. By this time, there were also an estimated 16,000 horses in Prussia.50 Much of this management would have taken place at the smallest type of site managed by the Order, at the frontline of resource exploitation: the Vorwerk. Unfortunately no exca-vations of these have been conducted to indicate how they related to the Order’s hier-archy of sites, although written sources indicate many were highly specialised.51 What the archaeological data contributes is how castles were important centres for carcass processing and related manufacture, and the presence of young sheep at Arrasch would have provided an obvious supply of prime meat, as well as skin for the house-
45 Sven E k d a h l , Das Pferd und seine Rolle im Kriegswesen des Deutschen Ordens, in: Das Krieg-swesen der Ritterorden im Mittelalter, ed. by Zenon N o w a k (Ordines Militares 6), Toruń 1991, pp. 29–47.
46 Rowena B a n e r j e a , Settlement life in Prussia at the microscopic scale and the impact on hinter-lands, in: Environment, Colonisation, and the Crusader States in Medieval Livonia and Prussia, ed. by Aleks P l u s k o w s k i , Turnhout 2018 (in press).
47 J ó ź w i a k /Tr u p i n d a , Organizacja(see note 19), p. 440.48 The Chronicle of Prussia by Nicolaus von Jeroschin: A History of the Teutonic Knights in Prus-
sia, 1190–1331, ed. by Mary F i s c h e r , Farnham 2010, pp. 138–139.49 M u g u r ē v i č s (see note 8).50 Bernhard J ä h n i g , Die Wirtschaftsführung des Deutschen Ordens in Preussen vornehmlich vom
13. bis zum frühen 15. Jahrhundert, in: Zur Wirtschaftsentwicklung des Deutschen Ordens im Mittelalter, ed. by Udo A r n o l d (Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens 38), Marburg 1989, pp. 113–147 at p. 125.
51 Adam C h ę ć , Folwarki krzyżackie na terenie komturstwa malborskiego w świetle źródeł archeo-logicznych i historycznych, próba lokalizacji [The Teutonic Order’s farms within the command-ery of Malbork (Marienburg) in the light of archaeological and historical sources, an attempt at localisation], in: Pogranicze polsko-pruskie i krzyżackie, ed. by Kazimierz G r ą ż a w s k i , Włocławek 2003, pp. 325–338.
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hold, the nearby convent and perhaps the town. A more pronounced emphasis on young sheep and goat is evident in the assemblage from the Order’s castle in Fellin, where 40% of the specimens belong to individuals slaughtered before they had aged ten months. Clear skinning marks on the cranium and extremities of both younger and older individuals show designated carcass processing (fig. 9).52 Along with wax, the importance of which is largely defined in terms of its export without noting its regular use in illumination, liturgical contexts and sealing, skin was central to the articulation of power in the Ordensland.
52 Arvi H a a k /Eve R a n n a m ä e /Heidi L u i k /Liina M a l d r e , Worked and unworked bone from the Viljandi castle of the Livonian Order (13th–16th centuries), in: Lietuvos Archeologija 38, 2012, pp. 295–338, at pp. 303–305.
fig. 9: The prevalence of cut marks on sheep/goat bones recovered from excavations in the castle at Viljandi (Fellin).
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Castles and the consumption of skin
The key to the effective management of the Order’s territories was a formidable bureaucracy, which from 1309 was centred on the convent in Marienburg, the seat of the grand master until 1457. This generated precise registers of its incomes, estates and resources, which for Prussia largely date from the second half of the fourteenth century through to the sixteenth century.53 For Livonia, with the exception of Reval (Tallinn), extant sources are more scattered and primarily date from the fifteenth and sixteenth century,54 but the rare examples of thirteenth-century tally sticks from Karkus, or the accidentally preserved inventory from mid-fourteenth-century Goldingen (Kuldiga) indicate the variety of recordkeeping once used. Regular visi-tations of the Order’s houses, principally used as a means of maintaining the unity of its organisation. This bureaucracy, more sophisticated than the chancelleries of neighbouring regions until the fifteenth century,55 required significant quantities of parchment (fig. 10, colour). This material consisted of carefully prepared and dressed skins of young animals, most often sheep, goats and calves, and perhaps even other species. The parchment used by the Order, charta theutonica, has been noted as thicker and harder than southern European skins, and dressed on both sides. An annual supply of animal skins as well as bird feathers (usually goose or swan) for use as styli, was needed,56 and these, in turn, required a complex and well-connected chain of specialist artisans, skinners, tanners, butchers and farmers.
