Environment, Society and the Black Death

by Desconhecido

  Notes

  1 Lagerås is main author. Broström and Fredh performed landscape reconstruction modelling based on pollen data. Berg, Björkman, Fredh, Hultberg, Karlsson, Lagerås, Lindbladh, Mazier, Segerström and Sköld contributed with pollen data. Linderson contributed with dendrochronological data

  2 Moe 1991; Stebich et al. 2005; van Hoof et al. 2006; Lagerås 2007; Yeloff & van Geel 2007; Sköld et al. 2010; Poska et al. 2014

  3 The method was introduced by Lennart von Post in a lecture in 1916, which was later published in English (von Post 1967)

  4 For a thorough introduction see Moore et al. (1991).

  5 Iversen 1941 (in English 1949)

  6 Berglund 1969

  7 Boserup 1965; Berglund 1991, 14

  8 Bradshaw 1988; Björkman 1996; Lindbladh 1998

  9 E.g. Edwards 1991; Lagerås et al. 1995; Lagerås 2007

  10 Olsson 1991

  11 To avoid the reservoir effect when radiocarbon dating, the important thing is to use remains of plants that, during photosynthesis, get their carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere (like most terrestrial plants), and not from lake water (like green algae, which make up the bulk of most lake sediments)

  12 Based on instrumental data for the period 1961–90 (Raab & Vedin 1995). Growing season is the part of the year when average temperature exceeds 5°C

  13 Cf. Eckstein (1984) for a thorough introduction

  14 Bartholin 1987

  15 E.g. Bartholin 1989; Raihle 1990; Hovanta 1994

  16 Bartholin 1989, 125

  17 Dendro data are also presented in Chap. 5

  18 E.g. Gauffin 1981; Hansson et al. 2005; Åstrand 2006. See also discussion in Chap. 5

  19 E.g. Larsson 1970; Österberg 1977; Bååth 1983; Myrdal 2003

  20 Sandnes 1981, 103

  21 Sandnes 1981, 103; Bååth 1983, 199

  22 Myrdal 2012a, 226

  23 To make a simple and clear definition, all sites above 100 m a.s.l. were regarded as upland sites. Consequently, all sites situated below 100 m a.s.l. were excluded, even though one of them, Skärsgölarna, was situated in a rather poor environment of upland character

  24 Cf. Chap. 2 for further background

  25 An unpaired t test shows that the difference in mean cereal-pollen percentages between 1250–1350 and 1350–1450 is very statistically significant (two-tailed P value equals 0.0099)

  26 Broström et al. 2004; 2008; Sugita 2007; Gaillard et al. 2010; Fredh et al. 2012; Mazier et al. 2015. Of the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm we use the submodel REVEALS (Regional Estimates of Vegetation Abundance from Large Sites) presented by Sugita (2007), with the application on small sites tested by Mazier et al. (2015)

  27 The model has been validated for southern Sweden (Hellman et al. 2007;, 2008; Mazier et al. 2015, Trondman et al. 2014)

  28 Because of the different pollen-dispersal characteristics of rye and other cereals, respectively, they were calculated separately and then put together into one graph

  29 Gadd 2011, 124

  30 Moe 1991 (Norway); Hall 2003 (Ireland); Stebich et al. 2005 (France); van Hoof et al. 2006 (Netherlands); Yeloff & van Geel 2007 (Denmark and review of published data from several countries); Yeloff et al. 2007 (England); Sköld et al. 2010 (Sweden); Poska et al. 2014 (Estonia)

  31 Yeloff & van Geel 2007

  32 The strength in combining local pollen studies to regional synthesis has been emphasized for instance by Lagerås (2007) and Woodbridge et al. (2012)

  33 Cf. Chapter 2 for background and further discussion

  34 Myrdal 2012b, 227, 234–235

  35 The use of a resolution of 50 years is a compromise – a courser resolution would reveal too few details while a finer resolution would give a more irregular graph due to a smaller number of samples within each time slice.

