How Medieval Knights remade Poland's ecosystems

Conservation Magazine ^ | April 2011 | Source: Brown, A., & Pluskowski, A.

[SunkenCiv]

In 1280, victorious Teutonic Crusaders began building the world's largest castle on a hill overlooking the River Nogat in what is now northern Poland. Malbork Castle became the hub of a powerful Teutonic state that crushed its pagan enemies and helped remake Medieval Europe. Now, ancient pollen samples show that in addition to converting heathens to Christians, the Crusaders also converted vast swathes of Medieval forests to farmlands.

In the early-13th century, Prussian tribes living in the south-eastern Baltic became a thorn in the side of the Monastic State of Teutonic Knights, which was formed in 1224 in what is now Germany and Poland. To remove the thorn, and protect Christian converts in the region, the Teutonic Order launched a series of crusades. By the 14th century, the conquests had produced a state that ruled over more than 220,000 people, Alex Brown and Aleks Pluskowski of the University of Reading in the United Kingdom report in the Journal of Archeological Science, including new colonists who settled into fortified towns and castles.

To understand how these historic shifts changed Europe's environment, past researchers have relied on hints from old maps and papers, such as those showing how much timber or stone a wealthy Knight used to build his castle. Brown and Pluskowski, however, turned to a different kind of historical record: the pollen grains that become trapped in the layers of mud that line waterbodies. By analyzing shifts in the pollen, researchers can reconstruct everything from past climates to landscape changes.

[SunkenCiv]

Joanna Szycik | Dreamstime.com

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	Thanks Renfield. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·

[beebuster2000]

great post. where do you find this stuff?

[nkycincinnatikid]

Marienburg has only been in Poland for a few decades.
In fact only since the conclusion of the great rape of central and eastern Europe by russia and her allies during the last century.
When speaking in the timeframe of ecosystems, Marienburgs present location seems rather immaterial.

[bigheadfred]

where do you find this stuff?

Al Gore would know. He invented it after all.

[patton]

Looks like Heidelburg,

If they were monastic, where did they get 220k people?

Oh, and I am going to build a Tutonic shrine in NY on my farm.

That ought to f((k with people for a couple of thousand years.

After all, I am a 3rd degree mason. So are my sons.

LOL.

[bigheadfred]

Here’s one for you.

“A UFO base underground of the Malbork Castle”

http://malbork.20m.com/

I gotta get me one of theze

http://malbork.20m.com/bobola/she_devil.jpg

[Daffynition]

You had me at the *Concept of Dipolar Gravity*.

[JoeProBono]

[bigheadfred]

My eyes do that when I get fingered, too.

[null and void]

Which reminds me, I’m due for my annual exam...

[bigheadfred]

I’ll do it for half-price this time.

[null and void]

Which also reminds me, how did you manage to have your hands on both my shoulders last time???

[SunkenCiv]

I was passed the link in FReepmail.

[Little Ray]

I think the comment about the Teutonic knight was “Semi-Chivalric, semi-Monastic, and semi-Christian.”

Anyway, they got the 220K people by conquering them. Someone has to raise food and livestock for the Order.

[patton]

LOL - I had not heard that.

[Silentgypsy]

Priceless! A little creepy, but priceless.

[colorado tanker]

As in the picture, the Knights typically built with brick, I suppose due to the lack of stone in flat Poland. The castles were stark and utilitarian. One interesting feature is the use of a latrine tower, which also served as a refuge in time of attack.

[colorado tanker]

The Knights' realm at its greatest extent:

In 1242 the Knights invaded Novgorod, one of the precursors of the Russian state, intent on converting the Russians to western Catholicism. The Battle of Lake Peipus, or Battle of the Ice was won decisively by Alexander Nevsky and the Russians, as memorialized in the beautifully filmed propaganda piece by Eisenstein. The boundary between the Baltic States and Russia remains the border between western Christianity and Orthodoxy.

In 1410 the Knights were defeated in the Battle of Grunwald, losing to the rising Polish-Lituanian power. Eventually, they were relegated to a few possessions in the Holy Roman Empire.

[Sherman Logan]

Marienburg has only been in Poland for a few decades. In fact only since the conclusion of the great rape of central and eastern Europe by russia and her allies during the last century.

Not exactly. I believe the area was swiped from Poland by Prussia in the first of the Polish Partitions in 1772. It had been Polish for some centuries prior to that.