Teutoburg Forest: Aftermath

 

 

“Nailed” Roman legionaries after the massacre of Teutoburg Forest. A marvellous artwork by an unknown artist. Kudos to the creator.

Germanic lands according to Cl. Ptolemaeus (2nd cent. CE)

A map of the Germanic lands according to Claudius Ptolemaeus (2nd cent. CE)

East-West Christian schism (1054)

A map of Christianity in Europe after the great schism of 1054 CE (Wikimedia commons) between Orthodox Christians in the East (Roman/Byzantine Empire and East Slavic principalities) and Catholic Christians in the West (Holy Frankish/Roman Empire, the other Frankish kingdoms and their satelite states). Five centuries later, a new schism took place between the Catholics of SW Europe and the Protestant Christians of NW Europe.
The following map is a political map of Europe around 1000 CE, just a few decades before the first Schism. The main state units, the Roman Empire and the Principalities of Kiev and Novgorod for the Orthodox, and the Holy Frankish/Roman Empire, France and Hungary for the Catholics are shown.

Stanford researchers find clues to the Baltic Crusades in animal bones, horses and the extinct aurochs

Source: Stanford University

The Teutonic Order’s Marienburg Castle, Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, now Malbork, Poland

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By Melissa Pandika

 

Stanford Assistant Professor Krish Seetah and Reading University student Rose Calis analyze animal bones in the basement of Riga Castle, Latvia. (Photo: Aleks Pluskowski)

Stanford researchers have discovered that pagan villages plundered by medieval knights during the little-known Baltic Crusades had some problems in common with the modern-day global village.

Among them: deforestation, asymmetric warfare and species extinction.

According to a research paper published in Science, a project investigating the Baltic Crusades’ profound environmental legacy could yield valuable insight into colonialism, cultural changes and ecological exploitation – relevant issues not only throughout history, but especially in today’s increasingly globalized society.

The researchers, including professors at Stanford and in Europe, are drawing from disciplines as disparate as history and chemistry to analyze their findings, which they’ve already begun synthesizing into a database of unprecedented depth and scope.

Their study spans the years from the 12th century to the 16th century, when the Teutonic Order, a Germanic brotherhood of Christian knights, waged war against the last indigenous pagan societies in Europe in a region that includes modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and parts of Sweden and Russia.

Dutch archaeologists discover the location of Caesar’s battle and massacre on the Tencteri and Usipetes tribes

Republication from the VU University of Amsterdam

Hundreds of skulls and other bones, considered to belong to the massacred Germanics were found in the excavated location (credit: VU University of Amsterdam).

VU archaeologists discover location of historic battle fought by Caesar in Dutch river area

Earliest known battle on Dutch soil.

At a press conference held on Friday 11 December in the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, archaeologist Nico Roymans from the VU Amsterdam announced a discovery that is truly unique for Dutch archaeology: the location where the Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar massacred two Germanic tribes in the year 55 BC. The location of this battle, which Caesar wrote about in detail in Book IV of his De Bello Gallico, was unknown to date. It is the earliest known battle on Dutch soil. The conclusions are based on a combination of historical, archaeological, and geochemical data.

Skeletal remains, swords and spearheads
It is the first time that the presence of Caesar and his troops in Dutch territory has been explicitly proven. The finds from this battle include large numbers of skeletal remains, swords, spearheads, and a helmet. The two Germanic tribes, the Tencteri and the Usipetes, originated in the area east of the Rhine and had explicitly appealed to Caesar for asylum. Caesar rejected this request for asylum and ordered his troops to destroy the tribes by violent means. Nowadays, we would label such action genocide.
During the press conference, Roymans described in detail the discoveries made in Kessel (North Brabant) and their historical significance. He also showed weapons and skeletal remains from this battle.