Crusader Archaeology

Through a landscape archaeological survey conducted in 2010– 2013 in
Ascalon, the author has been able to reconstruct the historical landscape of Tel Ascalon through various periods. Creating reconstructions of the landscape on the Tel and the surrounding area enables us to learn about the interrelationship between people and their natural environment in this area. It also enables us to examine various historical events within their environmental and archaeological contexts, such as the 1099 Battle of Ascalon and the 1153 and 1187 sieges of the city. This study has identified various surviving landscape and archaeological features which we can relate to historical events, demonstrating how these events continue to resonate and influence the development of the Ascalon landscape, and even the post- crusader city.

"In his recent book „The Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean“ (Cambridge 2012), Ronnie Ellenblum argues that a series of climatic disasters in the 11th cent. led to the decline of polities in the Near East and prepared the ground for both the advance of the Seljuks and of the Crusaders into the region. Focused on the Byzantine case during the „Comnenian period“, this paper will critically review this hypothesis on the basis of both textual and natural scientific evidence and propose a more nuanced picture of the interplay between society, climate and environment in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 11th to the 13th century. As will become clear, neither the complexity of natural phenomena nor the complexity of medieval societies should be reduced to mere linear lines of causation.
This research was made possible with support of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit-Foundation during a stay at the Institute for Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens.
The following pages provide a first short overview over some material to be presented and discussed in this lecture.
Contact: Johannes.Preiser-Kapeller@oeaw.ac.at
"

The Mamluk siege of Montfort castle provides a rare opportunity to examine one of the most celebrated but also misrepresented technologies of the Middle Ages: mechanical artillery. The castle was inhabited for only about forty-five years before it was taken and then destroyed by the Mamluks, creating a time capsule for archaeologists to peer into life in a mid-thirteenth-century stronghold and carefully examine evidence of the siege that ultimately led to its abandonment. Among the finds are a number of artillery projectiles that date to the final siege of the castle. An investigation of the surrounding topography has revealed that there are only a couple of places from which these stones could have been thrown. This rare combination of clearly datable projectiles and a topographical environment that provides a good indication of range allows for a unique quantitative assessment of the development of trebuchet technology.

Archaeological remains of viticulture in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (AD 1099–1291) are quite rare, and those that are present are incomplete. In contrast, textual sources show extensive evidence of grape cultivation, wine production and wine consumption. Based on integration of archaeological and historical data, the focus of this article is on characteristics of Frankish grape cultivation and wine production in the East. By doing so, its goal is to offer new interpretation and identify new questions. Coming from the Christian West, the Latins brought with them a wine culture which differed from that in the area under Muslim rule. This new attitude towards wine expressed itself in the demand for large quantities of wine for nutritional, religious and therapeutic purposes, and consequently influenced vine growing and wine making in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Through the topic of viticulture, we aim to explore the extent to which Fr...

A recording can be found at: https://youtu.be/dWzVyIdBcmg. Presented at the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America (University of Toronto, 2017).
The sudden construction of larger and stronger fortifications in the Near East from around the start of the thirteenth century has long attracted the interest of scholars. This medieval 'Fortification Revolution' was traditionally thought to be a product of the cross-cultural exchange of information brought about by the crusades, while more recently some have postulated that this shift was caused by the sudden development of much larger varieties of mechanical artillery. Ample consideration is rarely given to the individuals responsible for commissioning these defences and the socio-political, rather than technological, context in which they were built. While the great strongholds constructed by the Crusaders reflect an assortment of tactical and economic considerations that emerged in the wake of Saladin's conquests of 1187-91, the influence of the power struggle that broke out within the Ayyubid family following Saladin's death is readily apparent in the designs of the citadels rebuilt by the principal contenders. Rather than a response to any particular military threat, the ostentatious scale of the defences built by Saladin's brother, al-Adil, and his nephew, Saladin's son, al-Zahir Ghazi, appear to have been inspired in large part by a desire convey a sense of their power and legitimacy as the rightful head of the Ayyubid dynasty. By examining the development of the architectural elements preferred by these men, especially their use of unprecedentedly large towers, and how their fortification designs differed from those of their predecessors, this study will reveal the extent to which both men utilised obviously grand and consistent architectural forms. These were statements of authority at a time when the right to rule Saladin's empire was contested.

