The Yatvyagi are one of the oldest tribal groups in the southeastern Baltic region, first mentioned in the 2nd century. n. e. Claudius Ptolemy as "Sudins" (Σουδινοί). After the message of Claudius Ptolemy, the Yatvingians began to be regularly mentioned in written sources only starting from the 10th century, while initially in the context of foreign policy actions undertaken by Poland and Russia. According to the information of the late chronicle, the city of Vitebsk was founded in 947 by Princess Olga on the territory of the Yatvingians defeated by her. By the middle of the X century. The first mention of the Yatvyag in ancient Russian sources is related - in 944, in the composition of the Old Russian delegation in Byzantium, there was "Yatvyag Gunarev", that is, "Yatvyag Ambassador of Gunar", boyar Igor.

Already under 983 in the "Tale of Bygone Years" the news was recorded that Vladimir Svyatoslavovich defeated the Yatvingians "and took their land." This campaign was associated with the transition to Russia of the Beresteyskaya land.

At the beginning of the XI century. missionary work carried out among the pagan Balts by Bishop Bruno of Querfurts was associated with Yatvyagia. His mission was the result of a complex diplomatic game between Emperor Henry II and the Polish prince Boleslav the Brave. In March 1009, the bishop, together with 18 of his companions, died somewhere “in the borderlands of Russia and Lithuania (Lituae)” or, according to other sources, “went to Prussia” and died “in the borderlands of the region and Russia”. This not quite defined area is often identified as the borderland between the Yatvyazh and Russian lands. It is possible that Bruno first acted in eastern Yatvyagia, and then in Lithuanian lands.

By the XIII century. The Yatvingians (like the Prussians) remained at the pre-state stage of development. The expansion of neighboring states could have been a stimulus to the creation of statehood (“the entire land of Yatvyazhskaya” could be gathered for defense), but the Russians and Poles used the tactics of campaigns - raids, after which they limited themselves to collecting tribute, without systematically colonizing the conquered territory. As a result, with the beginning of the coordinated expansion of Poland, Russia and the Teutonic Order, the Yatvingians were unable to provide effective resistance.

The struggle for Yatvyagia showed that the Russian and Polish princes could achieve military conquest of the Yatvyazh lands, even temporarily gain a diplomatic victory over their opponents, but they could not subdue the lands of the Balts, which they so stubbornly claimed. Ultimately, the fate of the Prussian (and with them - and Yatvyazh) lands was decided by the Order, which managed to present itself as the main outpost in the struggle for the "cause of the cross" in the Baltic States and the main center of concentration of the forces intended for this.

The Order consistently pursued a strategy for the planned construction of fortifications, built on the basis of the terrain and becoming a defense against the counterattacks of the local population after their departure. These fortifications became the centers of colonization of the territory, allowing them to maintain control over it after the withdrawal of the troops that conquered it. They formed a kind of foothold, which was gradually expanded by subsequent regular campaigns, which made it possible to firmly hold the captured lands. Russian and Polish princes traditionally adhered to methods of indirect control, which quickly nullified the results of their campaigns.

If Lithuania in the 40s. XIII century managed to move on to consolidate the Baltic tribes around her, then Yatvyagia, like other Prussian lands, could not do this. In the early 70s. XIII century the last stage has come, which is marked by the unconditional domination of Lithuania and the Order. Troyden managed to take control of a part of Yatvyagia, but after reaching the borders of the Order's Yatvyazh lands, which had remained independent by that time, they were conquered in a short time (1277 - 1283). As a result, Yatvyagia ceased to exist as an object of international relations, and its lands were divided between neighboring state entities.

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The meaning of the word yatvyagi

yatvyagi in the crossword dictionary

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

yatvyagi

an ancient Lithuanian tribe between the rivers Neman and Narew. In the 13th century. became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Yatvyagi

Ships, an ancient Prussian tribe, ethnically close to the Lithuanians. Lived in the so-called Sudovia, between the middle reaches of the river. Neman and the upper reaches of the river. Narev. Ya .'s main occupations are agriculture, hunting, and fishing. Crafts developed. Old Russian princes made repeated campaigns to the land of Ya. In the 40-50's. 12th century Ya. Were subordinated to the Galicia-Volyn principality and Mazovia. In 1283, their lands were captured by the Teutonic Order. Part of the land of Ya. Became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Wikipedia

Yatvyagi

Yatvyagi - Baltic tribal group, ethnically closest to the Prussians. The unwritten Yatvingian language belongs to the western branch of the Baltic group of the Indo-European language family. In the early Middle Ages, they were strongly influenced by the Lithuanian tribe and already at the initial stages of the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were partly assimilated in the southern part of Dzukia. Since the 12th century, the Yatvingians have participated in the ethnogenesis of the Lithuanian, Belarusian and Polish peoples.

Yatvyagi (Zhidachivsky district)

Yatvyagi , until 2015 - Pribelie - a village in the Zhidachivsky district of the Lviv region of Ukraine. Yatvyag Gunarev from the list of merchants in an agreement with the Greeks from 945 had his trading warehouses here with Yatvians from present-day Lithuania serving the portage from the Greeks to the Varangians across the Dniester to the Vistula.

The population according to the 2001 census was 147 people. Covers an area of \u200b\u200b0.64 km². Postal code - 81711. Telephone code - 3239.

Yatvyagi (Mostis district)

Yatvyagi - a village in the Mostis district of the Lviv region of Ukraine.

The population according to the 2001 census was 301 people. Covers an area of \u200b\u200b0.835 km². Postal code - 81366. Telephone code - 3234.

Yatvyagi (disambiguation)

Yatvyagi:

• The Yatvyagi are a Baltic tribal group, ethnically closest to the Prussians.
• Yatvyagi is a village in the Mostis district of the Lviv region of Ukraine.

Examples of the use of the word yatvyagi in literature.

To the east lay the lands of the Polotsk principality, from the west and south lived Lithuanians, Letts, Samogits, yatvyagi and other tribes and peoples.

The dispute immediately died out, because yatvyagi made room for noble spectators.

When they jumped out of the gate yatvyagiFor some reason, Anna decided that the Russians had already won: she could not get rid of the unconscious conviction that she was watching a movie.

Lithuanians, Letts, Samogites, Estonians, Russians, Lithuania, Livs lived here, yatvyagi, semigals.

The wind picked up, almost knocked Anna off her feet - the horsemen of the Apocalypse flew past in black shadows with fiery highlights on their faces - yatvyagi, who surrounded Prince Vyachko, the front ones with torches, from which sparks flew in a spray.