The boom in demand for beef and wool associated with the urbanisation of the eastern Baltic from the later thirteenth century would have provided a large and regionally diffused supply of skin, and there was certainly a burgeoning market in the fourteenth century. A similar connection has been proposed between the emer-gence of significant wool markets and the availability of sheep skin in England from the twelfth century, coinciding with the rise of an unprecedented government bu-reaucracy following the Norman Conquest.57 The towns associated with the Or-der’s castles would have been important mediators of this fundamental commodity,
53 Kancelarie Krzyżackie. Stan badań i perspektywy badawcze [The Teutonic Order’s chancellery. The state of research and scholarly perspectives], ed. by Janusz Tr u p i n d a , Malbork 2002.
54 Juhan K r e e m , The Town and its Lord: Reval and the Teutonic Order (in the Fifteenth Century), Tallinn 2002, p. 23.
55 Zenon N o w a k , Czy Prusy Krzyżackie były państwem nowożytnym? [Was the Teutonic Or-der’s Prussia a modern state?], in: Architectura et historia, ed. by Michał Wo ź n i a k , Toruń 1999, pp. 79–89, at p. 83.
56 Kancelaria Wielkich Mistrzów w Malborku, ed. by Janusz Tr u p i n d a [The chancellery of the Grand Masters in Malbork], Malbork 2001, p. 29.
57 Jim B l o x a m , The beast, the book and the belt: an introduction to the study of girdle or belt books from the medieval period, in: Breaking and Shaping Beastly Bodies: Animals as Material Culture in the Middle Ages, ed. by Aleksander P l u s k o w s k i , Oxford 2007, pp. 81–98, at p. 83. On the development of Norman bureaucracy see Michael C l a n c h y, From Memory to Written Record: England 1066–1307, London 1979.
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which was also required by episcopal and monastic communities, as well as the ur-ban patriciates that emerged to eventually challenge the authority of the Order. However, the supply of local animals began in the fields and meadows within the parcel of territories encompassed within the Order’s commanderies; husbandry re-gimes maintained by both conquered indigenous communities and colonists, in-cluding subsequent generations of internal migrants. The maintenance of herds would, in turn, have required significant quantities of fodder; a truism of the inter-connectedness of medieval rural society.58 By the mid-fourteenth century paper, which was cheaper than parchment, began to be used in the Order’s chancellery, also coinciding with the general adoption of German as the language of correspon-dence.59 By the turn of the fifteenth century, the Marienburger Tresslerbuch indi-cates that around 5000 sheets of paper and 100 skins of parchment were used each year.60 But there was no correlation with husbandry regimes, for in the decades that paper was becoming increasingly popular the size of sheep herds in Prussia was growing.61 This also suggests that parchment production was a vital but compara-tively small-scale industry, compared to other products derived from these herds.
Whether skins were purchased from towns or obtained from the Order’s precincts – and the limited references to parchment production within the Order’s own docu-mentation has been interpreted as reflecting the use of external suppliers – they would only represent one of many primary products derived from animals; the tip of a com-plex industry handling livestock and disseminating deadstock. Relatively little is known about the economic connections between castles and towns. Urban artisans would have obtained raw materials, such as wool and hides, from the Order and sold back finished products, but the level of dependency between the two remains an open question. The archaeological evidence suggests that a range of manufacturing activi-ties took place within the Order’s Vorburgen, on the other hand written sources indi-cate that Order outsourced a number of its activities, not least of all the construction of its castles in the fourteenth century.62 Whilst it is not possible at this stage to com-pare the supply of livestock and deadstock between castles and their adjacent towns (fig. 11, colour), it is clear from slaughter patterns that animals destined for urban markets were also exploited for the full range of primary and secondary products. The assemblage from excavations inside the town of Mewe (Gniew), adjacent to the Or-
58 On medieval urban-rural connections see papers in: Town and Country in Medieval North West-ern Europe: Dynamic Interactions, ed. by Alexis W i l k i n /John N a y l o r /Derek K e e n e /Ar-noud-Jan B i j s t e r v e l d , Leiden 2015.
59 Kancelarie Krzyżackie (see note 53) pp. 15, 31.60 Mario G l a u e r t , Schreiben auf der Marienburg. Anmerkungen zur nichturkundlichen Schrift-
lichkeit in der zentralen Kanzlei des Deutschen Ordens im 14. Jahrhundert, in: Kancelarie Krzyżackie (see note 53), pp. 89–106, at p. 98.