Artillery in the Era of the Crusades provides a detailed examination of the use of mechanical artillery in the Levant through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Rather than focus on a selection of sensational anecdotes, Michael S. Fulton explores the full scope of the available literary and archaeological evidence, reinterpreting the development of trebuchet technology and the ways in which it was used during this period. Among the arguments put forward, Fulton challenges the popular perception that the invention of the counterweight trebuchet was responsible for the dramatic transformation in the design of fortifications around the start of the thirteenth century.

Archaeological digitisation turns to be a basic pillar of archaeology, supplementary to any conventional documentation, excavation, restoration or heritage management work because it covers efficiently and reliably multidimensional demands in every stage of traditional archaeology. The design of an archaeological narrative in digitisation projects constitutes an impressive procedure with great future but still many obstacles to overcome. The Digital Enhancement of the Peloponnese Castles was a project about the documentation and web digital promotion of 105 castles. The project included the digitisation of material, surveys with up-to-date digital methods, the creation of 3d representations, virtual tours, a website and smart phone applications in order to disseminate archaeological information and to support actual visits at the castles. In the current paper project’s experience will be presented as a way of questioning about the impact and perspectives of such an expanded documentation effort in educational, research, touristic and socio-economic terms with parallel reference to the emerging difficulties and challenges.

In the rescue excavation project, conducted in 2001-2002 at the private property plot K. Diakogeorgiou at the city of Rhodes, an incised board for the nine men’s Morris game was discovered.
The board game was clearly incised at the lower surface of an ancient roof tile fragment, after its disposal. The historical analysis and the geographical distribution of the game, points out that it was already known in Roman times, even though finds from Roman Greece are scarce. Furthermore, the game was well known and favorable in Medieval Europe and is attested also in many crusader sites in the Holy lands, as well as in sites from Greece associated with the presence of Western Europeans in late Medieval times. In the aforementioned historical framework the board game from Rhodes can easily be associated with the presence of the order of St. John, the Hospitalliers, on the island.
Nevertheless the stratigraphical data, the spatial analysis of the plot, in association with its proximity to the medieval fortifications of the city of Rhodes, and the fact that the game was already known in Islamic world from the 9th century, lead to another assumption, that the board game could have been also used in the intermissions of battles during the second siege of Rhodes by the Ottomans in 1522.

This dissertation attempts to prove that the Order of St John made major contributions to the development of Western Medicine that were of the same importance as the progress of the Renaissance and later Eras. The presentation of the state of Western and Eastern medicine prior to the crusades and evaluation of the Order’s main hospitals followed by the traceable influence on Europe after 1291, make up the structure of this work. The methodology comprises the use of structural and building archaeology of two hospital sites, alongside bioarchaeological and ceramic evidence. Critical analysis of primary sources with the archaeology also features where necessary. The main case studies are the Order of St John’s hospitals at Jerusalem and Acre through 1120 to 1291, alongside various examples of institutions in Western Europe and the Levant before and after the Crusades. The result of this work has been the discovery of a majorly over-looked phase of development in Western Medicine caused by the advanced nature of the Order’s Jerusalem and Acre hospitals, which influenced change across Europe.

Deir es-Salib, a monastery hermitage cave of the Qadisha Valley
with a notice one its Wall paintings.

The study of Deir es-Salib, a major site of the Qadisha valley, allows us to set the outlines of occupation modes of a region of Mount Lebanon by cultual sites. The structural analysis made it possible to understand the spatial organization and the components of the monastery and the evolution of the church construction. The observation of various techniques and materials used in the ancient building helped define the intervention methods. Thus, the restoration of the north wall of the church was conducted with mud bricks manufactured in the same way. After securing sealing of the wall by layers of clay plaster and hydraulic lime, the foundations and the extrados of the two apses were strengthened. This study set point on stylistic analysis of the Wall Paintings of Deir es-Salib allowing to identify a summary of influences identified, dating of the wall paintings and define the different states of development of the site.

