Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T22:37:04.824Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Multi-Ethnicity and Material Exchanges in Late Medieval Tallinn

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Magdalena Naum
Magdalena Naum*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University, Sweden
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the cultural and social dynamics of a multi-ethnic medieval town. Taking the lower town of Tallinn as a case study, this paper identifies the major urban ethnic groups living in the town and discusses their co-existence, self-definition, and processes of categorization. It explores ambiguities arising from daily interactions in the shared physical landscape of the town, such as material exchanges, and the development of new technological solutions, and the simultaneous insistence on maintenance of sharp inter-group boundaries. As material culture plays a significant role in the negotiation of identities and in visualizing sameness and difference, emphasis is placed on the ways objects were used in the daily lives of Tallinn's multi-ethnic communities.

Dans cet article nous examinons les dynamiques culturelles et sociales d'une ville médiévale multiethnique. En prenant comme étude de cas la ville basse de Tallinn, nous identifions ici les principaux groupes ethniques urbains vivant en ville et discutons leur coexistence, leur auto-définition et les processus de catégorisation. On étudie les ambiguités émanant des interactions quotidiens dans le paysage physique commun de la ville comme par exemple les échanges matériels; le développement de nouvelles solutions technologiques et l'insistance simultanée du maintien de frontières nettes entre les groupes. Comme la culture matérielle joue un rôle significatif dans la négotiation d'identités et dans la visualisation des similitudes et des différences, on accorde une grande importance aux manières dont les objets étaient utilisés dans le quotidien des communautés multiethniques de Tallinn. Translation by Isabelle Gerges

Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung

Dieser Beitrag untersucht die kulturelle und soziale Dynamik einer multi-ethnischen mittelalterlichen Stadt. Anhand der Unterstadt von Talinn als Fallbeispiel identifiziert diese Studie die wichtigsten urbanen ethnischen Gruppen, die in der Stadt lebten und diskutiert deren Koexistenz, Selbstdefinition und Prozesse der Kategorisierung. Sie untersucht Mehrdeutigkeiten, die aus den täglichen Interaktionen in der gemeinsamen physischen Landschaft der Stadt herrührten, wie z. B. materielle Austauschprozesse, die Entwicklung neuer technischer Lösungen und das gleichzeitige Beharren auf der Aufrechterhaltung scharfer Gruppengrenzen. Da die materielle Kultur bei der Herausstellung von Identitäten sowie bei der Visualisierung von Gleichheit und Unterschieden eine signifikante Rolle spielt, wird besonderes Augenmerk auf die Art und Weise gelegt, in der die Objekte im Alltag der multi-ethnischen Gemeinschaften Talinns genutzt wurden. Translation by Heiner Schwarzberg

Keywords

Late Middle AgesTallinnthe Hansemulti-ethnic townmigrationmaterial cultureHaut Moyen-ÂgeTallinnla Hanseville multiethniquemigrationculture matérielleSpätmittelalterTallinnHansemulti-ethnische StadtMigrationmaterielle Kultur
Type
Articles
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , 2014 , pp. 656 - 677
Copyright
Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 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

Aus, T. 1992. Tallinna keskaegsed savinõud. Stilus, 1992: 5–49.Google Scholar
