The Role of the Environment in The Baltic Crusades: A Pedagogical Exercise on the Human/Environment interaction model.
,This is a pedagogical exercise intended for sophomore or junior level undergraduates, or advanced high school students. It introduces core concepts of environmental history and applies them to the study of the Baltic crusade. It would be applicable to courses in medieval history, environmental history, and crusading. You may want to adjust the readings, or provide summaries for some of the readings depending on the focus of your class. If the class is focused on the crusades you may want to provide more context for environmental history, and vice versa for environmental history classes. For high schools students it may be necessary to summarize the readings in a power point or outline to smooth understanding of some of the more difficult concepts.
Learning Objectives:
To engage students in critical thinking about the interaction between cultural products and human societies' relationship with the physical environment.
To promote an understanding of core concepts in environmental history.
To encourage students to think about the multiple motivations for crusading.
To engage students in critical thinking about the interaction between cultural products and human societies' relationship with the physical environment.
To promote an understanding of core concepts in environmental history.
To encourage students to think about the multiple motivations for crusading.
Introduction to the Baltic Crusade
To provide background to the Baltic crusade have students read Eric Christiansen The Northern Crusades pages 93-122 and pages 192, 202-211 in "The Ecology of Crusading" by Aleksander Pluskowski, Adrian J. Boas and Christopher Gerrard, which can be found below.
To provide background to the Baltic crusade have students read Eric Christiansen The Northern Crusades pages 93-122 and pages 192, 202-211 in "The Ecology of Crusading" by Aleksander Pluskowski, Adrian J. Boas and Christopher Gerrard, which can be found below.
| ecology_of_crusading.pdf |
The Human/Environment Interaction Model
In An Environmental History of Medieval Europe, Richard Hoffman introduces a diagram intended to illustrate the relationship between human culture and the environment. The diagram is intended to portray how human cultural programs affect, and are affected by the environment. The students should read the introduction to An Environmental History of Medieval Europe (pp. 1-20)
to gain the requisite knowledge of both the basic concepts of environmental history, and more specifically how the interaction model operates.
Below is an image of Hoffman's model.
In An Environmental History of Medieval Europe, Richard Hoffman introduces a diagram intended to illustrate the relationship between human culture and the environment. The diagram is intended to portray how human cultural programs affect, and are affected by the environment. The students should read the introduction to An Environmental History of Medieval Europe (pp. 1-20)
to gain the requisite knowledge of both the basic concepts of environmental history, and more specifically how the interaction model operates.
Below is an image of Hoffman's model.
Hoffman describes the action taking place in the model thusly:
"material nature, living and non-living, and human communications (symbolic culture) join in an interactive and reciprocal relationship mediated by human material life." (pg. 9)
"material nature, living and non-living, and human communications (symbolic culture) join in an interactive and reciprocal relationship mediated by human material life." (pg. 9)
The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia
The major source that chronicles the Baltic crusade, this work was penned by a clerk of the Bishop of Riga who was an eyewitness to many of the events of the early crusades to the eastern Baltic. In his chronicle Henry often associates the native pagans with the forests and swamps that comprised much of the Baltic. For example in Chapter XI he says,
"The Letts and Selones who were living there sought the dark hiding places of the woods" (XI: 9, pg. 78)
and in the following chapter,
"other men of the bishop who followed the fugitives and found a great many of them, namely Letts and Selones, in the forests and swamps."(XII: 2, pg. 79).
Henry also utilizes aspects of the landscape to promote the christian mission to Livonia:
"They call it Riga either from Lake Riga, or from irrigation, since it is irrigated both from below and from above. It is irrigated from below for, as they say, it is well moistened in its waters and pastures; or, since the plenary remission of sins is administered in it to sinners, the irrigation from above, that is, the kingdom of heaven is thus administered through it. Or, in other words, Riga, refreshed by the water of the new faith, waters the tribes round about through the holy font of baptism." (IV: 5, pg. 37) All quotes are taken from The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, ed. and trans. James A. Brundage (Wisconsin, 1961)
In addition to these quotations the students should read the following article which places Henry of Livonia in a wider context of European writing on wilderness and its ideological connotations.
The major source that chronicles the Baltic crusade, this work was penned by a clerk of the Bishop of Riga who was an eyewitness to many of the events of the early crusades to the eastern Baltic. In his chronicle Henry often associates the native pagans with the forests and swamps that comprised much of the Baltic. For example in Chapter XI he says,
"The Letts and Selones who were living there sought the dark hiding places of the woods" (XI: 9, pg. 78)
and in the following chapter,
"other men of the bishop who followed the fugitives and found a great many of them, namely Letts and Selones, in the forests and swamps."(XII: 2, pg. 79).