Due to the nature of their country, Lithuanians and yatvyagi most of their neighbors retained the wildness of their original life, they ran into the surrounding countries, but they themselves were unattainable in their inaccessible natural fortifications.

Ancient writers disagree about the origin of the Yatvingians: some say that yatvyagi language, religion and morals were similar to Lithuania, Prussians and Samogites, while others that yatvyagi completely different language from the Slavs and Lithuania.

Wild Lithuanians and yatvyagi could only disturb the Russian borders with their raids.

This invincible warrior, in whose name the Polovtsian women frightened crying children in the nocturnal halls, for fear of whom the wild yatvyagi did not dare to crawl out of their swamps, felt tenderness for the birds singing in the oak forests.

Indo-European language family. In the early Middle Ages, they were strongly influenced by the Lithuanian tribe and already at the initial stages of the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were partly assimilated in the southern part of Dzukia. Since the 12th century, the Yatvingians have participated in the ethnogenesis of the Lithuanian, Belarusian and Polish peoples.

An appeal to written sources shows that the classification scheme adopted in some studies, according to which the Yatvyags, Sudovs, Dainovs and Polleksians (Poleshans) were four parts of one whole "tribe", does not correspond to reality: in the 13th century, all these names functioned in different linguistic traditions to denote the same reality.

From here to the Ugrians and to the Poles, to the Czechs, from the Czechs to yatvyagov, from yatvyagov to the Lithuanians, to the Germans, from the Germans to the Karelians, from the Karelians to Ustyug, where the filthy toymichi live, and beyond the Breathing Sea; from the sea to the Bulgarians, from the Bulgarians to the Burtases, from the Burtases to the Cheremis, from the Cheremis to the Mordovians, everything was conquered by the Christian people with the help of God, these filthy countries obeyed the Grand Duke Vsevolod, his father Yuri, Prince of Kiev, his grandfather Vladimir Monomakh, with which the Polovtsians scared their little children ...

In the east [Prussia], in the direction of Russia (Russiam), it is joined by Yatvesia (Jetwesya). My friend and I began to baptize her. Beyond Prussia, to the north of this people, lies Zambia.

Their capital city and castle was Drogichin, which still exists today. Starting from Wolin, they settled all of Podlasie up to Prussia, and also owned the castle of Novogrudok and the surrounding volosts in Lithuania ... Nowadays they still partially remained near Novogrudok of Lithuania, also near Rajgard and Isterboka in Prussia, as well as in Courland and Livonia. And there is also their little land near Veliky Moscow Novgorod, [there] they are called Izhoryans (Igowiany), to which I myself am a witness.

In the X-XII centuries, the southern and eastern outskirts of the Yatvyazh region were repeatedly attacked by the Kiev grand dukes.

In 983, after a successful campaign against the Yatvingians, in Kiev it was decided by lot to sacrifice the young man John, the son of the Varangian Fedor. The father interceded for his son, a crowd of pagans killed both of them (their memory is 12 July).

Since the XII century, the western part of the Yatvyazh lands was subordinated to Mazovia, the southern part of Sudavia in the XII-XIII centuries from time to time was owned by the Galicia-Volyn principality, then Sudavia (with the center in Raigorod) was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

In 1112 - "Yaroslav, go to Yatvyaz, son of Svyatopolch and I will win." (Ipatiev Chronicle).

In 1229 the Volyn princes Daniel and Vasilko went to the aid of the Mazovian prince Konrad.

"Leaving Volodymer Pinsky and Ugrovites and Berestyan in Berestya, guard the earth from Yatvyaz"

In the year 6756 (1248). The Yatvingians fought near Ohozha and Busovna and conquered the whole country, while the Kholm was not set by Daniel. Vasilko chased them from Vladimir, overtook them at Dorogichin on the third day of the journey from Vladimir. At the time when they were fighting at the Dorosichin gate, and Vasilko overtook them. They turned against Vasilko, but, unable to withstand his onslaught, with God's help, the evil pagans fled. And they beat them mercilessly, and drove them into many tracks, and forty princes were killed, and many others were killed, and the Yatvingians did not resist. And Vasilko sent news of this to his brother in Galich. And there was great joy in Galich that day. Vasilko was of average height, distinguished by intelligence and courage; he himself defeated the pagans many times, and many times Daniel and Vasilko sent troops against them. So Skomond and Borut, fierce warriors, were killed by the messengers. Skomond was a sorcerer and a famous bird diviner; swift as a beast, walking on foot, he conquered the Pinsk land and other regions; and the wicked one was killed, and his head was stuck on a stake. And at other times, by God's grace, the nasty ones were killed, about whom we do not want to write - there were so many of them ... And so they went, ravaging and burning the land of Yatvyazhskaya, and when they crossed the Oleg River, they wanted to stay in the hollow; Seeing this, Prince Daniel exclaimed, saying: And they passed the gorge, taking the enemies into captivity, and went out into an open field, and camped. The Yatvyags, in spite of everything, attacked them, and the Russians and Poles chased after them, and many Yatvyazh princes were killed; and drove them to the river Oleg (Lyka), and the battle ended.

“O warrior men! Don't you know that the Christian power is in a wide space, and for the nasty - in a narrow one, they are accustomed to the battle in the forest. "

In 1251, the Yatvingians and Danila's army helped the Samogitian prince Vikint during the attack on the castle of Mindaugas Vorut (Rutu).

In 1254, the Vice-Landmaster of Prussia Burkhard von Hornhausen concludes an agreement on military assistance with the Galician prince Daniel and the Mazovian prince Zemovit. The main point of this agreement was the transfer of “ the third part [of the Yatvyazh land]", Which still had to be conquered, the princes" "in exchange for military assistance and other services in the fight against this tribe and" any other fighting against the Christian faith". In addition, the order brothers also pledged not to come into contact with the enemies of other parties and not to interfere with the desire of their subjects to help princes in conflicts.

Figure: 1. Western Baltic (Yatvyazh) hydronyms. 1 - hydronyms of Yatvyazh origin; 2 - other names of rivers; 3 - approximate Prussian-Yatvyazh and Galindo-Yatvyazh borders.

If the question of the belonging of the Yatvingians to the Baltic language group and their place among the Baltic tribes is no longer controversial, then the question of the territory of settlement of the Yatvingian tribes in the 1st and the very beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. is very far from its resolution.