Bartlett, R. 1993. The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950–1350. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Bartlett, R. 2001. Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 31 (1): 39–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birk, J.C. 2005. From Borderlands to Borderlines: Narrating the Past of Twelfth-Century Sicily. In: Helfers, J.P., ed. Multicultural Europe and Cultural Exchange in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 9–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Böckler, T. & Maiste, J. 1995. Tallinn: Vanalinn, IX. Kvartal. Altstadt, IX. Viertel. Old Town, IX Quarter. Tallinn: Tallinna Linnateater.Google Scholar
Broberg, B. & Hasselmo, M. 1981. Keramik, kammar och skor från 7 medeltida städer: fyndstudie. Stockholm: Riksantikvarieämbetet.Google Scholar
Brown, D.H. 1997. The Social Significance of Imported Medieval Pottery. In: Cumberpatch, C.G. & Blinkhorn, P.W., eds. Not So Much a Pot, More a Way of Life. Current Approaches to Artefact Analysis in Archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 95–112.Google Scholar
Caune, A. & Ose, I. 2006. Archäologische Erkenntnisse zum Handwerk in Riga. Unter besonderer Berücksichtingung des 13./14. Jahrhunderts mit einem Ausblick auf das 17. Jahrhundert. In: Gläser, M., ed. Lübecker Kolloquium zur Stadtarchäologie im Hanseraum, Band V. Das Handwerk. Lübeck: Verlag Schmidt-Römhild, pp. 459–72.Google Scholar
Classen, A. 2002a. Meeting the Foreign in the Middle Ages. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Classen, A. 2002b. The Self, the Other and Everything In Between: Xenological Phenomenology of the Middle Ages. In: Classen, A., ed. Meeting the Foreign in the Middle Ages. New York: Routledge), pp. xi–lxxiii.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J.J. 2004. The Flow of Blood in Medieval Norwich. Speculum, 79 (1): 26–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cumberpatch, C.G. 1997. Towards a Phenomenological Approach to the Study of Medieval Pottery. In: Cumberpatch, C.G. & Blinkhorn, P.W., eds. Not So Much a Pot, More a Way of Life. Current Approaches to Artefact Analysis in Archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 125–51.Google Scholar
Cutler, A. 1970. Innocent III and the Distinctive Clothing of Jews and Muslims. Studies of Medieval Culture, 3: 92–116.Google Scholar
Dollinger, P. 1970. The German Hansa. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Feyerabend, L. 1985. Die Rigaer und Revaler Familiennamen im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert. Köln: Böhlau.Google Scholar
Gaimster, D. 2005. A Parallel History: The Archaeology of Hanseatic Urban Culture in the Baltic c. 1200–1600. World Archaeology, 37 (3): 408–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helfers, J.P. ed. 2005. Multicultural Europe and Cultural Exchange in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Turnhout: Brepols.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heng, G. 2011a. The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages I: Race Studies, Modernity, and the Middle Ages. Literature Compass, 8 (5): 315–31.Google Scholar
Heng, G. 2011b. The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages II: Location of Medieval Race. Literature Compass, 8 (5): 332–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, A. 1996. The Governance of Consumption: Sumptuary Laws and Shifting Forms of Regulation. Economy and Society, 25 (3): 410–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaritz, G. 2000. Social Grouping and the Languages of Dress in the Late Middle Ages. The Medieval History Journal, 3: 235–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaritz, G. 2001. Ira Dei, Material Culture, and Behavior in the Late Middle Ages: Evidence from German-Speaking Europe. Essays in Medieval Studies, 18: 53–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jehel, G. 1995. Jews and Muslims in Medieval Genoa: From the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Century. Mediterranean Historical Review, 10 (1–2): 120–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, R. 1994. Rethinking Ethnicity: Identity, Categorization and Power. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 17 (2): 197–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, R. 2000. Categorization: Identity, Social Process and Epistemology. Current Sociology, 48 (3): 7–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johansen, P. 1951. Nordische Mission, Revals Gründung und die Schwedensiedlung in Estland. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand.Google Scholar