This article looks in detail at the well-planned and very effective defenses at the Crusader castle of Château Pèlerins on the ʿAtlit peninsula, focusing in particular on the defense line of the ʿAtlit ridge. The castle was constructed during 1217-18 by the Knights Templar, and its defenses, which relied on the topography and the exploitation of locally derived building materials, were never breached. The castle was vulnerable to attacks only from the east, so three defense lines were created: (1) On the peninsula neck, two massive walls, towers, and a dry moat. (2) A wall entering the sea in the north and the south bays, with guard towers at both ends, to protect the town east of the castle. A line of large stones which once stood upright, was discovered underwater, extending to the north from the north tower, forming a barrier that prevented approach in the shallows along the coast. (3) An outermost defense line, including two guard towers, and the easternmost external defense line on the ʿAtlit ridge, the focus of this article. A quarry stretched along the ridge, creating an artificial rock cut cliff. This longitudinal defense wall would delay an attack, even if for a short time, enabling people who worked outside the castle to escape to the well-protected peninsula. To provide the large quantity of stones required for building the castle and completing the defenses on the ridge rapidly, the builders simultaneously extracted stones in several places. The stones were quarried from the eastern, far flank of the ridge to create the rock-cut cliff. By applying a sophisticated, pre-planned quarrying technique, they removed immense blocks from the ridge which were then cut into ashlars. The artificial cliff, 2.1 km long and up to 6 m high, thus became the castle's easternmost defense. This longitudinal barrier, described as a quarry in some previous publications, is shown to be an integral part of a pre-planned defense system, completed by an east-west rampart in the south and the natural canyon of the Oren River in the north. Passages were cut across the ridge from east to west to convey the quarried stones to the castle. Other results of quarrying activity were rock-cut enclosures adjacent to the longitudinal defense wall, and usually associated with the passages. Rock-cut feeding troughs and tethering holes identified in these compounds suggest that they served to protect and house the quarrymen, passage guards, and livestock.

In recent decades, large-scale excavations in Military Orders’ fortresses in Israel and to a lesser
extent in Syria have led to the discovery and identification of masonry structures for the manufacture
and consumption of daily food in garrisons; the examination of these structures - kitchens,
bakeries, refectories – brings new insights in the daily life of those fortresses. This article will focus
on the remains uncovered in castles of the Hospitallers’ Order (Beit Guvrin, Belvoir, Arsur in Israel,
Margat in Syria), which revealed the most elements. After a summary description of each of
them, this paper will discuss the culinary habits of the brethren, by crossing the architecture with
the texts.
(Paper in French and English)

Σχεδόν όλες οι πόλεις της Ελλάδας κρύβουν ένα βυζαντινό παρελθόν, το οποίο έπαιξε καθοριστικό ρόλο στη διαμόρφωση της οργάνωσης και της εικόνας τους, μέχρι και τις μέρες μας. Εντούτοις, στις περισσότερες το παρελθόν αυτό έχει αφήσει πολύ λίγα υλικά ίχνη –συνήθως ένα κάστρο– και έχει καταστεί εξαιρετικά δυσανάγνωστο. Χαρακτηριστική περίπτωση αποτελεί η Λαμία, το μεσαιωνικό Ζητούνι, μία μικρή βυζαντινή πόλη που για πάνω από μία χιλιετία υπήρξε στρατηγικός κόμβος στο δρόμο από και προς τη νότια Ελλάδα. Συνδυάζοντας τις πενιχρές αναφορές των γραπτών πηγών και τις αποσπασματικές αρχαιολογικές μαρτυρίες, στο παρόν βιβλίο επιχειρείται η ανασύνθεση της μορφής και της εξέλιξης της Λαμίας από τον 4ο ως τον 15ο αιώνα, και η αποτίμηση της σημασίας της ως τοπικού διοικητικού, στρατιωτικού και εκκλησιαστικού κέντρου. Παράλληλα, αναδεικνύονται οι δυνατότητες που προσφέρουν τα αποσπασματικά ιστορικά και αρχαιολογικά δεδομένα για την αποκατάσταση του βυζαντινού κρίκου της εξέλιξης των ελληνικών πόλεων.

Pre-print, German version to be published in: Karfunkel – Zeitschrift für erlebbare Geschichte. Combat-Sonderheft 10 (2014) (in print; communicating science to the public).

Abstract: The Crusaders, who in the 11th Century moved in the thousands from Western and Central Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean to liberate the Holy Grave from the “infidels”, found themselves confronted not only with foreign cultures and violent armed resistance, but also with an alien natural environment and climatic conditions that could prove to be sometimes just as fatal as the arrows of the enemy. At the same time the Crusades fell into a period of quite changeable climatic conditions in Europe and the Middle East, which must be included as well in the historical analysis of the military events.

