142 during the fifth and sixth centuries, but continued to bury the ashes of their dead in earth barrows surrounded by a fence of stones. The Semigallians continued with inhumation, but their family barrows, used in the first centuries, began to disappear about the fifth century, giving way to large cemeteries with individual graves. The Curonian inhumation graves were surrounded until the seventh century by rectangular stone fences, one grave adjoining the other in a honeycomb pattern. From the seventh and eighth centuries onward, the fences disappeared and cremation rites infiltrated; at first they were used sporadically, but by the tenth and eleventh centuries universally. Only the Semigallians and Lettigallians kept to inhumation. At the foot of the hill-forts, villages constantly grew in size, some of them to such an extent that the chroniclers of the ninth century referred to them as “towns.” Large earthworks on the high banks and promontories of rivers and lakes adjoining the sizeable villages or “towns” were heavily fortified. An increase in the fortifications, with the use of timber constructions and tamped clay for building of ramparts, can be observed from the fifth century onward. Hill-forts of this kind are known from excavations in the Curonian,2 Semigallian, Lettigallian and Lithuanian3 lands. In some earthworks the area encompassed by such fortifications was from one-half to one hectare (about 1¼ to 2½ acres).4 There are thus clear indications that the feudal castles, as defence posts for the growing towns, had already come into existence in the period from c. A.D. 500 to c. 800, and subsequently became the centers of larger administrative units. The formation of the feudal system must have been accomplished before the ninth century; in that century it is attested by written records. The Anglo-Saxon traveler Wulfstan, while visiting the Prussian lands in about 880–90, saw many “towns,” each with its king. In his book Vita sancti Anscharii, completed in 876,

143 Rimbert, a disciple of archbishop Ansgar of the Bremen-Hamburg diocese, finds five “states” in the land of the Curonians: Regnum vero ipsum quinque habebat civitates.6 In describing the wars between the Swedes and Curonians in 855, to which we shall return, Rimbert mentions the two towns “Saeborg” and “Apulia” in which, during the war, thousands of warriors were said to have assembled in the hill-forts: 7,000 in Saeborg, 15,000 in Apulia. The numbers must be exaggerated, but that there were sizeable towns from which to recruit many men is evident. These towns themselves have not as yet been uncovered, but traces of settlements around the large earthworks are being found over a large area. In the ninth and successive centuries, the town around the castle of Impiltis near Kretinga in western Lithuania covered at least 50,000 sq. m. In the lands of the ancient Prussians large trading towns emerged at the latest around A.D. 600. One of these was Truso, south of Frisches Half and north of Lake Drausensee (ancient Drusine). The name of the town is the earliest known historically in the Baltic Sea area. In Wulfstan’s account of his travels, we find the “town of Truso” located on the River Elbing (“Ilfing”) which flows from the lake to the Frisches Half (“Estmere”). Archaeological finds abound in this area; several settlements and cemeteries have revealed finds dating from the seventh to twelfth centuries. The size and importance of Truso grew particularly during the centuries following.7 For East Prussia, Truso played the same role as Haithabu for north-western Germany or Slavic Vineta for Pomerania. Another trading centre lay at Wiskiauten (Viskiautai) at the south-western corner of the Courish Lagoon in northern Samland; it was the gateway for the traffic leading to the east via the lower Nemunas basin into the lands of the Curonians, Lithuanians, and other Baltic tribes. Finds from around A.D. 800 reflect the trade with the Vikings, and from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, an intensive local production and exchange.8