Johansen, P. & von zur Mühlen, H. 1973. Deutsch und Undeutsch im mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Reval. Köln: Böhlau.Google Scholar
Kadakas, V. 2012. Personal Communication.Google Scholar
Kadakas, V. & Nilov, H. 2004. Various Investigations in Tallinn and Harjumaa. Archaeological Fieldwork in Estonia, 2003: 160–75.Google Scholar
Kala, T. 2001. The Incorporation of the Northern Baltic Lands into the Western Christian World. In: Murray, A.V., ed. Crusade and Conversion on the Baltic Frontier 1150–1500. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 1–20.Google Scholar
Kaplinski, K. 1980. Tallinna käsitöölised XIV sajandil. vol 1–2. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.Google Scholar
Kattinger, D. 2004. Nationalismus und Potonationalismus und das Problem der Nationalen Selbstbehauptung im Mittelalter. In: Kattinger, D., Olesen, J. E. & Wernicke, H., eds. Der Ostseeraum und Kontinentaleuropa 1100–1600. Einflussnahme—Rezeption—Wandel. Schwerin: Thomas Helms Verlag, pp. 17–20.Google Scholar
Keene, D. 2009. Introduction: Segregation, Zoning and Assimilation in Medieval Towns. In: Keene, D., Nagy, B. & Szende, K., eds. Segregation—Integration—Assimilation. Religious and Ethnic Groups in the Medieval Towns of Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 1–13.Google Scholar
Keene, D., Nagy, B. & Szende, K. eds. 2009. Segregation—Integration—Assimilation. Religious and Ethnic Groups in the Medieval Towns of Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Kim, K. 2000. Aliens in Medieval Law: The Origins of Modern Citizenship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klaniczay, G. 2003. The ‘Bonfires of the Vanities’ and the Mendicants. In: Jaritz, G., ed. Emotions and Material Culture. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 31–59.Google Scholar
Lange, K. & Tamm, J. 1985. Archäologische Untersuchungen in der Tallinner Altstadt in der Jahren 1983–1984. Eesti NSV TA Toimetised. Ühiskonnateadused, 34 (4): 384–91.Google Scholar
Lavi, A. 2003. Muinasaja lõpu külaehitised. In: Mägi, M., ed. Eesti aastal 1200. Tallinn: Argo, pp. 149–62.Google Scholar
Lindqvist, P. 2004. Shoes—A Mirror of Changes in Medieval Society. In: Kattinger, D., Olesen, J.E. & Wernicke, H., eds. Der Ostseeraum und Kontinentaleuropa 1100–1600. Einflussnahme—Rezeption—Wandel. Schwerin: Thomas Helms Verlag, pp. 51–57.Google Scholar
Luik, H. 2001. Bone Combs from Medieval Tallinn, From the Excavations in Sauna Street. In: Choyke, A.M. & Bartosiewicz, L., eds. Crafting Bone: Skeletal Technologies through Time and Space—Proceedings of the 2nd Meeting of the (ICAZ) Worked Bone Research Group Budapest, 31 August—5 September 1999. British Archaeological Reports International Series 937. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 321–30.Google Scholar
Luik, H. 2005. Luu- ja sarvesemed Eesti arheoloogilises leiumaterjalis viikingiajast keskajani (Bone and antler artefacts among Estonian archaeological finds from the Viking Age until the Middle Ages) (unpublished PhD dissertation, Tartu University, Tartu).Google Scholar
Mäll, J. & Russow, E. 2000. Kohalik ja importkeraamika Tallinnas 1200–1550. Estonian Journal of Archaeology, 4 (2): 120–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mäll, J. & Russow, E. 2003. Archäologie und Stalinismus. Die Anfänge der Stadtarchäologie in Estland und die Ausgrabungen auf dem Tallinner Rathausplatz 1953. Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters, 31: 145–58.Google Scholar
