The Old Prussians are hardy fishers, hunters, farmers, and cattle breeders. They occupy the Baltic coast between the lower Vistula and Neman rivers, a swampy morass of brackish ponds, deep forests, freshwater streams and fertile soils.
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Old Prussians speak an Indo-European Baltic language. They're related to the Latvians and Lithuanians. They inhabit the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula and Neman rivers.
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Etymologists believe the name of the Old Prussians comes from the word Prūsas, meaning "a Prussian" based on another term for a water body. Countless lakes, streams and marshes occupy the Baltic coastal regions.
Old Prussian begins to be written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 13th century. A small amount of literature in the language survives.
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The original Old Prussian settlement area in the west Baltics, as well as that of the eastern Balts, is occupied from the North Iron Age (5th century BCE). Archaeological records confirm uninterrupted presence starting in the tribal Migration Period (c. 300 - 700).
The Migration Period, also the Völkerwanderung, is a vast movement in medieval Europe. Also called the Barbarian Invasions, this period marks the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages.
Adalbert of Prague & the Old Prussians
Recorded Baltic history begins in the 10th century, with the unsuccessful excursions by Adalbert of Prague (997 AD). These follow the failed attempts to Christianize the Bohemians despite six years of preaching and prayer.
The Bohemian belief system has deep pagan roots. Adalbert gives up his diocese at Gniezno to become a missionary near Prussia. He has moderate success but alienates the locals with his arrogance. Even more offensive to Prussians, he speaks out of a book.
Prussian society is an oral tradition. Communication is word of mouth and face to face. To the people, Adalbert reading from a book is some kind of evil magic. After a local chieftain strikes him on the head with an oar, scattering his papers to the winds, he flees the village.
He and his companions cross a river. His next attempt is no better. Local people bang sticks on the ground, shouting for the death of Adalbert and his companions. Forced once more to retreat, Adalbert and entourage go to a market place of Truso, near Vistula Lagoon.
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Here the group is again met with hostility. On April 23 997, after mass, Adalbert and friends are lying in the grass taking in a snack and sun, when a pagan mob attacks them. Sicco their leader strikes the first blow, and the pagans kill Adalbert.
They march his head around on a pike, then take the body back to Poland, where it's bought back, according to record, for its weight in gold. Due to Polish attacks around the same time, the Old Prussians lose several border areas.
Old Prussians
Baltic society is based on the laūks, a word attested in Old Prussian as "field". Settlements are family dwellings surrounded by fields, forests and swamp. A laūks is also formed by a group of farms with common economic interests and need for safety.
The family is ruled by a male head of household or buttataws. Strongholds and hill forts spring up as the southern threat grows. Administrative power comes from gatherings or meetings of all adult males. They decide communal matters and elect a leader and a chief.
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The leader holds dominion over everyday matters, while the chief or rikīs is reponsible for building roads, watchtowers and border defenses. Fortification building is done by the Vidivarii, a mixed cultural group who since c. 550 inhabit the lands of the lower Vistula.
They arise from the Willenberg culture of the Iron Age and include tribes of Vistula Veneti, Goths, Rugii, Gepids and possibly Huns. After the defeat of the Hun Empire in 469 migrations brings many back to homelands they hastily vacated due to the invading threat.
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By the 13th century building of hill forts and strongholds escalates. In the area later Prussia, Latvia and Lithuania larger polities and territorial groups take hold. A territorial unit or pulka comprises about a dozen laukses each with up to 2,000 inhabitants.
The Baltic tribes form loose affiliations but see no need to unite nationally. They're known after the regions they inhabit. A 13th century text by Peter of Dusburg lists eleven separate ethnic groups.
Pomesania (Pomesanians)
Varnia (Warmians)
Pogesania (Pogesanians)
Natangia (Natangians)
Sambia (Sambians)
Nadrovia (Nadruvians)
Bartia (Bartians)
Scalovia (Skalvians)
Sudovia (Sudovians / Yotvingians)
Galindia (Galindians)
Culm (-)
The Old Prussians are known for courage and strength. Physically large and fiercely aggressive, the Old Prussians are formidable in battle. They are nonetheless referred to as "humble", rejecting luxury.
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Their hospitality is noted as well as their love of celebration and drinking to excess. They are especially fond of mead.
Ninth century trader and traveler Wulfstan of Hedeby visits the trading town of Truso at the Vistula Lagoon. He notes wealthy people drink fermented mare's milk, kumis, instead of mead.
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According to Adam of Bremen, the Samians are said to drink horse blood as well as horse milk. He also mentions the Samians eat horse meat. Horse sacrifice is well-attested in the Baltic region and medieval site are identified in Poland.
Women are the inferior sex among Old Prussians, according to Peter von Dusburg. They're treated as servants and forbidden to share the husband's table.
Commercial marriage is common. After the husband's death, the widow goes to the son as inheritance. Men have up to three wives and adultery (by the wives) is punishable by death.
Burial customs change over time. During the Northern Iron Age (5th century BCE - 1st century CE), the western Baltic kurgan culture dominates. A kurgan, tumulus, barrow or mound is a grave site or pit with or without burial goods, covered by a hill.
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Later, cremation in urns prevails. Grave mounds were raised over stone cells for up to thirty urns, or stone boxes for the urns. They were buried in Bronze Age style barrows. During the early phase of imperial Rome, shallow graves appear, with corpses buried in tree coffins.
