Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T03:29:58.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Biała Góra: the forgotten colony in the medieval Pomeranian-Prussian borderlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2014

Aleksander Pluskowski ,
Zbigniew Sawicki ,
Lisa-Marie Shillito ,
Monika Badura ,
Daniel Makowiecki ,
Mirosława Zabilska-Kunek ,
Krish Seetah  and
Alexander Brown
Aleksander Pluskowski
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AB, UK (Email: [email protected]; author for correspondence)
Zbigniew Sawicki
Affiliation:
2Muzeum Zamkowe w Malborku, Starościńska 1, 82-200 Malbork, Poland
Lisa-Marie Shillito
Affiliation:
3School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK
Monika Badura
Affiliation:
4Department of Plant Ecology, Laboratory of Palaeoecology and Archaeobotany, University of Gdańsk, Wita Stwosza 59, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland
Daniel Makowiecki
Affiliation:
5Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Szosa Bydgoska 44/48, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Mirosława Zabilska-Kunek
Affiliation:
5Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Szosa Bydgoska 44/48, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Krish Seetah
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AB, UK (Email: [email protected]; author for correspondence) 6Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Main Quad, Building 50, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94035, USA
Alexander Brown
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AB, UK (Email: [email protected]; author for correspondence)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Biała Góra 3 is a small settlement founded in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century AD in the disputed Christian borderlands of Northern Europe. The incorporation of Pomerania into the Polish state in the tenth century was followed by a process of colonisation across the lower Vistula valley, which then stalled before resuming in the thirteenth century under the Teutonic Order. Biała Góra 3 is unusual in falling between the two expansionist phases and provides detailed insight into the ethnicity and economy of this borderland community. Pottery and metalwork show strong links with both Pomeranian and German colonists, and caches of bricks and roof tiles indicate durable buildings of the kind associated with the monastic and military orders. Evidence for the presence of merchants suggests Biała Góra 3 was one of many outposts in the commercial network that shadowed the Crusades.