Mänd, A. 2005. Urban Carnival. Festive Culture in the Hanseatic Cities of the Eastern Baltic, 1350–1550. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Markus, F. 2004. Living on Another Shore. Early Scandinavian Settlement on the North-Western Estonian Coast. Uppsala: Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Menocal, M.R. 2002. The Ornament of the World: How Jews, Christians, and Muslims Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. New York: Little, Brown and Company.Google Scholar
Müller, U. 2004. Rezeption und Wandel: Bemerkungen zu Regeln und Modellen aus archäologischer Sicht. In: Kattinger, D., Olesen, J.E. & Wernicke, H., eds. Der Ostseeraum und Kontinentaleuropa 1100–1600. Einflussnahme—Rezeption—Wandel. Schwerin: Thomas Helms Verlag, pp. 59–68.Google Scholar
Murray, A.V. 2009. Introduction. In: Murray, A.V., ed. The Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 1–8.Google Scholar
Naum, M. 2008. Homelands Lost and Gained. Slavic Migration and Settlement on Bornholm in the Early Middle Ages. Lund: Lund University.Google Scholar
Naum, M. 2013. Premodern Translocals: German Merchant Diaspora Between Kalmar and Northern German Towns (1250–1500). International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 17: 376–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naum, M. in press. Migration, Identity and Material Culture: Hanseatic Translocality in Medieval Baltic Sea. In: Glørstad, H., Melheim, L. & Glørstad, Z., eds. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Past Colonisation, Maritime Interaction and Cultural Integration. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Nirenberg, D. 1998. Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pärn, A. & Russow, E. 2008. Luxus als Lebensstil in Tallinn (Reval) im Mittelalter und in früherer Neuzeit. In: Gläser, M., ed. Lübecker Kolloquium zur Stadtarchäologie im Hanseraum VI. Lübeck: Schmidt/Römhild, pp. 593–607.Google Scholar
Pohl, W. 1998. Telling the Difference: Signs of Ethnic Identity. In: Pohl, W. & Reimitz, H., eds. Strategies of Distinction. The Construction of Ethnic Communities, 300–800. Leiden: Brill, pp. 17–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Põltsam, I. 2002. Eesti ala linnaelanike rõivastus 14. sajandi teisest poolest 16. sajandi keskpaigani. Tuna, 20: 22–43.Google Scholar
Robertson, K. 2008. Medieval Things. Materiality, Historicism, and the Premodern Object. Literature Compass, 5 (6): 1060–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russow, E. 2007. Joitakin huomioita punasavikeramiikasta keskiajan ja uuden ajan Tallinnassa. In: Majantie, K., ed. Ruukkuja ja ruhtinaita: saviastioita ja uunikaakeleita ajalta 1400–1700. Turku: Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, pp. 69–80.Google Scholar
Russow, E. 2010. Hansestadt Tallinn (Reval) und seine mittelalterlichen Befestigungen. In: Gläser, M., ed. Lübecker Kolloquium zur Stadtarchäologie im Hanseraum, Band VII: Die Stadtbefestigungen. Lübeck: Verlag Schmidt-Römhild, pp. 693–713.Google Scholar
Russow, E., Valk, H., Haak, A., Pärn, A. & Mäesalu, A. 2006. Medieval Archaeology of the European Context: Towns, Churches, Monasteries and Castles. In: Lang, V. & Laneman, M., eds. Archaeological Research in Estonia 1865–2005. Estonian Archaeology 1. Tartu: Tartu University Press, pp. 159–92.Google Scholar
Sarv, K. 2000. Finds of Leather Footwear from the Excavations at Sauna Street 10 in Tallinn. Archaeological Fieldwork in Estonia, 1999: 75–85.Google Scholar
Sarv, K. 2006. Medieval Leather Footwear from Tallinn. Archaeologia Baltica, 6: 158–64.Google Scholar
Schmedier, F. 2009. Various Ethnic and Religious Groups in Medieval German Towns? Some Evidence and Reflections. In: Keene, D., Nagy, B. & Szende, K., eds. Segregation-Integration-Assimilation. Religious and Ethnic Groups in the Medieval Towns of Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 15–31.Google Scholar
