Old Prussians - WikiHQ

Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians were a Baltic people that inhabited the region of Prussia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon to the east. As Balts, they spoke an Indo-European language of the Baltic branch now known as Old Prussian and worshipped pre-Christian deities. Their ethnonym was later adopted by predominantly Low German-speaking inhabitants of the region.

The duchy of the Polans under Mieszko I, which was the predecessor of the Kingdom of Poland, first attempted to conquer and baptize the Baltic tribes during the 10th century, but repeatedly encountered strong resistance. Not until the 13th century were the Old Prussians subjugated and their lands conquered by the Teutonic Order. The remaining Old Prussians were assimilated during the following two centuries. The Old Prussian language, documented only in a limited way, was effectively extinct by the 18th century.

The original territory of the Old Prussians prior to the first clashes with the Polans consisted of central and southern West and East Prussia, equivalent to parts of the modern areas of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in Poland, the Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia and the southern Klaipėda Region in Lithuania. The territory was also inhabited by Scalovians, a tribe related to the Prussians, Curonians and Eastern Balts.

Writing in AD 98, Roman historian Tacitus described the pagan who lived somewhere by the Baltic Sea coast and east of the Vistula estuary. It has been suggested that the name could be etymologically related to the modern toponym Estonia. On the other hand, the Old Prussian and modern Lithuanian names for localities, such as the Vistula Lagoon, and , respectively, also appear to derive from and ("lagoon" or "fresh-water bay"), which suggests that the area around the lagoon had links with the .

The original settlers tended to name their assets after surrounding localities (streams, lakes, seas, forests, etc.). The clan or tribal entity into which their descendants were later organized continued to use the names. This source is perhaps the one used in the very name of (Prussia), for which an earlier Latin-language word is found in the Bavarian Geographer. In Tacitus' , the are mentioned living within the eastern range of the Germans. Lugi may descend from Julius Pokorny's ("black swamp"), while Buri is perhaps the root on which the toponym Prussia is based.

The name of Pameddi, the (Pomesania) tribe, is derived from the words pa ("by" or "near") and median ("forest"), which can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European adjective ("middle"). Nadruvia may be a compound of the words na ("by" or "on") and drawē ("wood"). The name of the Bartians, a Prussian tribe, and the name of the Bārta river in Latvia are possibly cognates.

In the second century AD, the geographer Claudius Ptolemy listed some living in European Sarmatia (in his Eighth Map of Europe), which was separated from Germania by the . His map is very confusing in that region, but the Borusci seem further east than the Prussians, which would have been under the (Goths) at the mouth of the Vistula. The recorded by Tacitus, were 450 years later recorded by Jordanes as part of the Gothic Empire.

Organisation

thumb|Prussian tribes and their borders around 1200.

thumb|Political and tribal fragmentation of the 12th century Old Prussians

thumb|A fragment of the Pomesanian statute book of 1340. The earliest attested document of the customary law of the Balts.

The original Old Prussian settlement area in the western Baltic, as well as that of the eastern Balts, was much larger than in historical times. The archaeological documentation and associated finds confirm uninterrupted presence from the Iron Age (fifth century BC) to the successive conquest by Slavic tribes, beginning in the Migration Period.

Permanent recorded Baltic history begins in the 10th century with the failed Christianisation by Adalbert of Prague (997 AD), the first conquest attempts at the expense of the Old Prussians by the duchy of the Polans under Mieszko I and the Duchy of Greater Poland under his son Bolesław, as a number of border areas were eventually lost.

Around the year 1000 AD, the Kashubians and Pomeranians lived to the west of the Old Prussians, the Poles to the south, the Sudovians (sometimes considered a separate people, other times regarded as a Prussian tribe) to the east and south-east, the Skalvians to the north, and the Lithuanians to the northeast.

The smallest social unit in the Baltic lands was the laūks, a word attested in Old Prussian as "field", which were small family oriented settlements, households and the surrounding fields, only separated from one another by uninhabited areas of forest, swamp and marsh. The word appears as a segment in Baltic settlement names, especially in Curonian, and is found in Old Prussian placenames such as in Stablack, from stabs (stone) + laūks (field, thus stone field). The plural is not attested in Old Prussian, but the Lithuanian plural of laukas ("field") is laukai.

A laūks was also formed by a group of farms that shared economic interests and a desire for safety, ruled by a male head of the family and centred on strongholds or hill forts.

Because the Baltic tribes inhabiting Prussia never formed a common political and territorial organisation, they had no reason to adopt a common ethnic or national name. Instead, they used the name of the region from which they came – Galindians, Sambians, Bartians, Nadruvians, Natangians, Scalovians, Sudovians, etc. It is not known when and how the first general names came into being. This lack of unity weakened them severely, similar to the condition of Germany during the Middle Ages.