The oldest and most reliable source on the history of the Yatvingians is the Russian chronicles, where the Yatvingians are mentioned since the end of the 10th century. The first news of the military campaign of the Kiev princes against the Yatvingians dates back to 983. The struggle of the Russian princes with the Yatvingians did not stop during the 11th and 12th centuries, but were episodic. In this regard, the chronicle news of the XI-XII centuries. about the Yatvingians are very fragmentary and do not allow to outline even approximately the limits of the Yatvingian territory of this time. More detailed information about the Yatvingians belongs to the XIII century. The country of the Yatvingians at that time lay north of the city of Vizna, beyond the river. Biebrza. Russian and Polish historians of the last century, based on indirect data from Russian chronicles, based on information from Polish chroniclers of the 15th-16th centuries. and cartography of geographical names derived from the word "Yatvyagi", it was believed that before the XIII century. Yatvingians occupied, in addition to Suwalkia, the territory of the Polish Podlasie, Beresteyskaya volost and Upper Ponemania. Opinion about the initial widespread settlement of the Yatvyazh tribes in the Polish (T. Narbut, D. Schultz, Y. Yaroshevich) and Russian (N.P. Barsov, V.B. Antonovich, A.M. Andriyashev, P.D. Bryantsev, I. Filevich, M.K. Lyubavsky) historiography gained significant distribution. Attempts were made to archaeological and anthropological confirmation of this point of view. Thus, R. Eichler, N. Yanchuk and the famous researcher of Lithuanian antiquities E.A. Voltaire, emphasizing the non-Slavic character of the stone graves of Buga, attributed these monuments to the Yatvingians. Yu.D. Talko-Grintsevich noted an admixture of Yatvingians in the anthropological structure of the population of Podlasie.

Only a few researchers opposed the generally accepted opinion about the widespread settlement of the Yatvyazh tribes. So, Yu. Kulakovsky denied the credibility of the message of the Polish chroniclers of the 15th-16th centuries. about the resettlement of the Yatvingians from Prussia to Volhynia and concluded that the Yatvingians in the XIII century. belonged only to the region north of the river. Nareva. In his opinion, the available sources do not allow one to judge about the settlement of the Yatvingians at an earlier time. N.P. Avenarius argued that the Yatvingians never lived in Podlasie, south of the r. Nareva. Yatvyazhsk settlements in the vicinity of Drogichin, reported by Dlugosh and Matvey Mehovit, according to N.P. Avenarius were settlements of prisoners or fugitive Yatvingians. Archaeological argumentation of N.P. Avenarius has been criticized many times and cannot be considered convincing at present.

The opinion that received in the XIX century. the spread of the wide settlement of the Yatvyazh tribes in pre-recorded times, in recent decades, has been resolutely rejected by Polish historians and archaeologists. A. Kaminsky, who revised the materials on the history of the Yatvingians and their territories in the 13th century, notes that there are no definite indications of the widespread settlement of the Yatvingian tribes in written sources (Russian, Polish, German). In Podlasie, besides the stone graves, which are considered Mazovian by Polish archaeologists, there are no other burial monuments of the early Middle Ages that could be attributed to the Yatvingians. Considering toponymic data, A. Kaminsky believes that areas with names derived from the tribal name “Yatvyazh” may be traces of Yatvyaz settlements only on the Yatvyazh territory of the 13th century. Outside this area, such settlements should be associated with places inhabited by Yatvyazh prisoners, settlers or refugees. Cases of such migrations have been repeatedly noted by Russian annals and letters of the Teutonic Order.

For the time before the XIII century. the researcher considers it possible to refer to the Yatvyazh territory the area of \u200b\u200bthe Sliny, the name of which may be associated with the origin of the name of one of the Yatvyazh tribes - the Zlintsy, and the area of \u200b\u200bthe upper Svisloch, where the r. Yatvyaz and several villages of the same name, where Y. Razvadovsky discovered specific relics of the Western Baltic language.

In this regard, some researchers believe that the ancient Yatvingian territory should be limited to a small area of \u200b\u200bnortheastern Poland, where the Yatvingians lived in the 13th century. The lands of the Polish Podlasie, Beresteyskaya volost and Upper Ponemania, according to these researchers, have never been occupied by the Yatvyazh tribes.

However, despite the seriousness of the arguments of the Polish researchers, one cannot agree with them. There is no reason to limit the Yatvingian territory to the XII-XIII centuries. exclusively by Suwalkia, since the data of linguistics and hydronymics indisputably testify to a wider settlement of the Yatvingian tribes. Special linguistic surveys in search of traces of the Yatvyaz language in the wide territory of the Middle and Lower Bug and Upper Poneman regions have not yet been carried out. Meanwhile, fragmentary studies carried out here at different times have found such traces in various places. So, the remains of the Yatvyazh population at the beginning of the 19th century. remained in the Skidel volost of the Grodno district, along the banks of the rivers Kotra and Peliasa. It has already been noted above that the Polish linguist J. Razvadovsky described the relics of the Yatvyazh speech in the area of \u200b\u200bthe river. Svisloch. V. Kurashkevich discovered traces of the Yatvyaz language in the vicinity of Drogichin, Melnik and further south, on the left bank of the Western Bug. E.A. Voltaire, when describing the dialects of the contemporary Lithuanian population of the Slonim district, emphasized its undoubted Western Baltic features and came to the conclusion that the so-called Lithuanians of this section of the Upper Poneman region are not actually Lithuanians, but by their origin were Western Balts.

Recently V.N. Toporov showed that the name of the river. Kshny, a left tributary of the Western Bug, by origin - Yatvyazhskoe. The idea that the Yatvingian tribes did not enter the southern Podlasie is erroneous, they simply never looked for Baltic hydronyms.

Ya.S. Otrembsky writes about the great influence of the Yatvingian language on the Polish language. As a result of this influence, the Polish linguistic territory was divided into two parts: western and eastern. Eastern Poland was the territory of Yatvyazi influence. A noticeable influence of the Yotvingian-Prussian group of the Baltic languages \u200b\u200bis found in all Mazovian and Pomor dialects of the Polish language.

Hydronymics is a reliable source for identifying the territory of settlement of the Yatvyazh tribes. A significant hydronymic layer of undoubtedly Baltic origin on a vast territory could not have formed as a result of settlements of prisoners of war or Yatvingian refugees.

A.L. Pogodin, on the basis of a study of hydronymic material, came to the conclusion that Ponemane as a whole and Bug region partially (below Brest) are included in the circle of lands once occupied by the Baltic tribes. The works of K. Buga, Y. Razvadovsky and others confirmed the presence in the hydronymics of this territory of a significant layer of Baltic origin, which means that the Slavs who came here found the Balts in this territory.

