COLONISTS ON THE SHORES OF THE GULF OF FINLAND MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT IN THE COASTAL REGIONS OF ESTONIA AND FINLAND

Transcription

1 COLONISTS ON THE SHORES OF THE GULF OF FINLAND MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT IN THE COASTAL REGIONS OF ESTONIA AND FINLAND

2 Editor: Marjo Poutanen Photo editor: Anu Mönkkönen Museum team: Inka Keränen, Andreas Koivisto, Jutta Kuitunen, Anu Mönkkönen, and Marjo Poutanen Translation: articles translated by Jüri Kokkonen, except for Villu Kadakas article, edited by Inka Keränen. Other texts: Johanna Suokas Cover image: General map no 1 of Uusimaa Province, Samuel Broterus, 1690s / Finnish National Archives Design and layout: Ten Twelve OÜ Printed: N-Paino Oy, Lahti 2011 ISBN: ISSN: Vantaa City Museum publications no 22 The material reflects the authors views and the Managing Authority cannot be held liable for the information published by the project partners. CONTENTS Introduction...4 Georg Haggrén The Colonization of Western Uusimaa in the Middle Ages...7 Villu Kadakas First results of new excavations in Padise Monastery. Further study issues...27 Tapio Salminen Fishing with Monks Padis Abbey and the River Vantaanjoki from 1351 to Andreas Koivisto Settlement at the Gubbacka Site...67 Janne Heinonen Earth Fill and Medieval Law at Gubbacka in Vantaa...79 Notes

3 Introduction The Settlers on the Gulf of Finland - Colonizing the Coasts of Estonia and Finland in the Middle Ages seminar took place at Lumo Hall in Korso, Vantaa, on November 12-13, The seminar was part of the PAVAMAB - Padise-Vantaa the Middle Ages Bridge - project that focuses on medieval history. The project constitutes part of the Central Baltic Interreg IV A program, which will end in The project partners consist of Padise municipality in Estonia and the City of Vantaa in Finland. Cooperation between the two parties is natural, since the regions have had contacts already in the Middle Ages. Vantaa s predecessor, Helsinge Parish, is first mentioned in writing in a document related to Padise monastery. The document reports that King Magnus Eriksson in 1351 granted the monks of the monastery the right to fish in the crown-owned waters of the River Vantaanjoki. The PAVAMAB project is an interesting example of how historical roots can lead to present-day profitable cooperation. The project enables wide-range research on archives and archaeology, and also translates into a thoughtprovoking discussion forum for researchers. Besides this publication, the concrete results of the project will consist of a joint book presenting the partners research results, a touring exhibition of the project themes, as well as a public seminar in Estonia. Archaeological studies aim to create a picture of life in the Middle Ages in both the Vantaa region and Padise monastery. Another objective is to analyze the contacts between the two regions. Archaeologist Villu Kadakas, M.A., presents the results of the first excavations in the Padise monastery. Meanwhile, archaeologist Andreas Koivisto, M.A., describes how the medieval village of Gubbacka in Vantaa was colonized. Janne Heinonen, B.A., tells about land use in Gubbacka from the perspective of archaeological material and medieval legislation. Leena Hiltula Museum Director Jutta Kuitunen Project Coordinator Marjo Poutanen Project Assistant The seminar held in Vantaa presented medieval Gulf of Finland from various perspectives. The articles included in this publication are built on the seminar lectures. Adjunct Professor of Historical Archaeology at University of Helsinki, Georg Haggrén, Ph.D., describes exhaustively the colonization of Länsi Uusimaa in the Middle Ages. The article by Tapio Salminen M.A. of the University of Tampere focuses on contacts between Padise and Helsinge Parish from 1351 through Salminen is currently writing a work on the Middle Ages in Vantaa as a part of the city s history book series. 4 5

4 The Colonization of Western Uusimaa in the Middle Ages Georg Haggrén PhD Adjunct Professor in Historical Archaeology University of Helsinki The traditional view The region of Uusimaa (Sw. Nyland) has traditionally been regarded as an area that was not settled until the Early Middle Ages, literally a new land, which would have been almost without settlement at the end of the Iron Age. According to this view, the coastal regions of the province were colonized from Sweden, while the inland parts received their settlers especially from Häme. This viewpoint is crystallized in Suomen kulttuurihistoria (A Cultural History of Finland), which appeared in the early 2000s: The barren unsettled shores of Uusimaa were for a long while a zone of long-distance exploitation of the Häme Finns of the inland It was not until the arrival of Swedish colonists in the 12th and 13th centuries that the northern shores of the Gulf of Finland were populated. 1 Uusimaa is not the only region in Finland which has raised the issue of the lack of settlement at the end of the Iron Age. A similar description of settlement has also been given for Ostrobothnia and even the Åland Islands are suspected to have been without settlement at the turn of the Viking Age and the Middle Ages before being colonized from Sweden. 2 The idea of the origin of the Swedish-speaking population of the coastal regions already crystallized at the end of the Middle Ages, as can be seen from the preface to Mikael Agricola s Finnish translation of the New Testament, among other sources: the coastal population of Uusimaa, in the provinces of Borgo [Borgå, Porvoo] and Raasburi [Raseborg, Raasepori] and the islanders of Kaland [Kalanti] and the Ostrobothnians who even now speak Swedish, had first come from Sweden or Golland [Gotland]. 3 It was only with regard to 7

5 the settled area of Finland Proper (Southwest Finland), Häme and Karelia that scholars agreed that settlement had continued from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages. The archaeological notion of the lack of settlement in Uusimaa during the Viking Age was based on the scarcity of Iron Age finds: hardly any cemeteries were known from the region and only individual stray finds had been recovered. The only exceptions in Uusimaa have been the areas of Lepinjärvi in Karjaa and Bonäs Fastarby in the inland part of Tenhola, from where Late Iron Age level-ground cremation cemeteries are known. Even Iron Age settlement at Karjaa, which has been regarded as rich, is regarded to have disappeared during the Viking Age. 4 The conception of no settlement in Uusimaa during the Late Iron Age has been so established that for a long while antiquities of the Iron Age were not even sought. It was not until the end of the 20th century that new pollen analyses began to undermine this notion, but even now Iron Age activity in the region has been interpreted as mainly wilderness utilization and longdistance slash-and-burn cultivation. 5 Our Maritime Heritage and other projects farms is available, but in order to chart the abandonment of settlements, the study was extended chronologically to the 1690s. There were some 900 medieval village and hamlet sites or single farms in Western Uusimaa, comprising approximately 2,600 farmsteads in the 1550s. As the research progressed, it could be demonstrated that there were village and hamlet sites in the region that had already been abandoned before the 1540s. 8 Based on the inventories, several archaeological excavations were carried out in Western Uusimaa in the 2000s, at both Iron Age and medieval sites. While some of the fieldwork was for purely research purposes, there were also salvage excavations of antiquities threatened by building projects. This work led to changes in the overall picture of the Iron Age in Uusimaa. One of the most extensively investigated sites in Western Uusimaa during the first decade of the 2000s was the Hanko village (Hangö) area in the northern part of Hankoniemi Cape. As early as 1998, amateur archaeologists had already found Iron Age ceramics and few Viking Age artefacts at the site. The location was Gunnarsängen, the site of the medieval village of Hangö. Excavations in 2003 revealed more ceramics but no signs of fixed structures. During the following three summers, excavations were continued in other Since the turn of the millennium, the early history of Western Uusimaa has been studied in several projects, as a result of which our traditional views of the origin of settlement in the region have been questioned or at least clarified. The overall picture of the colonization of Uusimaa is no longer as straightforward or black and white as it was less than a decade ago. The incomplete and outdated archaeological inventory of antiquities in Western Uusimaa improved considerably at the beginning of the 2000s. In 2002, the three-year EU LEADER+ project Vårt maritima arv Merellinen perintömme (Our Maritime Heritage) was launched. It included a systematic survey of antiquities in the archipelago and coastal zone of the region from Bromarv in the west to Helsinki in the east. This work was completed in 2005, and as a result we now have an up-to-date inventory of known prehistoric antiquities and a large number of sites from historically documented times. 6 A project funded by the Kone Foundation on the Western Uusimaa archipelago and coastal region in the Iron Age and Middle Ages began in 2003, within which the history of settlement, livelihoods and the environment in the whole region has been addressed through a few case studies. 7 These projects also charted Late Medieval settlement by gathering information on all the villages and hamlets of Western Uusimaa and the numbers of farms in them. The starting point was the 1540s, from which the first data on specific Fig. 1. A late medieval oven foundation excavated in Lapsen puisto park in the village of Hanko. The oven overlay earlier Viking Age and/or Crusade Period structures. Photo G. Haggrén THE COLONIZATION OF WESTERN UUSIMAA IN THE MIDDLE AGES 9