The first comprehensive history of the most decisive military campaign of the Third Crusade and one of the longest wartime sieges of the Middle Ages

The two-year-long siege of Acre (1189–1191) was the most significant military engagement of the Third Crusade, attracting armies from across Europe, Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Maghreb. Drawing on a balanced selection of Christian and Muslim sources, historian John D. Hosler has written the first book-length account of this hard-won victory for the Crusaders, when England’s Richard the Lionheart and King Philip Augustus of France joined forces to defeat the Egyptian Sultan Saladin. Hosler’s lively and engrossing narrative integrates military, political, and religious themes and developments, offers new perspectives on the generals, and provides a full analysis of the tactical, strategic, organizational, and technological aspects on both sides of the conflict. It is the epic story of a monumental confrontation that was the centerpiece of a Holy War in which many thousands fought and died in the name of Christ or Allah.

The Qishle compound yielded a relative large number of coins dating to Jaffa’s existence as a fortified Frankish port town between 1100 and 1268.
this area was part of a medieval faubourg, apparently situated outside the main northern defense walls of Frankish Jaffa and rebuilt during the thirteenth century under Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen (1228–1229) and King Louis IX of France (1252–1253).
Together with the 108 Frankish-period coins excavated in other areas of Jaffa’s Old City since 1956, they form a prime database for understanding the coin circulation in the Latin Kingdom’s
fortified urban centers in the twelfth–thirteenth centuries.

Arab-Byzantine coinage typically refers to the issues between about AD 650 and 720, when familiar Byzantine designs were copied by the early Muslims before they developed their own. This paper is about a much later “Arab-Byzantine” coin that does not seem to be listed in the most commonly used references on Byzantine or Islamic coins. The coin appears to have been copied by the Muslims around 1100 to 1150, during the age of the First and Second Crusades, a period of instability in the Arab world.

Sieges played a key role in the crusades, but they tend to be overshadowed by the famous battles fought between the Franks and the Muslims, and no detailed study of the subject has been published in recent times. So Michael Fulton’s graphic, wide-ranging and thought-provoking book is a landmark in the field.

He considers the history of siege warfare in the Holy Land from every angle – the tactics and technology, the fortifications, the composition of the opposing armies, and the ways in which sieges shaped Frankish and Muslim strategy at each stage of the conflict. The differences and similarities between the Eastern and Western traditions are explored, as is the impact of the shifting balance of power in the region.

The conclusions may surprise some readers. Neither the Muslims nor the Franks possessed a marked advantage in siege technology or tactics, their fortifications reflected different purposes and an evolving political environment and, although there were improvements in technologies and fortifications, the essence of siege warfare remained relatively consistent.

Michael Fulton’s book is a fascinating all-round reassessment of an aspect of the crusades that had a decisive impact on the outcome of the struggle. It will be essential reading for medieval and military historians.

This is the cumulative doctoral thesis of Dr. Daniel Zwick based on five peer-reviewed articles and a main part, which is monographic in character (although this thesis is not officially a monographic thesis). The doctoral project was based at the University of Kiel and took place in cooperation with the University of Southern Denmark (Syddansk Universitet) and the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde (Vikingeskibsmuseet).

It examines the maritime organisation of predominantly Danes and Germans in the period of the Northern Crusades, which includes navigation and orientation, fleet organisation, but also shipbuilding and the establishment of a maritime trade network and other maritime-related infrastructure. While the chronological framework of this study is defined by a historical period - of the Northern Crusades - spanning four centuries, a great variety of historical and archaeological sources are addressed in the course of the investigation. This study starts with an examination of the natural physical landscape of the Baltic Sea in chapter 1 and how its populations adapted to geographical and climatic factors in the maritime sphere.

Chapter 2 examines the logistical links from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea, bypassing the Jutland peninsula, which opened up to a large-scale colonization and urbanisation movement and long-distance trade networks from western European, particularly from Danish and German places of origin in the wake of the Wendish, Baltic and Prussian crusades, starting in 1147. The foundation of Schleswig and Lübeck and the growing importance of the Ummelandfahrt are identified as paradigm shifts, which can be both corroborated by privileges on the one hand and ship-finds on the other hand. Early Bremen-type vessels seem to have played a particularly important role, and presently the overwhelming evidence points for a southern Jutlandic origin of this type. The great variances observed in the constructional characteristics strongly suggest a maritime organisation that was not bound to a singular local tradition, but can be most likely linked to long-distance trade networks of this time, which bounded merchants of different denominations together, such as the Gotlandic-Lübeckian gilda communis or the fraternities danicum in Cologne.

