OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2015. The following story features pollen and crusaders, more specifically, it is about what the geologists of Tallinn University of Technology deducted from pollen analysis in regard to the impact of the crusaders on the natural environment in the Baltic region, the research news portal ERR Novaator writes.

The senior research scientist at the Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology Atko Heinsalu and professor of earth sciences Siim Veski have applied their palaeoecological knowledge in an area, which would otherwise belong to the field of archaeology. Namely, they have, together with their research group, analysed the lake sediments in the area of medieval Livonia with an aim to find out whether the arrival of the Livonian Order in this area had an impact on local farming and the natural environment at large.

This spring Heinsalu and Veski together with their Latvian and Estonian colleagues published an article about the settlement on Lake ?rai?i (see the map at the end of the article). The archaeological research conducted in the 60-ies and 70-ies of the last century indicate that in the Late Iron Age the people, mainly the Latgalian tribes, built their houses on floating islands on the lake. This probably served a defence purpose. But did the people grow anything for food and what did they grow?

Here TUT geologists provided their assistance; they analysed the lake sediments, in particular the pollen in the sediments, in order to get an idea, which plants have grown around the lake at different times. 2000 years of sediments indicate that during the Early Iron Age (1 – 400 AD) the vicinity of the lake was covered by forests and there were no ?nds of cereal grains.

In the Middle Iron Age (400 – 800 AD) the increased amount of pollen from alders and wild herbaceous grasses provide evidence of deforestation. It can therefore be assumed that the tribes who settled the lake cultivated more and more land and continued to do it throughout the Late Iron Age ( 800 – 1050/1250 AD).

From among cereal grains plenty of rye and a little wheat and barley reached the table of the tribes who lived on Lake ?rai?i. Apparently they also brewed beer, since traces of hop can be detected in pollen analysis. Plant pollen from the pastures of that period provides indications that the inhabitants there might have bred cattle.

This period includes also the era of the crusades (1198-1291 AD, these continued on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea until 1561), followed by significant cultural, social and economic changes. The tribal social order and and administrative division was replaced by the areas of German and Livonian Orders and Bishopric.

Christianization brought about major changes in the society, the traces of which, however, cannot be detected in the natural environment, Heinsalu and Veski claim. When examining another water body in Latvia, Lake Trik?ta near Valmiera, the scientists found traces of human settlements and land cultivation already from the year 500 B.C., the land was nevertheless mostly covered with a forest.

The 12th century brought about the crusades and the pollen analysis indicates that the natural environment became slightly more varied, providing evidence of pastures, meadows and arable land, but to a much lesser extent than for example in Prussia or North-East of Poland, where the colonisation that followed the crusades also meant that the forest expanses were replaced by arable land. "The crusaders conquered the area, built their strongholds and colonised the area. The population multiplied and new land cultivation technologies were applied there," Siim Veski explains.

In another article published in summer in the journal The Holocene, the scientists claim that Lake Trik?ta is atypical in some sense showing significant impact in the natural environment following the crusades. However, other areas only reveal limited human impact from the 14th century and later. In this article, the scientists reached the conclusion that, although the colonisation and wars led to political changes, these had little apparent effect on agricultural land use.

"They certainly changed the political culture - they conquered the land, christianized the people, divided the land between themselves and ruled it. Did anything change in the natural environment?" Veski asked based on the interest of his British colleagues in finding an answer to this research question.
During the 25 years of research Siim Veski and Atko Heinsalu had not observed significant changes in the natural environment brought about with the arrival of the crusaders. "The impact of the Bronze Age, Iron Age or Viking-era or medieval manors is much easier to spot. As for the crusaders, we were sceptical." But then the information collected from Lake Trik?ta caught their eye as an exception. As for Trik?ta, it is known that the crusaders built a stronghold and settled down there and, among other things, grew crops.

And indeed, the impact of the crusaders can be noticed here. "However, if we look at the Baltic countries as a whole, only the power changed, the structure of the landscape, however, remained unchanged, "Siim Veski notes.

Thus, paleoecology has provided an answer as regards the impact of the crusaders on the local natural environment and this will be published as a third article. The article analyses the sediments of the total of eight Baltic lakes, including Maardu, Raigastvere, R?uge T?ugj?rve and Lasva.
What are Siim Veski and Atko Heinsal going to explore next?

Atko Heinsalu says that they will direct their gaze towards DNA analysis. They want to find out from where wheat, the first cereal grain grown here, reached Estonia. Did it get here with people directly from the areas of Egypt and Syria, or has it moved slowly and blended with other varieties of wheat over time - these are the questions to which Heinsalu and Veski will search answers in their research.