61 J ä h n i g , Wirtschaftsführung (see note 50), p. 125.62 Roman C z a j a , Działalność gospodarcza [Economic activity], in: Zakon Krzyżacki (see note 1),
pp. 109–121, at p. 110.
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der’s convent situated on the western bank of the Vistula, contained the remains of sheep and goats within three broad age categories: 9–12 months (most likely male animals, ideal for parchment and lamb), 12–19 months (for mutton and leather), and older than three years (kept for breeding and wool production).63
Castles and access to fish
The thirteenth-century midden at Karkus castle contained a large quantity of fish bone (and even fish gills and scales evident in thin-section, fig. 12), a material that has only been recovered in any quantity when contexts are sieved. The relative impor-
63 Marian S o b o c i ń s k i /Daniel M a k o w i e c k i , Zwierzęce szczątki kostne z wykopalisk w Gniewie nad Wisłą. Stanowisko 2 [The animal remains from excavations in Gniew on the Vistula. Site 2], in: Roczniki Akademii Rolniczej w Poznani 237, 1992, pp. 161–195.
fig. 12: Fish gills in thin-section from excavations in Karksi (Karkus) castle.
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tance of fish between sites, especially within the Order’s smaller residences, is there-fore difficult to gauge. However, it is clear that local resources were fully exploited. At Karkus, cyprinids, one of the largest categories of freshwater fish, dominated the thir-teenth-century assemblage, representing access to the nearby river and lakes. Again, this was almost certainly dependent on the fishing practises of the indigenous popu-lation, a tendency that can also be seen in Riga where there is multi-proxy evidence for the handling and processing of fish within by the Liv community.64 Marine fish, spe-cifically cod, were only evident from later contexts indicating the gradual connection of the castle with the provisioning systems of the coastline. In fact, the presence of distinct marine species within the Order’s inland castles is striking. Excavations at the short-lived convent of Nessau (Mała Nieszawka), recovered 1301 identifiable fish bone fragments. From this it was clear the convent largely consumed marine fish – cod and herring, as well as sturgeon, bream and carp.65 The convent was situated on the left bank of the Vistula and thus directly connected to the Baltic, but the particular species may also have been deliberately chosen. The documentation of at least two types of carp within the Order’s inventories, along with bones from castle excava-tions, represents the first evidence for the widespread consumption of this species in the south-eastern Baltic. Along with cod, it has been linked to the introduction of German culinary culture, already evident in the faunal assemblages from Danzig (Gdańsk) and Kolberg (Kołobrzeg) before the crusades.66 It is not surprising that such investment in fish resources prompted the creation of offices dedicated to their man-agement, and the fish master (Fischmeister) would reside within a castle (as for exam-ple at Elbing and Graudenz), or within a specific farm located within the command-ery (as at Marienburg or Reval). Combined with the iconic role of fish within Christian fasting culture, it is clear that a significant market emerged within the Ordensland in both castles and towns, the demands of which local rivers and lakes, and certainly not the fishponds of the Order which represented a conspicuous luxury and a visible ex-pression of authority,67 could have consistently met.
64 Hui Yu a n -Ye i /Aleksander P l u s k o w s k i /Uldis K a l ē j s /Piers M i t c h e l l , Intestinal parasites in a mid-14th century latrine from Riga, Latvia: fish tapeworm and the consumption of uncooked fish in the medieval eastern Baltic region, in: Journal of Archaeological Science 9, 2014, pp. 83–89; Rowena B a n e r j e a /Monika B a d u r a /Uldis K a l ē j s /Aija C e r i n a /Krzysztof G o s /Shiela H a m i l t o n - D y e r /Mark M a l t b y /Krish S e e t a h /Aleks P l u s k o w s k i . A multi-proxy, dia-chronic and spatial perspective on the urban activities within an indigenous community in medie-val Riga, Latvia, in: Quaternary International 460, 2017, pp. 3–21.
65 Daniel M a k o w i e c k i , Historia ryb i rybołówstwa w holocenie na Niżu Polskim w świetle badań archeoichtiologicznych [The history of fish and fishing in the Holocene in the Polish Lowland in the light of archaeoichthyology], Poznań 2003, pp. 126–127.