6 locations at the site, with finds of numerous medieval antiquities, especially from the 14th century, but also three glass beads of mainly Crusade Period date (ca ). 9 In 2007 and 2009, fieldwork was continued in Lapsen puisto park, on the other site of the village of Hanko, where finds from under a medieval layer included poorly preserved Iron Age remains, some Iron Age ceramics and a ring of Gotland type dated to the 12th 13th centuries. 10 The excavations in Hanko show that the areas became permanently settled at the end of the Iron Age. The analysis of the results is still in progress. There are also a few Iron Age stray finds from the Hankoniemi Cape area, some of which have been recovered decades ago. The most recent find is a cache of two Viking Age brooches found in Täktom in the spring of (Fig. 1) Already in the 1990s, a small penannular brooch from the Late Iron Age and few fragments of artefacts, among other items, were found at Söderby in Snappertuna. In the autumn of 2007 a Crusade Period sword in poor condition with the remains of an inscription on the blade was found at Orslandet in Inkoo. Like the brooch from Söderby, the sword was found at a medieval village or hamlet plot. The finds have not yet been published and it is unclear whether they are associated with settlement or were originally gathered from a cemetery to be smelted. 11 (Fig. 2) In 2006, a cairn excavated at Oxhagaberget in Inkoo proved to be a burial of Iron Age, presumably Viking Age, date. 12 Henrik Jansson has recently noted that there are a large number of Iron Age burial cairns in the Western Uusimaa archipelago and coastal region. Excavations have been carried out at only a couple of sites, which means that the finds and precise datings are still very limited. Owing to their elevations, many of the cairns were previously dated to the Bronze Age, which was also the case at Oxhagaberget. Some of the cairns, however, are at such low elevations that they cannot be older than the Iron Age. 13 Early Iron Age settlement has been known to have existed in the Lake Lohjanjärvi region in the inland of Western Uusimaa, as indicated by several cairn cemeteries. On the other hand, there have been hardly any finds from the Late Iron Age. Among the local place-names, however, are Hiisi and Moisio, two hamlets that are of particular interest. Hiisi refers to an Iron Age worship site and Moisio to an early estate. Moisio in Lohja was a medieval manor, which appears to have had roots in a Late Iron Age estate. It can be shown that at Lohja, the lands of the parsonage and church were separated in the Early Middle Ages from a hamlet named Moisio, as was done in several parishes in Southwest Finland. 14 (Fig. 3) According to the above, it is obvious that there was Late Iron Age settlement in the environs of the Church of Lohja. This conclusion was confirmed in 2008 when a salvage excavation was conducted at Haukilahti in Hiisi, Lohja by the National Board of Antiquities. The excavation revealed a dwelling site from the Viking Age, which proves that there was permanent settlement in the Lake Lohjanjärvi region at the end of the Iron Age. 15 Fig. 2. A forested slope at Orslandet in Inkoo, where the medieval hamlet plot of Petars has just been found. Photo G. Haggrén Along with the new finds, the history of settlement and cultivation in Western Uusimaa was given a completely new perspective through Teija Alenius s systematic series of samples of lake and bog sediments from charting the history of land use throughout the area from Tenhola in the west to Espoo in the east. The analyses of the samples gave consistent results with mainly chronological differences. While settlement and cultivation had become established earlier in some areas than in others, the overall picture was similar throughout the region. At Orslandet in Inkoo and Älgö in Tammisaari (present-day Raasepori), both in the outer archipelago, the beginning of intensive land use, arable farming and the opening of the landscape fall in the period AD. In the coastal zone proper, this took place ca AD. Only the sample from Molnträsket in Kirkkonummi points to a later date, i.e AD. In most areas, there are also signs of extensive land use, possibly including slash-and-burn cultivation, from before established arable farming THE COLONIZATION OF WESTERN UUSIMAA IN THE MIDDLE AGES 11

7 With reference to his analysis of place-names in Uusimaa, Kepsu observes that of the Swedish-speaking coastal parishes of Western Uusimaa, Tenhola, Karjaa, Siuntio, Kirkkonummi and Espoo, in particular, had farms and villages of Finnish-speakers among the Swedish population. On the other hand, in Pohja and Degerby in the east part of Inkoo, the place-names are almost completely Swedish. 18 The origin of the Swedish settlement of the southern coast of Finland has been discussed a great deal since the 19th century. According to most recent interpretations, the Swedish colonization of the archipelago of Finland Proper (Southwest Finland) and Western Uusimaa dates from the second half of the 12th century and the early 13th century. In the second half of the 13th century, this colonization was followed after the so-called Second Crusade by a second influx of settlers further to the east in Uusimaa and a third all the way to Karelia. An important milestone of this colonization was the founding of Viipuri Castle in 1293 as a base for the Swedes and in support of colonization. 19 Fig. 3. The surroundings of Lohja Church in a parish map from the early 18th century (Krigsarkivet, Stockholm). Shown in the map are the church, vicarage, and the hamlets of Moisio and Hiisi. Photo G. Haggrén. The origin of Swedish-speaking settlement The results of pollen analyses, which suggest that there was settlement in Uusimaa before the Swedish colonization of the Early Middle Ages, find support in place-name studies. Saulo Kepsu, who has analysed place names related to settlement and farming in Uusimaa, has observed that in many places an older material of Finnish names can be noted from under the layer of Swedish settlement and place-names. For example, the place-name Köklax in Espoo derived from the Finnish Kaukalahti, meaning a long bay or inlet. A grass-roots level analysis of agricultural place-names shows that there had been Finns in many completely Swedish-speaking villages, who apparently integrated with the new majority population. Finnish place-names survived in the villages as relics of the ancestral language. In some villages and hamlets, there are many names of this kind, as for example in Storhoplax in Espoo, where one of its outlying fields is mentioned in a map from 1691 as Läppo silda Päldo, a Swedish transliteration of the Finnish Leppäsillanpelto. 17 The Swedish colonization was already mentioned in the early 14th century in the so-called Chronicle of Erik, where it is noted in connection with the founding of Hämeenlinna Castle: The satto thz land mz crisna men, som iak vänter at thz star oc än, Thz samma land thz vart alt cristith, jag tror at rytza konungen mistit They settled the land with Christians, who are still there, the land is now completely Christian, and the Russian king has lost it. 20 While the chronicle is tendentious, this brief account may nonetheless describe colonization along the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, from Hanko to the gates of Viipuri. The Christian colonists, many of whom were Swedishspeakers settled new areas while the indigenous population was converted to the new faith. It has traditionally been maintained that the Swedish colonists came mostly from the region of Hälsingland. The main evidence for this has been found in the so-called Helsinge Law applied in church taxes in Uusimaa, and placenames referring to Hälsingland. The name of Helsinge Parish and Helsingfors (Helsinge rapids) have particularly been underlined. In other respects, placenames referring to Hälsingland are rare in Uusimaa. There is a Helsingby village in Pernaja in addition to villages named Gästerby in Kirkkonummi, Pohja and Sipoo. The latter name points to the province bordering on Hälsingland. 21 An overview of the expansion of the kingdom of Sweden does not support the suggestion of colonization from Hälsingland to the southern coastal region of Finland. The large area of Hälsingland, to the west of the Bothnian Gulf, did not come under the authority of the Swedish king until the second quarter of the 14th century. By that time, Uusimaa had already become one 12 THE COLONIZATION OF WESTERN UUSIMAA IN THE MIDDLE AGES 13

