Anti Selart (ed.). Baltic Crusades and Societal Innovation in Medieval Livonia, 1200–1350. Leiden: Brill, 2022 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2022
The Baltic Crusades in the thirteenth century led to the creation of the medieval Livonia. But what happened after the conquest? The contributors to this volume analyse the cultural, societal, economic and technological changes in the Baltic Sea region c. 1200–1350. The chapters focus on innovations and long-term developments which were important in integrating the area into medieval European society more broadly, while also questioning the traditional divide of the Livonian post-crusade society into native victims and foreign victors. The process of multilateral negotiations and adaptions created a synthesis which was not necessarily an outcome of the wars but also a manifestation of universal innovation processes in northern Europe.
The Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier
2016
Saints' cults played a crucial role in medieval society. Although we know very little about the beliefs and rituals of the indigenous peoples of Livonia, either before or after the thirteenth-century conquest, we may assume that the process of Christianization must have caused major changes in their religious practices.! How quickly these changes took place, and how deep they were, is a question which is difficult to answer, given the scarcity of sources describing the attitudes of the indigenous peoples towards the Christian faith, or dealing with their religious customs. This is valid not only for the thirteenth century but also for the rest of the medieval period. There exist, of course, brief complaints in documents such as church statutes about the ignorance and superstition of the 'non-Germans', but these texts were written by and from the point of view of the ruling elites and not that of non-Germans themselves, who did not possess a written culture before the nineteenth century. One may also assume that complaints about such matters were a commonplace in other newly Christianized countries as well. However, it is not only the beliefs and customs of the native inhabitants of Livonia that we are interested in, but also those of the 'newcomers' in the country, that is, the (predominantly German) upper and middle classes. The location of Livonia between the Roman Catholic West and the Russian Orthodox East (not to mention the neighbouring Lithuanians who remained pagan until the late fourteenth century) makes this region an interesting melting pot of different cultural and religious influences. The political, economic and cultural connections to Germany, Denmark and Sweden, the role of the Hanseatic League, the presence of the military orders (first the Sword Brethren, then the Teutonic Order) and the monastic orders (most notably the Cistercians and the Dominicans) must all have had a significant impact on the development oflocal religious life. This chapter explores only one aspect of religious life in Livonia, namely the cults of saints. This is perhaps most conspicuously reflected in the choice of the patron saints of the churches, towns and other institutions. However, the study is hindered by the scarcity of sources: there are very few surviving calendars and dedication charters of churches and altars. In the majority of cases we do not know when a church or altar was founded and by whom. This makes it difficult This article was written under the auspices of grant no. 6900 awarded by the Estonian Science Foundation. See Marek Tamm and Tönno Jonuks, 'Religious Practices of the Estonians in the Medieval Written Sources (11th to 15th centuries)', in Estonian Mythology, ed. Mare Köiva (Helsinki, forthcoming).
The article briefly represents the course and results of the post-doctoral research project, which is the first comparative study of the post-Viking age Western Balts material culture. The questions of trans-regional contacts in the area of South-Eastern Baltic, comparative analysis of the statistical data of the Western Balts ornaments, arms, horse harness, ceram¬ics, different tools and imported goods with some general features of burial rite, cemeteries based on social structure, trade routes are described in the study. Typology and chronology of Prussian, Curonian and Scalvian grave goods are also clarified during the research. The problem of cross-contact regions of the Western Balts, altogether with possible routes of cultural interaction and trade were also revised on a basis of newly investigated and archival data.
London and New York: Routledge, 2020
The region called Livonia (corresponding to modern Estonia and Latvia) emerged out of the rapid transformation caused by the conquest, Christianisation and colonisation on the north-east shore of the Baltic Sea in the late twelfth and the early thirteenth centuries. These radical changes have received increasing scholarly notice over the last few decades. However, less attention has been devoted to the interplay between the new and the old structures and actors in a longer perspective. This volume aims to study these interplays and explores the history of Livonia by concentrating on various actors and networks from the late twelfth to the seventeenth century. But, on a deeper level, the goal is more ambitious: to investigate the foundation of an increasingly complex and heterogeneous society on the medieval and early modern Baltic frontier – ‘the making of Livonia’.