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Old Prussians

Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians (Old Prussian: prūsai; German: Pruzzen or Prußen; Latin: Pruteni; Latvian: prūši; Lithuanian: prūsai; Polish: Prusowie; Kashubian: Prësowié) were an indigenous tribe among the Baltic peoples that inhabited the region of Prussia, at the south-eastern shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon to the east. The Old Prussians, who spoke an Indo-European language now known as Old Prussian and worshipped pre-Christian deities, lent their name, despite very few commonalities, to the later, predominantly Low German-speaking inhabitants of the region.[1][2][3]

Prussians
Prūsai
The Old Prussians in the context of the Baltic tribes, ca. 1200 AD. The boundaries are approximations.

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, largely undocumented, was effectively extinct by the 17th century.[4][5][6][7]

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.[3]

Etymology

The name of the Old Prussians has its origin in toponymy, as the word Prūsas (a Prussian) can be derived from the term for a body of water, an understandable convention in a coastal region dotted with thousands of lakes, streams and swamps (Masuria). To the south, the terrain runs into the vast wetlands of the Pripet Marshes at the headwaters of the Dnieper River, which has been an effective natural barrier throughout the millennia.[8]

Writing in 98 CE, Roman historian Tacitus described the pagan Aesti who lived somewhere by the Baltic Sea coast and east of the Vistula estuary. It has been suggested that the name Aesti could be etymologically related to the modern toponym Estonians. On the other hand, the Old Prussian and modern Lithuanian names for localities, such as the Vistula Lagoon, Aīstinmari and Aistmarės, respectively, also appear to derive from Aesti and mari ("lagoon" or "fresh-water bay"), which suggests that the area around the lagoon had links with the Aesti.[9]

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 later were organized continued to use the names. This source is perhaps the one used in the very name of Prusa (Prussia), for which an earlier Brus- is found in the map of the Bavarian Geographer. In Tacitus' Germania, the Lugii Buri are mentioned living within the eastern range of the Germans. Lugi may descend from Pokorny's *leug- (2), "black, swamp" (Page 686), while Buri is perhaps the "Prussian" root.[10]

The name of Pameddi, the (Pomesania) tribe is derived from the words pa ("by" or "near") and meddin ("forest") or meddu ("honey"), which can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European root *medhu-. Nadruvia may be a compound of the words na ("by" or "on") and drawē ("wood") or nad ("above") and the root *reu- ("flow" or "river"). 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 Borusci living in European Sarmatia (in his Eighth Map of Europe), which was separated from Germania by the Vistula Flumen. His map is very confusing in that region, but the Borusci seem further east than the Prussians, which would have been under the Gythones (Goths) at the mouth of the Vistula. The Aesti recorded by Tacitus, were 450 years later recorded by Jordanes as part of the Gothic Empire.[11]

Organization

 
Political and tribal fragmentation of the 12th-century Old Prussians
 
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 Baltics, 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.[12][13][1]

Permanent recorded Baltic history begins in the 10th century with the failed Christianisation by Adalbert of Prague (997 CE.), 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.[14][15]

Around the year 1,000 CE. to the West of the Old Prussians lived the Kashubians and Pomeranians, 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 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.[16][17] The word appears as a segment in Baltic settlement names, especially in Curonian,[18] 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.[16] The supreme power resided in general gatherings of all adult males, who discussed important matters concerning the community and elected the leader and chief; the leader was responsible for the supervision of the everyday matters, while the chief (the rikīs) was in charge of the road and watchtower building, and border defense, undertaken by Vidivarii.