8 of the provinces ruled by the king of Sweden. Like Uusimaa, Hälsingland was an area of medieval colonization. It had room for colonists, who did not have to set out on a long sailing voyage to the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland. Instead, the nearby coast of Ostrobothnia was a natural direction for colonists leaving Hälsingland for new regions. 22 The situation was completely different in Middle Sweden, where the population had grown in the Early Middle Ages. The resulting population pressure had led to migration in almost all directions, by no means least to the east, across the sea to Finland and the Estonian coast. Migration from Middle Sweden ended at the turn of the 1340s and 1350s, when the plague, also known as the Black Death, spread into the Baltic region. In many places, most of the population died of the plague, and thousands of farms were abandoned in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Population pressure had come to a natural end, and there was no longer any need or desire to emigrate. 23 Saulo Kepsu has demonstrated that most of Swedish place-names in Uusimaa can be traced back to Middle Sweden, to the provinces in the valley of Lake Mälaren. Some of the colonists came from the Åland Islands or the coasts and archipelago of Finland Proper. The colonists from Uppland, Södermanland and Östergötland that settled in Finland named villages Helsingby, Gästrikby, Dalakrby or Tjusterby according to individual colonists who had come from other provinces. 24 According to an uncertain item of information recorded in the early 18th century, a group of colonists had been brought to Uusimaa from Gästrikland and Hälsingland during the reign of King Erik the Holy. It is possible that a group had come to the valley of the River Vantaanjoki, originally known as the River Helsinge (Helsingå), and the name of their region of origin had lived on. 25 This exception does not alter the overall picture of the areas of origin of the Swedish colonists. The Swedish colonization of Uusimaa has been regarded as a peasant migration. 26 Enfeoffment in lieu for service, however, appears to have played a significant role in the creation of most of the parishes. This is shown, for example, by crofts and parcels of land which the manors of Prästkulla, Gennarby, Karsby and possibly also Lindö had near the parish church of Tenala. It was noted in 1723 that the croft of Prästkulla dated from the time when the owners of the manor had built the church on sterile land, i.e. not yet owned by anyone. Prästkulla Manor is already mentioned in sources from There is evidence of similar land ownership from Pohja Church, where the church belonged to the same division of property as the manors of Gumnäs and Näsby. There were other medieval estates in the near vicinity such as Brötorp and Gennäs, among others. At Karjaa, the church is in between lands owned by medieval manors and the lands of the vicarage were a donation from the enfeoffed class. The church of Inkoo is surrounded by three medieval manors, while in Siuntio the landscape of the church still reflects the connection between it and the manor of Suitia. Here, the lands of the church and the vicarage were originally separated from the hamlet of Tjusterby, where the original estate of the Silfverpatron family also appears to have been a medieval enfeoffment. The connection between Moisio and the church of Lohja was already mentioned above. The only distinct exception is Espoo, where the church and vicarage were founded in the 15th century, i.e. well after the colonization stage, on land obtained from local peasants. 27 All the significant manors of Western Uusimaa had a close connection with the parish churches. During the Middle Ages, the manors of many coastal parishes settled by Swedes were surrounded by tenant farms belonging to them. This suggests the likelihood that colonization had involved prominent individuals or members of the enfeoffed class, who established residential manors and took the initiative in founding congregations and the parish churches. It is known from Norrland in Sweden that the colonization of some of the northern river valleys was still entrusted in the early 14th century to nobles who are known by name. Yrjö Kaukiainen has also found evidence of colonization by members of the enfeoffed class in the parishes around Viipuri Castle. 28 It can be concluded from recent results of research show that there was sparse original local settlement in Western Uusimaa during the Early Middle Ages. From the turn of the Iron Age and the Middle Ages colonists began to come from at least three different directions. Finns of Finland Proper came from the west, while Häme Finns arrived from the north, remaining in their former wilderness utilization areas in the inland and in Eastern Uusimaa. In addition, Swedish colonists came in such numbers from beyond the sea and from the archipelago of Finland Proper that Swedish became the predominant language of the coastal inhabitants. The Swedish colonists included nobles and other leading figures, who founded manors surrounded by small tracts of tenant farms. The majority of the Swedes settled in their new locations as land-owning farmers. In addition, it is likely that some colonists also came from Estonia, but their contribution is difficult to distinguish with the means of place-name research. The birth of the province of Uusimaa The oldest surviving mention of Uusimaa (Sw. Nyland) dates from the early 14th century. The king of Sweden at the time was Birger Magnusson, but from 1302 a large part of the kingdom came under the control of his two brothers. In 1310, the territory of the younger of these, Duke Valdemar, included the castle provinces of Turku and Häme, a number of areas in Sweden, the Åland Islands, and Uusimaa, which is now mentioned for the first time THE COLONIZATION OF WESTERN UUSIMAA IN THE MIDDLE AGES 15