  36 Based on a number of radiocarbon-dated levels, the ages of the pollen-analysed levels in a stratigraphic sequence are calculated by interpolation. Most studies use linear interpolation but also other methods (like cubic spline) are occasionally used. The present study relies on the chronologies of the original publications, with no changes or adjustments

  37 Note, however, that the total absence of dates from before the eleventh century does not mean a total absence of settlement. Traces of long houses and other buildings from the first millennium AD have been archaeologically documented in the uplands, but they are too poorly preserved for dendrochronological dating.

  38 Bartholin 1989, 125; see Fig. 21a in Chap. 5

  39 Thun 2005, 73

  40 Myrdal 2012a, 226

  41 Gissel et al. 1981, 103, 107

  42 Abel 1980, 88–89

  43 Abel 1980, 88–89; Dyers 2002, 352; Benedictow 2004, 261; Myrdal 2011, 80; 2012a, 225, 227

  44 Karlsson 1996; Livi Bacci 2000, 84; Myrdal 2012a, 227

  45 Harrison 2000, 33

  46 Myrdal & Söderberg 1991, 133

  47 E.g. Behre 1981; Gaillard et al. 1994

  48 Gadd 2011, 123ff

  49 Myrdal 2011, 93

  50 Mixed herbaceous plants include the following pollen types: Compositeae SF. Cichorioideae (dandelions, hawk’s-beards, etc.), Filipendula (dropwort, meadowsweet), Plantago lanceolata (ribwort plantain), Potentilla type (tormentil, cinquefoil), Ranunculus acris type (buttercups), Rubiaceae (bedstraw), and Rumex acetosa type (sorrel)

  51 E.g. Eriksson et al. 2002; Bernes 2011, 49ff; Morell 2011, 179ff; Fredh et al. 2012

  52 Large-scale forest plantations took off after the Forestry Act of 1903 (Bernes 2011, 50)

  53 Weimarck 1953; Gadd 2011, 128

  54 E.g. Abel 1980, 70; Campbell 2006, 185; 2012, 124; Myrdal 2012, 221

  55 Myrdal 2006, 169

  56 Söderberg 2007, 143–144

  57 See Chap. 5 for examples of additional strategies developed during the crisis interpreted from the archaeological record

  58 Myrdal 2012a, 221

  59 Myrdal 2012a, 217; 2012b, 222; cf. Chap. 2

  60 Lagerås 1996; 2007, 73; 2013b, 86

  61 Cf. Widgren (2007) for a discussion on the landesque capital.

  62 Myrdal 2006, 169–170

  63 Redman 1999, 197–199, 202

  64 E.g. Williams 2006, 117

  65 Ruddiman 2003, 2005, 115–146

  66 For pollen diagrams showing late-medieval reforestation in Europe, see for instance Moe 1991; Stebich et al. 2005; van Hoof et al. 2006; Lagerås 2007; Yeloff & van Geel 2007; Sköld et al. 2010; Poska et al. 2014.

  67 Gaillard et al. 2010; Trondman et al. 2014

  68 Kinnaird 1974, 470

  69 Götmark & Kiffer 2014

  70 Atkinson 1992; Hynynen et al. 2010

  71 Götmark & Kiffer 2014

  72 Bradshaw et al. 2000

  73 Björkman 1996a, 13; Giesecke & Bennett 2004; Lagerås 2007

  74 E.g. Björkman 1997b, 2003c; Sköld et al. 2010

  75 Sköld et al. 2010

  76 Atkinson 1992, 848

  77 Björkman 1996a; Lagerås 2007

  78 Björkman 1996b; Lindbladh et al. 2008

  79 Lagerås 2007; Sköld et al. 2010

  80 Bartholin 1989, 125; Thun 2005, 73

  81 Lovén 1996; Myrdal 2012a, 230

  82 It cannot be excluded that some old timber was reused for small-scale building and renovation

  83 Nyborg 2009

  84 Bartholin 1987

  85 Proclaimed by King Gustav Vasa in 1558 (Eliasson & Hamilton 1999, 53)

  86 Myrdal 2012a, 223

  87 The Black-Death-pines cut in the early eighteenth century were found in Uranäsboden (see Fig. 19), whereas Black-Death-pines cut in the seventeenth century are from Yxenhaga Gammelstuga (Svenarum Parish) and from different constructions in the towns of Eksjö and Jönköping

  88 The dated samples are from the church of Hakarp and the campanile at the church of Härlöv

  89 Bartholin 1989, 127; Thun 2005, 66. A similar conclusion can be drawn from a study in Scotland, in which imported building timber from Scandin
avia and the Baltic countries was identified (Mills & Crone 2012). Many of the logs that were imported during the late fifteenth century and the sixteenth century were from trees that had started to grow soon after 1350

  5.

