Prussian tribes settlements

The Prussian people, or (old) Prussians, inhabited the area around the Curonian and Vistula Lagoons, (in what is now northern Poland), in the region roughly occupied by the Mazurian Lakes. The Curonian Lagoon (or Bay, Gulf) is sundered from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit and belongs to Lithuania and Russia. ... Landsat photo Vistula Lagoon Vistula Lagoon (or Bay, Gulf) is the sweet water lagoon on the Baltic Sea that is cut off from Gdansk Bay by the Vistula Spit. ... Masurian Lakeland (Polish Pojezierze Mazurskie) - Lake district, northeastern Poland, containing more than 2,000 lakes. ...

Early Baltic history

The Prussians kill Saint Adalbert the missionary bishop.

At the beginning of Baltic history, the Prussians were bordered by the Vistula and the Neman with a southern depth to about Toruń, which was Prussian, and the line of the River Narew. The Kashubians were on the west, the Poles on the south, the Sudovians on the east, the Curonians on the northeast and the Lithuanians on the northwest. The Sudovians began at about Suwałki. Image File history File links Adalb. ... The Baltic Sea The Baltic region (sometimes briefly The Baltics) is an ambiguous term used to denominate an arbitrary region connected to the Baltic Sea (also called The Baltics). ... The Vistula (Polish: WisÅ‚a) is the longest river in Poland. ... The Neman (Belarusian: ; Lithuanian: ; Russian: ; Polish: ; German: ) is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Baltic Sea near KlaipÄ—da. ... ToruÅ„ (Polish pronunciation: (?); German: ; Kashubian: TorÅ„, see also other names) is a city in northern Poland, on the Vistula river. ... Narew (Belarusian: На́раў) is a river in western Belarus and north-eastern Poland, a tributary of the Vistula river. ... Kashubian is: one of the Kashubians the Kashubian language This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Sudovian kurhan Sudovians are a subgroup of Baltic people, living at the left coast of river Nemunas, in the region known as Sudovia. ... The Curonians (also called Kursi, Latvian KurÅ¡i) are one of the extinct Baltic tribes that later formed the Latvian nation. ... Motto: none Voivodship Podlaskie Municipal government Rada miejska w SuwaÅ‚kach Mayor Józef Gajewski Area 65. ...

The Prussians, like the other Balts of the times, were organized into a tribal structure. This structure is most fully attested in the Chronicon terrae Prussiae of Peter of Dusburg, a priest of the Teutonic Order. The work is dated to 1326. He lists 11 lands and 10 tribes, which were named on a geographical basis. These were : The Baltic Sea The Balts or Baltic peoples (Latvian: balti, Lithuanian: baltai), defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, are descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between lower Vistula and upper Dvina and Dneper. ... Chronicon terrae Prussiae (The Chronicle of the Prussian Land) is a chronicle of the Teutonic Order by Peter of Dusburg dated to 1326. ... Chronicon terrae Prussiae (The Chronicle of the Prussian Land) is a chronicle of the Teutonic Order by Peter of Dusburg dated to 1326. ... Teutonic Knights, charging into battle. ... Events Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Osman I (1299-1326) to Orhan I (1326-1359) Aradia de Toscano, is initiated into a Dianic cult of Italian Witchcraft (Stregheria), and discovers through a vision that she is the human incarnation of the goddess Aradia. ...

1. Pomesania (German Pomesanien, modern Lithuanian Pamede, with the reconstructed Prussian name Pameddi)
2. Varmia (German Ermland or Warmien, modern Lithuanian Varme, with the reconstructed Prussian name Wārmi)
3. Pogesania (German Pogesanien, modern Lithuanian Pagude, with the reconstructed Prussian name Paguddi)
4. Natangia (German Natangen, modern Lithuanian Notanga, see Notangians)
5. Sambia (German Samland, modern Lithuanian Semba, see Sambians)
6. Nadruvia (German Nadrauen, modern Lithuanian Nadruva, see Nadruvians)
7. Bartia (German Barten, modern Lithuanian Barta, with the reconstructed Prussian name Barta, see Bartians)
8. Skalovia (German Schalauen, modern Lithuanian Skalva, see Skalvians)
9. Sudovia (German Sudauen, modern Lithuanian Suduva, with the reconstructed Prussian name Sūdawa, see Sudovians)
10. Galindia (German Galindien, modern Lithuanian Galinda, with the reconstructed Prussian name Galinda, see Galindae)