Among the hydronyms of Baltic origin in Suwalkia, Ponemanie and Pobuzhie, river names are specifically Yatvyazh (Western Baltic). In a short article specially devoted to this topic, K. Buga showed that the names of rivers with the suffix -da are Yatvyazh, and made the first list of such hydronyms (Golda, Grivda, Nevda, Segda, Sokolda, Yaselda).

The list of hydronyms of Yatvyazh (Western Baltic) origin can be significantly replenished (Fig. 1). Some of them, such as Skroda, also have a Western Baltic etymology. The map also contains such hydronyms of the Prussian-Yatvyazh type as Zelva-Zelvnyak, Kirsna, Kshna, Yatvyaz and Slina (the latter, as noted above, are associated by researchers with the name of one of the Yatvyazh tribes - the Zlintsy).

Figure: 2. Distribution of the Yatvyazh kurgans. 1 - burial grounds with stone mounds; 2 - the eastern and southern boundaries of the distribution of the Yatvyaz hydronymics; 3 - Prussian-Yatvyazhskaya and Galindo-Yatvyazhskaya borders; 1 - Pajarchiai; 2 - Liepinai; 3 - Vistutis; 4 - Aukshtoy; 5 - Petroshkai; 6 - Shurpils; 7 - Yelenevo; 8 - dry land; 9 - Ponds; 10 - Water is Alive; 11 - Osova; 12 - Corklins; 13 - Skardub; 14 - Charnokovshchizna; 15 - Bela Voda; 16 and 17 - Switzerland; 18 - Brody; 19 - Mierunishki; 20 - Botzwinka Nova; 21 - Bozvinka; 22 - Grunayki; 23 - Okrasin; 24 - Chervonny Dvor; 25 - Mala Dubrovka; 26 - Kal; 27 - Stone Plow; 28 - Petrasheny: 29 - Throat; 30 - Russian Whole; 31 - Katy; 32 - Grodzisk; 33 - Yasudovo; 34 - Kladzevo; 35 - Yasinova Valley; 36 - Theolin; 37 - New Window; 38 - Rostolts; 39 - Bogdanka: 40 - Repniki; 41 - Gatski-Raiki; 42 - Pauls; 43 - Kutovo; 44 - Denteleevo; 45 - Losinka; 46 - Krivich; 47 - Luzhani; 48 - Maltsy; 49 - Pobikrov; 50 - Invisible; 51 - Chekanovo; 52 - Meadows; 53 - Objectives; 54 - Batsiki Distant; 55 - Batsiki Near; 56 - Stavshtsi; 57 - Lisovshchizna; 58 - Troops; 59 - Koscheiniks; 60 - Kustichi; 61 - Volochin; 62 - Staves; 63 - Rudavets; 64 - Menkovichi; 65 - Edvabne; 66 - Yatskovichi; 67 - Shields; 68 - Reed; 69- Green Gurka; 70 - Shells; 71 - Rataychitsy; 72 - Svtsevo; 73 - Khotinovo; 74 - Shestakovo; 75 - Klyukovo; 76 - Bagels; 77 - Joy; 78 - Uglyany; 79 - Chahets; 80 - Detkovichi, 81 - Volpa; 82 - Belavichi; 83 - Old All; 84 - Waste; 85 - Pavlovichi; 86 - Koscheevo; 87 - Dubovo; 88 - Sokolovo-Milkanovichi; 89 - Milkanovichi; 90 - Mezhevichi; 91 - Volovniki; 92 - Brezhianka; 93 - Suliatichi; 94 - Gorodilovka; 95 - Weakadele; 96 - Migonis; 97 - Beijonis; 98 - Teeth; 99 - Chepeluny; 100 - Versoca; 101 - Senkans; 102 - Konyavel, 103 - Nashkunai; 104 - Rudnya; 105 - Morgues; 106 - Bagota; 107 - Truth-Yasovshchizna; 108 - Belyunets; 109 - Mitskonis; 110 - Start; 111 - Versekele; 112 - Vilkonis; 113 - Pusele; 114 - Supplies; 115 - Karnachikha; 116 - Opanovtsy; 117 - Kozlyany; 118 - Shlavense; 119 - Tabolic; 120 - Cancers; 121 - Kiyutsi; 122 - Ganelki; 123- Wenzewishness; 124 - Squares; 125 - Syrni; 126 - Tanevnchi; 127 - Bogeymen; 128 - Zenyanishi; 129 - Prudziany; 130 - Devenishkes; 131 - Kastkiskes; 132 - Kozarovshchizna; 133 - Zeladi; 134 - Skins; 135 - Kotlovka.

Throughout the territory of the distribution of Yatvyazh hydronymics, peculiar funerary monuments are known that have no analogies either among the burial structures of the Slavic tribes, or among the grave monuments of the East Baltic (Lithuanian and Latvian) tribes. These are stone mounds (Fig. 2), which include both burial mounds made entirely of stone, and stone-earth mounds, in which stone was an essential component. Stone mounds usually have a soddy surface and therefore in appearance they often do not differ from the Slavic or Lithuanian mounds. Since the mapped territory is one of the areas that have been most poorly studied archaeologically, the absence of stone mounds in some areas of the Yatvyazh hydronymic territory, apparently, must be explained by the fact that they have not yet been identified here. The same sites where more or less extensive excavation studies of burial mounds have ever been carried out usually yield a significant number of stone burial mounds.

The difference between the stone mounds and the burial monuments of the Slavic and East Baltic tribes and the coincidence of the area of \u200b\u200bthese mounds with the area of \u200b\u200bdistribution of the Yatvyazh hydronymics already allows us to raise the question of whether the stone mounds belong to the group of burial monuments of the Western Baltic (in the considered territory of the Yatvyazh) tribes. But not only the coincidence of the territory of distribution of stone mounds with the Yatvyazh hydronymic area indicates that these sites belong to the group of Western Baltic antiquities. Researchers of the archeology of the Western Baltic tribes have repeatedly emphasized that for a long time these tribes were characterized by the use of stone in the construction of burial monuments.

The rite of burial under stone mounds spread among all Western Baltic tribes as early as the 1st millennium BC. In the 1st millennium A.D. among the Prussian tribes, barrow burials are replaced by burials in ground burial grounds with the obligatory use of barrow-like or flat stone structures in the form of masonry or paving. Burial structures made of stone are preserved among the Prussian tribes up to the XIII-XIV centuries. In western Mazovia, where Galindian tribes lived, earthen burial grounds appear already in the 1st millennium BC. and coexist with stone mounds.