9 After this Uusimaa is not mentioned in sources until the 1320s, by which it had become a largely organized administrative entity, a so-called province of the seal under the authority of the king of Sweden. The earliest information on the seal of Uusimaa Province is from a document dated 29 May 1326 in Turku, ratifying a peace agreement between the inhabitants of the castle province of Turku and the town of Tallinn, with the seals of the provinces of Finland Proper, Åland, Uusimaa and Häme. 30 The official seal was not the only sign of administrative organization in Uusimaa. In 1326, Vicar Laurentius of Karjaa and Lindvidus, the tax collector for Uusimaa of the Bishop of Turku negotiated with the town council of Tallinn over the cargo of a vessel apparently from Uusimaa that had been shipwrecked off Tallinn. 31 The related document shows that the Bishop of Turku had a designated official for collecting taxes in Uusimaa. Dating from the same year is the oldest evidence of judicial administration in Uusimaa, referring to Ingold Djäkni, lagman (legifer) of Uusimaa, Ingonis Dyækn legiferi Nylandie. 32 From the following year there is a mention of the bailiff of Uusimaa, Gerardo, aduocato Nylandie, who was probably the influential nobleman Gerhard Skytte, who appears in later sources. 33 It is impossible to say whether the province of Uusimaa was organized administratively in the 1320s or whether only an exceptionally large number of documents survive from this decade. Was Uusimaa already regarded as a separate province in the 13th century or did Duke Valdemar organize the colonized areas of the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland into an administrative entity in the early 14th century? Be that as it may, by the 1320s Uusimaa had become one of the provinces of Sweden. The earliest mentions of the parishes of Uusimaa also date from the 1320s. The oldest surviving information on the vicar of Karjaa is from The vicar of Porvoo is mentioned in the following year and the vicar of Tenhola in The congregations of Inkoo and Kirkkonummi are mentioned in sources in the 1330s. Pohja became a separate parish most likely in the mid-14th century, and Lohja in the inland is mentioned in By the end of the Middle Ages, there were nine church parishes in Western Uusimaa: Espoo, Inkoo, Karjaa, Kirkkonummi, Lohja, Pohja, Siuntio, Tenhola and Vihti, and the chapelrics of Karjalohja and Kisko. There were five parishes in Eastern Uusimaa: Helsinki, Pernaja, Porvoo, Pyhtää and Sipoo. The boundaries of the parishes that emerged in Uusimaa during the Middle Ages still correspond, over distances of hundreds of kilometres, with the municipal boundaries that existed at the beginning of the 21st century. While the oldest references to the parishes of Uusimaa are from the 1320s, this does not mean that they were founded only at that time. The older the parish, the less documentary information there is on their origin. In the Finnish countryside, the formation of congregations, or church parishes, was integrally related to the establishment of taxation by the church. With reference to conclusions by Kauko Pirinen and Eljas Orrman, Markus Hiekkanen has recently suggested that a system of tithing had been organized by the church by the middle of the 13th century from Tenhola to Espoo in Western Uusimaa. In this connection, Hiekkanen concludes that of the parishes, or congregations, of Uusimaa, Inkoo, Karjaa, Kirkkonummi, Lohja and Tenhola were established between 1220 and 1260, and Porvoo in Eastern Uusimaa during the third quarter of the 13th century. 34 Although the oldest mention of Uusimaa is from the beginning of the 14th century, the so-called Black Book of Turku Cathedral contains a considerably older document that may be associated with the formation of parishes in the region. In a letter dated 24 November 1232 in Anagni, Italy, Pope Gregory IX urged the Teutonic Knights of Livonia and the Bishop of Finland to defend Finns who had converted to Christianity against the threat of the Russians. The heading of this letter notes that it refers to Finland (Proper), i.e. Southwest Finland, but the list of contents of the Black Book refers to the threatened area as terre Nylandiae (Uusimaa). Since the list of contents is from the Late Middle Ages, this mention cannot be definitely associated with Uusimaa. It is, however, highly probable, and could well suit the political situation of the early 1230s, in which colonists from Sweden and Finland Proper had spread east from Finland Proper into the area that began to be called Nyland (Uusimaa the New Land). 35 In taxation carried out by the church, Uusimaa was a distinct area in the Middle Ages, where tax collection practices differed slightly from those of Finland Proper, Häme and Karelia. The ecclesiastical Uusimaa of the Middle Ages, i.e. the region of so-called Helsinge Law, can be defined from tithing and so-called butter tax records of the 1540s and 1550s. The records of taxes collected by the church show that the parishes of Uusimaa formed an area with slightly different boundaries than the castle provinces that were established in the late 14th century. In the west, half of Kisko, which was a chapelric of the Parish of Pohja, was included in the castle province of Turku according to secular administration. Most of Vihti and the taxation area of Karisjärvi in Lohja were under the rule of Häme Castle, which also had authority over a number of villages in the northern parts of the parishes of Eastern Uusimaa. In the east, Uusimaa, as an ecclesiastical entity, extended far to the east of Pyhtää and the River Kymijoki. The parishes of Vehkalahti and Virolahti, the southern villages of the chapelric of Säkkijärvi and a few farms in the Parish of Viipuri originally belonged to Uusimaa in ecclesiastical administration, but were later joined to the castle province of Viipuri THE COLONIZATION OF WESTERN UUSIMAA IN THE MIDDLE AGES 17

10 The first contemporary item of information on church taxation in the area of so-called Helsinge Law in Uusimaa is from This was by no means the first time when a ruling was given in this matter. In 1345, an additional food tax previously ordered by Bishop Ragvald II of Turku was ratified. Bishop Ragvald was in office from 1309 to 1321, which means that taxation by the church had been ruled by ca at the latest. As discussed above, taxation was presumably agreed upon for the first time in the 13th century. In the 1320s, the area of Helsinge Law and apparently the province of Uusimaa extended from Tenhola in the west to Virolahti in the east. 37 Bo Jonsson appointed the Swedish nobleman Tord Röriksson (Bonde) as the first commandant of Raasepori by the autumn of 1378 at the latest, when Tord Bonde dated a letter at the castle in which he donated properties in Sweden to his spouse. 40 Bo Jonsson died in 1386 and the castle was soon taken over by the crown. Tord Bonde, however, remained in Raasepori and was its commandant for over 20 years. For practical purposes, the founding of the castle and the organization of the castle province can be said to have been done by him. (Fig. 4) Colonization in Uusimaa relied on the support of a castle or fort built in Porvoo, according to which the river flowing past it was named. The parish that formed around the fortress was similarly named Borgå (Fort or Castle River), Porvoo in Finnish. In the same fashion the Swedes established a few decades later, in 1293, Viipuri Castle, at the end of the so-called Third Crusade to Finland. The province of Karelia was gradually organized under the rule of the castle, and the eastern part of the colonization of Uusimaa was added to it. The castle provinces of Porvoo and Raasepori Western Uusimaa was originally part of the province of Finland Proper. In the early 14th century, when Duke Valdemar still ruled over Finland Proper, Häme and Uusimaa, among other regions, Viipuri and Karelia were under the authority of King Birger. Later, in the 14th century, the whole of Uusimaa was ruled by the commandant of Viipuri Castle. In the early 1370s, the province of Uusimaa was divided into an eastern and western part, the castle provinces of Porvoo and Raasepori respectively. 38 Their boundary passed between present-day Espoo and Helsinki, i.e. the region to the west of which there were areas colonized from Finland Proper, and to the east of which wilderness zones utilized by the Häme Finns. Albrecht of Mecklenburg, who ruled Sweden in the 1370s was deeply in debt and had to grant castle provinces to nobles, especially the Chief Justice (Sw. drots) of Sweden Bo Jonsson Grip, as security for his loans. This also concerned Western Uusimaa by the autumn of 1374 at the latest. It now became the castle province of Raasepori (Sw. Raseborg), where a castle of this name was built as its centre. Eastern Uusimaa, or the province of Porvoo, was first ruled by Turku and from approximately 1399 by the commandant of Viipuri Castle. In Porvoo, however, an administrative centre and defensive structure similar to Raasepori was not built and administration was concentrated in the crown manor of Porvoo, which had been founded under the authority of Viipuri Castle. 39 Fig. 4. Raasepori Castle. Photo G. Haggrén THE COLONIZATION OF WESTERN UUSIMAA IN THE MIDDLE AGES 19

