The ecological impact of religious conversion
in medieval northern Europe

The widespread acceptance of Christianity across northern Europe was accompanied by changes in how people perceived other species and their shared environments. This transformation can be crudely summarised as a shift from a largely 'zoocentric' to 'anthropocentric' world-view. Animals were deployed in the organisation of human society in both pre-Christian and Christian Europe, but the distance between people and other animals appears to have significantly widened by the 12th century.

Christianity introduced a distinct cosmological hierarchy dominated by humans, and native fauna such as wolves and bears were abandoned in favour of a new symbolic menagerie: the lamb, lion and whale. By the 12th century, a diverse range of animals was used to communicate complex meanings in religious art. For instance, the owl on the left, a later medieval example from Lincoln cathedral, could be used to represent Jews and became a potent symbol of medieval antisemitism.

Of course, the process and its resulting reconfigurations were much more complicated than this crude sketch, but there is clear evidence for a significant paradigm shift represented by the abandonment of animal sacrifice and burials, although the deposition of animal remains in non-funerary contexts continued.

I am particularly interested in changing human-animal relations (as reflected in the combination of archaeological, written and artistic sources) during the conversion period in Anglo-Saxon England, Viking-Age Scandinavia and as a result of the crusades in the Baltic, and hope to develop this into a strong research theme.


Relevant publications
  • Pluskowski, A. G. (2003) ‘Apocalyptic monsters: animal inspirations for the iconography of medieval north European devourers’, in R. Mills and B. Bildhauer (eds.), < i>The Monstrous Middle Ages, Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 155-176.
  • Pluskowski. A. G. (2004) 'Lupine apocalypse: the wolf in pagan and Christian cosmology in medieval Britain and Scandinavia', Cosmos, 17, 113-131.
  • Pluskowski, A. G. (2006) 'Harnessing the hunger: religious appropriations of animal predation in early medieval Scandinavia', in A. Andrén, K. Jennbert and C. Raudvere (eds.), Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives, Lund, Nordic Academic Press, 119-123.

    • See also:

  • Pluskowski, A. G. and Patrick, P. J. (2003) ‘How do you pray to God?' Fragmentation and variety in early medieval Christianity’, in M. Carver (ed.), The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300–1300, Woodbridge, Boydell, 29-58.
    • Forthcoming publications
  • Pluskowski, A. G. (2007) 'Before the werewolf trials: contextualising shape changers in medieval Europe' (in preparation).
  • Pluskowski, A. G. (2007) 'Thinking in symbols' (confirmed chapter in forthcoming M. Carver and S. Semple (eds.), Signals of Belief in Early Medieval England).
  • Pluskowski, A. G. (2008). 'The archaeology of paganism' (confirmed chapter in forthcoming Hamerow, H. Hinton, D. and Crawford, S. (eds.) Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, Oxford, Oxford University Press).
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    Relevant presentations
  • 1st February 2003. ‘'Infernal devourers: animals as cosmic predators in medieval Britain', Representation and Abstraction: Responses to the Natural World in the Middle Ages, Courtauld Institute, London.
  • June 2004. 'Harnessing the hunger: religious appropriations of animal predation in early medieval Scandinavia', Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives, Institute of Archaeology, University of Lund.
  • 2nd April 2005. 'The significance of predation in Anglo-Scandinavian cult and belief', Paganism and Popular Practice in Anglo-Saxon England, University of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education (organised by Sarah Semple and Alex Sanmark)
  • 14th October 2006. 'The beast within? Breaching human/animal boundaries in Anglo-Saxon paganism and the impact of the conversion to Christianity', Pagan Belief: Burial and Beyond, The Sutton Hoo Society Conference, Holbrook.
  • 15th January 2007. 'Before the werewolf trials: contextualising shape changers in medieval Europe', "Changing Beliefs of the Human Body: a Comparative Social Perspective", Leverhulme Research Programme Conference, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge.
  • 7th May 2008. 'Religion and the treatment of animals in medieval Christian Europe: advancing zooarchaeological perspectives', Ubiquitous animals and tangible relationships: living, thinking, eating and representing: A seminar on animals in archaeology, University of Oslo.
    • Forthcoming presentations
  • 11th-13th September 2009. 'Animality and monstrosity: contextualising shape changing in Medieval Europe' Body Histories, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.
  • 14th April 2010. 'Harvesting the wild: comparing the ecology and culture of fur acquisition in the Baltic and North Sea worlds', North Sea World Conference, UEA, Norwich.
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