In contrast to the Prussian-Galindian tribes of the Yatvyagi, during the entire 1st millennium AD. preserved the burial mound rite, and in some places of the ancient Yatvyazh territory the burial ritual in stone mounds was retained, as will be shown below, until the end of the 13th century. The use of a stone to mark burials in certain localities of the territory of the settlement of the Yatvyazh tribes survived until the 17th century. Among the regions where the Yatvyaz hydronymics is widespread, Suvalkia is the best surveyed. Therefore, the review of the archeology of the Western Baltic tribes is usually limited to Prussia and Suwalkia. On the eve of the Second World War, German archaeologists in their research on the ancient history of the Western Balts left the areas to the east and south of Suwalkia unhatched on the maps and accompanied by the words “unexplored territory”. Since then, the situation has changed little. Due to extensive excavation research carried out in recent years by the Yatvyazhskaya complex expedition, Suvalkia remains the most explored area of \u200b\u200bthe Yatvyazhskaya hydronymic territory. Therefore, acquaintance with the stone mounds of the Yatvingians is best to start from Suwalkia.

The Yatvyazh kurgan burial grounds of Suwalkia usually consist of several dozen low, flat embankments with a diameter of 6 to 16-18 m. The surface of the kurgans is, as a rule, turfed, and only at the foot are large cobblestones that frame the mound foundations visible.

Figure: 3. Sections of stone mounds. 1 - sod layer; 2- stones; 3 - sand; 4 - mainland; 5 - remains of cremations.

I - Rostolts (according to K. Yazdzhevsky), II - Aukshtoin, 9 (according to Sh. Krukovsky), III - Switzerland, group two, 2 (according to E. Antonevit), IV - Osova, 39 (according to D. Yaskapis and J. Yaskapis), V - Zhivaya Water, 1 (according to V. Zemlinskaya-Odoeva), VI - Osova, 47 (according to Ya.Yaskapis), VII - Bagota (according to V.A.Shukevich), VIII - Beijonis (scheme according to M. Alsekaite-Gimbutnienė), IX - Svishchego, 12 (excavations of the author), X - Karanachikha (scheme for V.A.Shukevich).

For the II-IV centuries. along with the rite of cremations, the rite of burying unburnt corpses is also characteristic. Bio-ritualism is observed at the same time among the Prussian tribes. A characteristic feature of the Yatvyazh kurgans with corpses is the presence of a more or less noticeable depression at the top of the embankment. Several such burial mounds were excavated by Polish archaeologists in the Belorogi tract near Cape Shvaysaria. The height of the embankments did not exceed 0.5 m. The structure of the embankments was the same (Fig. 3, III). Under the sod layer there was a stone cover, folded in several tiers of stones closely adjacent to each other. Under the stone cover, at a shallow depth, burial pits were opened, oriented from the northwest to the southeast, filled with stones. As a rule, there was one skeleton in the grave pit, in rare cases, two or three skeletons. The dead were partially burned. In some burial mounds, traces of vertical pillars were found around the burial pits, indicating that some kind of wooden domina were erected over the burials. The presence on the tops of the burial mounds with depressions and depressions is a consequence of the subsidence of the embankment as the burial chamber decays. The material material for the cremations in the Yatvyazh mounds of Suwalkia is quite diverse. These are spears, axes, buckles, neck torcs, the so-called provincial-Roman brooches, various plaques, glass beads. Swords are very rare. Ceramic material belongs to the types typical for the East Azur culture of the 2nd-4th centuries. In the stone cover of some burial mounds, burnless corpses were discovered in the form of accumulations of ash, coals and calcified bones placed among stones. Stone burial mounds with corpses of the same type in Suwalkia were investigated in the villages of Osove, Zhivaya Voda, Shurpily, and Russkaya Vesi. All of them date back to the same time - from the 3rd to the beginning of the 5th century. In the mounds at the village. Zhivaya Voda, cases of finding several burial pits of different times with corpses under one burial mound were noted.

Stone burial mounds with corpses of the first half of the 1st millennium are known not only in Suwalkia. In the 30s of the XX century. such mounds were investigated at the villages of Rostolty and Kutovo, near the river. Nareva. The tops of the mounds had characteristic depressions. The Rostolt mound, in addition to the surface cover, composed of stones closely adjacent to each other, had an inner stone core (Fig. 3). The remains of cremations (small calcified bones), an iron knife, fragments of pottery and a Roman green glass bead with white eyes were discovered among the stones of this part of the embankment. The main burial (corpse position) was made in an oval burial pit (5X3 m, depth 2.5 m), oriented NW-SE. A bronze ladle, a bone comb, fragments of a Roman glass vessel and some other things were lying with the deceased. Burial date III century.

The embankment of the Kutovsky burial mound was built of stone interspersed with sand. There are similar mounds among the Yatvyazh kurgans of Suwalkia. In the central kurgan pit filled with stones, the skeleton is completely decayed. In the same mound, several more grave pits were discovered, in one of which calcified bones and a bone crest were found. The researcher of these kurgans K. Yazdzhevsky emphasizes the similarity of their ceramic material with the simultaneous ceramics from the archaeological sites of the Prussian tribes and believes that the investigated kurgans belong to the Yatvyag-courts.

A stone mound with a corpse of the same type was also investigated in the village. Kotlovka. In appearance (the presence of a noticeable depression on the tops of the embankments), the researchers include among the Yatvyazh mounds of the first half of the 1st millennium the mounds at the villages: Losinke, Krivich, Pavly, Repniki, Bogdanka.

Stone mounds with burials of the unburnt dead are also known on the right bank of the Neman in the territory of the Lithuanian SSR. 26 burial mounds, built of stones and concluding corpses, were excavated in 1888 and 1889. E.A. Voltaire at der. Slabadele (Slobodka). The burial inventory of these mounds is generally poorer than in the stone mounds of Suwalkia, but almost the entire complex of finds has analogies among the collection of Suwalki mounds. Lithuanian archaeologists date the slabadel mounds to the 4th century. A.Z. Tautavicius erroneously classified these mounds as Eastern Lithuanian. The mounds of the Eastern Lithuanian tribes were made of sand or clay, and only at the base had a ring made of cobblestones. There are no items in the collection of slack mounds that would be characteristic exclusively of the funerary antiquities of the East Lithuanian tribes. All this, together with the fact that the burial mounds under consideration were found in the area of \u200b\u200bdistribution of the Yatvyazh hydronymics, makes it possible to attribute them to the Yatvyazh monuments.

