Res Humanitariae

The movement of Vikings not for all regions of our continent was concussion of bases of public life. In Grobiņa and on Kaup Scandinavians didn’t manage to take decisive places in these settlements and their activity proceeded under strict control of local power structures. Westbaltic sacral phenomenon became the absence reason in Grobiņa and Kaup of settlements with the lines typical for the trade and craft settlement of an era of Vikings.

The paper is dedicated to the generalisation of the investigations results for the 13th–15th Curonian Spit archaeological sites, with the analyse of the main types of finds and supposed Prussian and Curonian contact zone problem. Last decade’s established theories about the 13th–15th Curonian Spit archaeological sites populaton are also reviewed and revised. Unpublished till now new archaeological investigations and archival data is reflected in this study.

The final phase of the Viking Age in the Prussian material culture was marked by the proliferation of media in the retinue of the Prussians and Curonians bronze and iron products, coated (plated) of silver. By the XIV century from the Prussian nobility extends the custom of wearing “knightly” zones, as the Order’s decorated and traditionally Prussian images. Later burials of Christianized Prussians plated items disappear along with the main array of other burial items.

The conditions and the environment of the mendicant religious orders (Dominicans, Franciscan Conventuals, Franciscan Observants, Carmelites, and Augustinians) in the holdings of the Teutonic Order in Prussia differed from those in Western Europe. In newly built castles and newly founded cities, German and Polish-speaking communities predominated; while Prussians, unfamiliar with the basics of Christianity, prevailed in rural territories. The network of parish churches declined towards the eastern and northern boundaries of the state. Therefore, the mendicant orders operated there on a different model. An examination of its characteristics is carried out by means of an analysis of the stages, development and dynamics of the settlement of mendicant orders in Prussia. An attempt is made to identify the organisation of their provision and the supporting milieu. Particular attention is paid to the impact of mendicant orders on the deepening of the faith of the local Prussian population in the eastern part of the Teutonic Order’s holdings.

The open ritual area is one type of pagan cult site. In this article are presented the results of an analysis of wooden pole frames and constructions from six open ritual areas in the northern Sambian peninsula. Their chronogical time covers the third to the 13th centuries AD. Open ritual areas coexisted with fireplaces and pits. In the early phase pole constructions are characterised by a rectangular shape, and subsequently a roundish shape. Analogies with open ritual areas are known in Poland, Denmark and Germany.