11 The building and upkeep of a masonry castle like Raasepori required a great deal of resources. In practice, they were obtained through a new levying of taxes in Western Uusimaa. It can be shown that the division of the region into taxed areas and taxes levied on land were based on the founding of Raasepori castle and the related province in the 1370s. Settlement was organized into administrative units or tax areas (Sw. bol) and administrative parishes. There are examples from elsewhere in medieval Sweden of similar new levyings of taxes for the building of a new castle. 41 The levying of taxes in the province of Raasepori and the defining of the related land tax units, or tax marks, took place at the beginning of Bo Jonsson s possession of the pledged property and Tord Bonde s period as commandant, in the late 1370s or at the latest by the end of the 1380s, the beginning of the crown castle period. A similar tax mark unit was not used in the province of Porvoo, which partly reflects the different historical development of Eastern and Western Uusimaa in the Late Middle Ages. 42 The division of parishes and tax areas followed by crown administration differed in many of their details from the earlier ecclesiastic system of parishes and allotted accommodation fees for tax collection purposes. A fragment of the so-called Cadastre of Erik the Pomeranian from 1413 tells that the province of Raasepori consisted of eight administrative parishes, divided into a total of 102 tax areas. There is precise data on the tax areas from a list surviving from Comparing these earliest tax records with the oldest cadastres surviving from the 1540s, listing each farm and its owner, we can note that only minor changes took place in the taxation and administrative division of the castle province. There were now 101 tax areas, and no new levyings had been carried out since the end of the 14th century. 43 By combining information from cadastres and other sources, we can note that around 1560 there were approximately 2,600 farms in the eight administrative parishes of Raasepori province. The largest parish was Pohja, with approximately 460 farms, and the smallest was Kirkkonummi with only some 200 farms. At the same time, there were roughly 2,500 farms in the five parishes of Porvoo province. Most of the farms in Uusimaa were on farmer-owned taxed land. In Western Uusimaa less than 10%, i.e. 250 farms, were in the possession of the crown, the church or the nobility. In Eastern Uusimaa, the nobility owned a slightly larger proportion of the farms than in the castle province of Raasepori. While in Porvoo and Pernaja, in particular, there were many farms belonging to the nobility, only some 11% of all farms in the province were on other than farmer-owned taxed land. 44 The province of Raasepori consisted of the whole of Western Uusimaa from Tenhola to Espoo. When Raasepori Castle was established, settlement was densest in the old settled areas of the church parishes, and was sparser in the inland and to the east. At the end of the Middle Ages, settlement grew in the latter areas. There was no new levying of taxes, however, even though the number of farms within the tax areas increased. 45 Settlement in Western Uusimaa peaked around 1560, after which it did not rise until the 18th century. Wars, the mandatory quartering of troops, severe taxation and poor crop yields led to the abandonment of farming properties. The late 16th and early 17th century were especially difficult periods, and by 1635 over 30% of the farms of Raasepori province had been abandoned. There was a decline of settlement at the same time in many other parts of South Finland, e.g. in Finland Proper and the province of Porvoo. 46 The abandonment of settlements in the Middle Ages Cadastres of the Early Modern Period show how settlement had consolidated in the northern and eastern parts of Raasepori province towards the end of the Middle Ages. This was part of the late medieval expansion of settlement, which has often been underlined in studies. According to the traditional view, there was hardly any abandonment of settlements during the Middle Ages in Finland. This conclusion is based on archive sources, which do not give much information on the abandonment of settlement, although scholars have noted from an early stage 39 abandoned bol units mentioned in the oldest cadastres concerning Finland Proper. They have been regarded as small medieval abandoned units of settlement an exception to the rule. It was not until 17th-century maps and the results of archaeological fieldwork were included in studies in the 2000s that researchers noticed that the abandonment of settlements was much more widespread than previously thought. The oldest cadastres of Raasepori province list only a few abandoned bol units or other abandoned hamlets and villages, but when place-name studies and historical maps are considered, the number of abandoned villages is multiplied several times over. 47 A clue is provided by böle place-names, which have been proven to often indicated abandoned settlement. It was typical for such an abandoned hamlet to be often divided among neighbours. For example, Storböle in Barölandet in Inkoo was divided among two other hamlets, Barö and Espings, with the boundary passing through the plot of the abandoned hamlet. In the spring of 2006, an abandoned hamlet site was discovered at Storböle, with a few finds dating mainly from the 14th century. 48 Place-names of abandoned hamlets have not always survived. For example, Kullåkersbacken in the west part of the hamlet of Berg in Karjaa (Snappertuna) has been dated archaeologically to the High Middle Ages. The hamlet was presumably abandoned already around the middle of the 14th century. The site of this unnamed hamlet can still be seen in a map from 1703, in which 20 THE COLONIZATION OF WESTERN UUSIMAA IN THE MIDDLE AGES 21

12 Kullåkersbacken is surrounded by two fields of the same size. They show that two-year crop rotation farming typical of older agriculture was practised at the site, with half of the fields being cultivated while the other half lay fallow. 49 Until the early 2000s, studies of medieval settlement in Western Uusimaa depended completely on historical research relying on written sources. In recent years, there have been numerous excavations of village sites with results offering completely new opportunities for the study of the history of settlement and livelihoods in the region. The village of Hanko has revealed several building remains, a cemetery and an ancient field. In Inkoo, there have been excavations at Storböle at Barölandet and adjacent Orslandet at the sites of the abandoned hamlets of Norrby, Gammelby and Petars. In 2003, several house foundations were excavated in Kauklahti, Espoo, the oldest of which dated from turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. Surprisingly, this site also revealed a cemetery, and in 2006 a hitherto unknown medieval cemetery was also discovered at Finno in Espoo. 50 The most extensive and systematic excavations of medieval settlement sites in Western Uusimaa have been conducted at Mankby in Espoo. This village was abandoned in 1556, when its lands were incorporated into the crown manor of Esbogård. The site remained unused and was spared any future development. The well-preserved village site was discovered in Still visible in the terrain are some 20 building foundations, the boundary of the cleared plot area and five ancient roads. The Espoo City Museum decided to organize excavations for the public at Mankby in 2008, the 550th anniversary year of the city. The results were so promising that excavations have continued each summer season since then. The aim is to continue excavations one house or entity at a time and to gradually prepare a synthesis on the development and structure of the village. The earliest dates obtained so far for the village are from the end of the 13th century, but the village most likely contains earlier layers. 51 With its eight farms, the village of Mankby is known from historical sources of the mid-16th century, but only archaeological excavations can provide a deeper view of its history and structure and the everyday lives of its inhabitants in the Middle Ages. (Fig. 5) Excavations in recent years have demonstrated how archaeological source material can be used for exploring medieval history of settlement and livelihoods. The analysis of the recovered materials is still in progress, but already at this stage we know a great deal about the dwellings and dietary habits of the people of Uusimaa in the Late Middle Ages. Various artefact finds shed light on everyday life and special occasions, and tell of contacts overseas with Estonia, Sweden and as far as Germany. The excavation show that rural village and hamlet sites are of great research potential medieval archaeology is no longer solely the study of castles, churches, towns and other monuments. Fig. 5. The medieval village site of Mankby in Espoo. Drawing by Maija Holappa. 22 THE COLONIZATION OF WESTERN UUSIMAA IN THE MIDDLE AGES 23