144 Although after the fall of the Roman Empire the trade with the south diminished, it did not entirely cease. The amber route continued to be used in the fifth and sixth centuries. Numerous Roman-Byzantine coins and gold solidi are found along the lower Vistula, along the Prussian coasts, and south of the Frisches Haff and the Courish Lagoon. The most recent of the gold solidi are from the reign of Anastasius I, 491–518. In the north, the coins spread as far as Latvia and Estonia. Imported objects from the Gothic kingdom now reached the lands of the Prussians, in particular the Galindians, taking the place of imports from the Roman Empire provinces. The women’s graves yielded many Gothic fibulae dating from the fifth century and around A.D. 600. Some show close resemblance to the Langobardic fibulae in south-western Germany and upper Italy, some to those in southern Russia.9 In Strobjehnen, Samland, appeared a golden neck-ring decorated with a hunting scene reminiscent of Scythian art; this neck-ring also must have reached the amber coast via southern Russia.10 Archaeological evidence has definitively established the existence of relations between the Ostrogoths and the Prussians over a century or so later, after the death of the Gothic king Ermanaric. More interesting aspects are revealed by ancient texts relating to the amber route to Italy. At the beginning of the sixth century, the Aistians found a way for their amber to reach Ravenna, the Gothic capital in Italy. We learn about this from the letter of the great Gothic king Theodoric (A.D. 454–526) to the Aistians (“Haesti”), in which he thanks them for gifts of amber, and, basing his knowledge of the substance on Tacitus’ accounts, goes on to explain what amber is.11 This letter by Theodoric, the last known text mentioning amber, is interesting on several counts. First, that the Central European amber route between East Prussia and Italy, which may have been cut off for a century or so following the fall of the Roman Empire, was reopened. Second, that the Aistians were

145 recognized as important people with whom the Goths exchanged presents, and sought to maintain good relations in the future. The amber trade initiated in the sixth century probably was disturbed by the western Slavic expansion to Bohemia and Moravia and the subsequent movements of the Germanic tribes westward and southward. Nor do the archaeological finds show the Balts to have been involved in distant trade from the seventh to ninth centuries. The objects imported during post-Roman times, including the beautiful Gothic fibulae, did not exert any noticeable influence on the further development of Baltic ornamental art. Up to the seventh and eighth centuries, when some Scandinavian art elements appeared, it continued the art traditions of the “golden age,” although women’s and men’s ornaments became progressively less exquisite. The style of dress remained basically the same. Diadems made of bronze spirals and tubes separated by spacer beads adorned women’s heads, neck-rings of glass and amber beads ornamented the neck, and bronze chains attached to bronze or silver fibulae or pins decorated the chest. [Plate 45] Woolen caps, profusely decorated with bronze or silver spirals and by pendants, continued to be worn by girls through all the remaining centuries of the Iron Age. The crossbow type of fibula was most in evidence. Fibulae were more solid than in the fourth century, and frequently made of silver, decorated with silver rings and gold plates having a net pattern. [Plates 46 and 47] From these, many variants developed; particularly beautiful were those having semi-circular or star-shaped prongs covered by silver plates embossed with dots, circles, small suns and stars. [Plates 47 and 48] In the sixth and seventh centuries silver ornaments increased to a remarkable extent. Exactly where the raw silver came from, we do not know. It may have followed the Dnieper route, the amber route via central Europe, or come across the Baltic Sea via Sweden. The most characteristic were massive round silver

146 Fig. 47. Bronze fibula with a silver-plated foot. Sixth century. Plavniekkalns, central Latvia. 1:2 bracelets thickening at the ends, and neck-rings made of silver wire with overlapping ends as well as others with overlapping pinched ends. [Plates 48, 49 and 50] That they were of local make is indicated by the decorations — striations, circles, semicircles, spirals, dots, tiny triangles, and rhombs. Silver cases for drinking-horns were made of silver plates with horizontal bands of embossed ornaments, sometimes portraying rows of schematic human figurines or stags. The Curonians, inspired by examples of Scandinavian art, added some new forms and decorative motifs. Snake-heads appeared on the ends of large crossbow fibulae of the seventh century, since when the schematic snake-head has been a feature of Baltic art right up to the folk art of the twentieth century. [Plate 51] The so-called “owl-head” fibulae, frequent in Curonia in the eighth and ninth centuries, developed through imitation of fibulae with crescent shields and triangular prongs, current in the sixth seventh centuries in Gotland. Fig. 48. Star and sun motifs on fibulae (like Fig. 47) from East Prussia