While the previous chapter was most focussed on the legal and environmental precondition as well as the driving forces – i.e. actors – behind the opening up of the Baltic Sea, chapter 3 also investigates maritime organisation, but its practical aspects, i.e. navigation, orientation and fleet organisation. A major focus of this chapter lies on the re-evaluation of a 13th-century itinerary – colloquially known as King Valdemar's Iitnerary – describing the sea route between the then Danish territories of Blekinge and Estonia, along the Swedish and Finnish coastline. By drawing analogies to similar sources which served the orientation and army and fleet logistics, a new interpretation can be suggested according to which the itinerary was meant as basis for calculating travel time and organising leding fleets. This chapter is first and foremost focussed on Danish maritime logistics to its Estonian enclaves.

This is compared and contrasted to an evaluation of actual 13th-century ship-finds in chapter 4 in the wider region associated with the Baltic Crusades, i.e. Riga (historical province of Livonia, today Latvia), the Matsalu Bay (Estonia), Kuggmaren (Sweden) and Egelskär (Finland), all of which – except the Riga 3 ship – are Bremen-type vessels too. In the concluding section, the question is raised whether Bremen-type vessels corrospond to the historical cog type, which was frequently mentioned in contemporary chronicles and source in connection with the crusades in general (as was deduced in paper E) and this region in particular.

In contrast to the preceding parts, chapter 5, is first and foremost focused on trade – i.e. Baltic timber trade – and examines the probable impact of the availability of high quality Baltic oak on western European shipbuilding. The Beluga Ship (paper C) is introduced as exemplary case study, from which contextual study (paper D) further research questions are derived, assessing the use of timber imports in the light of possible cost-benefit decisions.

Chapter 6 examines the local transport geography of a castle where lime was cut and distributed via ship. A nearby wreck's role within this context is analysed. In its conclusion, Chapter 6 takes a longue durée approach to make a hypothesis for Saaremaa's strategical importance, reaching back in time to the very beginning of the chronological framework of this study, i.e. the early attempts of the Danes to gain a foothold on Saaremaa in the Valdemarian period in the 12th and 13th centuries.

I T IS WELL DOCUMENTED by historical sources that during the twelfth century the Franks established several settlements in the Jabal al-Shāra and the Petra region, in present-day southern Jordan, as part of the former lordship of Montréal within the territory of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. This region is currently one of the most interesting to examine within the area of the lordship because it offers recent archaeological evidence from excavations and surveys. As part of the case study of Petra presented here, the chronology of sites has been addressed and answered on the basis of the creation of two new archaeological tools: a local chronology of ceramics for the middle and late Islamic periods, and a study of building techniques for the Petra region in the crusader period. By combining the insights gleaned through these tools and recent archaeological evidence from Petra with documentary sources, it has been possible either to confirm or to reject the attribution of some sites to the crusader period. the tools and evidence have also illuminated the function of the identified settlements, living standards at twelfth-century sites, the relationship between the Petra sites and others in the region, and the more general impact of the Frankish presence upon the Petra region. this paper aims at sum-marising the main conclusions that I reached on the subject of settlement in the Petra region during my doctoral research, which show the necessity of revising the interpretation of settlement patterns and dynamics hitherto proposed.

"In September 2005 the IAA Reports series introduced a new book, POTTERY OF THE CRUSADER, AYYUBID, AND MAMLUK PERIODS IN ISRAEL. This book, designed as an easy-to-use catalogue, is a first attempt to collect and distinguish pottery of these periods.In the modern state of Israel a considerable number of sites with strata from the Crusader, Ayyubid, and Mamluk periods have been excavated throughout the last years. These sites yielded a wealth of ceramic mate­rial that is thus far not well known. POTTERY OF THE CRUSADER, AYYUBID, AND MAMLUK PERIODS IN ISRAEL was written in order to fill this lacuna. It presents an up-to-date survey of pottery from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries excavated in Israel through 2004. It is organized as a wide-ranging typology that includes the necessary scientific apparatus, 53 pottery figures illustrating the various types, and 34 color plates that vividly demonstrate the colors of the clay, glazes and decorations.
The catalogue is divided into three part: Part I presents the glazed table wares, comprised largely of glazed bowls, and less of closed glazed vessels. There is a wide range of locally produced wares, as well as wares imported from Egypt, Syria, Byzantium, Italy, Spain, and North Africa, and China. Part II deals with simple, mostly unglazed, domestic and industrial wares, as well as glazed cooking wares. Part III discusses the common oil lamps. The initial aim of the book is to assist the field archae­ologist in pottery sorting, as well as to help the interested ceramic specialists, students and readers in identifying and dating the various types.
The book is dedicated to the memory of Amir Drori (1937-2005), who was the founder and first director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (1989-2000)."