Cremation with urns is popular in the third century. Except for the Samians and Sudauers, where shallow grave fields exist until Christianization, cremation pits without urns become the preferred burial type. Different forms of burial can occur side by side at the same time.
Peter of Dusburg comments on the religion of the Old Prussians:
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.
Baltic paganism is a type of polydoxy, belief in the sacredness of all natural forces and phenomena. These are not personifications, which are common in ancient Egypt, for instance Heka the personification of magic.
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The people follow the animistic concept of spirits and magical powers in all things. Countless spirits and demons dwell in the worlds seen and unseen. The people practice ancestor worship, believe in a "soul" and afterlife.
The highest priest Kriwe-Kriwajto is in permanent connection to spirits of dead ancestors. He lives in a sacred grove, the Romove. Each district is headed by its Kriwe, who also serves as lawgiver and judge.
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Next in rank, the Siggonen maintain a healthy spiritual connection with natural sacred sites, such as springs and trees. The Wurskaiten or lower ranking priests oversee rites and ceremonies.
Simon Grunau (c. 1470 – c. 1530) is the author of Preussische Chronik, the first comprehensive history of Prussia. According to Grunau, the Prussian High Priest or Kriwe-Kriwajto or Kriwe is a powerful figure. He can start or end war.
An elderly Kriwe is supposed to sacrifice himself to the gods by suicide, particularly by burning, though it's not common. When the time comes, a new Kriwe is selected by lower rank priests and prophets (waidelottes).
Baltic amber has already been a major trade item from the Baltic coast since the Neolithic. It appears with Sicilian amber in the Mediterranean by c. 3634 - 3363 BCE.
Roman statesman Cassiodorus, acting in the name of Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great (r. 475–526) sends a missive to the Aesti, a group inhabiting today's north Lithuania:
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 [Amber Roads] , and to show you future favors.
By 1147, the Polish duke Bolesław IV the Curly attacks the Prussians, due to their cooperation with Władysław II the Exile, who also gets help from Crusader King Conrad III of Germany. The Prussians are defeated.
In 1157 Prussian troops support the Polish army against Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, son of Conrad III. In 1166 two Polish dukes cross the Ossa River into Prussia. The Prussians lure the Polish army into swamp and bog.
It's a massacre. Almost all the Poles either drown, or die hit by arrows and throwing clubs. Attacks by Konrad of Masovia in the early 1200s fail to subdue the Prussians. In 1209 Pope Innocent III commissions Cistercian monk Christian of Oliva to convert the pagan Prussians.
In 1215, Christian becomes first bishop of Prussia. The Duchy of Masovia is subject to constant Prussian counter-raids.
In response, Konrad I of Masovia begs for help from the Pope several times, founds a military order (the Order of Dobrzyń) and finally calls on the Teutonic Knights. The results are edicts supporting Northern Crusades against the Prussians.
In 1224, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II proclaims Prussia and neighboring provinces under his direct protection. The Teutonic Order, officially subject to the Popes, but also answering to the Empire, takes control and establishes a monastic state in Prussia.
In 1226, the Emperor establishes the Golden Bull of Rimini, giving conquest rights to the Teutonic Order in Prussia. The Prussian Crusade begins with an invasion by Grand Master Hermann von Salza and Duke Konrad I of Masovia Christianize the Baltic Old Prussians.
The Order then creates the independent Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights in the conquered territory. They then conquer Courland, Livonia, and Estonia. The Dukes of Poland accuse the Order of holding lands illegally.
Over 21,000 Crusaders take part in an attack on Prussia in 1233. The main battle occurs at the Sirgune (Dzierzgoń) River south of the Vistula Lagoon, where the Prussians suffer a massive defeat.
Attacks on Prussian lands continue about sixty years. In 1252, the Teutonic Knights build a castle at strategic Memelburg (later Klaipėda, Lithuania) by the Baltic Sea. Knights throughout Catholic Europe join the Prussian Crusades.
Revolts, including a major 1286 rebellion, are suppressed by the Teutonic Knights. In 1283, according to the chronicler of the Teutonic Knights, Peter of Dusburg, the conquest of the Prussians ends, and war with the Lithuanians begins.
Sudovian Book
The Sudovian Book (German: Sudauer Büchlein, Lithuanian: Sūduvių knygelė) is an collection of texts by a Protestant priest describing the customs, religion, and daily life of the Old Prussians from Sambia.
The manuscript is written in German in the 16th century by Lutheran clergy for the elucidation of missionaries and others. The original is lost and the book is known from later copies, transcriptions and publications.
The book includes a list of Prussian gods, in descending order from sky to earth to underworld. The pantheon includes:
Ockopirmus (chief god of sky and stars)
Swayxtix (god of light)
Auschauts (god of the sick)
Autrimpus (god of sea)
Potrimpus (god of running water)\
Bardoayts (god of boats)
Pergrubrius (god of plants)
Pilnitis (god of abundance)
Parkuns (god of thunder and rain)
Peckols (god of hell and darkness)
Pockols (flying spirit or devil)
Puschkayts (god of earth)
... and his helpers Barstucke (little people) and Markopole.
The book also covers traditional weddings, funerals, and honoring of the dead. The book describes the ritual sacrifice of a goat in detail.
Stone Babas
A number of stone babas are found all over Old Prussia dating between the 8th and 13th
century. So far scholars have failed to discover their meaning.
The remaining Old Prussians are assimilated into the rising cultures during the following two centuries. The Old Prussian language, documented only in a limited way, is extinct by the 18th century.