According to Jan Długosz, the Prussians, Samogitians, and Lithuanians were the same tribe.

The Prussian tribal structure is well attested in the Chronicon terrae Prussiae of contemporary author Peter of Dusburg, a chronicler of the Teutonic Order. The work is dated to 1326. He lists eleven lands and ten tribes, which were named on a geographical basis. These were:

{|class="wikitable" style="margin: auto; text-align:center; width:70%"

! !!Latin!!German

!Polish!!modern<br>Lithuanian!!reconstructed<br>Prussian!!see also

|1||Pomesania||Pomesanien||Pomezania||Pamedė||Pameddi||Pomesanians

|2||Varmia||Ermland,<br>Warmien||Warmia||Varmė||Wārmi||Warmians

|3||Pogesania||Pogesanien||Pogezania||Pagudė||Paguddi||Pogesanians

|4||Natangia||Natangen||Natangia||Notanga||Notangi||Natangians

|5||Sambia||Samland||Sambia||Semba||Semba||Sambians

|6||Nadrovia||Nadrauen||Nadrowia||Nadruva||Nadrāuwa||Nadruvians

|7||Bartia||Barten||Barcja||Barta||Barta||Bartians

|8||Scalovia||Schalauen||Skalowia||Skalva||Skallawa||Skalvians

|9||Sudovia||Sudauen||Sudawia||Sūduva||Sūdawa||Sudovians or Yotvingians

|10||Galindia||Galindien||Galindia||Galinda||Galinda||Galindians

|11||Culm||Kulmerland||Chełmno||Kulmas||Kulma, Kulms||

Culture, religion and customs

"The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan" describes a ninth century voyage by traveller and trader Wulfstan of Hedeby to the land of the Old Prussians. He observed their funeral customs.

Customs

thumb|Engraving of a Prussian warrior with a [[club (weapon)|club in Christoph Hartknoch's 1684 book "Old and New Prussia" ()]]

Characterized as a humble people, who dressed plainly, the Old Prussians were "distinguished for their valor and great bodily strength". They generally rejected luxury, yet were very hospitable, and enjoyed celebrating and drinking excessively, usually mead. Wulfstan of Hedeby, who visited the trading town of Truso at the Vistula Lagoon, observed that wealthy people drank fermented mare's milk kumis instead of mead. According to Adam of Bremen, the Sambians are said to have consumed horse blood as well as horse milk. He also mentions that horse meat was eaten.

Women held no powerful positions among the Old Prussians and, according to Peter von Dusburg, were treated like servants, forbidden to share the husband's table. Commercial marriage was widespread and after the husband's death, the widow fell to the son, like other inheritance. Polygyny, up to three wives, was widespread. Adultery was a serious crime, punishable with death. After the submission to the Teutonic Order, commercial marriage and polygyny were forbidden.

Burial customs

According to archaeological evidence, pre-Christian burial customs changed over the centuries.

Stone babas

thumb|Prussian Hag – An Old Prussian [[Kurgan stelae|Kurgan stele]]

The Stone babas, found all over Old Prussia, have for centuries caused considerable speculation and dissent among scholars. Beginning with a lack of confirmation about their original location and context, all subsequent questions on their age, the chronology of the objects, an exact definition of their function, and their provenance, pointing to which cultural influences have not been addressed until the late 19th century. A majority of past and present researchers agree that the babas were created between the 8th and 13th centuries as a "result of a long cultural process among the population of early Iron Age area of the south-eastern Baltic coast, which was affected by both the early traditions of the local craft and inspirations from countries already under Christian influence."

Old Prussian religion

thumb|An illustration of a Prussian goat sacrifice from the 16th century [[Sudovian Book]]

Baltic paganism has been described as a form of polydoxy, a belief in the sacredness of all natural forces and phenomena, not personified but possessing their own spirits and magical powers. They thought the world inhabited by a limitless number of spirits and demons, believed in a soul and an afterlife, and practiced ancestor worship. Some authors, by contrast, have argued for a well developed, sophisticated Old Prussian polytheism with a clearly defined pantheon of gods.

The highest priest Kriwe-Kriwajto was to be in permanent connection with the spirits of the dead ancestors. He lived in a sacred grove, the Romove, a place off limits to anyone but elite clergy. Each district was headed by its Kriwe, who also served as lawgiver and judge. The Kriwe-Kriwajto's next in rank, the Siggonen were expected to maintain the healthy spiritual connection with natural sacred sites, like springs and trees. The Wurskaiten – priests of lower rank – were supposed to superintend rites and ceremonies.