The head of a household was the buttataws (literally, the house father, from buttan, meaning home, and taws, meaning father). Larger political and territorial organisations, called terrula in Latin (a small land), existed in the early 13th century in the territories which later comprised Prussia, Latvia and Lithuania and centred on strongholds or hill forts. Such a political territorial unit covered up to 300 km2 (120 sq mi) and could have up to 2,000 inhabitants. They were known as pulka, comprising a dozen or so laukses.[19]

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.[20]

According to Jan Długosz, the Prussians, Samogitians, and Lithuanians were the same tribe.[21]

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.[22] He lists eleven lands and ten tribes, which were named on a geographical basis. These were:

Latin German Polish modern
Lithuanian
reconstructed
Prussian
see also
1 Pomesania Pomesanien Pomezania Pamedė Pameddi Pomesanians
2 Varmia Ermland,
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 Kulmus

Culture, religion and customs

The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan (in Anglo-Saxon) (English translation) describes a ninth century voyage by traveller and trader Wulfstan of Hedeby to the land of the Old Prussians. He observes their funeral customs.

Customs

 
An engraving of a Prussian warrior with a club, Christoph Hartknoch's 1684 book "Old and New Prussia" (Alt- und Neues Preussen).

Characterized as a humble people, who dressed plainly, the Old Prussians were distinguished for their valor and great bodily strength.[23] 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 Samians are said to have consumed horse blood as well as horse milk. He also mentions that horse meat was eaten.[24]

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. In addition, polygyny (up to three wives) was widespread. Adultery was a serious crime, punishable with death. After the submission, commercial marriage and polygyny were forbidden.[citation needed]

Burial customs

According to archaeological evidence, pre-Christian burial customs changed over the centuries.[12]

During the Iron Age (5th century BC – 1st century AD), the western Baltic kurgan and barrow culture was widespread among the Old Prussians. It was then that cremation in urns appeared. Grave mounds were raised over stone cells for up to 30 urns, or stone boxes for the urns were buried in Bronze Age style barrows.

During the early phase of imperial Rome, shallow graves appeared in which the corpse was buried in tree coffins. Cremation with urns spread from the third century onwards. Except for the Samians and Sudauers, where shallow grave fields existed until Christianization, cremation pits without urns increasingly became the only form of burials among the Prussians. However, different forms of burial could occur side by side at the same time.[25]

Stone babas

 
Prussian Hag – Old Prussian kurgan stelae

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, their provenance, pointing to which cultural influence have not been addressed until the late 19th century. A majority of past and present researchers agree 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.[sic][26]

Old Prussian religion

 
Illustration of a Prussian goat sacrifice from the 16th century Sudovian Book

"Because they did not know God, therefore, in their error, they worshipped every creature as divine, namely the sun, moon and stars, thunder, birds, even four-legged animals, even the toad. They also had forests, fields and bodies of water, which they held so sacred that they neither chopped wood nor dared to cultivate fields or fish in them. "Peter of Dusburg: Chronicon terrae Prussiae III,5 ,53[27]

Baltic paganism has been described as a form of polydoxy – a belief in the sacredness of all-natural forces and phenomena, not personified but possess their own spirits and magical powers. Practically, the world is inhabited by a limitless number of spirits and demons that includes a belief in the afterlife, the soul and worship of ancestors characterised by specific cults and their associated rituals. Other authors have argued for a well developed, sophisticated Old Prussian polytheism with a clearly defined pantheon of gods.[16]

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 limit for 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.[14]

Christianisation

With the submission to the Teutonic Order in 1231, the Old Prussians were Christianised. How long the old paganism lived on cannot be inferred from the sources. Pagan customs are said to have lasted the longest with the remote Sudauers. In the 16th century, the so-called Sudovian Book (Sudauerbüchlein) was created, which described a list of gods, "pagan" festivals and goat sanctification. However, researchers argue that this little book misinterpreted traditional folk customs as 'pagan' in the context of the Reformation.[28]

History

 
Medieval depiction of Prussians killing Saint Adalbert, the missionary bishop; part of the Gniezno Doors, c. 1175.