66 Daniel M a k o w i e c k i , Some remarks on medieval fishing in Poland, in: Animals and Man in the Past, ed. by Hijlke B u i t e n h u i s /Wietschke P r u m m e l , Groningen 2001, pp. 236–241.
67 Andrzej M. W y r w a /Daniel M a k o w i e c k i , Fish in the menu of the Cistercians from Łekno and Bierzwnik (Poland). An historical and archaeoicthyological consideration, in: Fishes – Culture – Environment Through Archaeoichthyology, Ethnography and History, ed. by Daniel M a k o -
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When the Order became involved in the eastern Baltic, it entered a rapidly expand-ing world of commercial fishing that it subsequently contributed to developing. A noticeable trade in fish is already evident in the southern Baltic from the tenth centu-ry, with significant quantities of fish bones and fishing equipment recovered from excavations in Gdańsk and Stettin (Szczecin); the strengthening of Christianity in twelfth-century Pomerania with the regular observance of 150 fasting days would have prompted a high demand in urban centres.68 Fish were certainly recognised as a valuable resource early on in the crusading period. From the very onset of founding towns, the Order controlled all fishing rights within their gradually expanding terri-tory and distributed privileged access to rivers and lakes, amongst other natural re-sources, to their subjects. The uneven access to different types of aquatic resources across the Order’s territories was mitigated by the connectedness of its network. For example, the frontier convent of Memel, initially administered by the Livonian branch of the Order and from 1328 by the Prussian branch, was located on the southern Cu-ronian coast between the two main territories of the Ordensland. As such, its location was ideal for supplying fish to convents in both Prussia and Livonia from the lagoon, marine, riverine and lacustrine resources within its commandery. As elsewhere, the brethren at Memel always took their share of fish catches, even after the townspeople were granted the right to fish in the sea and bay in the second half of the fifteenth century.69 The demand for fish generated after the crusades is encapsulated by the emergence of a local fishing industry, with isotopic studies demonstrating the sourc-ing of cod from local Baltic waters.70 Surplus produced by the Order’s fisheries merged seamlessly with the Hanseatic network, with herring and cod in particular traded as far away as Scandinavia and England. The combined demand appears to have resulted in the localised collapse of certain fish stocks. Herring appears to have become rare in Prussian waters in the fourteenth century, and by the end of the fifteenth century, its export had been replaced with German and Scandinavian imports to Danzig and Me-mel.71 Access to fish, though partially dependent on the aquatic resources located within territories attached to castles, was clearly met by the effective functioning of the Order’s network at the supranational level, and its interaction with the Hanse.
w i e c k i /Shiela H a m i l t o n - D y e r /Ian R i d d l e r /Nicola Tr z a s k a - N a r t o w s k i , Poznań 2009, pp. 62–68; Janusz Ta n d e c k i , Struktura wewnetrzna [The internal structure], in: Zakon Krzyżacki: wybór tekstów źródłowych, ed. by Andrzej R a d z i m i ń s k i , Toruń 2005, pp. 43–58 at p. 53.
68 Marian R u l e w i c z , Rybołówstwo Gdańska na tle ośrodków miejskich pomorze od IX do XIII wieku [Fishing in Gdańsk in the context of Pomeranian urban centres from the 9th to 13th century], Wrocław 1994.
69 Ž u l k u s /D a u g n o r a (see note 38), pp. 78–79.70 David O r t o n /Daniel M a k o w i e c k i /Tessa de R o o /Cluny J o h n s t o n e /Jennifer H a r l a n d
et. al., Stable isotope evidence for late medieval (14th–15th C) origins of the Eastern Baltic cod (Gadus morhua) fishery, in: PLoS ONE 6/11 (2011): e27568. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0027568.
71 Ž u l k u s /D a u g n o r a (see note 38), p. 79; Carsten J a h n k e , Das Silber des Meeres: Fang und Vertrieb von Ostseehering zwischen Norwegen und Italien (12.–16. Jahrhundert), Wien 2000.