We also refer to this group of monuments some of the burial mounds with corpses, investigated near the villages of Migonis, Pamarnikas and Skvorbi. In two mounds at the village. Migonis (Nos. 14 and 19), stones were found along the slope of the embankment and boulders that formed the framing of the burial grounds. One must think that the Migonis mounds were left by a mixed Lithuanian-Yatvyazi population. R. Volkaite-Kulikauskiene dates these mounds to the 4th-5th centuries. Mounds near the villages of Pamarnikas and Skvorbi are located in central Lithuania. I.S. Abramov, who carried out excavation research here in 1909 and 1910, notes that he encountered burial mounds with a continuous stone cover under the turf. And the mound number 8 at the village. Pamarnikas and burial mounds No. 2 and 4 at the village. The squorbies were built entirely of stone. This arrangement of mounds is not typical of Lithuanian burial monuments.

The poor knowledge of the eastern regions of the Yatvyaz hydronymic territory does not allow us to answer the question of whether the Yatvyags occupied the Upper Poneman region in the first half of the 1st millennium. Stone mounds with corpses of this time are not known here yet. In the Slonim uyezd, burial mounds with a stone cover and a depression at the top are known, but they cannot yet be classified as Rostolt ones. The fact is that at the neighboring Dregovichi kurgans of the XI-XII centuries. sometimes there are the same sagging mounds over the decayed houses with corpses. True, the Dregovichi burial mounds never have stone cover, but nevertheless, until the excavations are carried out, the Slonim burial mounds remain undefined.

In the III-IV centuries. the rite of corpses coexisted among the Yatvingians with the rite of cremations. It has already been noted above that in some burial mounds with burials of the unburnt dead, among the stones of the embankment there are cremations. Since the V century. cremations become the only burial rite. The fact that the corpses and cremations in the stone mounds of Suwalkia and neighboring regions belong to the same population does not cause any objections. Mounds with corpses and burials in the same burial grounds, the presence of both types of burial in the same embankment, the similarity of burial implements and ceramic material has already been repeatedly noted by many researchers.

Stone burial mounds, as a rule, do not have funnel-shaped depressions at the tops. Otherwise, their structure does not differ from the kurgans with corpses (Fig. 3, II, IV-VI). Usually, under the sod, a cover is opened, composed of stones in one or several tiers. There are mounds entirely made of stones; there are burial mounds (like the Rostolt one) with an inner core made of stones. Remains of cremations (more often bezurnovye, less often in urns) in the mounds of the middle of the 1st millennium are under the embankment in small grave pits and among the stones of the embankment. The number of cremations in one burial mound varies from 2-3 to 15-16.

Some cremations of the middle of the 1st millennium are accompanied by a rich inventory. The collection of funerary implements from the Yatvyazh corpse burnings of Suwalkia includes iron spears and umbons, bits and spurs, belt plaques and buckles, crossbow brooches, toilet tweezers, knives, amber beads and some other items of women's jewelry. Urns with cremations of the 5th-7th centuries are typical Suwalki pots with a slightly bent rim. The bend is always at the top of the vessel. Single vessels are ornamented along the edge with a nail pattern.

In Suwalkia, Yatvyazh kurgans with cremations, except for those burial grounds that were already mentioned in connection with the characteristics of the rite of corpses, were investigated in Prudishki, Yelenevo, Petrasheny, Sukhodoly, Yasinova Valley, Bilvinov, Neshki, Korklins and other places.

The same stone mounds with cremations are known in the Upper Ponemanie. Thanks to the extensive excavation research carried out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. V.A. Shukevich and E.A. Voltaire, stone mounds are comparatively well studied in the northern part of the Upper Nieman basin. The earliest of the investigated is one of the mounds near the village. Versecke, built entirely of stone and containing two cremations. The remains of one of the burnings were in an earthen vessel covered with a sharp-ribbed pot. Similar vessels are known from the cultural layer of the first half of the 1st millennium of the Mgonis settlement, as well as in Poland and the Middle Dnieper region of the 3rd-4th centuries. In this regard, A.Z. Tautavičius dated the Verssek mound to the 4th century. Stone burial mounds near the villages of Bagote, Versekele, Vilkonis and Mitskonis belong to the V-VIII centuries. Apparently, the burial mounds, partially made of stone, near the villages of Deveniškės and Kastkiskes should be included in the same group of monuments. It must be assumed that among the stone mounds of the southern part of the Upper Poneman region there are mounds with cremations of the second half of the 1st millennium, but they have not yet been excavated.

The stone burial mounds of the Upper Ponemanye are of the same type with the Suvalki ones in their structure. These are also flat, round embankments up to 0.5-0.8 m high. The sub-sod cover of the embankments consisted of stones in one or several tiers. The number of cremations in one embankment varies from one to two to six (Fig. 3, VII). A.Z. Tautavičius attributed the stone-built mounds of Lithuania to the monuments of the Eastern Lithuanian tribes, with which one cannot agree. The insignificant differences emphasized by him in the size of the stone mounds of the Upper Ponemania and Suwalkia are not significant, and the funeral rite in both mounds is the same. As well as in Suwalkia, these are the remains of cremations performed on the side, or in burial pits under the mounds (Bagota, Mitskonis) or among the stones of the embankments (Versekele, Vilkonis, etc.). Only occasionally were there cases when calcified bones were scattered over a small area at the base of the mounds, but this detail also has analogies in the Yatvyazh mounds of Suwalkia. True, urn cremations are less common in the Upper Neman stone burial mounds compared to Suwalki burial mounds, but this is a very minor sign of difference. To determine the ethnicity of the stone mounds of the Upper Ponemanye, it is much more important that the main features are the same with the Suvalki mounds and their significant difference from the unconditional East Lithuanian mounds. It is also significant that in the stone mounds of the Upper Ponemanye no objects identified by A.Z. Tautavichyus among those characteristic only of the Eastern Lithuanian tribes. Items from these mounds (axes, spears, shield brackets, buckles, etc.) belong to the types common among many Baltic tribes, including the Yatvyazh tribes.