13 Summary During the 2000s the overall picture of the Middle Ages in Western Uusimaa has changed a great deal. Archaeology, in the form of both surveys and excavations, has provided new information. The same is also true of analyses of historical maps. Although available maps are from as late as the mid-1650s even in the best cases, they contain information on much older phenomena. In addition, written sources that have long been used in historical research still reveal new information. This concerns both individual medieval letters and bailiffs accounts of the 16th century, which can provide a comprehensive overview of the whole province. to ensure resources, new taxes were levied on the area under the rule of the castle. This area was divided into eight administrative parishes slightly differing from the old church parishes of Western Uusimaa. This levying of taxes makes it possible to chart the overall picture of settlement in the castle province in the late 14th century. From then on, settlement consolidated in the east and in the inland, but contrary to previous assumptions there was considerable abandonment of settlements in many places in Uusimaa during the Late Middle Ages. The farming community found itself from time to time in a serious crisis. In summary, it can be said that, contrary to previous assumptions, Uusimaa was not an uninhabited area for long-distance slash-and-burn cultivation or wilderness utilization. There was arable farming and sparse Finnish settlements in the area of the future province. The Finnish inhabitants were joined in the Early Middle Ages by Swedish colonists, including nobles, who played an important role when churches and parishes were established in the region. Settlement in Uusimaa presumably originated from sparsely located individual farms or clusters of a few farm households. The number of farms gradually grew, with new ones established, for example, for new generations or when new settlers arrived alongside the earlier population, in addition to completely new farm households in new locations. As settlement grew and consolidated, it became necessary to agree on rights to resources. On the basis of joint interests, adjacent farms grew into villages with shared fields, meadows and forests. In the coastal parishes, neighbours agreed on the boundaries of individual villages or the joint areas of several villages before the end of the Middle Ages. By the beginning of Early Modern times, a typical hamlet or small village in Western Uusimaa consisted of 2 7 farms, while to the east in the province of Porvoo the villages were slightly larger on the average. The farmsteads were clustered in the village plot next to which were two large fields used in rotation, and beyond them nearby meadows and small outlying fields, with the forests of the village further away. The basic features of the Western Uusimaa landscape remained unchanged in this form until the end of the 18th century and land redivision, and in many places until the 19th century. Uusimaa became a separate region in the 13th century and by the 1320s at the latest it had evolved into an organized province within the Kingdom of Sweden. In the 1370s, it was divided into two so-called castle provinces. Raasepori Castle was built as the centre of the western province. In order 24 THE COLONIZATION OF WESTERN UUSIMAA IN THE MIDDLE AGES 25

14 First results of new excavations in Padise Monastery. Further study issues. Villu Kadakas MA AGU EMS The ruins of the medieval Padise Monastery (Fig. 1) stand on the bank of River Kloostri (Fig. 2) ca 50 km south-west from Tallinn. This building complex of the fortified Cistercian monastery is a rather well-preserved monument and has a remarkable position in the study of medieval architecture of Estonia. 1 The joint project between the Municipality of Padise and City of Vantaa has enabled to continue in the summer of 2010 the long ago ceased archaeological study of the ruin. In July and August the joint team of Finnish and Estonian archaeologists had an opportunity to dig several test pits in different areas of the site, trying to solve single problems and gather preliminary information for the fieldwork of History of the monastic site In the 13th century Padise area belonged to the Daugavgrīva (German Dünamünde) Monastery situated near Riga in present Latvia. 2 A chapel of unknown form and building material has been mentioned in Padise in a document from 1281 referring to an argument between the Monastery of Daugavgrīva and the bishop of Tallinn. 3 The erection of the main buildings of the monastery probably did not start before 1305, when the buildings of Daugavgrīva Monastery were sold to the Livonian Order 4, and the monks subsequently had to move their headquarter to Padise. In 1317 the Danish king Erik Menved gave a permission to build the monastery buildings of stone, which has been considered the real beginning of major construction works. 5 A grave setback took place during the uprising of St George s night, when 28 monks were killed and the buildings set to fire. 6 A consecration of the monastic church by the bishop of Tallinn has been recorded in The monastic complex was taken over by the Livonian Order in 1558, right after 27

15 the beginning of the Livonian War ( ) and then officially secularized in During the war the buildings were used as a fortification by different armies and it suffered damages especially in the siege of 1580 when the Swedish army conquered it from the Russian army. 9 The partially destroyed building complex probably functioned as a royal manor for a while, but lost its military significance by the 17th century. debris were removed and restorative works carried out during the 1950s and 1960s, together with archaeological excavations and field-study of the building remains carried out by Villem Raam. Even before the peak of the fieldwork he managed to publish a small trilingual introductory book about the site in , which was very soon outdated by fresh information. The excavation and restoration works stopped abruptly in 1969 and Raam managed to publish his most important post-excavation results only in a short general article in Finnish readers are uniquely in a lucky situation this article has been translated and published twenty years ago in Finnish 13 Estonian readers do not have an advantage. Fig. 1. The ruins of Padise in Photo Villu Kadakas. In 1622 the von Ramm family received the area and the manor from the Swedish king and soon the building complex was rebuilt into their manorial residence, dividing the church into smaller rooms and two storeys. Some of the other building parts still standing were used for various economic purposes and the already ruined south-western parts as a quarry. The manorial residence was moved to a new house (Fig. 2d) built east of the ruin at the end of the 18th century and the monastic complex was mostly left as a romantic ruin 10 whilst still using some cellars for storing goods. Previous fieldwork results Because of scarcity of written documents especially from the monastic period, knowledge about the site is mostly to be obtained from fieldwork: excavations and study of the building remains. Large amounts of crumble Fig. 2. Situation plan of the ruins of Padise. a. inner courtyard, b. northern courtyard/bailey, c. eastern bailey, d. 18th c. manor house, e. River Kloostri, f. former moat, g. pond, h. road. Plan compiled by Villu Kadakas. According to Villem Raam, the original layout was a compact quadrangular body (the so called conventional quadrangle) with four wings around the central courtyard (Fig. 3) with the 13th century chapel as the oldest part of the complex, jutting out southwards from the south-western corner of the quadrangular body. 14 The church constituted the northern wing (Fig. 2). 15 The final layout included a basement storey under all four wings including the church. There was an exceptional chapel for side altars under the eastern part of the church (Fig. 3d). Communication between the wings of the basement storey and the main storey was performed through a two-storey cloister around the inner courtyard (Fig. 2a). The eastern, southern and the western wings all had a second storey the rooms of which were accessed 28 FIRST RESULTS OF NEW EXCAVATIONS IN PADISE MONASTERY. FURTHER STUDY ISSUES. 29