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Castles and access to wilderness
A typical signifier of authority for medieval elites was hunting, and the majority of secular high-status sites across Europe contain relatively higher, but nonetheless small, percentages of species designated as game.72 Hunting (except with hounds and hawks) was permitted in the Order’s rule, but as in the case of the other military orders this was primarily intended as an opportunity for training retinues in the use of weapons, tactical formations and experience in the field; more useful than the simulated settings of the convents.73 The representation of game was limited relative to other food sources, as indicated in both faunal assemblages from castle sites and in the inventories, although there were examples of significant quantities stored in the fifteenth century, particularly in frontier convents.74 From the very start of the Order’s involvement in the Baltic, wild meat was treated as a commodity governed by familiar teneurial customs. The foundation charter for Kulm and Thorn (1233) stipulated the landed townspeople could hunt wild boar, bear and roe deer, and provide the Order with the right shoulder from each carcass. In 1278, the marshal of the Order in Prussia, Konrad von Thierberg, renewing the hunting rights of Polish knightly vassals in the Kulmerland, allowed them to hunt on the Order’s territories providing they hand over the usual portions of game.75 An extreme example of this can be seen in the value attached to bison and auroch, rare enough by the fifteenth century for the former to be a suitable gift from the Polish king to the grand master in 1406.76 This confinement of bison and aurochs to the western frontiers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is indicative of the uneven distribution of wild resources within the Ordensland. This is clearly visible archaeologically, for whilst docu-mented game in barrels reflects the mobility of these products within the Order’s networks, the biodiversity of faunal assemblages varies dramatically between cas-tles. Species representation at Memel dating to the latter half of the fifteenth century included aurochs (or potentially bison), elk, beaver, fox, red deer and wild boar,77 in
72 Aleksander P l u s k o w s k i , The zooarchaeology of medieval ‘Christendom’: Ideology, the treat-ment of animals and the making of medieval Europe, in: World Archaeology 42/2, 2010, pp. 201–214.
73 S t e r n s (see note 44), pp. 219–220; Klaus M i l i t z e r , Jagd und Deutscher Orden, in: Jagd und höfische Kultur in Mittelalter, ed. by Werner Rösener, Göttingen 1997, pp. 325–363; also in: Klaus M i l i t z e r , Zentrale und Region. Gesammelte Beiträge zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens in Preußen, Livland und im Deutschen Reich (Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens 75 = Veröffentlichungen der Internationalen Historischen Kommission zur Erforschung des Deutschen Ordens 13), Weimar 2015, pp. 189–223.
74 Das große Ämterbuch des deutschen Ordens, ed. by Walther Z i e s e m e r , Danzig 1921, reprint Wiesbaden 1968, pp. 46, 96, 222, 255, 296.
75 Ta n d e c k i (see note 67), pp. 47, 53.76 M i l i t z e r (see note 73), p. 357 or 218.77 Ž u l k u s /D a u g n o r a (see note 38), p. 82.
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contrast with the virtual absence of wild species from the significantly larger assem-blage from Wenden.78
Beyond the convents, hunting was actively practised by the Order’s officials and their retinues where suitable prey was available. Recent excavations at the centre of the easternmost Pflegerämter established on the Prussian/Lithuanian borderland at Lyck (Ełk), revealed the earliest phase of the residence, dating to the start of the fifteenth century, consisted of a fortified tower surrounded by a moat and situated within an island in a lake.79 Clearly security remained an issue in the borderlands throughout the first half of the fifteenth century, although it was counterbalanced by the impulse to exploit the abundant woods and wetlands of the ‘Great Wilder-ness’. The animal bone assemblage from the Teutonic Order phases of the site indi-cated a reliance on livestock for local consumption, with a small but diverse propor-tion of wild species, including auroch, bison, roe deer, red deer, wild boar and elk. It was these frontier Pflegerämter and the highly specialised Waldämter that provid-ed prized game for the cellars of major convents, particularly those situated deep in the heart of the Ordensland. The purpose of this provision was arguably the visible reinforcement of an aristocratic identity, which can be linked from the fourteenth century to both trends in recruitment and the entertainment of secular knights. Within the east Prussian Pflegerämter of Lötzen (Giżycko), villagers were permit-ted to hunt only by assignment and predominantly to protect the fields against dam-age caused by game. They were allowed to keep the meat except for the front parts, which they had to deliver to the castle.80 However, this impulse was clearly present from the 1230s in the earliest definitions of lordship used by the theocracy in the eastern Baltic.
In those territories with the highest degrees of biodiversity, the officials of the Order were arguably more interested in procuring furs. Along with timber and honey, fur represented a valuable native commodity in the eastern Baltic woods that could be easily exported via the Hanseatic trading networks to luxury European
78 Arnis M u g u r ē v i s , unpublished report; see also Ēvalds M u g u r ē v i s , Forest animals and hunt-ing in medieval Livonia, in: Centre, Region, Periphery. Medieval Europe Basel 2002. 3rd Interna-tional Conference of Medieval and Later Archaeology, Basel (Switzerland) 10–15. September 2002, Vol 1., ed. by Guido H e l m i g /Barbara S c h o l k m a n n /Matthias U n t e r m a n n , Basel 2002, pp. 177–181.