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

It is gratifying to us to know that you have heard of our fame, and have sent ambassadors who have passed through so many strange nations to seek our friendship.
We have received the amber which you have sent us. You say that you gather this lightest of all substances from the shores of ocean, but how it comes thither you know not. But as an author named Cornelius (Tacitus) informs us, it is gathered in the innermost islands of the ocean, being formed originally of the juice of a tree (whence its name succinum), and gradually hardened by the heat of the sun. Thus it becomes an exuded metal, a transparent softness, sometimes blushing with the color of saffron, sometimes glowing with flame-like clearness. Then, gliding down to the margin of sea, and further purified by the rolling of the tides, it is at length transported to your shores to be cast upon them. We have thought it better to point this out to you, lest you should imagine that your supposed secrets have escaped our knowledge. We sent you some presents by our ambassadors, and shall be glad to receive further visits from you by the road which you have thus opened up, and to show you future favors.

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

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 Christianize the Prussians.[29] 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.[30]

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 were the results, 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. 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, become 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 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.

 
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.
 
A translation of catechisms into Old Prussian published in 1545 in Königsberg

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.[31]

In 1243, papal legate William of Modena divided Prussia into four bishopricsCulm, 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.[16]

The monks and scholars of the Teutonic Order took an interest in the language spoken by the Prussians and tried to record it. In addition, missionaries needed to communicate with the Prussians in order to convert them. Records of the Old Prussian language therefore survive; along with little-known Galindian and better-known Sudovian, these records are all that remain of the West Baltic language group. As might be expected, it is a very archaic Baltic language.

Old Prussians resisted the Teutonic Knights and received help from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the 13th century in their quest to free themselves of the military order. In 1525 Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach secularized the Order's Prussian territories into the Protestant Duchy of Prussia, a vassal of the crown of Poland. During the Reformation, Lutheranism spread throughout the territories, officially in the Duchy of Prussia and unofficially in the Polish province of Royal Prussia, while Catholicism survived in the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, the territory of secular rule comprising a third of the then Diocese of Warmia. With Protestantism came the use of the vernacular in church services instead of Latin, so Albert had the Catechisms translated into Old Prussian.

Because of the conquest of the Old Prussians by Germans, the Old Prussian language probably became extinct in the beginning of the 18th century with the devastation of the rural population by plagues and the assimilation of the nobility and the larger population with Germans or Lithuanians.[citation needed] However, translations of the Bible, Old Prussian poems, and some other texts survived and have enabled scholars to reconstruct the language.

