The Baltic Crusades and ecological transformation: The zooarchaeology of conquest and cultural change in the Eastern Baltic in the second millennium AD

From the end of the 12th century, crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the indigenous pagan societies in the Eastern Baltic region. Native territories were reorganised as new Christian states (Livonia and Prussia) largely run by a militarised theocracy, dominated by the Teutonic Order. The new regime constructed castles, encouraged colonists, developed towns and introduced Christianity, incorporating the conquered territories into Latin Europe. At the same time, the theocracy sought to maximise the exploitation of natural resources to sustain its political and military assets, as well as provision its subjects. Arguably the most important resource was represented by animals, which were exploited for a range of primary and secondary products. Excavations across the eastern Baltic have uncovered tens of thousands of faunal remains from archaeological contexts on either side of the crusading period. Traditionally studied in isolation, the zooarchaeological data is here for the first time compared across the conquered territories, supported with isotopic analyses and integrated with other paleoenvironmental and historical sources, revealing how the new regime appropriated and intensified existing livestock husbandry practices, whilst accentuating earlier trends in declining biodiversity. At the same time, agricultural changes led to improved feeding regimes, resulting in noticeable changes in the size of stock in some regions

Late-Medieval Horse Remains at Cesis Castle, Latvia, and the Teutonic Order's Equestrian Resources in Livonia

EXCAVATIONS AT the castle complex of Cēsis, Latvia, uncovered an unusual find of large quantities of horse bones, some of which were partially articulated, along with equestrian equipment. These were associated with a destroyed building at the edge of the southern outer bailey. The horses included large males, most probably stallions, and pathology on several of the recovered vertebrae suggests these individuals had been used for riding. The size of the horses was within the range for medieval war horses, and the associated tack also pointed to prestigious riding animals. Radiocarbon dating of the bones placed them firmly within the Teutonic Order's period of rule. We conclude here that these horses fulfilled a military role in the final decades of the Teutonic Order’s rule in Livonia in the late 15th/early 16th century and that the better-known equestrian culture of late-medieval Prussia was comparable in character, if not in scale, to that in Livonia

Species identification of ancient Lithuanian fish remains using collagen fingerprinting

Morphological identification of ancient bone is often problematic due to heavy fragmentation that generally influences zooarchaeological assemblages. Fish bones are more taphonomically sensitive than those of other vertebrates as they are typically smaller and less biomineralised. Thus, taxonomic identification based on the preservation of morphological features is often extremely limited and can reduce or eliminate the usefulness of an assemblage for inferring taxon information. Currently, one of the most time- and cost-efficient methods of achieving faunal identity from ancient bone is by the collagen fingerprinting technique known as ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry). ZooMS harnesses the potential of preserved collagen, which is the most dominant and time-stable protein in bone. In this research, ZooMS is applied to ancient Baltic region fish assemblages that are between 500 and 6000 years old in order to define species identity and construct assemblage compositions. Alongside inferences into environmental and biological shifts from the Neolithic era to present day in the Baltic region, we demonstrate for the first time the ability to distinguish between recently diverged members of the Salmo (salmon) and Scophthalmus (turbot) genera. ZooMS analysis highlights 7% of the collagen-containing assemblage as having been morphologically identified incorrectly and has facilitated taxonomic refinement of a further 28% of samples, including some of the morphologically indeterminate bone fragments. This research emphasises the great potential of ZooMS in identifying ichthyoarchaeological bone remains to species-level, and provides a case for the use of collagen fingerprinting in contributing to baseline fisheries and ecological data to inform modern management

History of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in the eastern Baltic region and its implications for the origin and immigration routes of the recent northern European wild reindeer populations

A total of 45 subfossil reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) antlers and bones - artefacts excluded - have been found over the years in the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The relatively high number of specimens suggests a stable residence of the species in the eastern Baltic region. For the first time, 12 of these finds were radiocarbon-dated. The ages of the samples range between 12085 and 9970 C-14 yr BP (14180-11280 cal. yr BP), and cover the Lateglacial and early Holocene, a time period during which climatic conditions shifted from periglacial to temperate. The dates suggest a rapid colonization of the area during the deglaciation period and a local extinction around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. The results of the study do not support the theory that the recent wild reindeer populations of northern Europe had their origin in the Late Weichselian reindeer populations of the eastern Baltic region

An Arctic seal in temperate waters: history of the ringed seal (Pusa hispida) in the Baltic Sea and its adaptation to the changing environment

The ringed seal (Pusa hispida) is an early immigrant in the Baltic Basin and has since its arrival experienced substantial changes in the climate, salinity and productivity of the Basin. In this paper, we discuss the dispersal and distribution of the ringed seal during different stages of the Baltic Sea in relation to past and ongoing environmental changes. Subfossil ringed seal remains around the Baltic Sea and the Danish Straits were radiocarbon dated in order to map the distribution of the species in different time periods. The δ13C data were used in evaluating the changes in the marine character of the Baltic Basin. The sequence of the dates indicates a continuous presence of the species in the Baltic Basin. The earliest ringed seal finds come from the Skagerrak/Kattegat area (Denmark, Swedish west coast) and date to the full glacial period and Baltic Ice Lake. In the Baltic Basin, the species appears in the subfossil record during the Ancylus period, but the main part of the remains date to the Littorina stage. During the Littorina stage, the distribution of the species was at least periodically wider than today, covering also southern parts of the Baltic. The presence of breeding populations in southern parts of the Baltic during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) indicates that the winters were at least periodically cold enough for winter ice. The changes in the marine influence in the Baltic Basin can be seen in the seal collagen δ13C values, which serve as a proxy for qualitative changes in water mass salinity