Peter noted that the 11th land, Kulm, to the southwest of Pomesania, was nearly uninhabited. After the German conquest of Prussia, the country was divided along almost these exact lines, although the Germans added a 12th land, which they called Sassen, centred at Tannenberg. Those names are not, perhaps, exhaustive. Many of the names appear in ancient and mediaeval sources, but the spelling and to some degree the morphology vary. Peter of Dusburg preferred Latin names, such as the Pomesani, Pogesani, Varmienses, etc. Pomesania is the former name of an area now in northern Poland, in the vicinity of the cities of Elblag (Elbing) and Malbork (Marienburg), to the east of the lower Vistula river. ... Warmia in 1547 Warmia (Polish: , German: , Latin: Varmia, also historically known as Ermeland) is a region between Pomerania and Masuria in northeastern Poland. ... Sambia (German: ; Polish: ; Russian: ) is a peninsula in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, on the south-eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. ... The Sambians were an Old Prussian tribe inhabiting land of Sambia, north of the city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). ... Upper Neman The Nadruvians took their name from their ancestral homeland, Nadruvia or Nadruva (Prussian: Nadrowite, Nadrovia, Nadrauen), also known in the sources as Nadravia, Nadrow and Nadra as well as other names. ... Nadruvia or Nadruva was the homeland of a pagan Prussian tribe in the first few centuries of the 2nd millenium AD. It was the location of the sacred center of Baltic pagan religion, Romuva, according to Peter of Dusburg, writing in 1326. ... Bartians (Barthi, Barti) is an extinct tribe of Prussians in the land of Barta from the middle and lower flow of Lyna river, by Swina river, Lake Mamry, up to the Galindian woods. ... Skalvians, (Scalvians Scalowians) is an extinct tribe of Prussians which according the Chronicon terrae Prussiae of Peter of Dusburg, inhabited the land of Skalvi (Scalwia, Schalowia) to the south of Curonians, by the lower Nemunas river in the times around 1240. ... Sudovia (Lithuanian: SÅ«duva / Suvalkija, Polish: Suwalszczyzna), or Suvalkija (pronouncing soo-vul-kee-uh), is the name of one of ethnographic regions of Lithuania. ... Sudovian kurhan Sudovians are a subgroup of Baltic people, living at the left coast of river Nemunas, in the region known as Sudovia. ... Image:Prussia. ... Galindae, Galindai, or Galindians is an extinct Western Baltic tribe which formerly lived in Galindia (today Masuria, Poland (so-called Western Galindae) and in the basin of the Protva River, near the modern Russian towns of Mozhaysk, Vereya, and Borovsk (so-called Eastern Galindae). ... CheÅ‚mno Land or Culmland (Polish: Ziemia CheÅ‚miÅ„ska, German: Kulmerland) is a historical region in central Poland bounded by the Vistula and DrwÄ™ca rivers. ... Pomesania is the former name of an area now in northern Poland, in the vicinity of the cities of Elblag (Elbing) and Malbork (Marienburg), to the east of the lower Vistula river. ... Stębark (German:Tannenberg) is a village in Poland. ...

Origin of the name

Etymologically, most the names of the Prussian tribes were formed on a common theme: landscape. Most of the names are based on water; an understandable convention in a land dotted with thousands of lakes, streams and swamps. (Indeed, that landscape caused the very partial isolation that preserved the Baltic language group. To the south, the terrain runs into the Pripet Marshes at the headwaters of the Dnepr. They have been an effective barrier over the millennia.) The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. ... Pinsk Marshes (Пинские болота) or Pripyat Marshes (Pripet Marshes, Припятские болота) is a vast territory of wetlands along the Pripyat River and its tributaries from Brest, Belarus (West) to Mahileu (Northeast) and Kiev (Southeast). ... The Dnieper River (Belarusian: Дняпро/Dnyapro; Russian: Днепр/Dnepr; Ukrainian: Днiпро/Dnipro; Polish: Dniepr; Latin: Borysthenes, Danaper) is a river (2290 km length) which flows from Russia through Belarus and then Ukraine. ...

The original pre-Baltic settlers generally named their settlements after the streams, lakes, seas, or forests by which they settled. The clan or tribal polities into which they were organized took the name of the settlement. For example, Barta, the home of the Barti, is related to some other Baltic water names, such as the Bartis River in Lithuania, and to such words as Albanian berrak and Bulgarian bara, "swamp". A *bor- root can be reconstructed, meaning "swamp", which ought to come from the o-grade of Indo-European *bher-. (Indo-European has several *bher- roots, however, so the exact meaning and line of descent is unclear.)

