Ballasting the Hanse: Baltoscandian Erratic Cobbles in the Later Medieval Port Landscape of Bruges
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European Journal of Archaeology 2017, page 1 of 27 Ballasting the Hanse: Baltoscandian Erratic Cobbles in the Later Medieval Port Landscape of Bruges 1 1 2 2 WIM DE CLERCQ ,ROLAND DREESEN ,JAN DUMOLYN ,WARD LELOUP AND 1 JAN TRACHET 1Department of Archaeology, Ghent University, Belgium 2Department of History, Ghent University, Belgium The discovery of a remarkable group of vividly coloured rounded cobbles in the fields and monuments of the later medieval outports of Bruges has initiated a multi-disciplinary investigation into their function, provenance, and wider economic meaning. Geological analyses demonstrate that the stones are ballast of exotic lithological nature. A substantial number consist of glacial erratics collected from cobble beaches in the Baltoscandian area. Another group can be traced to north-eastern British coasts. The clustering of stones at Hoeke has drawn particular attention to the Hanseatic connection with Bruges and to the small harbour town of Hoeke, which hosted the staple of stockfish and various other Hanseatic activities. This article contributes to the discussion of ballast stones as a meaningful archaeological object category, especially when studied in a broader methodological context including archaeological, geological, and historical research. Keywords: ballast, German Hanse, Bruges, Baltoscandian erratics, marine trade LATER MEDIEVAL BRUGES AND ITS While the town was confined within its HARBOUR NETWORK walls, the commercial and portuary infra- structure extended well beyond, into the From at least the tenth century onwards, landscape to the north-east of the city. political and commercial power became From the late twelfth century onwards, centralized in Bruges, in the County of several small harbours emerged in the Flanders in Belgium. During the following immediate vicinity of Bruges along the centuries, Bruges evolved into an inter- Zwin tidal inlet, which was connected to national harbour that functioned as the Bruges via a smaller canal only navigable primary trading hub between the by smaller barges (De Smet, 1937; Leloup Mediterranean and northern and western & Vannieuwenhuyze, 2013). Damme, Europe. The town quickly expanded and Mude, Monnikerede, Hoeke, and Sluis all at its peak in the thirteenth century had became important medium- to small-sized some 50,000 inhabitants, including several outports, serving as transhipment points diaspora communities of foreign mer- for goods destined for the Bruges market chants and powerful financiers, as well as (Figure 1). leading political and artistic elites, becom- Although each of these outports was ing a ‘cradle of capitalism’ (Murray, 2005). legally an autonomous community with its © European Association of Archaeologists 2017 doi:10.1017/eaa.2017.2 Manuscript received 11 July 2016, accepted 8 December 2016, revised 2 October 2016 Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. Vakgroep Politieke Wetenschappen, UGent, on 24 Apr 2017 at 09:06:38, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2017.2 2 European Journal of Archaeology 2017 Figure 1. The late medieval harbour system of Bruges and its principal harbours and towns. Underlining indicates the presence of ballast stones. own town rights, politically, financially, the small harbour towns even vanished and commercially the small harbours and now constitute a substantial yet largely largely depended on, and were monitored unknown part of the Flemish archaeo- by, Bruges (Fossion, 1992; Sosson, 1993; logical heritage. Dumolyn & Leloup, 2016). We can con- Bruges was economically and culturally sider Bruges’ commercial harbour and one of the most important cities of later related port society as an integrated ‘portu- medieval Europe, but, apart from some ary network’—a densely occupied and categories of ceramics, remarkably few urbanized medieval landscape stretching material proxies of its varied connections along the Zwin over a distance of nearly have been studied archaeologically (see e.g. 20 km between Bruges and the mouth of Hurst & Neal, 1982; Hillewaert, 1993; the Zwin near Sluis. The silting of the Pieters & Verhaeghe, 2009). This is par- inlet, as well as economic and political ticularly the case in the context of Bruges factors, led to the collapse of the system at as a Hanse Kontor within the so-called the end of the fifteenth century. Some of ‘Hanse Archaeology’, as it is for harbours Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. Vakgroep Politieke Wetenschappen, UGent, on 24 Apr 2017 at 09:06:38, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2017.2 De Clercq et al. – Ballasting the Hanse 3 