Henry also utilizes aspects of the landscape to promote the christian mission to Livonia:
"They call it Riga either from Lake Riga, or from irrigation, since it is irrigated both from below and from above. It is irrigated from below for, as they say, it is well moistened in its waters and pastures; or, since the plenary remission of sins is administered in it to sinners, the irrigation from above, that is, the kingdom of heaven is thus administered through it. Or, in other words, Riga, refreshed by the water of the new faith, waters the tribes round about through the holy font of baptism." (IV: 5, pg. 37) All quotes are taken from The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, ed. and trans. James A. Brundage (Wisconsin, 1961)
In addition to these quotations the students should read the following article which places Henry of Livonia in a wider context of European writing on wilderness and its ideological connotations.
| nielsen_wilderness.pdf |
Reconstructing the Environment of the Baltic Crusade
To gain an understanding of how archaeologists can reconstruct past envrionments, and to illustrate what discoveries have been made regarding the environment of the medieval Baltic, have the students visit www.ecologyofcrusading.com/ and read the overview of methods. Then instruct them to read this article
antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/pluskowski328/ and the following pdf. These will help students understand the kinds of changes that take place in the environment following the conquest of the Baltic, and how archaeologists are recreating those changes.
To gain an understanding of how archaeologists can reconstruct past envrionments, and to illustrate what discoveries have been made regarding the environment of the medieval Baltic, have the students visit www.ecologyofcrusading.com/ and read the overview of methods. Then instruct them to read this article
antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/pluskowski328/ and the following pdf. These will help students understand the kinds of changes that take place in the environment following the conquest of the Baltic, and how archaeologists are recreating those changes.
| malbork_palynology.pdf |
Connecting the Dots: Relating the Archaeology of the Baltic Crusades to the Human/Environment Interaction Model
Once the students have completed the reading they will relate the information on Henry of Livonia and the Archaeology of the Baltic Crusade to the human interaction model by placing the correct information in its respective position within a print out of the model that you provide them (attached below). The students must also provide brief, three to five sentence analyses, relating symbolic culture to human structures and these structures to the environment, in the space provided on the handout. Encourage the students to consider all of their readings, including the introductory secondary material, in their analysis, and remind them that there are multiple options for each section of the model.
Once the students have completed their models, the exercise may end with an open discussion about each students' choices regarding their models, and how they envision the different aspects of the crusade they have been reading about, relate to the environment. Students should also be reminded, per Hoffman, that the model works both ways, and a discussion about environmental factors that affect the crusade can also be held on completion of the activity.
Once the students have completed the reading they will relate the information on Henry of Livonia and the Archaeology of the Baltic Crusade to the human interaction model by placing the correct information in its respective position within a print out of the model that you provide them (attached below). The students must also provide brief, three to five sentence analyses, relating symbolic culture to human structures and these structures to the environment, in the space provided on the handout. Encourage the students to consider all of their readings, including the introductory secondary material, in their analysis, and remind them that there are multiple options for each section of the model.
Once the students have completed their models, the exercise may end with an open discussion about each students' choices regarding their models, and how they envision the different aspects of the crusade they have been reading about, relate to the environment. Students should also be reminded, per Hoffman, that the model works both ways, and a discussion about environmental factors that affect the crusade can also be held on completion of the activity.
| interaction_model_handout.docx |
Example Discussion Questions
1. How do you think Henry of Livonia's portrayal of rebellious Letts escaping to the forest might affect crusader's attitudes to the forests that surrounded their settlements?
2. If we reverse the interaction model, how do you imagine the environment might have impacted crusading activity?Where might you look for evidence of the impact of the environment on the crusaders?
3. If you were going to conduct your own archaeological dig in the Baltic what features might you look for in assessing a site for investigation?
4. Crusading was only one aspect of human activity in the Baltic, what impact might the writings of chroniclers like Henry of Livonia have had on traders and settlers to the Baltic regions?
1. How do you think Henry of Livonia's portrayal of rebellious Letts escaping to the forest might affect crusader's attitudes to the forests that surrounded their settlements?
2. If we reverse the interaction model, how do you imagine the environment might have impacted crusading activity?Where might you look for evidence of the impact of the environment on the crusaders?
3. If you were going to conduct your own archaeological dig in the Baltic what features might you look for in assessing a site for investigation?
4. Crusading was only one aspect of human activity in the Baltic, what impact might the writings of chroniclers like Henry of Livonia have had on traders and settlers to the Baltic regions?