147 Fig. 49. Owl-head fibula. Bronze, coated with silver plate. Ninth century A.D. Lubāna, Latvia. 1:2 The amount of silver rich people possessed is impressive. Some of the neck-rings were of tremendous size, while one of the necklaces from eastern Lithuania weighed well over two pounds, and another was made of twisted silver wire 130 cm. long — large enough to put around a horse’s neck. Wealth was now blunting aesthetic sensibility, and by the seventh or eighth centuries, a certain crudity had entered into their art. The changing times were also marked by a significant increase in the production of weapons. This progress in armaments and the growing importance of cavalry can be observed particularly in those tribes which were exposed to the attacks of aggressive neighbours. Shields having round iron umbos with hemispherical or conical protuberances in the middle, iron swords about 50 cm. long with a broad one-edged blade and a wooden hilt, iron spearheads with rhomboid or leaf-shaped heads, stirrups, bridle-bits and other parts of horse bridles regularly appear in the Sudovian, Lithuanian and Lettigallian warrior graves. [Plates 52, 53, and 54] Perhaps the well-equipped cavalry of these tribes stopped the constantly expanding Slav peoples from penetrating into their tribal territories. The Curonians on the Baltic Sea were faced with the mounting danger from Scandinavia, and their graves also reflect this troubled period.

148 Here, too, in warriors’ graves we find spurs, horse bridles, spearheads, and shields, as well as scythes, socketed axes, knives and ornaments. [Plate 55] The burial of his horse beside the deceased warrior was frequent. In the bog of Tira near Rucava, in western Latvia, a wooden shield was found intact, covered on both sides with leather and having in the centre a hemispherical iron umbo. The shield dates from the beginning or middle of the ninth century; that is, from the period of the fiercest battles between the Curonians and the Danes and Swedes. Slavic Expansion Slavic pressure northward was the outward sign of turmoil in southern Russia, and reflected changes in the ethnic configuration. The Hun invasion in A.D. 375 destroyed the power of the Gothic kingdom. As soon as the Slavic tribe of the Antae shook off the supremacy of the Goths, it expanded over the Black Sea coasts from north of the lower Danube to the sea of Azov. Subsequent invasions by the Turko-Tartar peoples, the Bulgars and, particularly, by the Avars who in the first half of the sixth century penetrated as far as the barrier of the dense forests along the River Desna and the upper Oka, culminated in the Slavic advance into the lands of the eastern Balls and the Finno-Ugrians, where least resistance would be encountered. By A.D. 400, the heavy traffic between the Balts and the Finno-Ugrians, which had reached its peak in the fourth century, was cut off. Some hill-top villages and hill-forts in the Baltic area were deserted; some show levels of destruction caused by fire. Those villages whose remains show habitation to have continued experienced a decadence of material culture. This is the indirect proof of the disaster that befell the eastern Baltic tribes. The earliest stages of the Slavic expansion northward cannot as yet be established in a satisfactory manner by actual archaeological finds. The number of cemeteries and settlements discovered is as yet too scanty. However, here and there have

149 emerged single barrows and settlements having analogies in the Kiev region, Volynia, and even in the Slavic lands of central Europe, and which cannot be considered as Baltic. It seems that the area between Kiev and Novgorod was occupied in consecutive waves by different tribal groups between the fifth and eighth centuries. Villages consisting of semi-subterranean houses with clay floors and clay-plastered walls, urn burials in round, conical or elongated barrows, timber structures within the barrows, and crude and polished pottery akin to that in the regions of Kiev, and Volynia, and in Bohemia and Moravia, are distinct elements of the Slavic culture expanding to the lands north of Kiev and Voronezh. A number of cemeteries and settlements of a related character in Volynia, in the middle Dnieper basin, and in the region of the upper Don near Voronezh, dating from the period between the sixth and ninth centuries, are undoubtedly Slavic. They are labeled “sites of Prague type” in Volynia, “hill-forts of Romny type” along the lower Desna, on the rivers Sejm, Sula and Vorksla, and “hill-forts of Borshevo type” on the upper Don and the upper Oka.12 Some differences in grave types indicate that these sites may have belonged to several eastern Slavic tribes, the Drevljane, Poljane and Vjatichi known from the earliest historic records. The dating of the earliest cemeteries and villages is based entirely on comparisons of their pottery with that known from Bohemia and Moravia, which indicate the sixth and seventh centuries. Whether some of the barrows and hill-fort villages can be dated back to the fifth century13 remains for future researches to prove. As yet the graves have not yielded any datable metal objects. Early traces of Slavs in the north are found in the area of Pskov, east of Estonia and Latvia and south of Lake Peipus in the basin of the River Velikaja. Here the long, narrow burial mounds with cremation graves and very sparse grave goods are