References

  1. ^ a b Ēvalds Mugurēvičs (March 1, 2007). "A historical survey and present problems of archaeological science in the Baltic states". Journal of Baltic Studies. Informa UK Limited. 24 (3): 283–294. doi:10.1080/01629779300000171. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  2. ^ Michael North (7 April 2015). The Baltic: A History. Harvard University Press. pp. 36–. ISBN 978-0-674-42604-7.
  3. ^ a b James Cowles Prichard (1841). Ethnography of Europe. 3d ed. 1841. Houlston & Stoneman. pp. 449–.
  4. ^ "Old Prussian language". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  5. ^ "Baltic Odyssey" (PDF). Scientific Association "Pruthenia". Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  6. ^ United States Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1919. pp. 1–.
  7. ^ Philip Baldi; Pietro U. Dini (27 September 2004). Studies in Baltic and Indo-European Linguistics: In honor of William R. Schmalstieg. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 275–. ISBN 978-90-272-8538-6.
  8. ^ Reinhold Trautmann (1910). Die altpreussischen Sprachdenkmäler: Einleitung, Texte, Grammatik, Wörterbuch. Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.
  9. ^ Mikkels Klussis (2005–2006). "Dictionary of Revived Prussian". Institut Europeen des Minorites Ethniques Dispersees. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  10. ^ S. Koncha. "Ukrainian Studies. 12. Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko – BAVARIAN GEOGRAPHER ON SLAVIC TRIBES FROM UKRAINE – pp. 15–21" (PDF). Kiev University. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  11. ^ Edgar V. Saks (1960). Aestii: An Analysis of an Ancient European Civilization. Verlag Vôitleja. ISBN 978-09-069-6702-7.
  12. ^ a b Bartosz Kontny, Andrzej Szela, Paweł Szymański. "NOWINKA Site 1 The cemetery from the Late Migration Period in the northern Poland". Institute of Archeology of the University of Warsaw, Archaeological Museum in Gdansk. Retrieved October 1, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ "Old Prussian Hags of Northern Pomerania – These rare statues are one of the few remaining material witnesses to Old Prussian culture". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  14. ^ a b Walter James Wyatt (1876). The history of Prussia: tracing the origin and development of her military organization p. 2.
  15. ^ Milosz Sosnowski. "Prussians as bees, Prussians as dogs': metaphors and the depiction of pagan society in the early hagiography of St. Adalbert of Prague" (PDF). University of Reading. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  16. ^ a b c d Roman Zaroff. "Some aspects of pre-Christian Baltic religion". University of Queensland. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  17. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2010. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  18. ^ It varies in spellings, including -laukas, -laukis, and lauks.
  19. ^ Grzegorz Białuński (1999). Studia z dziejów plemion pruskich i jaćwieskich – 138. Pulka-terrula territorial organization is also supported by archaeological evidence; Okulicz-Kozaryn 1997: 268-277. Ośrodek Badań Naukowych. ISBN 978-83-87643-95-9.
  20. ^ Jan Wendt. "Political Regionalization of Prussia". University of Danzig. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  21. ^ Šorys, Juozas; Baranauskas, Tomas (14 October 2010). "Prūsų kraujo paveldėtojai". Alkas.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  22. ^ Alan V. Murray (2009). The Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-0-7546-6483-3.
  23. ^ "The Short Course About Prussians & Their Mythology". History & Culture Academy of Latgale.
  24. ^ Marija Gimbutas; Alseikaitė (1963). The Balts. Praeger. ISBN 978-0-50-002030-2.
  25. ^ Mirosław Rudnicki (22 November 2018). The Olsztyn Group in the Early Medieval Archaeology of the Baltic Region: The Cemetery at Leleszki. BRILL. pp. 46–. ISBN 978-90-04-38172-8.
  26. ^ Seweryn Szczepanski. "Old Prussian "Baba" Stones: An Overview of the History of Research and Reception. Pomesanian-Sasinian Case". Academia. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  27. ^ Roman Shiroukhov. "Prussian graves in the Sambian peninsula with imports, arms and horse harnesses from the tenth to the 13th century: the question of warrior elite" (PDF). Klaipėda University. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  28. ^ Michael Brauer (12 October 2011). Die Entdeckung des 'Heidentums' in Preußen, Die Prußen in den Reformdiskursen des Spätmittelalters und der Reformation. De Gruyter. ISBN 9783050051215. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  29. ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Adalbert (of Bohemia)" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  30. ^ Recent Issues in Polish Historiography of the Crusades 2007-11-28 at the Wayback Machine Darius von Güttner Sporzyński. 2005
  31. ^ Marius Ščavinskas. "The 13th-Century Conquest of Prussia Reconsidered" (PDF). Klaipėda University. Retrieved October 1, 2020.

External links

  • Chronica terrae Prussiae
  • Lecture about Prussians & Their Mythology
  • The Old Prussians: the Lost Relatives of Latvians and Lithuanians
  • Dictionary of reconstructed Prussian language
  • Comparative Phonology and Morphology of the Baltic Languages

