Project Overview

We are investigating the ritual life of Baltic tribes via comprehensive reconstructions of animal deposits in sacred spaces.

Background

During waves of attacks from Germanic crusaders in the 13th century AD, medieval communities in the Eastern Baltic region suffered forced conversion, political upheaval, and environmental change. The colonizing crusaders reorganized the landscape, economy, and society of the lands they settled around the Baltic Sea. However, the exact ways in which these transformations impacted the spiritual and religious life of pagan communities in the Eastern Baltic is unclear. This is not suprising - the study of medieval paganism across northern Europe always provokes debate. Without historical documents written by the practitioners themselves, we are left with biased contemporary accounts written by hostile Christians or incomplete archaeological data.

With limited evidence, what is the best way in which to investigate the ritual life of pagans? Via bones, of course! Historical and archaeological evidence both attest to the fact that animals were an important part of the spiritual and ritual life of medieval Baltic groups, especially in funerary rituals. Sometimes animals were buried in association with humans, and sometimes in accessory pit deposits. These practices, reviled by medieval Christian colonizers, is the best evidence for investigating Baltic communal rituals due to:

• the preservation of bones (especially cremated bone) and their systematic recovery in archaeological excavations;

• how closely connected this practice has been to Baltic paganism for both medieval and modern observers;

• hyper-local variation in the practice of animal deposition that is not yet fully understood; and

• its stark contrast with contemporary accepted Christian practices.

What types of animals are found in human cemeteries and why were they placed there?

This is the very heart of what we are trying to figure out! It has long been established that Baltic groups buried horses in cemeteries, sometimes in separate burials and sometimes in association with humans. This includes whole horses, parts of horses, and sometimes just horse riding equipment. In parts of the Eastern Baltic region, these burials lasted over 1000 years, and in other parts the practice arrived between the 5th and 8th century AD. Dog skeletons are also commonly deposited in association with human burials. Bird remains have also been reported, including both domestic fowl and birds of prey. Pit features with common food species (cattle especially) have also been identified during excavations.

But why were the animals there? Some theories:

• A elite warrior culture that celebrated their relationship with horses and hunting dogs in burial.

• An association between the horse and the divine. In Baltic mythology, the horse is depicted as moving the sun across the sky.

• A shamanistic ritual in which animals were cremated with humans to help transport them to the afterlife or provide sustenance for the journey.

• Food offerings for the dead or ritual feasting as part of the funerary rite.

Goals

To investigate how Baltic pagan communities were impacted by the Crusades, the EU-funded BONEZ project will:

• define common types of animal ritual deposits in known cemetery sites;

• reconstruct the performance of these rituals amongst targeted Baltic communities (especially Prussian and Lithuanian communities); and

• investigate how the performance of ritual changed in response to the disruptions associated with the Teutonic Crusades especially by comparing the resilience of ritual form between the various Baltic groups.

Methods

The project will use a comprehensive suite of osteological methods to reconstruct complex bone assemblages, including burnt, highly fragmentary, and commingled human and animal bone. BONEZ stands for “Baltic Paganism, Osteology, and New Evidence from Zooarchaeology.” These methods include:

• Traditional Osteological Analysis

• Histology

• ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry)

• Strontium Isotope Analysis

Our Objectives