The Armour Archive

Does anyone have any resources for early 15th century Lithuania material culture?

I have a whole pile of german sources but I don't know if that's close enough.

So what aspect of the material culture are you looking for?
As far as appropriate sources go, I'd be more inclined toward Polish than German.

Where in Lithuania? In the 15th and 16th century it encompassed a LOT of different states and cultures. Polish, Russ, belaru, Estonia, Ukraine, etc

The person who asked said: "Hello, are there any good sources around here on Lithuania at or before 1387 and the Samogitian Lithuanians from before 1413?"

My resources are much later and my resources from that period are german.

Lithuania was Christianized in 1387, and the Duchy of Lithuania, which was the center of ethnic Lithuanians, was dismembered in 1413 in favor of a new system of government formed between the Polish and Lithuanian nobility. So it seems the person is rather specifically asking for information regarding ethnic Christian Lithuanians before the Union of Horodlo.

-Gerhard

Given that they asked specifically about the Samogitians, and their area of Žemaitija was the last pagan region in Europe left to be invaded and christened, I suspect that they are actually interested in the opposite.

Regardless, I believe they are looking for material culture stuff so tools, housewares, weapons, clothes, shoes, etc.

Indeed! It's easy for me to forget how purposefully some groups resisted conversion. Well, they probably used all of the same sorts of stuff except for the crosses, then. Ha.

As far as looking for material sources, I'm having trouble finding anything that could be pinned down so specifically, or even to Lithuania in general in that particular time period. I think I would further ask what sorts of items in your friend is looking to replicate, so that more specific searches could be made. I hardly want to start trying to find an appropriate women's dress if they actually want to make a helmet first.

-Gerhard

It's a friend of a friend. I will direct them to this discussion and I look forward to learning more myself.

I guess they weren't that interested.

Gerhard, If you have any information about men's clothing from that time period, I would love some details.

Boy, rough searching... So far I've found this article about a research group that recreated some armament from 14th century Lithuanian soldiers for some national event.

http://alkas.lt/2010/10/18/b-sutkus-gar ... rgybiniai/

The second subsection is about the historical resources used by the team, which translates in Google thusly and contains some rather random and dubious information (looking at the end):

Authentic warrior clothes and equipment were restored on the basis of several surviving images - the famous Kęstutis stamp, a chess figure, the captain of the Marienburg Castle pillar and other archaeological finders. Historical materials are very few.

For example, a few unique forms of Lithuanian helmets have been found. One is near Kernavė, others in Užnemunė and Žemaitija. And all of them date back to the XIV century. There are five in the world for the souvenir type in Dasiukiskiai (Ukmergė Rayon) for the reconstruction of the gorgeous one: 3 in Lithuania, 1 in Italy and 1 in Poland.

Professor Luchtan, comparing the medieval and modern weapons, compared the sword with a good company's machine gun: "Now, after the battle, there were no other machine-gunmen, but in those days nobody liked the sword".

The archaeologist says that swords are found in ancient graves of Lithuanian soldiers, but these are only fragments or weapons that are ritually folded, incidentally, the Vikings also did the same. According to the professor, the sword was damaged, so that the enemies could not take advantage of the graves.

Our ancestors also had special shapes. According to scientists, this was a purely Lithuanian product. Only later such panels were distributed in Central European countries. By the way, Luchtan categorically denies the tales of metal panels - they were wooden, covered with leather.

I could personally not locate solid information or images about any of the evidence cited in the first two paragraphs there, though I will continue searching on my down time.

I also came across this rather cool Lithuanian reenactment group, Vitkatlikai, that does tenth-fourteenth century stuff. Just browse the website a bit to get a feel for the navigation, or take some time translating! Most of it's just historical notes and pertains to a lot of 13th century stuff, but it's a start. I'm really surprised at how few historical images come up when I use the proper phrases for Google Image searches in the Lithuanian language.

http://www.vilkatlakai.lt/

I'll return...

-Gerhard

I bow to your google-fu.
Thank you!

My pleasure!

Here's another article about a traditional festival that was held, which used Baltic costumes recreated by an archaeologist ranging from the iron age through the renaissance. A sampling of the recreated outfits are shown in the article, and it can be easily translated in Google.

http://alkas.lt/2014/05/21/baltu-genciu ... -meistrai/

And here's an extensive history website about the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

http://www.ldkistorija.lt/

You can search by century, which seems rather confusing to me because it seems to bring up articles that are not specific to the period, but merely related. The search bar on the left-hand side is organized thematically, and here are the translations of each heading:

Asmenybes = Personalities
Dvasinis Gyvenimas, Religija = Spiritual Life & Religion
Europinis, Pasaulinis Kontekstas = European & Global Context
Karyba = Warfare
Kasdienybe = Daily Routines
Kuryba = Crafts (the only article is about high medieval pottery)
Medicina, Sveikata = Medicine & Health
Miestai = Cities
Mitai = Myths
Mokslas, Technologijos = Science & Technology
Tautine ir Religine įvairove = National & Religious Variety (identity?)
Ukis = Economics
Valstybe ir Politika = State & Politics
Zenklai, Symboliai = Signs & Symbols (one article is about 14th century jewelry)

Here is an excellent though largely uncited article about 13th century Lithuanian clothing, with lots of interesting details about weaving, colors of fabric, and the particular garments that were worn. I'm sure many aspects would relate to a century or so later, given that western influences were probably not pervasive in the region until after Christianization.

https://www.15min.lt/naujiena/aktualu/i ... 582-334358

Here's an article about a woman who reconstructs high medieval boots, largely inspired by Lithuanian archaeological digs and a curious archaeologist. There are photos of a number of her reconstructions as well as an original pair of shoes in a museum

http://www.diena.lt/naujienos/lietuva/s ... 09905?full

Will see if I can find some more stuff soon. Cheers!

-Gerhard

Gerhard von Liebau wrote:I also came across this rather cool Lithuanian reenactment group, Vitkatlikai, that does tenth-fourteenth century stuff. Just browse the website a bit to get a feel for the navigation, or take some time translating! Most of it's just historical notes and pertains to a lot of 13th century stuff, but it's a start. I'm really surprised at how few historical images come up when I use the proper phrases for Google Image searches in the Lithuanian language.

http://www.vilkatlakai.lt/

I'll return...

-Gerhard

Yes, I think that a project like this is only practical if you know the local language, or have contacts who read it and are interested in the archaeology of everyday life. Archaeologists in Europe usually excavate in their own country, and publish in their own language (and the foreign archaeologists in Lithiania are much more likely to be Russian or Polish than British).

jenzinas, if you read French, there are a lot of records of the materials used to make clothing in Burgundy in scanned books. Some of the standard references like Karen Larsdatter's site, Manuscript Miniatures, the Museum of London books, Purses in Pieces, etc. cover the early 15th century. But to study Lithuania in particular, especially pagan Lithuania, I think you will need to read the local languages.