prussians, pruteni, redirects, here, commune, făleşti, district, moldova, pruteni, făleşti, prussians, also, refer, citizens, former, german, state, prussia, other, uses, prussia, disambiguation, baltic, prussians, simply, prussians, prussian, prūsai, german, . Pruteni redirects here For the commune in Fălesti district Moldova see Pruteni Fălesti Prussians may also refer to citizens of the former German state Prussia For other uses see Prussia disambiguation Old Prussians Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians Old Prussian prusai German Pruzzen or Prussen Latin Pruteni Latvian prusi Lithuanian prusai Polish Prusowie Kashubian Presowie were an indigenous tribe among the Baltic peoples that inhabited the region of Prussia at the south eastern shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon to the east The Old Prussians who spoke an Indo European language now known as Old Prussian and worshipped pre Christian deities lent their name despite very few commonalities to the later predominantly Low German speaking inhabitants of the region 1 2 3 PrussiansPrusaiThe Old Prussians in the context of the Baltic tribes ca 1200 AD The boundaries are approximations 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 largely undocumented was effectively extinct by the 17th century 4 5 6 7 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 Klaipeda Region in Lithuania The territory was also inhabited by Scalovians a tribe related to the Prussians Curonians and Eastern Balts 3 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Organization 3 Culture religion and customs 3 1 Customs 3 2 Burial customs 3 2 1 Stone babas 3 3 Old Prussian religion 3 4 Christianisation 4 History 5 References 6 External linksEtymology EditThe name of the Old Prussians has its origin in toponymy as the word Prusas a Prussian can be derived from the term for a body of water an understandable convention in a coastal region dotted with thousands of lakes streams and swamps Masuria To the south the terrain runs into the vast wetlands of the Pripet Marshes at the headwaters of the Dnieper River which has been an effective natural barrier throughout the millennia 8 Writing in 98 CE Roman historian Tacitus described the pagan Aesti who lived somewhere by the Baltic Sea coast and east of the Vistula estuary It has been suggested that the name Aesti could be etymologically related to the modern toponym Estonians On the other hand the Old Prussian and modern Lithuanian names for localities such as the Vistula Lagoon Aistinmari and Aistmares respectively also appear to derive from Aesti and mari lagoon or fresh water bay which suggests that the area around the lagoon had links with the Aesti 9 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 later were organized continued to use the names This source is perhaps the one used in the very name of Prusa Prussia for which an earlier Brus is found in the map of the Bavarian Geographer In Tacitus Germania the Lugii Buri are mentioned living within the eastern range of the Germans Lugi may descend from Pokorny s leug 2 black swamp Page 686 while Buri is perhaps the Prussian root 10 The name of Pameddi the Pomesania tribe is derived from the words pa by or near and meddin forest or meddu honey which can be traced to the Proto Indo European root medhu Nadruvia may be a compound of the words na by or on and drawe wood or nad above and the root reu flow or river The name of the Bartians a Prussian tribe and the name of the Barta river in Latvia are possibly cognates In the second century AD the geographer Claudius Ptolemy listed some Borusci living in European Sarmatia in his Eighth Map of Europe which was separated from Germania by the Vistula Flumen His map is very confusing in that region but the Borusci seem further east than the Prussians which would have been under the Gythones Goths at the mouth of the Vistula The Aesti recorded by Tacitus were 450 years later recorded by Jordanes as part of the Gothic Empire 11 Organization Edit Political and tribal fragmentation of the 12th century Old Prussians 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 Baltics 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 12 13 1 Permanent recorded Baltic history begins in the 10th century with the failed Christianisation by Adalbert of Prague 997 CE 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 Boleslaw as a number of border areas were eventually lost 14 15 Around the year 1 000 CE to the West of the Old Prussians lived the Kashubians and Pomeranians 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 Baltic lands was the lauks 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 16 17 The word appears as a segment in Baltic settlement names especially in Curonian 18 and is found in Old Prussian placenames such as in Stablack from stabs stone lauks field thus stone field The plural is not attested in Old Prussian but the Lithuanian plural of laukas field is laukai A lauks 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 16 The