  Change, desertion and survival – an archaeology of the late-medieval crisis

  Lars Ersgård

  Introduction

  Historical archaeology in Sweden has not provided any comprehensive approach to the late-medieval crisis. There are several reasons for this. One is that later parts of the Middle Ages have never been perceived as important as the earlier parts of this epoch, often being reduced to just a transitional phase between the High Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Furthermore research on crisis as a general societal process has by tradition not been a topic of primary interest within Swedish historical archaeology compared to phenomena like state formation, urbanisation, Christianisation etc. Finally, earlier influential research by historians, especially within The Scandinavian Research Project on Deserted Farms and Villages, which significantly reduced the impact of the crisis on society in medieval Sweden, probably has played a role for a certain lack of interest among Swedish archaeologists.1

  On the whole the awareness of the crisis has been highly varying in historical archaeological research, also in projects explicitly dealing with the late Middle Ages. The different attitudes represent a wide range from an almost total absence of interest to a more problematising approach to the phenomenon. Usually looked upon as an agrarian crisis, it has been regarded as just a matter of desertion with no closer connection to societal changes during the late Middle Ages. In this respect the crisis has often been referred to as a general historical background and as an explanation to different archaeological phenomena such as deserted farmsteads or discontinuities in the construction of churches etc. The role played by archaeology has often been a confirming one, supporting conclusions by written history.

  Such an approach characterised the historical archaeological part of the interdisciplinary research project on the development of the cultural landscape in the southern part of the province of Scania, denominated The Cultural Landscape During 6000 Years in Southern Sweden (The Ystad project).2 Historical archaeology was well represented in this project, collaborating with several disciplines.3 Formation of villages, establishment of manors and ecclesiastical development being the main problems, no special focus was put on the late-medieval crisis. There was an awareness of the latter, however being just a matter of desertion and regression in the landscape.

  A wider and more complex perspective on the late-medieval crisis has been presented by Anders Andrén in his dissertation on medieval towns in Denmark. Including the towns in the discussion on the crisis, he emphasises the period 1350–1400 as a time of stagnation and decline as well as a time of change towards a more uniform urban structure.4

  This chapter will present an archaeological picture of the late-medieval crisis with a primary starting point in the idea that this discipline may provide an independent contribution to the study of the phenomenon. The following archaeological study will not focus on the crisis only in the traditional way, that is tantamount to desertion of agrarian settlement, and repeat earlier questions, formulated by historians, concerning economy and demography. The crisis will be looked upon in a wider sense, as a movement affecting the society as a whole, not only economically and demographically but also culturally. In this way also the material culture becomes important, as a source for the study of strategies and acting on a cultural and mental level.

  Janken Myrdal has considerably vitalised and widened the debate, presenting a three-phase model of the development of the crisis.5 An initial phase, catastrophe, covering the two decades after 1350 when plague raged Scandinavia in three horrific outbreaks, was followed by a phase called societal reaction, which lasted up to 1450. This phase was characterised by a dysfunctional acting of the elite, which exacerbated the crisis and highly hampered the recovery of society. The final phase, recovery and reconstruction, which lasted 1450–1530, saw the beginning of a new expansion of society accompanied by technological changes and the emergence of a new effective political structure. This model will be of importance for the following analysis, not as a final answer but as a starting point and source of inspiration.

  The late-medieval crisis was not only a matter of decline and decrease of population in the later part of the fourteenth century, followed by recovery in the fifteenth century – it was also a matter of change. Hence it is necessary to look upon it in a wider perspective of societal development. Profound changes characterised the early centuries of the Middle Ages, the landscape being successively transformed by population growth, land clearance and agrarian innovations. The large estates of the Early Middle Ages, which were based mostly on labour force of thralls, were replaced by farms based on the single family, and the peasants became either tenants or freeholders. Other important changes were the emergence of landowning nobility, the territorially defined parish and an extensive urbanisation in some parts of the country.