16 via separate staircases from the rooms of the main storey. Later, the western courtyard with a tower in the south-western corner and a gate tower with a complicated system of drawbridges was added to the western side (Fig. 3c). The monastic site was untypically heavily fortified in addition to the gate tower (Fig. 3e), the inner gate of the quadrangle had a portcullis and the whole building complex had small turrets in corners (Fig. 1) and a wall-walk with a crenellated battlement on top of the outer walls. According to Raam 16 the first building period ( ) ended with the uprising of St. George s Night when the 28 monks were killed and the buildings set to fire. The outer wall and the walls of the basement storey of the four wings were probably completed by that time. During the second period (ca ) the erection of the four wings was mostly completed with the outer wall equipped with a crenellated battlement and the vaulted church. The third period ( ) saw the completion of the refectory and the kitchen complex in the southern wing and the western annex with a new gate tower and a new courtyard. During the latter part of the Livonian War the building complex was held by Russian troops ( ) who probably added some defences. 17 Fig. 3. Basement floor plan of the ruins of Padise. a. inner courtyard b. northern courtyard/bailey c. western courtyard/bailey d. chapel e. cellars under gate tower f. discovered portal in east wing g. discovered portal in south wing h. walls of a supposed earlier building i. pillar foundations of supposed cloister j. discovered fragments of earlier walls in north wing Plan compiled by Villu Kadakas. Fig. 4. Medieval portal base in the east wing. Photo Villu Kadakas. One major modification to Raam s view has been introduced during the last 20 years, upon which all specialists agree: the protruding part of the building in the southwest corner of the main quadrangular body does not include remains of the 13th century chapel, but rather rooms of some profane function and of much later origin. 18 While digging some test pits, proof for this claim was found in Later Kersti Markus has even supposed that the original chapel might not have been situated on the site of the later monastery at all, but ca 8 km westwards in the village of Paeküla, 20 which has 30 FIRST RESULTS OF NEW EXCAVATIONS IN PADISE MONASTERY. FURTHER STUDY ISSUES. 31

17 also given the name to the monastery. 21 Recently Jaan Tamm has published a richly illustrated general overview of the building and study history of the monastery, presenting some minor dates and other details differing from Raam s view. 22 In addition, the carved reliefs in the church have been of special interest to scholars. 23 the eastern wing was a base of a demolished limestone portal (Fig. 3f, 4) between the southernmost basement room of the east wing and the big cellar in the south wing. Research issues of the present project Kaur Alttoa, the leader of the present study project, has suggested a possibility that the monks of Daugavgrīva had erected a filiation with an economic function a grange somewhere on the site of the later monastery before moving their headquarters there. 24 Later Alttoa has concluded that almost all of the building parts that were standing at the end of the monastic period and we see today do not predate the 15th century only some walls in the western wing of the main quadrangle seem to come from an earlier construction phase (Fig. 3a). 25 Therefore the focus of the new study project fieldwork of years 2010 and 2011 is obviously on the two issues: to find and specify 1.) the remains of the supposed 13th century grange, including the chapel mentioned in written records and 2.) the buildings of the 14th century monastery. At the same time information is to be gathered for the conservation project of the ruin, e.g. data about original floor levels in the basement rooms. Fieldwork results of 2010 In July and August 2010 regular test pits were dug into all the basement rooms of the western, northern and eastern wings (Fig. 3). As in the western wing the walls have been heavily rebuilt during restoration works, the test pits only revealed construction debris from the 20th century. In the basement rooms of the northern wing, i.e. under the church some pits were targeted near irregularities of the outer walls supposed traces of demolished inner walls (Fig. 3j) and traces of earlier vault corbels. In the two westernmost rooms remains of two earlier inner walls were represented by more or less rectangular patches of lime mortar under the filling layers, which were exposed. Judging by the most common finds in these two rooms pieces of 18th 19th century glass bottles (Fig. 5f) the von Ramm family has probably used the rooms for storing their bier. Nevertheless the only medieval find from these rooms a small richly ornamented stoneware fragment identified to belong to the so-called Falcke group 26 from the 15th century (Fig. 5g) 27 was probably the highlight among this season s finds. In the eastern basement room of the northern wing the chapel under the church a foundation was discovered (Fig. 3d) under the southern wall, running in a quite different direction compared to the wall on top of it hypothetically a remnant from an earlier building. The most remarkable detail discovered in the test pits of Fig. 5. Finds from 2010 excavations a. Ointment jar 17th-18th century, possibly from Raeren (present day Belgium) b. shard of local pot with wave ornamentation, ca 1300 c. shard of painted redware bowl ca 17th century d. splinter of painted window glass, supposedly from medieval church e. shard of china cup ca 18th century f. piece of glass bottle from Lelle manufactory (North-Estonia) 19th century g. shard of Falcke group stoneware (Eastern Germany) 15th century h. shard of Siegburg stoneware pitcher (Germany) ca 1400 Photos Villu Kadakas (a, c-h), Kristi Tasuja (b). The test pits of the south wing were targeted on specific questions about the possible earlier building parts in the western cloister area and in the southwestern corner area of the main rectangular body of the monastic complex. The test pits provided several new but complicated details about the earlier form of those heavily rebuilt rooms. Most remarkable was the exposure of 32 FIRST RESULTS OF NEW EXCAVATIONS IN PADISE MONASTERY. FURTHER STUDY ISSUES. 33

18 parts of a limestone masonry portal (Fig. 3g), obviously belonging to a building predating the late medieval rooms of the southern wing. An underground channel covered with large limestone slabs was discovered running through under the portal, which probably once conducted rainwater from the inner courtyard to the river. A complicated and top quality water conduit system is to be expected, because Cistercians were among the first water engineers in medieval Europe. 28 A hypocaust oven was partly uncovered in the room protruding southwards from the south-western corner of the rectangular building body. The results of the pits in the south wing gave a good starting point for the next year s excavations. Probably the oldest find of the excavations a sherd of a round tripod pot (Fig. 5d) with wave ornament, which can be vaguely dated to ca 1300 was found in a test pit in the southern end of the eastern cloister. The date is intriguing but not fixed enough to consider it to be representative of the earliest period of the proper monastery or the hypothetical grange period of the 13th century. handicraft, is to be expected. The outer wall, supposed north-western cannon tower and a supposed gate in the eastern wall will be the main problems of the northern courtyard/bailey. A specific question if the drawbridges of the gate tower had a long continuous moat in front of them or just single pits is to be answered as well. Foundations of a supposed chapel in the northeast beside the road outside the monastic complex, discovered during road building in 2009, will be investigated as well. Study issues and plans for fieldwork in 2011 The test pits in the inner courtyard had the task of giving preliminary data for bigger excavations in the 2011 season. One pit was dug in the middle of the courtyard and five close to the northern and eastern wings in the area of the former cloister (Fig. 3), supposedly demolished already in the 17th century. A most peculiar result was found, revealing great differences in the thickness of cultural layer in different areas of the inner courtyard: in the middle the natural soil layer is only 40 cm deep from the ground level, whereas in the cloister area there are ca 1.5 m thick filling layers. This could be explained in several ways: e.g. the floor of the cloisters has been much deeper than expected; there are earlier demolished and filled building remains in the cloister area. In any case, the result is intriguing because this might indicate that remains of the stone cloisters, thought to be fully demolished, or remains of earlier buildings might be preserved underground. Unlike in his other publications, according to Raam s unpublished reports he was not convinced that the monks ever managed to build the stone cloisters around the courtyard but perhaps had to use temporary timber cloisters instead. Thus the evidence about the stone cloisters would be most welcome during excavations in The test pits of the inner courtyard revealed several simple Siegburg stoneware jug sherds (Fig. 5h) from 14th and 15th centuries probably the first finds of the monks drinking vessels. 29 The excavations of the year 2011 will concentrate mostly on the inner courtyard on questions about earlier buildings and stone cloisters and northern courtyard/bailey area. As there is some medieval waste in the filling layers under the inner courtyard, as indicated by the test pits, an amount of various finds representing the monks consumption habits, perhaps even 34 FIRST RESULTS OF NEW EXCAVATIONS IN PADISE MONASTERY. FURTHER STUDY ISSUES. 35