supreme power resided in general gatherings of all adult males who discussed important matters concerning the community and elected the leader and chief the leader was responsible for the supervision of the everyday matters while the chief the rikis was in charge of the road and watchtower building and border defense undertaken by Vidivarii The head of a household was the buttataws literally the house father from buttan meaning home and taws meaning father Larger political and territorial organisations called terrula in Latin a small land existed in the early 13th century in the territories which later comprised Prussia Latvia and Lithuania and centred on strongholds or hill forts Such a political territorial unit covered up to 300 km2 120 sq mi and could have up to 2 000 inhabitants They were known as pulka comprising a dozen or so laukses 19 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 20 According to Jan Dlugosz the Prussians Samogitians and Lithuanians were the same tribe 21 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 22 He lists eleven lands and ten tribes which were named on a geographical basis These were Latin German Polish modernLithuanian reconstructedPrussian see also1 Pomesania Pomesanien Pomezania Pamede Pameddi Pomesanians2 Varmia Ermland Warmien Warmia Varme Warmi Warmians3 Pogesania Pogesanien Pogezania Pagude Paguddi Pogesanians4 Natangia Natangen Natangia Notanga Notangi Natangians5 Sambia Samland Sambia Semba Semba Sambians6 Nadrovia Nadrauen Nadrowia Nadruva Nadrauwa Nadruvians7 Bartia Barten Barcja Barta Barta Bartians8 Scalovia Schalauen Skalowia Skalva Skallawa Skalvians9 Sudovia Sudauen Sudawia Suduva Sudawa Sudovians or Yotvingians10 Galindia Galindien Galindia Galinda Galinda Galindians11 Culm Kulmerland Chelmno Kulmas KulmusCulture religion and customs EditThe Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan in Anglo Saxon English translation describes a ninth century voyage by traveller and trader Wulfstan of Hedeby to the land of the Old Prussians He observes their funeral customs Customs Edit An engraving of a Prussian warrior with a club Christoph Hartknoch s 1684 book Old and New Prussia Alt und Neues Preussen Characterized as a humble people who dressed plainly the Old Prussians were distinguished for their valor and great bodily strength 23 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 Samians are said to have consumed horse blood as well as horse milk He also mentions that horse meat was eaten 24 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 In addition polygyny up to three wives was widespread Adultery was a serious crime punishable with death After the submission commercial marriage and polygyny were forbidden citation needed Burial customs Edit According to archaeological evidence pre Christian burial customs changed over the centuries 12 During the Iron Age 5th century BC 1st century AD the western Baltic kurgan and barrow culture was widespread among the Old Prussians It was then that cremation in urns appeared Grave mounds were raised over stone cells for up to 30 urns or stone boxes for the urns were buried in Bronze Age style barrows During the early phase of imperial Rome shallow graves appeared in which the corpse was buried in tree coffins Cremation with urns spread from the third century onwards Except for the Samians and Sudauers where shallow grave fields existed until Christianization cremation pits without urns increasingly became the only form of burials among the Prussians However different forms of burial could occur side by side at the same time 25 Stone babas Edit Prussian Hag Old Prussian kurgan stelae 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 their provenance pointing to which cultural influence have not been addressed until the late 19th century A majority of past and present researchers agree 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 sic 26 Old Prussian religion Edit Illustration of a Prussian goat sacrifice from the 16th century Sudovian Book Because they did not know God therefore in their error they worshipped every creature as divine namely the sun moon and stars thunder birds even four legged animals even the toad They also had forests fields and bodies of water which they held so sacred that they neither chopped wood nor dared to cultivate fields or fish in them Peter of Dusburg Chronicon terrae Prussiae III 5 53 27 Baltic paganism has been described as a form of polydoxy a belief in the sacredness of all natural forces and phenomena not personified but possess their own spirits and magical powers Practically the world is inhabited by a limitless number of spirits and demons that includes a belief in the afterlife the soul and worship of ancestors characterised by specific cults and their associated rituals Other authors have argued for a well developed sophisticated Old Prussian polytheism with a clearly defined pantheon of gods 16 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 limit for 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 