79 Radosław H e r m a n /Wojciech D u d a k , Wyniki badań naukowych a projekt adaptacji zamku. Wzajemne uwarunkowania na przykładach zamków w Uniejowie, Lidzbarku i Ełku [The results of scientific research and the project of adapting a castle. Mutual conditions using the examples of the castles in Uniejów, Lidzbark/Heilsberg and Ełk/Lyck], in: Renovatio et restitutio. Materiały do badań i ochrony założęń rezydencjonalnych i obronnych, ed. by Piotr L a s e k /Piotr S y p -c z u k , Warszawa 2015, pp. 27–57.
80 Helmuth M e y e , Die erneuerte Handfeste von Neuendorf vor Lötzen vom Jahre 1475, in: Lötzen-er Fragmente. Nachrichten aus verlorenen Quellen 1700–1900, ed. by Reinhold H e l i n g (Sonder-schriften des Vereins für Familienforschung in Ost- und Westpreußen 32), Hamburg 1976, pp. 15–28.
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markets. The remains of fur-bearing species in some of the Order’s castles indicate that processing occasionally took place within the Vorburg, such as represented by the remains of fox, bear and wolf found at Lyck which point to such opportunistic acquisitions, although these were not as sought after as the pelts of mustelids and squirrels. But the sites that saw the most involvement in preparing pelts – the rural settlements of medieval Prussia and Livonia – remain virtually unknown archaeo-logically. The regulations issued by the Pfleger of Lötzen indicate that villagers were expected to bring skins, rather than carcasses, in exchange for fixed prices, with a particular emphasis on Marten pelts.81 In this respect, and in contrast to the dramat-ic increase in hunting linked to the highly visible expression of a new political re-gime following the Norman Conquest of England,82 the Teutonic Order focused its attention on the handling of fur, with its castles serving as nexus for the storage and redistribution of this luxury commodity.
The castles of Lötzen and Lyck, and the districts they governed, were situated within the expansive Masurian Lake District where there is only patchy evidence for significant clearance and cultivation before the sixteenth century. For example, some of the southern parts of the Pflegerämter of Lötzen had already been cleared several centuries before the arrival of the Order. Laminated sediments from Lake Miłkowski produced evidence for substantial anthropogenic impact on the vegeta-tion from c. 1100, linked to indigenous Galindian settlement, a pattern replicated at nearby Lake Wojnowo.83 Some Galindian communities survived here and became the Order’s tenants, alongside colonists invited from outside the region. For exam-ple, in the commandery of Brandenburg, which included the Pflegerämter of Löt-zen, 1,598 Prussian families were listed at the end of the fourteenth / start of the fifteenth century, amounting to an estimated 8,000 people.84 Lyck, on the other hand, was relatively more remote and the systematic exploitation of timber, which is attested in this region on the basis of dendrochronology and dendro-provenancing, would only become possible with the stabilisation of the border at this time, which is also reflected by the dramatic surge in colonisation of this region.85 The develop-ment of the timber trade in east Prussia (and Livonia) was facilitated by the network
81 M e y e (see note 80).82 Naomi S y k e s , The Norman Conquest: A Zooarchaeological Perspective, Oxford 2007.83 Agnieszka Wa c n i k /Mirosława K u p r y j a n o w i c z /Aldona M u e l l e r - B i e n i e k /Maciej
K a r c z e w s k i /Katarzyna C y w a , The environmental and cultural contexts of the late Iron Age and medieval settlement in the Mazurian Lake District, NE Poland: combined palaeobotanical and archaeological data, in: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 23, 2014, pp. 439–459, DOI 10.1007/s00334-014-0458-y.
84 Małgorzata K a r c z e w s k a /Maciej K a r c z e w s k i /Robert K e m p a /Ewa P i r o ż n i k o w, Miłki: Monografia krajoznawcza gmniy mazurskiej [Miłki/Milken: A tourism monograph of the Masur-ian district], Białystok/Miłki 2005, p. 55.