19 Fishing with Monks Padise Abbey and the River Vantaanjoki from 1351 to 1429 Tapio Salminen MA School of Social Sciences and Humanities Department of History and Philosophy University of Tampere How did the Cistercian Abbey of Padise (Ger. Padis) in Estonia first come into possession of fishing rights for salmon in the River Vantaanjoki in Finland, and what was the significance of these rights for the economy and everyday life of the monastery during the period of the abbey s donation in ? What impact did the monks and lay brethren have on the use of the river and the structure of settlement in its area, now in the dense suburban network of Vantaa and Helsinki? The Cistercian order and the pursuit of monasticism in high medieval Europe The medieval Diocese of Turku, roughly the same area as present-day Finland, essentially differs from other parts of the Baltic region once belonging to the medieval sphere of influence of the Catholic Church. Here, none of the monasteries of the old, pre 13th-century orders, such as the Benedictines, Carthusians, Cistercians or Premonstratensians had ever been established and, with the exception of the Cistercian Abbey of Padise in Estonia, they are not known to have had property or rights in Finland. Although ecclesiastical culture and spiritual life in the medieval Diocese of Turku was by no means different to the rest of Europe, one of their most characteristic features, monasticism, was represented in its fully secluded form only by the Bridgettine convent of Naantali, founded in This double monastery of nuns and canons met all the requirements of monasticism: property in land obtained through donations, monastic vows, the copying and production of religious texts, and a continuous life of prayer in seclusion. The convents of 37

20 the Dominicans, who were active in Finland since the 13th century and the Franciscans, who came to Finland by the early 15th century at the latest, were popularly known as monasteries, but much of the activity of the friars occurred outside of their houses among the local population. Observant to their rules, Dominicans of Turku and Viipuri and Franciscans of Viipuri, Rauma and Kökar Island never accumulated significant endowments of landed property to sustain their houses. The most important monastic order that spread into the Baltic region in the 12th century was the Cistercians, a reformed branch of the Benedictines, which originated in 1098, when a number of monks established a monastery at Citeaux, near Dijon in France. The name of the order derives from the original name of Citeaux which was either based on the Old French word Cistel, meaning reed, or on the Latin Cistercium, explained as referring to the site of the monastery close to a three-mile stone on an old Roman road. The Cistercian order was a reaction against the wealth of the Cluniac movement of the previous major reform of monasticism and contained both Benedictine and Cluniac features. In the former, each monastery was an independent unit, and in the latter they were under the authority of the monastery of Cluny in France. The purpose of the new monastery was to re-establish the monastic rule written by Benedict of Nursia in the early 6th century in its original form and to exclude all activities beyond the rule from the life of the monks. The activities of the Cistercians were regulated in the rule Carta caritatis approved by the pope in 1119, the manual Liber usum on life within the monasteries and the decisions of the General Chapter that convened annually at Citeaux. The abbot of each monastery, or a representative acting as his deputy, was required to attend the meeting of the chapter, but exceptions were made if the monastery was far away. In addition to Citeaux, special privileges were enjoyed by its four first daughter houses, La Ferté (1113), Pontigny (1114), Clairvaux (1115) and Morimund (1115), all of which were in the region of Burgundy. The affiliation of mother and daughter houses was extremely important because it specified the right of visitation, i.e. inspection among the Cistercian Abbeys and the spiritual supervision of parish churches under their patronage. 1 The Cistercian order emerged as an influential spiritual, political and economic actor as a result of the work of Bernard of Clairvaux (c ), a young Burgundian nobleman who entered Citeaux in 1113 and founded the daughter monastery of Clairvaux two years later. He was an important organizer and theologian, who defended the rights of the church and emphasized the role of the Virgin Mary as an intercessor between man and God. Bernard was instrumental in the preaching of the Second Crusade to the Holy Land and had a strong influence on the role of the Cistercians as one of the most important missionary organizations accompanying the Crusader armies in the 12th century. In Germany, one of the main results of his work was a papal bull issued in 1147, decreeing that the spiritual merits of participating in a crusade did not depend on whether the crusade was to the Holy Land or against enemies and apostates of the faith elsewhere. The papal bull laid the basis for later theological arguments for crusades to the east of the River Elbe, to the Baltic lands and Russia. 2 From the beginning of the 12th century, the community of Cistercian monasteries consisted of not only monks who maintained the unbroken chain of canonical hours of prayer and performed their assigned work in the monastery, but also of lay brothers (Latin conversi), who had made a vow of chastity and obedience to the abbot. The lay brothers had their own quarters and did not take part in the offices of the Hours, having instead their own programme of prayer and religious activity. In church, they were separated from the monks by a screen. Their activities and life were regulated with a separate rule called the Usus conversorum, of which no version applying to the whole order was ever issued. As opposed to the tonsured monks, who had shaved their beards and the crown of their heads, the lay brothers were allowed to let their beard and hair grow and were called fratres barbati (bearded brothers). Both groups were also distinguished by their habits. The monks wore a hooded tunic of white or pure wool covered by a white (later black) hoodless scapular (Lat. scapulare), an apron-like vestment hanging from the shoulders over the front and back of the wearer. The tunic of the lay brothers was of coarse dark-brown wool with a removable cowl covering the head and shoulders. Because the lay brothers had not taken monastic vows, they could move about freely and spend long periods outside the monastery, attending to its lands, organizing the transport of goods and supervising the tenant farms of the monastery. The inhabitants of the surrounding countryside called them monks, but in reality they were administrators, craftsmen and specialists with their own internal hierarchy, without whom the monastery could not have managed. Among the Cistercians, the ratio of monks to lay brothers was generally one to two, but in places it could be one to three. 3 The Cistercians main period of expansion was from the 12th century to the end of the 13th, during which some 500 monasteries were founded. The original aim of all of them was to keep to the monastic rule, the core of which consisted of prayer and work. Since the monks were meant to earn their living by clearing and cultivating fields and keeping livestock, the new monasteries were often established in the outskirts of settlements in areas which were suitable for clearing fields and where subsistence was based on farming and animal husbandry. Since most of the monks came from the elites of society, the monasteries often gained possession of considerable property in land, which consisted of not only the domestic fields and plots around the monastery but also of separate clusters of tenant farms further away. The centre of each cluster of tenant farms was a central manor or grange (Latin grangia), where rent was collected and which was administered 38 FISHING WITH MONKS - PADISE ABBEY AND THE RIVER VANTAANJOKI FROM 1351 TO