14 Christianisation Edit With the submission to the Teutonic Order in 1231 the Old Prussians were Christianised How long the old paganism lived on cannot be inferred from the sources Pagan customs are said to have lasted the longest with the remote Sudauers In the 16th century the so called Sudovian Book Sudauerbuchlein was created which described a list of gods pagan festivals and goat sanctification However researchers argue that this little book misinterpreted traditional folk customs as pagan in the context of the Reformation 28 History Edit Medieval depiction of Prussians killing Saint Adalbert the missionary bishop part of the Gniezno Doors c 1175 Cassiodorus Variae published in 537 contains a letter written by Cassiodorus in the name of Theodoric the Great addressed to the Aesti It is gratifying to us to know that you have heard of our fame and have sent ambassadors who have passed through so many strange nations to seek our friendship We have received the amber which you have sent us You say that you gather this lightest of all substances from the shores of ocean but how it comes thither you know not But as an author named Cornelius Tacitus informs us it is gathered in the innermost islands of the ocean being formed originally of the juice of a tree whence its name succinum and gradually hardened by the heat of the sun Thus it becomes an exuded metal a transparent softness sometimes blushing with the color of saffron sometimes glowing with flame like clearness Then gliding down to the margin of sea and further purified by the rolling of the tides it is at length transported to your shores to be cast upon them We have thought it better to point this out to you lest you should imagine that your supposed secrets have escaped our knowledge We sent you some presents by our ambassadors and shall be glad to receive further visits from you by the road which you have thus opened up and to show you future favors The Old Prussians are called Brus by the Bavarian Geographer in the ninth century More extensive mention of the Old Prussians in historical sources is in connection with Adalbert of Prague who was sent by Boleslaw I of Poland Adalbert was slain in 997 during a missionary effort to Christianize the Prussians 29 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 30 Beginning in 1147 the Polish duke Boleslaw IV the Curly securing the help of Ruthenian troops tried to subdue Prussia supposedly as punishment for the close cooperation of Prussians with Wladyslaw II the Exile The only source is unclear about the results of his attempts vaguely only mentioning that the Prussians were defeated Whatever were the results in 1157 some Prussian troops supported the Polish army in their fight against Emperor Frederick Barbarossa In 1166 two Polish dukes Boleslaw 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 Drweca 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 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 become 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 Dobrzyn 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 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 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 A translation of catechisms into Old Prussian published in 1545 in Konigsberg 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 31 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 16 The monks and scholars of the Teutonic Order took an interest in the language spoken by the Prussians and tried to record it In addition missionaries needed to communicate with the Prussians in order to convert them Records of the Old Prussian language therefore survive along with little known Galindian and better known Sudovian these records are all that remain of the West Baltic language group As might be expected it is a very archaic Baltic language Old Prussians resisted the Teutonic Knights and received help from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the 13th century in their quest to free themselves of the military order In 1525 Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg Ansbach secularized the Order s Prussian territories into the Protestant Duchy of Prussia a vassal of the crown of Poland During the Reformation Lutheranism spread throughout the territories officially in the Duchy of Prussia and unofficially in the Polish province of Royal Prussia while Catholicism survived in the Prince Bishopric of Warmia the territory of secular rule comprising a third of the then Diocese of Warmia With Protestantism came the use of the vernacular in church services instead of Latin so Albert had the Catechisms translated into Old Prussian Because of the conquest of the Old Prussians by Germans the Old Prussian language probably became extinct in the beginning of the 18th century with the devastation of the rural population by plagues and the assimilation of the nobility and the larger population with Germans or Lithuanians citation needed However translations of the Bible Old Prussian poems and