such as London (Gaimster, 1999; Mehler, context. More specifically, this study 2014: 3214; Wubs-Mrozewicz, 2010). examines ballast as a valuable indicator of A cross-disciplinary study of material international mobility and exchange in the culture in harbour zones like that of harbours and port landscape of Bruges and Bruges is also particularly relevant for its wider northern European context. debates on maritime societies (Westerdahl, 1992, 2014) and for acknowledging the vital and multi-layered role material BALLAST AS AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL culture played in the later medieval com- OBJECT CATEGORY mercial, political, and cultural exchange networks, such as the ties that linked them Ballast is one of the most obvious object to the Burgundo-Aragonese spheres (De categories encountered in harbours for sea- Clercq et al., 2015) or the Hanseatic going vessels. It is also one of the most League (Immonen, 2007; Mehler, 2009, direct material evidences of international 2014, 2015; Gaimster, 2014). New, com- mobility within port societies. But little is prehensive research must therefore include archaeologically or historically known the socio-economic and cultural impact of about ballast, since it is often considered a important diaspora communities like the meaningless group of objects—‘ballast’ in Catalans, Genoese, and the so-called the figurative sense. The reason for this Easterlings or merchants of the German ignorance may be found in its general lack Hanse, noticeably present from the thir- of economic value, the paucity of written teenth century onwards in Bruges port- sources, and, above all, the varied and societies and the landscape (Beuken, 1950, often complex mechanisms for acquiring, Vandewalle, 2002). Such a study could be using, disposing, and re-using ballast. This conducted by using material culture to may be especially true of the Hanseatic assess the cultural impact of international League—initially a loose association of networks such as that of the Hanseatic merchants before it matured into an urban League (Gaimster, 2014; Mehler, 2009, league and commercial superpower in the 2015) on local society and culture. middle of the fourteenth century—which But, under the radar of high-status cul- organized its trade by using several har- tures, more mundane, everyday objects bours as stepping-stones between the floating just underneath the surface of a source and destination of commodities sea of conspicuous material culture may (Dollinger, 1998: 278–81). provide us with another valuable line of Buckland and Sadler (1990: 121), in a inquiry. These can help us assess transfor- thorough overview of ballast and building mations and interactions in everyday life, stones in maritime trade, critically high- often partially playing out at a discursive lighted these distributional problems by level. In this vein, we believe that the arguing that careful study of ballast stone study of material culture in these port from excavations and buildings may reveal societies should not be restricted to the trading connections, but that in the case identification of Hanseatic elements and of northern Europe the effects of multiple identity, but should include the interac- glaciations and the reshipment of ballast tions that existed between different mater- could lead to errors. Peacock (1998:13– ial cultures, thereby creating new complex 15) remarked on the neglected potential of lifestyles and material worlds within later ballast, considering it to be due to various medieval Europe. Our aim is to integrate difficulties in studying and interpreting these frameworks in a cross-disciplinary collections of such material. He outlined Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. Vakgroep Politieke Wetenschappen, UGent, on 24 Apr 2017 at 09:06:38, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2017.2 4 European Journal of Archaeology 2017 some major conditions and constraints in Munthe (1942) had demonstrated the this respect: the ability to identify geo- value of biological indicators (molluscs) to logical and geographical signatures or pro- assess the ballast found in Fårö in North venances within assemblages of stones, as Gotland. These studies show that critical well as the fact that an assemblage may and cross-disciplinary research offers the represent a heterogeneous mixture caused greatest potential for addressing and even- by various natural and human factors. tually overcoming interpretational flaws Mehler (2015: 367–68) recently noted when examining large assemblages of that ballast was still being largely over- ballast stones. looked, adding that little is known about the ‘ballast-industry’ and the people who collected, transported, loaded, and EXOTIC STONES IN A STONELESS