Prussian people
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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.
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Early Baltic history
Image:Adalb.jpg At the beginning of Baltic history, the Prussians were bordered by the Vistula and the Neman with a southern depth to about Torun, 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.
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 10 tribes, which were named on a geographical basis, Pomesanien, Ermland-Warmia, Natangen, Samland-Sambia, Nadrauen, Barten, Schalauen, Sudauen, Galindien. The names of the regions in modern Lithuanian are Pamede, Pagude, Varme, Notanga, Semba, Nadruva, Barta, Skalva, Suduva and Galinda. These are not, perhaps, exhaustive. Many of the names appear in ancient and mediaeval sources, but the spelling and to some degree the morphology vary. Dusburg preferred Latin names, such as the Pomesani, Pogesani, Varmienses, etc.
Origin of the name
Etymologically, the names of the Prussian tribes were all formed on a common theme: water. A number of Indo-European roots are used, but they all mean about the same thing: water, stream, lake, flow, wetland, swamp, etc. This convention is understandable, as the terrain of the Baltic countries includes thousands of lakes, streams and swamps, so much so that this circumstance itself caused the very partial isolation that preserved the Baltic language group. Nor is the terrain much better to the south, as it runs into the Pripet Marshes at the headwaters of the Dnepr. They have been an effective barrier over the millennia.
The original pre-Baltic settlers clearly named their settlements after the streams, lakes or seas on 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, Bulgarian bara, "swamp." A *bor- root can be reconstructed, "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- can be postulated. 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 contexts for these elements remain unknown, or whether these Buri were the ancestors of our Prussians. The 2nd-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.
Medieval history
Though a peaceful farming people, the Old Prussians were pagans. In 13th century Prussia was slowly and painfully overrun and subdued by crusades established by the popes. 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 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.
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 floruit, and the Prussians made significant contributions.
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.
Language
The monks of the Teutonic Order, being of a scholarly bent, took an interest in the language spoken by the Prussians and tried to record it. They 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.
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 Cathechisms translated into the Old Prussian language.
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 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. Before the end of 17th century, the Prussian language had become extinct. 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).
See also
External links
- 1584 Map showing Altes Preussenland Old Prussia
- Northeast Prussia
- Milestones of Baltic Prussian History
- Map of Prussia before Teutonic Order invasionTemplate:Link FA
cs:Prusové de:Prußen lt:Prūsai lv:Prūši no:Gammelprøysserne pl:Prusowie pt:Prussianos ru:Пруссы sv:Prusser