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The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade: Holy War and Colonisation
The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade explores the archaeology and material culture of the crusades against the Prussian tribes in the 13th century, and the resulting society created by the Teutonic Order which endured into the 16th century. It provides an updated synthesis of the material culture of this unique, hybrid society in the south-eastern Baltic region, encompassing the full range of archaeological data, from standing buildings through to artefacts and ecofacts, integrated with written and artistic sources. The work is sub-divided into broadly chronological themes, beginning with a historical outline, then exploring the settlements, castles, towns and landscapes of the Teutonic Order’s theocratic state, the character and tempo of religious transformation and concluding with the roles of the reconstructed and ruined monuments of medieval Prussia in the modern world, particularly within the context of Polish culture. This remains the first work on the archaeology of medieval Prussia in any language, and is intended as a comprehensive introduction to a period and area of growing interest. This book represents an important contribution to promoting International awareness of the cultural heritage of the Baltic region, which has been rapidly increasing over the last few decades.
444 pages, Paperback
First published November 11, 2012
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February 17, 2025
Right off the bat, this book is very dense and scholarly. It encompasses, as it says, all of the archaeological work regarding the Teutonic Order in Prussia to date. Which is an immense amount of information.
This book took me a very long time to get through, the bibliography runs to almost fifty pages. This is a journey not for the faint-hearted.
I should also point out that I read the revised second edition which does not seem to have been listed on goodreads yet, so I am reviewing that edition and not the original.
So, the book covers all manner of archaeological aspects of Prussia regarding the Teutonic Order and the crusades in this area. It does extend the time frame to the secularisation of Prussia and the demise of the Teutonic Order alongside the concurrent rise of Poland-Lithuania.
I don't often read archaeology because I'm not always confident in its conclusions. Much of it is deduced, but I was impressed with the solid scholarship of this work. One might be sceptical of conclusions about the importance of various burial items or whether or not a certain stone was really considered sacred by Baltic pagans, but the author I feel tried as far as possible to reconcile the archaeological evidence with the written sources.
Everything is covered here, from the original Prussians and their purported settlements, their sacred groves, the initial church at Kaldus, the areas where missionaries were martyred before the arrival of the Germans.
Then it goes right on into the Order's arrival in the Kulmerland, its expansion into Prussia, the wars with Lithuania, and so on.
There are chapters devoted to the Order's castles, to the towns, to the incorporated cities of Pomerelia, to the churches constructed by the Order or by associated bishops.
Everything you could imagine is addressed in the text, from coins, to clothing, to pottery, to weaponry, even food. There is an entire chapter devoted to the agricultural innovations brought by the Order, about their manipulation of water sources, what species of fish they ate, it is exhaustively detailed.
As a coherent whole the book paints a picture of a land that was drastically transformed by the Order. The Old Prussians were beginning to settle in towns, but the Order accelerated this process. Dozens of famous red brick castles were built across the land, towns and ports and monasteries and churches that never existed sprang up.
Forests were felled, fields were sown, water mills and moats and ponds for fisheries were all part and parcel of the conquest. If we could have seen Prussia before the beginning of the crusade, and seen it again in the year 1300, there must have been a radical difference.
The author briefly touches upon politically sensitive subjects like who this history belongs to and the nationalist interpretations of the Order's activities and its numerous battles. I appreciated the information about German archaeologists during the Second Empire and Weimar, who pioneered much of the work, and the optimistic fact that archaeologists from Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Germany have been cooperating in uncovering the physical remains of the Order State.
This book does not cover Livonia in any depth, to those interested in that aspect of the Order's activities. The focus is solely on Prussia, and if you can make it through the text you will come out the other side with a new perspective on the Teutonic Order.
This book took me a very long time to get through, the bibliography runs to almost fifty pages. This is a journey not for the faint-hearted.
I should also point out that I read the revised second edition which does not seem to have been listed on goodreads yet, so I am reviewing that edition and not the original.
So, the book covers all manner of archaeological aspects of Prussia regarding the Teutonic Order and the crusades in this area. It does extend the time frame to the secularisation of Prussia and the demise of the Teutonic Order alongside the concurrent rise of Poland-Lithuania.
I don't often read archaeology because I'm not always confident in its conclusions. Much of it is deduced, but I was impressed with the solid scholarship of this work. One might be sceptical of conclusions about the importance of various burial items or whether or not a certain stone was really considered sacred by Baltic pagans, but the author I feel tried as far as possible to reconcile the archaeological evidence with the written sources.
Everything is covered here, from the original Prussians and their purported settlements, their sacred groves, the initial church at Kaldus, the areas where missionaries were martyred before the arrival of the Germans.
Then it goes right on into the Order's arrival in the Kulmerland, its expansion into Prussia, the wars with Lithuania, and so on.
There are chapters devoted to the Order's castles, to the towns, to the incorporated cities of Pomerelia, to the churches constructed by the Order or by associated bishops.
Everything you could imagine is addressed in the text, from coins, to clothing, to pottery, to weaponry, even food. There is an entire chapter devoted to the agricultural innovations brought by the Order, about their manipulation of water sources, what species of fish they ate, it is exhaustively detailed.
As a coherent whole the book paints a picture of a land that was drastically transformed by the Order. The Old Prussians were beginning to settle in towns, but the Order accelerated this process. Dozens of famous red brick castles were built across the land, towns and ports and monasteries and churches that never existed sprang up.
Forests were felled, fields were sown, water mills and moats and ponds for fisheries were all part and parcel of the conquest. If we could have seen Prussia before the beginning of the crusade, and seen it again in the year 1300, there must have been a radical difference.
The author briefly touches upon politically sensitive subjects like who this history belongs to and the nationalist interpretations of the Order's activities and its numerous battles. I appreciated the information about German archaeologists during the Second Empire and Weimar, who pioneered much of the work, and the optimistic fact that archaeologists from Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Germany have been cooperating in uncovering the physical remains of the Order State.
This book does not cover Livonia in any depth, to those interested in that aspect of the Order's activities. The focus is solely on Prussia, and if you can make it through the text you will come out the other side with a new perspective on the Teutonic Order.
Displaying 1 of 1 review