Author: Andrew Roberge
Roberge, Andrew, 2024 When the rivers ran low and the crops turned to dust: Medieval drought ecologies and drought as potential inspiration for the Marine Fish Event Horizon in Central Europe, Flinders University, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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Using a multipartite method of analysis, this thesis builds a dynamic body of evidence to suggest recurrent and devastating droughts as a potential inspiration for the AD 900–1540 Marine Fish Event Horizon (MFEH) in Central Europe. By reconstructing pathways of drought harm to freshwater fish ecologies, other human foodways, and general public health in a medieval Central European context, this thesis establishes drought as a pervasive socio-ecological stressor to freshwater fish and the Christianizing Europeans who relied upon them during religious fasts. Drought harm is potentially reflected in archival, osteological, ichthyological, and technological materials, which together provide a body of evidence to compare with reconstructed and archivally evidenced droughts and their fallout. Comparing the temporal proximity of droughts and drought-induced foodway disruptions to specific MFEH events, the development of the Hanseatic League, and technological shipbuilding advancements also suggests drought’s role in inspiring human change. Analyzing the medieval climate promises to add a crucial element of the lived experience to previous, purely cultural, MFEH studies. Secondarily, the presented research reveals the pitfalls of epoch-length climate and cultural generalization, emphasizing the need for site and time-specific analysis of multidisciplinary material. Doing so yields specific results that contextualize this complex period of resource revolution and trade while simultaneously complicating notions of simple environmental determinism.
Keywords: Marine Fishing; Drought; Medieval Central Europe; Hanseatic League; Cog; Ichthyology; Medieval Ecology; Christianity; Medieval Agriculture; Cod; Herring; Carp; Fisheries; Little Ice Age; Medieval Climate Anomaly; Marine Fish Event Horizon; Rhine; Danube; Oder; Elbe; Stockfish; Viking; Aquaculture; Milling; Polders; Medieval Pollution
Subject: Archaeology thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2024
School: College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Supervisor: Jonathan Benjamin; John McCarthy