Burials according to the rite of burning in the Yatvyazh stone mounds of the last quarter of the 1st millennium are almost always devoid of funerary implements, and therefore their identification is difficult. Among the Prussian tribes, starting from the 6th century, there is a significant impoverishment of the funeral inventory. A sharp decrease in the number of finds, and then their almost complete disappearance from about this time, begins among the Yatvingians both in Suwalkia and in the Upper Poneman region. In addition, like the Prussians, the Yatvyazh tribes in the 7th-10th centuries. burn-less cremations dominate, therefore burials of this time cannot be distinguished by ceramic material either. As an example of the Yatvyazh stone mounds of this time, one can name the mounds at the village. Yasudovo, the early cremations of which date back to the 9th century. , or mounds at the village. Aukshtoye, where, on the contrary, the later cremations of the corpses can be dated to the 8th-9th centuries.

The latest cremations in the Yatvyazh stone mounds are determined by the finds of pottery ceramics of the ancient Russian appearance of the X-XII centuries. The presence of such ceramics in stone burial mounds does not deny that these monuments belong to Yatvyazh. Such ceramics are common not only in the monuments of the Slavic tribes. It was also found in the Eastern Lithuanian barrows, on the Lithuanian pilkalnis, on the Latgalian settlements, in the monuments of the Prussian tribes. Therefore, the finding of Old Russian pottery ceramics in the burial mounds of the Yatvingians - the closest neighbors of the Slavs - is natural.

In terms of their structure, stone mounds at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia do not differ from the previous ones. Only the number of cremations in one mound is reduced to one or two. Such mounds are known almost throughout the territory of the Yatvyazh hydronymics distribution. In the interfluve of the Upper Neman and Viliya, they are sometimes found in the same burial grounds together with the mounds of the middle and second half of the 1st millennium and are identical with them in structure. In the southern part of the Upper Ponemanye part of the kurgans near the village. Sulyatichi. Of the three burial mounds excavated here by F.D. Gurevich, one had a stone cover typical of the Yatvyazi burial sites and included one cremation. Mounds with a stone cover have been studied in this part of the Upper Poneman region before, but the researchers did not find any burials in them, since the excavations were carried out by a small well or a narrow trench.

Very little is known about stone burial mounds with cremations in Suwalkia, accompanied by Old Russian pottery. These are the above-mentioned burial mounds near the villages of Yasudov and Osovo. It is possible that by the beginning of the 2nd millennium in Suwalkia, the burial rite of mounds was replaced by burials without mounds with stone pavements. But this assumption, due to the complete lack of study of the burial monuments of Suwalkia of this time, cannot be supported by factual materials.

In the Middle Bug region, stone burial mounds with burning at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia are known from the excavations of S.A. Dubinsky and Brest Museum of Local Lore. In their structure, they repeat the stone mounds of an earlier time and differ from the latter only in smaller sizes. All of them have a stone covering under the turf, folded into one or three tiers. Each burial mound usually contains one crematorium. Remains of cremations, sometimes accompanied by fragments of ancient Russian pottery vessels, often bezurnovye and without inventory, are either among the stones that make up the covering of the embankment (Batsiki, Dalnie, Klyukovo, Tsetseli), or at the base of the mounds (Batsiki Bliznie, Tsetseli), or in a small mound pit (Voyokaya). Apart from single melted ingots of glass and bronze, nothing is found during cremations at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia.

During the XI-XII centuries. the rite of cremations in stone mounds is gradually replaced by the rite of corpses. The change of rituals took place at different times in different regions. Thus, in some places of the Neman-Vili interfluve, the rite of corpse burning was retained until the beginning of the 13th century, and in Brest Bug, the last burnings in stone mounds date back to the 11th century. Many stone burial mounds with corpses of the first centuries of the 2nd millennium are located in the same burial grounds as the burial mounds. The structure of the stone mounds remains unchanged. As before, the mounds have a cover made of stones in one or more tiers (Fig. 3, IX), there are mounds built entirely of stone. The dead were placed either on the mainland or in a pit under the kurgan. Most of the buried had a western orientation. At the same time, along the entire territory of the distribution of stone mounds, an eastern orientation, which is not typical for the Slavs, is found. At late corpses, burial items are usually found in stone mounds. In female burials, these are ring-shaped temporal rings with overhanging ends, less often - ring-shaped rings with a spiral curl at the end. In the Middle Bug region, small wire rings with an S-shaped curl are also common. Three-bead rings are very rare. In the mounds between the rivers Neman and Viliya, the remains of a forehead bandage (headdress according to A.A. Spitsyn) are often found - bronze or silver plaques with an embossed pattern. Bead necklaces were not common. Only in a few burial mounds were beads found (from one to six in the burial) - small ones made of blue, light green and frosted glass, infused or clay, silvered glass and occasionally bronze, covered with granulation. Bracelets and rings from stone burial mounds belong to the types widely known from Slavic antiquities. In addition, there are spiral rings and bracelets characteristic of the monuments of the Baltic tribes. Iron knives and pottery vessels of the Slavic type are found in both male and female burials. In addition, axes, spears, armchairs, buckles were found in male burials.

Stone burial mounds with corpses of the XI-XIII centuries. are known almost throughout the territory of distribution of the Yatvyazh hydronymics. In the interfluve of the Neman and Villia, they were studied by E.A. Voltaire, S. Gloger, V.A. Shukevich and S. Yarotsky (burial grounds near the villages Venzhevshchizna, Vilkonis, Karnachikha, Kiyutsi, Kozarovshchina, Opankovtsi, Puzele, etc. Many such burial mounds were excavated in Pobuzhie. At the end of the 19th century they were investigated by T. Lunevsky, S. Gloger, K. Stolivo (village Luzhki), R. Eichler (Nevyadoma and Chekanov), L. Paevsky (village Uglyany), at the beginning of the XX century S.A. Dubinsky (Batsiki Dalnie, Tsetseli) and in recent years the Brest Museum of Local Lore (at the villages Voiskaya, Zelenaya Gurka, Koscheiniki, Kustichi, Lisovshchizna, Rataychitsy, Svishchevo, Trostyanitsa, Khotinovo) and by the author (near the village of Svishchevo) In Suwalkia, stone mounds with corpses of the first centuries of the 2nd millennium have been investigated only in the Yasudovo part of the southern part of Poniemanye. remain unexplored.

Stone burial mounds with corpses of the XI-XIII centuries. have never been considered comprehensively by researchers. Concerning individual mounds or small territories, archaeologists paid attention exclusively to the Slavic character of women's jewelry and, in this regard, considered these monuments to be Slavic. So, A.A. Spitsyn, shortly after receiving the first information about large excavations of stone mounds and graves in the Lida district, suggested that these monuments be considered antiquities of the Russian population of Black Russia. Polish archaeologists attribute the mounds of the Middle Bug region, regardless of their structure, to the monuments of the East Slavic tribes (Dregovichi). Yu.V. Kukharenko, without giving any reason, believes that the stone mounds of the Middle Bug region may belong to the Buzhanians. In one of the reports A.A. Spitsyn also considered these mounds as monuments of the Buzhan people, but not in the ethnographic, but in the geographical sense of the word.