85 Tomasz Wa ż n y, The origin, assortments and transport of Baltic timber, in: Constructing Wood-en Images, ed. by Carl Va n d e Ve l d e /Hans B e e c k m a n /Joris Va n A c k e r /Franz Ve r h a e -g h e , Brussels 2005, pp. 115–126.
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of dense waterways which connected the interior with coastal centres.86 Around Lake Wigry, close to the modern border with Lithuania, pollen analysis indicates that significant clearance of woodland for arable and pastoral activities did not oc-cur until the seventeenth century, although the first signs of rye and buckwheat cultivation date to the later medieval period, after the military conquest of Sudovia by the Teutonic Order.87 These final case studies emphasise that even within the context of a centralised and flourishing Ordensland, there were still regions that were only beginning to be exploited using the mechanism of the commandery sys-tem. However, here more than anywhere, the engagement with the indigenous pop-ulation is significantly under-represented, whose presence is known from fragment-ed written sources and a few cemeteries, and whose later medieval settlements, and an acknowledgement of the agency of these surviving communities, remain to be investigated.
Conclusion: from the commandery to the convent
The success of the crusading enterprise led by the Teutonic Order and the establish-ment of their theocratic polity in the eastern Baltic was underpinned by the success-ful re-organisation of local resources – the management of a fundamental and recog-nised connection with the conquered landscape and its inhabitants. The contrast between the centralised organisation of Prussia and the more flexible structure of Livonia does not extend to significant differences in the functioning of the Order’s castles within the two regions, where the commandery system created a series of linkages between the surrounding countryside and the central nodes of power. Within both it is also possible to see a level of structural integrity into the first half of the fifteenth century, as reflected by the internal mobility of resources.88 This has been widely regarded as a sophisticated economy, particularly in Prussia, but it is important to remember its practical caveats. With the survival of the indigenous population in Livonia, the successful articulation of this network required co-ope-ration between colonists and colonised. As with the organisation of military resour-ces and trade, this was variously negotiated by individual commanders and some of its more extreme outcomes, from the perspective of religious authorities, saw the tolerance of pre-Christian customs and sacred sites. This forms more than a back-drop, but rather a framework for understanding the character of multiculturalism,
86 Maris Z u n d e , Timber and its use from the Late Iron Age to the end of the medieval period in Latvia, in: Ecologies of Crusading, Colonization, and Religious Conversion in the Medieval Bal-tic: Terra Sacra II, ed. by Aleksander P l u s k o w s k i , Turnhout 2018, in press.
87 Mirosława K u p r y j a n o w i c z , Postglacial Development of Vegetation in the Vicinity of the Wi-gry lake, in: Geochronometria 27, 2007, pp. 53–66.
88 K r e e m (see note 54), pp. 104–105.
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cultural transformation, inter-cultural relations and the problems of Christianisati-on following the crusades. At the same time, the role of towns is an extremely im-portant avenue for future research. Towns, developed varying levels of autonomy, particularly Reval and Riga, and a relationship with the Teutonic Order was as much about business partnerships as it was about subject and overlord.89 Compari-sons with episcopal territories and the Danish duchy of Estonia (1219–1346) were also beyond the project’s remit but represent important foci for future research. Nonetheless, by focusing on a range of sites in both Prussia and Livonia, the project has demonstrated the validity of linking activities and lifestyles in the Order’s cast-les with their associated territories. Future comparative research focusing on the local scale will, as a result, significantly contribute to our understanding of the fun-damental development and functioning of the Ordensland and how, despite its cul-tural confrontations and the tragedies of the crusading period, it came to be one of the most successful and flourishing societies of the European Middle Ages.
89 See K r e e m (note 54) and the work of Roman C z a j a , Miasta pruskie a zakon krzyżacki. Studia nad stosunkami między miastem a władzą terytorialną w późnym średniowieczu [Prussian towns and the Teutonic Order. Studies of the relationship between the town and the regional authority in the late Middle Ages], Toruń 1999, for the best discussion of this complex and multi-faceted topic.
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Pluskovski et al., Abb. 4: The timber structure at the base of the moat at the castle in Cēsis (Wenden).
Pluskovski et al., Abb. 5: Tally sticks from the thirteenth-century midden in Karksi (Karkus) castle, Estonia.
Plus
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. 8: R
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t Āra
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). T
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47.
Pluskovski et al., Abb. 11: Evidence for the processing of goat horns from excavations inside the castle (a) and within the town (b) at Cēsis (Wenden), indicating this activity took place in both.