  In the thirteenth century a new regionalisation of the country started, the regions from now on developing in different cultural directions. A socio-political shift of emphasis towards the eastern parts of southern Sweden occurred in the late thirteenth century, the areas around Lake Mälaren becoming a dominant region.6 Several towns were founded here in the thirteenth century of which Stockholm became the most important. This region will from now on stand out as the centre of the Swedish realm. Characteristic of the countryside in the east was settlement of villages and hamlets organised in a highly regulated system of land division.7

  The western parts of southern Sweden differed significantly from the eastern region. The urbanisation of the high Middle Ages was not as extensive as in the east, the towns being small and in some areas notably instable in their spatial structure.8 In the countryside, the settlement lacked the regulated structure that characterised the eastern parts of the country.9

  Northern Sweden differed significantly from the other parts. Towns, landowning nobility and a social system of tenants were practically absent in the north. The population was dominated by freeholders with duties only to the royal kingship. However, there are indications of a socially stratified society in northern Sweden in the Viking Age and the early Middle Ages, such as big barrows with prestigious objects and manifest stone churches. Thus, a transition from an elitist society to an egalitarian one must have characterised the medieval development in parts of northern Sweden. The underlying causes of this process are still not fully understood, neither its possible connections with the late-medieval crisis.10

  Formulating an archaeological approach to the late-medieval crisis, some decisive questions have to be raised. Firstly, how did the crisis affect the physical realities of the late-medieval society at the middle of the fourteenth century in terms of decline and stagnation? Here, problems concerning desertion of settlement and changes of the building of houses and churches will be included.

  Secondly, how did the late-medieval society respond to the crisis? What did the people surviving the plagues of the 1350s and 1360s actually do in the new societal situation, the population being reduced by as much as 50%. How were they forced to change their everyday life in a material respect, searching for new strategies of survival?

  A third question concerns regional variations. Did specific characteristics of a region affect the choice of survival strategies or were people acting in a similar way to withstand crisis and decline?

  Searching for answers to these questions, an extensive, archaeological source material is available, including the traditional material categories of medieval archaeology, i.e. excavated structures as well as extant monuments. In this text it is used in two different ways. The first part of the analysis will work broadly, searching for the “good examples” all over the country, aiming for a synthesising overview.

  The second part will change focus, working with a few settlement units.
Studying three single farmsteads in different parts of the country, the aim will be to try to identify survival strategies in the time of the crisis in different regional contexts.

  The primary area of investigation for the studies is Sweden with its present boundaries but some comparative outlooks towards other parts of the Nordic countries will complete the analyses. In a geographical sense, medieval Sweden was not the same as Sweden of today, several of its present provinces in the south and in the west belonging to Denmark and Norway. On the other hand, the territory of today’s Finland was part of the Swedish realm in the Middle Ages.

  Fig. 20. All the dendrochronological dates (felling years) from medieval towns in the province of Östergötland performed by the National Laboratory for Wood Anatomy and Dendrochronology at Lund University. Bars show the number of dates per 10-year time slices. Dates later than 1700 are not included. The year 1350 is indicated by a dashed line

  However, the political boundaries are of a secondary importance for this investigation. Moreover, the geopolitical situation of the Nordic countries was a very complicated one in the time of the crisis. For example, the political dominion of the province of Scania in the south alternated between Sweden and Denmark during parts of the fourteenth century. From the 1390s up to the beginning of the sixteenth century the three countries Sweden, Denmark and Norway were formally united in a political union with one common regent.

  Investigating medieval settlement and its development, a conventional outline of the archaeological record will be followed, using the two primary categories town and countryside and the subcategories profane settlement, churches and monasteries and castles. A specific category has been denominated proto-industrial settlement. Using this outline has been motivated primarily by the fact that most research on the late Middle Ages so far has followed such a structuring of the source material. In addition to archaeology, a new compilation of dendrochronological data will be presented.