SDHK = Svenskt diplomatariums huvudkartotek över medeltidsbreven. Available at: <http://sok.riksarkivet.se/sdhk> [accessed 30 November 2013].+[accessed+30+November+2013].>Google Scholar
Seeberg-Elverfeldt, R. 1975. Revaler Regesten III. Testamente Revaler Burger und Einwohner aus den Jahren 1369–1851. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Selart, A. 2009. Russians in Livonian Towns in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. In: Keene, D., Nagy, B. & Szende, K., eds. Segregation-Integration-Assimilation. Religious and Ethnic Groups in the Medieval Towns of Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 33–50.Google Scholar
Skyum-Nielsen, N. ed. 1979. Danmarks Riges Breve, 1:6. Copenhagen: Reizel, pp. 1224–37.Google Scholar
Smail, D.L. 2003. Enmity and the Distrait of Goods in Late Medieval Marseille. In: Jaritz, G., ed. Emotions and Material Culture. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 17–30.Google Scholar
Sokolovski, V. 2001. Aruanne arheoloogilistest uuringutest Tallinnas, Pikk tn. 47 (unpublished excavation report, Archaeological Archive, Institute of History, Tallinn University).Google Scholar
Talvar, P. 2006. Archaeological Investigations in Tallinn at Viru Street 8 and in the Area of Bastions. Archaeological Fieldwork in Estonia, 2005: 219–30.Google Scholar
Tiko, A. 2013. Personal Communication.Google Scholar
Tõnisson, E. 1998. Ühest 13. sajandi linnamajast. Postimees. online edition of Estonian newspaper http://www.postimees.ee/2540463/uhest-13-sajandi-linnamajast, published 4 April 1998, accessed 3 JulyGoogle Scholar
Tvauri, A. 2005. Eesti hilisrauaaja savinõud (11. sajandist 13. sajandi keskpaigani). Tallinn: Kleio.Google Scholar
Tvauri, A. 2009. Late Medieval Hypocausts with Heat Storage in Estonia. Baltic Journal of Art History, 2009: 49–78.Google Scholar
Valk, H. 2004. Artefacts in Estonian Urban Churchyards: Reflections on Different Traditions and Ideologies. In: Kattinger, D., Olesen, J.E. & Wernicke, H., eds. Der Ostseeraum und Kontinentaleuropa 1100–1600. Einflussnahme—Rezeption—Wandel. Schwerin: Thomas Helms Verlag, pp. 103–12.Google Scholar
Valk, H. 2006. Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeology of the Native Rural Population. In: Lang, V. & Laneman, M., eds. Archaeological Research in Estonia 1865–2005. Estonian Archaeology 1. Tartu: Tartu University Press, pp. 205–21.Google Scholar
Vedru, G. 1999. Värtnakedrad Eesti arheoloogilises leiumaterjalis. Estonian Journal of Archaeology, 3 (2): 91–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vissak, R. 2006. On Handicraft in Tallinn (Reval): The Middle Ages and the Beginning of Modern Times. In: Gläser, M., ed. Lübecker Kolloquium zur Stadtarchäologie im Hanseraum, Band V. Das Handwerk. Lübeck: Verlag Schmidt-Römhild, pp. 497–507.Google Scholar
von zur Mühlen, H. 1957. Versuch einer soziologischen Erfassung der Bevölkerung Revals im Spätmittelalter. Hansische Geschichtsblätter, 75: 48–69.Google Scholar
von zur Mühlen, H. 1969. Siedlungskontinuität und Rechtslage der Esten in Reval von der vordeutschen Zeit bis zum Spätmittelalter. Zeitschrift für Ostforschung, 18: 640–54.Google Scholar
von zur Mühlen, H. 1970. Drei Revaler Einwohnerlisten aus dem 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Zeitschrift für Ostforschung, 19: 699–744.Google Scholar
Wubs-Mrozewicz, J. 2004. Interplay of Identities: German Settlers in Late Medieval Stockholm. Scandinavian Journal of History, 29 (1): 53–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wubs-Mrozewicz, J. 2008. Traders, Ties, and Tensions: The Interaction of Lübeckers, Overijsslers and Hollanders in Late Medieval Bergen. Verloren: Hilversum.Google Scholar
Zobel, R. 2008. Tallinn (Reval) in the Middle Ages: Town Building in the 13th − 14th Centuries. Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Arts.Google Scholar