150 identified with the Krivichi tribe. Their dating to the fifth century is based on finds of round and convex ornamental bronze plates, tweezers and bracelets thickening at the ends which have analogies in the Finno-Ugrian stone barrows in Estonia. The earliest Krivichi also appear to have occupied the hill-fort in Pskov, which superseded the Finno-Ugrian layer of the so-called Djakovo type, and the unfortified settlements along the upper Velikaja River, which replaced the Baltic hill-fort villages having plain and brushed pottery. These settlements yielded pottery and metal objects of a type similar to that in the long barrows.14 It is strange that the earliest barrows and settlements attributed to this tribe are found so far north and not on the upper Dvina River and in the areas of Smolensk and Polock, where Krivichi are attested from the seventh or eighth centuries to the thirteenth. Obviously, they did not use the Dnieper route in their expansion, but may have come up from the south via the upper reaches of the River Nemunas across the lands of the Baltic Brushed Pottery group. As yet their sites in present western Byelo-Russia cannot be identified archaeologically because of the lack of excavations, but there are some lingual testimonies suggesting that this was the line of the Krivichian spread; namely, early Slavic borrowings from the Baltic (for instance, the river name Mereč from the Lithuanian Merkys, tributary of the upper Nemunas, considered by linguists to be prior to the ninth century)15 and relationships between the early Pskov and Polish dialects.16 In the present districts of Smolensk and Polotsk the long barrows of Krivichi type date back to the eighth century and later, with the exception of a few assumed to be of an earlier date.17 Many barrows in these areas have yielded purely Baltic finds of the Lettigallian type. These date from the fifth to twelfth centuries.18 Even south of Smolensk, Moscow, and Kaluga, along the tributaries of the River Zhizdra and upper

151 Fig. 50. The Balts after the Slavic expansion. Tenth–twelfth centuries A.D. 1, Balts; 2, Slavs; 3, Finno-Ugrians Desna, a number of excavated barrow cemeteries and hill-forts of Baltic type have yielded finds related or identical to those in eastern Latvia, and which can be dated up to the twelfth century.19 The archaeological finds fully confirm a dating up to the twelfth century for the remnants of the Balts west of Moscow, in the area between Smolensk, Kaluga and Brjansk. Moreover, they can be identified with the Galindian tribe known from Laurentius’ and Hypatius’ versions of the Russian chronicle describing the wars between the Russian dukes and the Galindians on the River Protva in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

152 The Slavic expansion did not wipe out the eastern Balts immediately. They persisted in larger and smaller enclaves for many centuries. It is highly probable that before the Slavic Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi came to dominate the upper Dnieper basin, there existed a Baltic population whose culture was particularly closely related to the Lettigallians in eastern Latvia. We see that from the beginning of the Slavic expansion to the formation of the three Slavic states — those of the Novgorod, Rjazan and Kiev Slavs — in the ninth century and even several centuries later, there were considerable numbers of Balts in present Byelo-Russia and in the west of Greater Russia. The process of Slavonization begun in prehistoric times continued into the nineteenth century. The Byelo-Russians have borrowed many words, most of them of daily usage, from the Lithuanian peasant vocabulary. The ethnography in the districts of Kaluga, Moscow, Smolensk, Vitebsk, Polotsk, and Minsk to the middle of the nineteenth century is highly indicative of the Baltic character. Indeed, Slavonized eastern Balts make up much of the population of present Byelo-Russia and a part of Greater Russia. Wars with the Scandinavians Contacts with neighbours across the Baltic Sea, in Gotland and Middle Sweden, were before the seventh century occasional and of commercial character. Some Baltic ornaments dating from the fifth and sixth centuries have been found in Gotland. Their origin can be traced to the area of Klaipėda or East Prussia. The statement found in some popular books that the Norsemen were intensively exploring the eastern Baltic shores in the fifth and the sixth centuries, and that in the sixth century a group of them settled at the mouth of the Daugava, is not so far supported by archaeological finds.20 Not until after A.D. 650 were the Baltic Curonians hit by Swedish expansion. Excavations in Grobin (Grobina) near Liepāja in western Latvia, carried on by Birger Nerman since 1929, have brought to light three cemeteries with cremation graves, weapons, and