History

Early historical references

Cassiodorus's , published in 537, contains a letter written by Cassiodorus in the name of Theodoric the Great, addressed to the :

Medieval references

The  Old Prussians are called by the Bavarian Geographer in the ninth century.

Christian contact and conflict

thumb|Medieval depiction of Prussians killing [[Adalbert of Prague|Saint Adalbert, the missionary bishop. Part of the Gniezno Doors, ]]

More extensive mention of the Old Prussians in historical sources is in connection with Adalbert of Prague, who was sent by Bolesław I of Poland. Adalbert was slain in 997 during a missionary effort to Christianise the Prussians. As soon as the first Polish dukes had been established with Mieszko I in 966, they undertook a number of conquests and crusades not only against Prussians and the closely related Sudovians, but against the Pomeranians and Wends as well.

Beginning in 1147, the Polish duke Bolesław IV the Curly (securing the help of Ruthenian troops) tried to subdue Prussia, supposedly as punishment for the close cooperation of Prussians with Władysław II the Exile. The only source is unclear about the results of his attempts, vaguely only mentioning that the Prussians were defeated. Whatever the results were, in 1157, some Prussian troops supported the Polish army in their fight against Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

In 1166, two Polish dukes, Bolesław IV and his younger brother Henry, came into Prussia again over the Ossa River. The prepared Prussians led the Polish army, under the leadership of Henry, into an area of marshy morass. Whoever did not drown was felled by an arrow or by throwing clubs, and nearly all Polish troops perished. From 1191 to 1193, Casimir II the Just invaded Prussia, this time along the river Drewenz (Drwęca). He forced some of the Prussian tribes to pay tribute and then withdrew.

Several attacks by Konrad of Masovia in the early 13th century were also successfully repelled by the Prussians.

Crusade and conquest

thumb|A map of the Old Prussian tribes after the subjugation by the Teutonic Order in the 13th century. The indicated towns feature Teutonic fortifications or castles, built to facilitate the conquest.

thumb|A translation of catechisms into Old Prussian published in 1545 in

In 1209, Pope Innocent III commissioned the Cistercian monk Christian of Oliva with the conversion of the pagan Prussians. In 1215, Christian was installed as the first bishop of Prussia. The Duchy of Masovia, and especially the region of Culmerland, became the object of constant Prussian counter-raids. In response, Konrad I of Masovia called on the Pope for aid several times, and founded a military order (the Order of Dobrzyń) before calling on the Teutonic Order. The results were edicts calling for Northern Crusades against the Prussians.

In 1224, Emperor Frederick II proclaimed that he himself and the Empire took the population of Prussia and the neighboring provinces under their direct protection; the inhabitants were declared to be Reichsfreie, to be subordinated directly to the Church and the Empire only, and exempted from service to and the jurisdiction of other dukes. The Teutonic Order, officially subject directly to the Popes, but also under the control of the empire, took control of much of the Baltic, establishing their own monastic state in Prussia.

In 1230, following the Golden Bull of Rimini, Grand Master Hermann von Salza and Duke Konrad I of Masovia launched the Prussian Crusade, a joint invasion of Prussia to Christianise the Baltic Old Prussians. The Order then created the independent Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights in the conquered territory and subsequently conquered Courland, Livonia, and Estonia. The Dukes of Poland accused the Order of holding lands illegally.

During an attack on Prussia in 1233, over 21,000 crusaders took part, of which the burggrave of Magdeburg brought 5,000 warriors, Duke Henry of Silesia 3,000, Duke Konrad of Masovia 4,000, Duke Casimir of Kuyavia 2,000, Duke Wladyslaw of Greater Poland 2,200 and the Dukes of Pomerania 5,000 warriors. The main battle took place at the Sirgune River and the Prussians suffered a decisive defeat. The Prussians took the Christian bishop and imprisoned him for several years.

Teutonic rule

Numerous knights from throughout Catholic Europe joined in the Prussian Crusades, which lasted sixty years. Many of the native Prussians from Sudovia who survived were resettled in Samland; Sudauer Winkel was named after them. Frequent revolts, including a major rebellion in 1286, were defeated by the Teutonic Knights. In 1283, according to the chronicler of the Teutonic Knights, Peter of Dusburg, the conquest of the Prussians ended and the war with the Lithuanians began.

In 1243, papal legate William of Modena divided Prussia into four bishoprics – Culm, Pomesania, Ermland, and Samland – under the Bishopric of Riga. Prussians were baptised at the Archbishopric of Magdeburg, while Germans and Dutch settlers colonized the lands of the native Prussians; Poles and Lithuanians also settled in southern and eastern Prussia, respectively. Significant pockets of Old Prussians were left in a matrix of Germans throughout Prussia and in what is now the Kaliningrad Oblast.