Keywords

Pomeranialower VistulaTeutonic OrderCrusadesGreywareethnicitydark earth
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 341 , September 2014 , pp. 863 - 882
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Biskup, M. 1991. Das Problem der ethnischen Zugehörigkeit im mittelalterlichen Landesbau in Preußen. Zum Stand der Forschung. Jahrbuch für die Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands 40: 3–25.Google Scholar
Brorsson, T. 2012. Pottery production in the Novgorod region: local traditions and foreign influences, in Brisbane, M., Makarov, N. & Nosov, E. (ed.) The archaeology of medieval Novgorod in context: 425–34. Oxford: Oxbow.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brykowska, M. 2002. Studia nad wschodnim zasięgiem architektury ceglanej, in Arszyński, M. & Mierzwiński, M. (ed.) Cegła w architekturze ´srodkowo-wschodniej Europy: 30–42. Malbork: Muzeum Zamkowe w Malborku.Google Scholar
Buko, A. 2008. The archaeology of early medieval Poland. Discoveries, hypotheses, interpretations. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Chęć, A. 2003. Folwarki krzyżackie na terenie komturstwa malborskiego w świetle źródeł archeologicznych i historycznych, próba lokalizacji, in Grąażawski, K. (ed.) Pogranicze polsko-pruskie i krzyżackie: 325–38. Włocławek: Lega.Google Scholar
Chęć, A. 2009. Huntsmanship and hunting weapons in Malbork commandery, in Maik, J. (ed.) Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae: the hunt and hunting weapons in antiquity and the Middle Ages: 95–100. Łódź: Polish Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Cowgill, J., Neergaard, M. De & Griffiths, N.. 2000. Knives and scabbards. Woodbridge: Boydell.Google Scholar
Curta, F. 2011. Medieval archaeology and ethnicity. Where are we? History Compass 9: 537–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2011.00787.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Czaja, R. 2006. Strefa bałtycka w gospodarce europejskiej w XIII–XIV wieku ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem Prus krzyżackich, in Gawlas, S. (ed.) Ziemie polskie wobec zachodu. Studia nad rozwojem średniowiecznej Europy: 195–246. Warszawa: DiG.Google Scholar
Czaja, R. 2009. Struktura społeczna, in Biskup, M., Czaja, R., Długokęcki, W., Dygo, M., Jóźwiak, S., Radzimiński, A. & Tandecki, J. (ed.) Państwo zakonu krzyżackiego w Prusach: Władza i społeczeństwo: 444–50. Warszawa: PWN.Google Scholar
DŁugokecki, W. 2009. Kolonizacja ziemi chełmińskiej, Prus i Pomorza Gdańskiego do 1410 r., in Biskup, M., Czaja, R., Długokecki, W., Dygo, M., Jóźwiak, S., Radzimiński, A. & Tandecki, J. (ed.) Państwo zakonu krzyżackiego w Prusach: Władza i społeczeństwo: 200–17. Warszawa: PWN.Google Scholar
Ekdahl, S. 1998. Horses and crossbows: two important warfare advantages of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, in Nicholson, H. (ed.) The military orders. Volume 2: welfare and warfare: 119–52. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Haftka, M. 1971. Uwagi w sprawie wczesnośredniowiecznego osadnictwa w północnej Pomezanii i kwestia lokalizacji Santyra. Pomorania Antiqua 4: 455–76.Google Scholar
Jagodziński, M.F. 2004. Podstawyźródłowe—analiza. Przekazy pisane—odkrycia archeologiczne, in Trupinda, J. (ed.) Pacifica Terra: Prusowie-Słowianie-Wikingowie u ujścia Wisły: 21–40. Malbork: Muzeum Zamkowe w Malborku.Google Scholar
Jeute, G.H. 2007. Social and ethnic aspects of rural non-agrarian production in Brandenburg (East Germany) in the Middle Ages and the modern era, in Kl´apˇstˇe, J. & Sommer, P. (ed.) Arts and crafts in medieval rural environment (Ruralia VI): 363–73. Turnhout: Brepols.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jóźwiak, S. & Trupinda, J.. 2007. Organizacja życia na zamku krzyżackim w Malborku w czasach wielkich mistrzów (1309–1457). Malbork: Muzeum Zamkowe w Malborku.Google Scholar
Kasprzykowski, Z. 2003. Habitat preferences of foraging rooks Corvus frugilegus during the breeding period in the agricultural landscape of eastern Poland. Acta Ornithologica 38: 27–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kruppé, J. 1981. Garncarstwo późnośredniowieczne w Polsce. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich.Google Scholar
Macphail, R.I. & Crowther, J.. 2009. Soil micromorphology, chemistry and magnetic susceptibility, in Birkbeck, V. & Shuster, J. (ed.) Living and working in Roman and later London. Excavations at 60–63 Fenchurch Street (Wessex Archaeology Reports 25): 113–20. Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology.Google Scholar
Macphail, R.I., Galinié, H. & Verhaeghe, F.. 2003. A future for dark earth? Antiquity 77: 349–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makowiecki, D. 2003. Historia ryb i rybołówstwa w holocenie na Niżu Polskim w świetle badań archeoichtiologicznych. Poznań: Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii PAN.Google Scholar
Makowiecki, D. 2009. Animals in the landscape of the medieval countryside and urban agglomerations of the Baltic Sea countries, in Cittá e campagana nei secoli altomedievali: Spoleto, 27 marzo–1 aprile 2008: 427–44. Spoleto: Fondazione Centro italiano di studi sull’alto Medioevo.Google Scholar
Maltby, M., Pluskowski, A.G. & Seetah, K.. 2009. Animal bones from an industrial quarter at Malbork, Poland: towards an ecology of a castle built in Prussia by the Teutonic Order. Crusades 8: 191–212.Google Scholar
Mänd, A. 2004. Beaver tails and roasted herring heads: fast as feast in late-medieval Livonia. Medium Aevum Quotidianum 50: 5–12.Google Scholar
Marcinkowski, M. 2003. średniowieczny warsztat garncarski ze Starego Miasta w Elbl agu. Pomorania Antiqua 19: 193–250.Google Scholar
Mugurēvičs, Ē. 2008. Viduslaiku ciems un pils Salaspils novadā. Rīga: LVIA.Google Scholar
paner, H. 2001. 10th- to 17th-century domestic architecture in Gdańsk, in Dahmen, B., Gläser, M., Oltmanns, U. & Schindel, S. (ed.) Lübecker Kolloquium zur Stadtarchäologie im Hanseraum III: der Hausbau: 491–509. Lübeck: Schmidt-Römhild.Google Scholar
Paszkiewicz, B. 2009. Brakteaty—pieniądz średniowiecznych Prus. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego.Google Scholar
Pluskowski, A.G. 2012. The archaeology of the Prussian Crusade: holy war and colonisation. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pluskowski, A.G., Brown, A.D., Shillito, L.-M., Seetah, K., Makowiecki, D., Jarzebowski, M., Kļaviņš, K. & Kreem, J.. 2011. The Ecology of Crusading project: new research on medieval Baltic landscapes. Antiquity 85(328) Project Gallery. Available at: http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/pluskowski328/ (accessed 14 January 2014).Google Scholar
Pollakówna, M. 1967. Zantyr. Komunikaty mazursko-warmińskie 4: 473–84.Google Scholar
Powierski, J. 2003. Prussica (I). Malbork: Muzeum Zamkowe w Malborku.Google Scholar
Rebkowski, M. 1995. Średniowieczna ceramika miasta lokacyjnego w Kołobrzegu. Kołobrzeg: Feniks.Google Scholar
Rozenkranz, E. 1965. Kształtowanie sie granicy pomorsko-pruskiej w okresie od XII do pocz atku XIV w. Zapiski Historyczne 30: 335–38.Google Scholar
Seetah, K., Klavinš, A.G., Makowiecki, D. & Daugnora, L.. In press. New technology or adaptation at the frontier? Butchery as a signifier of cultural transitions in the medieval eastern Baltic. Archaeologia Baltica.Google Scholar
Tandecki, J. 2009. Liczebność i pochodzenie terytorialne (Mieszczaństwo), in Biskup, M., Czaja, R., Długokecki, W., Dygo, M., Jóźwiak, S., Radzimiński, A. & Tandecki, J. (ed.) Państwo zakonu krzyżackiego w Prusach: Władza i społeczeństwo: 437–44. Warszawa: PWN.Google Scholar
Trupinda, J. (ed.). 2004. Terra Pacifica: Prusowie-Słowianie-Wikingowie u ujścia Wisły. Malbork: Muzeum Zamkowe w Malborku.Google Scholar
Vlierman, K. 1996. “Van zintelen, van zintelroeden ende mossen…”: een breeuwmethode als hulpmiddel bij het dateren van scheepswrakken uit de hanzetijd. Lelystad: Nederlands Instituut voor Scheeps- en Onderwaterarcheologie.Google Scholar