This very root is perhaps the one used in Prusas (Prussia), for which an earlier Brus- is found in the map of the Bavarian Geographer. The name of the Dnepr in ancient Greek was the Borysthenes, which, though undoubtedly twisted, contains perhaps the *Bor-. In Tacitus' Germania we find the Lugii Buri living in the east range of the Germans. Lugi can descend from Pokorny's *leug- (2), "black, swamp" (Page 686), while Buri is perhaps the "Prussian" root. The Bavarian Geographer is anonymous medieval document prepared in ca. ... The Germania (Latin title: De Origine et situ Germanorum), written by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus around 98, is an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. ... The green area is the Przeworsk culture identified with the Lugians. ... Julius Pokorny (1887–1970) was born in Prague and studied at Vienna university. ...

The name Pameddi is derived from the words for by, near and honey; and can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European root *medhu-. Nadruvia has been variously hypothesised to come from the words na, by, on and dravis, wood; and na, by, on and the root *dhreu-, flow, river. It is related to the Old Prussian Nadyn, forest; Nede, a pond; and the Nydar, Lithuanian Nedejan, Russian Nadva (reconstructed Baltic *Nadva), a tributary of the Dneiper. The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, believed to have been spoken around 4000 BC in Central Asia (according to the Kurgan hypothesis) or millennia before that in Anatolia (according to the Anatolian hypothesis). ...

The contexts for these elements remain unknown, or whether these Buri were the ancestors of our Prussians. The second-century AD geographer, Claudius Ptolemy, lists some Borusci living in European Sarmatia (Eighth Map of Europe), which was separated from Germania by the Vistula Flumen. His map is very confused in that region, but these Borusci seem further east than our Prussians, which would have been under the Gythones (Goths) at the mouth of the Vistula. The Aesti (Easterners) as they were recorded by Tacitus were recorded later by Jordanes as part of the Gothic empire. Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: ; c. ...

Medieval history

The Old Prussians were a peaceful people. However, because they were pagan, the Catholic Popes ordered them to be converted or killed. Thus, in the 13th century, Prussia was slowly and painfully overrun and subdued by Crusades. Baptised Prussians were educated at the diocese in Magdeburg and many western Germans and a large number of Dutch people moved to Prussian lands. Meanwhile, the Lithuanians utilized the time bought by the blood of the Prussians (allied with the Sudovians) to form the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the first Baltic state as such. (Lithuania had been divided into duchies or "dukedoms", where the "duke" meant was a tribal chieftain.) The current Pope is Benedict XVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger), who was elected at the age of 78 on 19 April 2005. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... The Northern Crusades, or Baltic Crusades, were undertaken by Western Europeans against the still heathen people of North Eastern Europe around the Baltic Sea. ... The presumable banner of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the coat of arms, called Пагоня in Belarusian, Vytis in Lithuanian and Pogoń in Polish Another version of the Lithuanian banner The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė, Belarusian: Вялі́кае Кня́ства Літо́ўскае (ВКЛ), Ukrainian: Велике Князівство Литовське (ВКЛ), Polish: Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie) was an...

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania united all the duchies and made one duke the grand duke. This polity grew in power and influence over a few hundred years under several grand dukes, allying with Poland and carving out an empire in Russia. Under Vytautas the Great, it turned suddenly on its original enemies, the Teutonic Order, and defeated the order's army at the Battle of Grunwald, 1410. Vytautas the Great, 17th century painting The castle in Trakai. ... Combatants Kingdom of Poland Grand Duchy of Lithuania Teutonic Order Commanders Władysław II Jagiełło, Vytautas the Great Ulrich von Jungingen Strength 39,000 27,000 Casualties Unknown 8,000 dead 2,000 captured The Battle of Grunwald or Battle of Tannenberg took place on July 15, 1410... Events July 15 – Battle of Grunwald (a. ...

By way of settlement (The Treaty of Lake Melno, 1422), the border was established between Prussia and Lithuania and remained so until the 20th century. People from Poland moved to western Prussia with the Reformation and Counter Reformation. Significant pockets of Old Prussians were left in a matrix of Germans in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad Oblast), and remained under Teutonic Order government until 1525, when it became a Duchy. The historical states of Prussia now came into existence, and the Prussians made significant contributions. Events January 10 - Battle of Nemecky Brod during the Hussite Wars. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ... Location of the Kaliningrad Oblast Map of the Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast (Russian: ; German: or Nordostpreussen), informally called Yantarny kray (, meaning Amber region) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) on the Baltic coast, with no land connection to the rest of Russia; it is a non-contiguous exclave... Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ...

