The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade

Pluskowski, Aleksander

doi:10.4324/9781003222767

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Direct AMS radiocarbon dates from Marvelė horse teeth were obtained from the commercial laboratory 14 Chrono Centre, Queens University Belfast, following standard protocols for collagen extraction (14chrono.org). Eight horse teeth, human cremated bones, and charcoal samples from Kholmy and Alejka-3 were submitted for dating at the Leibniz Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Stable Isotope Research of CAU, Kiel, following standard protocols for apatites and collagen extraction (bones) and acid-base-acid pretreatment (charcoal) (90).…”

Section: C14 Datingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research from the past 150 years documents how common, yet still noteworthy, these deposits remain (2)(3)(4)(5)(6). They provide a robust and well-preserved source of information on pre-Christian Balt ritualism and the socioeconomics of horsemanship (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Horse sacrifices were highly visible public rites (15) requiring substantial investment of resources and revealing the cemetery as a vital node in Baltic sacred landscapes (16).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biomolecular evidence reveals mares and long-distance imported horses sacrificed by the last pagans in temperate Europe

French,

Musiał,

Karczewski

et al. 2024

Sci. Adv.

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Horse sacrifice and deposition are enigmatic features of funerary rituals identified across prehistoric Europe that persisted in the eastern Baltic. Genetic and isotopic analysis of horses in Balt cemeteries [1st to 13th centuries CE (Common Era)] dismantle prevailing narratives that locally procured stallions were exclusively selected. Strontium isotope analysis provides direct evidence for long-distance (~300 to 1500 kilometers) maritime transport of Fennoscandian horses to the eastern Baltic in the Late Viking Age (11th to 13th centuries CE). Genetic analysis proves that horses of both sexes were sacrificed with 34% identified as mares. Results transform the understanding of selection criteria, disprove sex-based selection, and elevate prestige value as a more crucial factor. These findings also provide evidence that the continued interaction between pagans and their newly Christianized neighbors sustained the performance of funerary horse sacrifice until the medieval transition. We also present a reference 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isoscape for the southeastern Baltic, releasing the potential of future mobility studies in the region.

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Section: C14 Datingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomolecular evidence reveals mares and long-distance imported horses sacrificed by the last pagans in temperate Europe

French,

Musiał,

Karczewski

et al. 2024

Sci. Adv.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Order's bailiwicks in Germany remained under its control and it still remains today as a charitable organisation. 35 The Baltic zone under the rulership of the Teutonic Order proved to be a thriving cultural and religious frontier in the Middle Ages as opposed to a monolithic 'state', a conclusion more common in nineteenth-century historiography though still alluded to in some recent scholarship. 36 Literature and works of art from the most sophisticated courts of Europe were imported to Prussia, and altered to fit the lifestyle of the brothers in addition to fulfilling the world-views of their (secular) supporters.…”

Section: IImentioning

confidence: 99%

“…56 In his 2013 monograph, Aleksander Pluskowski noted the increasingly secular habits of the grand masters of the Teutonic Order by the end of the fourteenth century. 57 Ralf G. Päsler has connected this to the presence of Barlaam and Josaphat in the Order's inventories in its libraries, reflecting the gradual absorption of courtly attitudes within the Teutonic Order c.1400. 58 This is surely present in the visual culture of the region, too, particularly in the example of the so-called 'Arthur's Court' (Artushof) in Hanseatic cities such as Danzig, Elbing (Pol.…”

Section: IVmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Global was Medieval Prussia? An Analysis of the Barlaam and Josaphat Manuscript of the Teutonic Knights at the Turn of the Fifteenth Century

Leighton

2022

History

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The history of the southern Baltic region (Prussia) from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries has only received increased attention from 'Western' scholars in the last three decades. It has remained peripheral within traditional 'Western' scholarship on the premodern world. As a result, we are still left with a wide variety of questions, especially concerning the place of this area in the broader medieval world. This article addresses two of these questions: to what extent did medieval contemporaries in Prussia know about their broader world, and the peoples within it? How were people from these regions, such as the Indian Subcontinent or Africa, depicted, understood and communicated? One answer lay in the literature produced by the knights in the Teutonic Order. In the context of the plethora of studies on race and globality in the premodern world, the Baltic region has of yet received minimal attention. However, an investigation into the rich sources available reveals the presence in the region of the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, a Christian version of the life of the Buddha and the first example of 'global literature' associated with the Middle Ages. By analysing the surviving examples in the region, this article will place the region of Prussia within the new concept of the Global Middle Ages and reveal the perception of the southern realms of the world in one of medieval Europe's furthest cultural outposts.

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The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade

Cited by 2 publications

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Biomolecular evidence reveals mares and long-distance imported horses sacrificed by the last pagans in temperate Europe

Biomolecular evidence reveals mares and long-distance imported horses sacrificed by the last pagans in temperate Europe

How Global was Medieval Prussia? An Analysis of the Barlaam and Josaphat Manuscript of the Teutonic Knights at the Turn of the Fifteenth Century

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