Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

Schmalleningken (in Lithuanian Smalininkai) was a village consisting of three parts on the Prussian-Lithuanian border until 1795. It served as a customs office for the Kingdom of Prussia in the 18th century, and was an important cross-border transit point for both water and land traffic. At the Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the lands to the east of the village on the right bank of the River Nemunas were taken over by Russia, while those on the left bank became part of Prussia, which established the province of New East Prussia there. The Congress of Vienna restored the previous configuration of the border, with the only difference being that Lithuania’s place as Prussia’s neighbour was taken over by the Russian Empire, part of which on the left bank was the Kingdom of Poland. This article examines the various institutions and actors that operated in this border area, located at the intersection of three political entities, during both this transitional period and the subsequent years leading up to the Crimean War. The aim is to show what kind of contacts took place there, what forms they took, and what changes the microcosm of Schmalleningken underwent in the early 19th century. The article explores who contributed to this, and what significance the town of Jurbarkas, located on the other side of the border, had in this contact zone. It shows the role of the Christian and Jewish populations, with their somewhat different goals. Although their cultural practices differed, their interaction was based on a common understanding of the role of a nexus on the border. This role was primarily to provide services for cross-border traffic by land and on the River Nemunas, and to promote cross-border trade.

The article explores the changes in the gathering, processing and use of amber on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea at the end of the Viking Age and in the 12th to 16th century. In the pagan sacral space, works in amber reflected mythological elements, and later they were transformed and adapted to Christian practice, at the same time as maintaining the commercial value of amber as a material. Archaeological material from the above-mentioned period illustrates the gradual diffusion of Christian elements in the pagan territories. Their expression is visible in new forms of amber works.

On the basis of an analysis of legal documents, the article reviews the reglamentation of funeral rites in Prussia in the 16th to the 18th c. with the aim of disclosing the content of the legal orders and the intensity of reglamentation in the field of funeral. On the other hand, the regulation implemented by the Church and the state is sought to be reviewed as one of the components and consequences of the process of confessionalization.

The article discusses the main factors which shaped the peculiarities and distinctions of political elites in East Prussia in the first half of the 19th c. Among them, it names the growth of self-sufficiency of provincial nobility during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, the role of political elites in the liberal movement for constitutional reforms in Prussia, as well as the use of historical research and symbols of the past, increased in the first half of the 19th c. for the definition of distinction of both the province and its representatives. In the article, particular attention is paid to the examination of the factors of Russian neighbourhood and East Prussia’s position in the borderland between Prussia and Russia, showing their impact during crucial to Prussia events of 1813 and 1848. Due to the intertwining of all of those factors, in the first half of the 19th c., the consciousness of political elites in East Prussia ranged between regional provincial patriotism, Prussian patriotism (perceived through the relationship between the King and his subjects), and the growing sense of belonging to the German nation.

Authors present problems connected with horse sacrifices in Early Middle Ages in Prussia. Discoveries nearby Poganowo site IV hill-fort, create new possibilities to discuss about Prussian religion in Early Middle Ages. Stone statue, cairns, hearths and remains of sacrificed horses have similarities to numerous cult places in Europe and in Asia.