18th and 19th centuries

The Prussians might have been more numerous and not scattered all over the world today, but an act of nature struck many down. In 1711 a plague in Sembia removed over half the Prussian speakers and the rest assimilated to the German language. Look up plague in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Language

The monks and scholars of the Teutonic Order took a great interest in the language spoken by the Prussians, and tried to record it. in addition, the missionaries needed to communicate with the Prussians in order to convert them. Consequently, we have some record of the Old Prussian language. With the slightly known Galindian, and the better known Sudovian, it is all we have of West Baltic. As might be expected, it is a very archaic Baltic, showing affinities with Germanic. Old Prussian seems to support the theory that once a common Germanic/Balto/Slavic existed. Old Prussian is an extinct Baltic language spoken by the inhabitants of the area that later became East Prussia (now in north-eastern Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia) prior to German colonization of the area beginning in the 13th century. ...

In 1525 Prussia became Protestant under Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Prussia, who became Duke Albrecht. With Protestantism came the use of native languages instead of Catholic Latin and Albrecht had the Catechisms translated into the Old Prussian language. Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... Margrave is the English and French form of the German title Markgraf (from Mark march and Graf count) and certain equivalent nobiliary (princely) titles in other languages. ... Albert (May 16, 1490 - March 20, 1568), (Albertus in Latin, Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg in German) Grand Master of the Teutonic Order and first duke of Ducal Prussia, was the third son of Frederick of Hohenzollern, prince of Ansbach and Bayreuth, and Sophia, daughter of Casimir IV Jagiello Grand Duke...

These written sources are the foundation of ongoing studies into some of the oldest languages of Europe, the Baltic languages of which the West-Baltic Old Prussian is the most ancient one.

Currently, an interesting experiment in cultural and linguistic revival is underway in Lithuania, exploring modern Lithuanian connections with the old ethnic Prussians from the same Baltic family.

Religion and culture

Main article: Origins of Prussia

The first certain mention of the Old Prussians in historical sources is in connection with Adalbert of Prague who was slain in 997 during a crusade to Christianise the Prussians. By the late 13th century, the German knights, especially the Teutonic Knights had converted them under arms to Christian|Christianity, after two centuries of conquest attempts by Poland had failed. Many of the native Prussians remaining after the bloody conquest were settled in Sambia. The Prussians organized frequent uprisings, the most famous in 1286 and the last in 1525, the year of the secularization of the Teutonic State of East Prussia because of the conversion to Lutheranism of the Hochmeister of the German Teutonic Order. Prussias Ancient Roots The land extending from the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea to the Masurian Lakes district was called Prussia in the 8th century by a Bavarian geographer, whereas previous historians had documented the Prussian tribes as Easterners or Aesti, Aisti. ... Silver coffin of St. ... Events City of Gdansk is founded Saint Adalbert of Prague is sent to Prussia by Boleslaus I of Poland Samuil of Bulgaria crowned Tsar by Pope Gregory V The town of Trondheim is founded. ... A Christian is a follower of Jesus, whom they regard as a/the Christ. ... Sambia (German: ; Polish: ; Russian: ) is a peninsula in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, on the south-eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. ... Events Margaret I of Scotland became queen of Scotland, end of Canmore dynasty. ... Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ...

Before the end of 17th century, the Prussian language had become extinct, but Bibles and poetry were written in the language beforehand. The culture of the Old Prussians was Germanicised, or Polonised, depending on the part of Prussia in which they lived. They converted either to Protestantism or to Catholicism (in Warmia). Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Warmia in 1547 Warmia (Polish: , German: , Latin: Varmia, also historically known as Ermeland) is a region between Pomerania and Masuria in northeastern Poland. ...

See also

• Kashubian language
• Slovincian language
• Prussia
• Galindae
• Sudovians
• Yatvingians

Kashubian or Cassubian (Kashubian: kaszëbsczi jãzëk, pòmòrsczi jãzëk, kaszëbskò-słowińskô mòwa) is one of the Lechitic languages, which are a group of Slavic languages. ... Slovincian is an extinct dialect of the Pomeranian language, spoken between the lakes Gardno and Lebsko in Pomerania. ... Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 Prussia (German: ; Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Lithuanian: ; Polish: ; Old Prussian: Prūsa) was, most recently, a historic state originating in East Prussia, an area which for centuries had substantial influence on German and European history. ... Galindae, Galindai, or Galindians is an extinct Western Baltic tribe which formerly lived in Galindia (today Masuria, Poland (so-called Western Galindae) and in the basin of the Protva River, near the modern Russian towns of Mozhaysk, Vereya, and Borovsk (so-called Eastern Galindae). ... Sudovian kurhan Sudovians are a subgroup of Baltic people, living at the left coast of river Nemunas, in the region known as Sudovia. ... Categories: Baltic peoples | Stub ...

External links

• 1584 Map showing Altes Preussenland Old Prussia
• Northeast Prussia
• Milestones of Baltic Prussian History
• Map of Prussia before Teutonic Order invasion