some other texts survived and have enabled scholars to reconstruct the language References Edit a b Evalds Mugurevics March 1 2007 A historical survey and present problems of archaeological science in the Baltic states Journal of Baltic Studies Informa UK Limited 24 3 283 294 doi 10 1080 01629779300000171 Retrieved October 1 2020 Michael North 7 April 2015 The Baltic A History Harvard University Press pp 36 ISBN 978 0 674 42604 7 a b James Cowles Prichard 1841 Ethnography of Europe 3d ed 1841 Houlston amp Stoneman pp 449 Old Prussian language Encyclopaedia Britannica Baltic Odyssey PDF Scientific Association Pruthenia Retrieved September 30 2020 United States Congressional Serial Set U S Government Printing Office 1919 pp 1 Philip Baldi Pietro U Dini 27 September 2004 Studies in Baltic and Indo European Linguistics In honor of William R Schmalstieg John Benjamins Publishing Company pp 275 ISBN 978 90 272 8538 6 Reinhold Trautmann 1910 Die altpreussischen Sprachdenkmaler Einleitung Texte Grammatik Worterbuch Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht Mikkels Klussis 2005 2006 Dictionary of Revived Prussian Institut Europeen des Minorites Ethniques Dispersees Retrieved September 30 2020 S Koncha Ukrainian Studies 12 Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko BAVARIAN GEOGRAPHER ON SLAVIC TRIBES FROM UKRAINE pp 15 21 PDF Kiev University Retrieved September 30 2020 Edgar V Saks 1960 Aestii An Analysis of an Ancient European Civilization Verlag Voitleja ISBN 978 09 069 6702 7 a b Bartosz Kontny Andrzej Szela Pawel Szymanski NOWINKA Site 1 The cemetery from the Late Migration Period in the northern Poland Institute of Archeology of the University of Warsaw Archaeological Museum in Gdansk Retrieved October 1 2020 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Old Prussian Hags of Northern Pomerania These rare statues are one of the few remaining material witnesses to Old Prussian culture Atlas Obscura Retrieved October 1 2020 a b Walter James Wyatt 1876 The history of Prussia tracing the origin and development of her military organization p 2 Milosz Sosnowski Prussians as bees Prussians as dogs metaphors and the depiction of pagan society in the early hagiography of St Adalbert of Prague PDF University of Reading Retrieved October 1 2020 a b c d Roman Zaroff Some aspects of pre Christian Baltic religion University of Queensland Retrieved October 1 2020 Lie Mikkels Klussis PDF Archived from the original PDF on 10 October 2010 Retrieved 20 September 2018 It varies in spellings including laukas laukis and lauks Grzegorz Bialunski 1999 Studia z dziejow plemion pruskich i jacwieskich 138 Pulka terrula territorial organization is also supported by archaeological evidence Okulicz Kozaryn 1997 268 277 Osrodek Badan Naukowych ISBN 978 83 87643 95 9 Jan Wendt Political Regionalization of Prussia University of Danzig Retrieved October 1 2020 Sorys Juozas Baranauskas Tomas 14 October 2010 Prusu kraujo paveldetojai Alkas lt in Lithuanian Retrieved 21 September 2021 Alan V Murray 2009 The Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier Ashgate Publishing Ltd pp 123 ISBN 978 0 7546 6483 3 The Short Course About Prussians amp Their Mythology History amp Culture Academy of Latgale Marija Gimbutas Alseikaite 1963 The Balts Praeger ISBN 978 0 50 002030 2 Miroslaw Rudnicki 22 November 2018 The Olsztyn Group in the Early Medieval Archaeology of the Baltic Region The Cemetery at Leleszki BRILL pp 46 ISBN 978 90 04 38172 8 Seweryn Szczepanski Old Prussian Baba Stones An Overview of the History of Research and Reception Pomesanian Sasinian Case Academia Retrieved October 1 2020 Roman Shiroukhov Prussian graves in the Sambian peninsula with imports arms and horse harnesses from the tenth to the 13th century the question of warrior elite PDF Klaipeda University Retrieved October 1 2020 Michael Brauer 12 October 2011 Die Entdeckung des Heidentums in Preussen Die Prussen in den Reformdiskursen des Spatmittelalters und der Reformation De Gruyter ISBN 9783050051215 Retrieved October 1 2020 Herbermann Charles ed 1913 St Adalbert of Bohemia Catholic Encyclopedia New York Robert Appleton Company Recent Issues in Polish Historiography of the Crusades Archived 2007 11 28 at the Wayback Machine Darius von Guttner Sporzynski 2005 Marius Scavinskas The 13th Century Conquest of Prussia Reconsidered PDF Klaipeda University Retrieved October 1 2020 External links EditChronica terrae Prussiae Lecture about Prussians amp Their Mythology The Old Prussians the Lost Relatives of Latvians and Lithuanians M Gimbutas book on the Balts with maps 1584 German map of Prussia Northeast Prussia Milestones of Baltic Prussian History Modern Prusai Communities Map of the land of Old Prussians Dictionary of reconstructed Prussian language Comparative Phonology and Morphology of the Baltic Languages Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Old Prussians amp oldid 1144509390, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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