Castles and towns of the Teutonic Order in Chelmno Land: Environment, animals and plant subsistence. A new archaeological and geo-archaeological study. (December 2022) - Wiewióra, Marcin
Highlights: Castles and the city founded at the beginning of the 13th century by settlers from what is today Germany. Strongholds built in the 13 th c. at the sites of earlier settlements or previously uninhabited places. Potential lines of sight between the existed only between some of them. The main source of food for the inhabitants of the castles in question was domesticated mammals. Deciduous trees, mainly oak, were used. Main construction materials were oak and pine wood. Abstract: In the 30 s of the 13th century, a crusade by the knights of the Teutonic Order against the pagan tribes inhabiting Chełmno Land (Ger. Kurmeland ) (Poland) began. Arriving at the invitation of Duke Konrad of Mazovia, settlers and knights began a colonisation campaign. In the years 2016–20, research was carried out in a city and in five previously uninvestigated castles using non-invasive, environmental and archaeological–architectural methods. These were: the city of Chełmno (the oldest city of the Teutonic Knights, having been founded by settlers originally from today's Germany and what is today the Polish province of Silesia); the oldest earth-and-timber strongholds (Bierzgłowo, Starogród); and brick castles and a tower house (Lipienek, Papowo Biskupie, Unisław). In Starogród, the relics of a Teutonic earth-and-timber stronghold from the 1230 s were uncovered, as were the remains of the oldest Teutonic city (Chełmno) 800 m from the stronghold. Two phases were distinguished, the first relating to the construction of the stronghold and the second to its operation. The castle and the city constituted a compact settlement complex. The remains of a Slavic defensive settlement dating back to the 10th or 11th century were discovered in Unisław. The remains of an earth-and-timber rampart that was built in the 11th century were reworked by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century. At the castles in Lipienek and Zamek Bierzgłowski, remains of earth-and-timber ramparts were discovered that were the remains of the oldest Teutonic defensive settlements. The castle in Lipienek was built on the site of the 11th-century fortifications that were reworked by the Teutonic Knights and replaced at the end of the 13th century with a regular brick castle. The relics discovered in Bierzgłowo are the remains of a Teutonic stronghold erected in the 1230 s that was replaced in the second half of the 13th century for a brick castle. The locations of Teutonic castles very often relate to locations of early-medieval castles, and a typology of their locations was developed and applied to the five Teutonic castles analysed here. Research to date indicates that the castles were built in places of strategic importance and at land and water transport nodes. An analysis of ten potential lines of sight between the examined fortresses has shown, however, that practical visual contact between them could only have existed between the Starogród and Unisław castles and between Lipienek and Papowo Biskupie. The source base for discussing the principles by which stronghold inhabitants were provisioned was expanded by a thorough analysis of plant and animal remains, which resulted in a breakdown of the consumption of plant and animal products. The main source of food for the castles' inhabitants was domestic mammals. The castle inhabitants, like the early-medieval Slavs, preferred pork. In the case of the city (Chełmno), however, this was not the case. There, it was cattle farming that was crucial in providing meat and animal-derived raw materials such as hides, bones and horn sheaths.