153 ornaments of Scandinavian character. Finds from two of the cemeteries had their closest analogies in Gotland, those from the third in the Mälar valley of central Sweden. From the first half of the eighth century onward, traces of Scandinavian colonies appear in several other places: Sauslaukas near Durbe in western Latvia, Apuolė in north-western Lithuania, and in the area of Elbing (Truso). After A.D. 800, the Scandinavian finds again diminish, except for the colony in Grobin which persisted to about 850 and that in Elbing where Scandinavian finds date to about 900.21 The Icelandic and Norwegian sagas, recorded in the thirteenth century though they go back to prehistoric songs, commemorate the successes of the Swedish kings Ivar vidfamne and Harald hildetand. The first, who died around A.D. 700, is said to have conquered “Kurland, Saxland and Eisland” and all the countries in the East to Gardarike in Karelia (Hervarar Saga). After his death the dynasty came to an end, but his daughter’s son Harald hildetand again established Swedish rule in these same lands. Swedish expansion along the eastern Baltic coasts in the period 650–750 is confirmed by archaeologically attested colonies. Further events are recorded by Rimbert in Vita sancti Anscarii, in which there is a detailed description of the wars waged by Danes and Swedes against the Curonians in the middle of the ninth century. When Rimbert mentions the Curonians for the first time, he writes: “A tribe, called Chori, living far from them [Swedes], was earlier subdued by the Swedes, but it was a long time ago, when they revolted and liberated themselves from the yoke.” Then he mentions that at the time when Ansgar visited Sweden for the second time, somewhat after 850, the Danes had undertaken a military expedition by sea to Curonia, but suffered a crushing defeat. Half of the Danes were killed, half their ships were captured, and the Curonians gained a large war booty of gold, silver and weapons. When the Swedish king Olov

154 heard of this disaster, he took a huge army to Curonia. The first surprise attack was aimed at the town of “Seaborg” (probably in the area of Grobin), which was defended by “7,000 warriors.” They plundered it and burnt it to the ground. Encouraged by this success they disembarked and after five days of hurried march they excitedly fell upon another Curonian town called “Apulia,” but in this town they found “15,000 fighting men.” A furious battle started. Eight days passed without success for either side, and on the ninth day the Swedes were beginning to despair of victory. In their desperation the Swedes even appealed to the Christian God; whereafter they attacked the town with renewed courage, but before the battle started, the Curonians sent messengers and declared themselves ready to submit. As booty they gave to the Swedes gold and weapons which they had taken from the Danes a year earlier, promised to pay taxes, to obey the Swedish king, and handed over 30 men as hostages.22 The plateau of the earthwork of Apuolė (“Apulia”) was found sown with about 150 iron arrowheads, many of them bent or broken, as one would expect a battlefield to be. The arrow-heads are typical of Scandinavia in the ninth and tenth centuries. But the Curonians were free again soon after. Subsequent Swedish onslaughts on Curonia were unsuccessful. The opposition was too strong for the Norsemen to overcome, and their attempts at colonization of the Baltic coasts in Curonia during the two centuries, from 650 to 850, were only short-lived episodes. For the second half of the ninth and for the tenth century, archaeological finds of Scandinavian type in the Baltic lands are scarce. The Vikings had by this time focused their attention on eastern Slavic and the Finno-Ugrian lands north of the Balts.