Figure: 4. Scheme of the evolution of the Yatvyazh kurgans.

To determine the ethnicity of stone burial mounds with corpses of the XI-XIII centuries. It is important that these monuments trace their origin from earlier stone mounds, the Yatvyazh affiliation of which seems to be indisputable (Fig. 4). The fact that these monuments nowhere go beyond the area of \u200b\u200bthe Yatvingian hydronymics also indirectly indicates their connection with the Yatvingians. In the X-XIII centuries. in the Middle Bug region and in the southern part of the Upper Ponemanye, along with stone mounds, ordinary Slavic mounds, poured out of sand or clay and having no stone structures, are well known. The earliest of them contain cremations of the 10th century, in the 11th-13th centuries. - corpses. In Pobuzhie, such mounds were excavated by N.P. Avenarius, S.A. Dubinsky and others, in the Upper Ponemane - M. Fedorovsky, M.A. Tsybyshev, E. Golubovich, F.D. Gurevich and others. They are located both as separate burial grounds and in groups together with stone mounds. These mounds are certainly left behind by the Slavic population.

Slavic colonization did not occur simultaneously in all areas of the considered territory. The Slavs penetrated into the southern part of the Upper Poneman region already in the middle of the 1st millennium. The preservation of a significant number of hydronyms of Baltic origin on this territory indicates that the Slavs not only found the Balts here, but also lived for some time on the same territory with them, until the latter were Slavicized. Therefore, the presence of two types (Slavic and Yatvyazhsky) burial mounds of the X-XIII centuries in the Middle Bug and Upper Ponemane. reflects the multiethnicity of the population of this time. Some of the stone mounds probably belonged to the already Slavicized Yatvingians. In this regard, the Slavic character of female adornments in the later stone mounds finds an explanation.

The so-called "stone graves" are directly connected with the Yatvyazh stone mounds. However, due to the special area of \u200b\u200btheir distribution and some specific features of these monuments, it is better to single out their consideration as a separate topic.

Gerullis G. Zur Sprache der Sudauer-Jatwinger. Festschrift Adalbert Bezzenberger. Goettingen, 1921; Buga K. Lietuviu kalbos źodynas. Kaunas, 1925. II. C. LXXIV-LXXXIX; Otrembsky Y.S. The language of the Yatvingians // Questions of Slavic linguistics. M., 1961. Issue. 5.S. 3-8.

Kohn A. Vorhistorische Gräber bei Czekanów und Niewiadoma in Polen // ZE. Berlin, 1878. X.S. 256; Yanchuk N. A few words about the archaeological and ethnographic excursion to the Sedlec province in 1891 // Memorable book of the Sedlec province for 1892. Sedlec, 1892. P. 223-255; Volter E.A. On the question of the Yatvyags // Yearbook of the Russian Anthropological Society at St. Petersburg University. SPb., 1908. Iss. II. S. 1-9.

Notes on the western part of Grodno province // Ethnographic collection published by the Russian Geographical Society. SPb., 1858. Issue. III. S. 47-73.

Avenarius N.P. Drogichin Nadbuzhsky and his antiquities // Materials on the archeology of Russia. 1890. no. IV. S. 27-34.

Volter E.A. On the question of the Yatvyagh. S. 2-8; Gurevich F.D. On the question of the archaeological monuments of the annalistic Yatvingians // Brief Communications of the Institute of the History of Material Culture. 1950. Issue. XXXIII. S. 111, 112.

M. Tappen belongs to the number of researchers who denied the widespread settlement of the Yatvingians (Toerren M. Geschichte Masurens. Danzig, 1870, pp. 1-17; his Atlas zur historisch-comparativen Geographie von Preussen. Gotha, 1858. Table I ).

Antonevich E. On the archaeological study of the ancient population of the Baltic States // News of the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR. Series. societies. sciences. 1957. Iss. II. P. 172. This point of view is shared by F.D. Gurevich (Gurevich F.D. Ethnic composition of the population of the Upper Poneman region according to archaeological data of the second half of the 1st millennium AD // Research on archeology of the USSR. Leningrad, 1961, pp. 177-179).

Yanchuk N. Decree. op. P. 235. According to T. Narbut's testimony, the Lithuanians called this part of Ponemanya (south of the Pelyasa River) Yatvyagia (Narbutt T. Dzieje starożytne narodu litewskiego. Wilno, 1842. II. P. 170).

Kuraszkiewicz W. Domniemany ślad Jadźwingów na Podlasiu // Studia z filologii polskiej i słowiańskiej. Warszawa, 1955. I. S. 334-348.

Volter E.A. Die Litauer im Kreise Slonim (Zur litauische Dialektenkunde) // Mitteilungen der litauischen literarischen Gesellschaft. Tilsit-Heidelberg, 1895. IV, 2. S. 166-187; Volter E.A. Traces of ancient Prussians and their language in the Grodno province // News of the Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences. SPb., 1912. XVI, 4.S. 151-160. True, E.A. Voltaire believes that these are the descendants of immigrants from Prussia. However, Ya.S. Otrembsky convincingly shows that all the features of the Lithuanian dialect in the Slonim uyezd speak of their Yatvyazh origin (Otrembsky Ya.S. Decree, op. Pp. 7, 8).

Toporov V.N. Two notes from the field of Baltic toponymy. About the southern border of the Yatvingians // Rakstu krājums veltijums akademikim profesoram Dr. Jānim Endzellnam vina 85 drives im 65 darba gadu atcerei. Riga, 1959.S. 251-256.

Otrembski T. Udział Jaćwingów w ukształtowaniu jeżyka polskiego // Acta Baltico-Slavica. Białystok, 1964. I. S. 207-216.

The time of the appearance of the Slavs in this territory cannot be determined from the data of hydronymics. K. Buga, on the basis of linguistic data, believed that the Eastern Slavs came into contact with the Yatvingians in the period between the 7th and 10th centuries (Вūga K. Kalbu mokslas bei mūsii senové. Kaunas, 1913, p. 12).

When compiling the map, the following works were mainly used: Volter E.A. Lists of inhabited places of the Suvalki province as material for the historical and ethnographic geography of the region. SPb., 1901; Nesteruk F.Ya., Korchagin A.K. Rivers of the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR. Bibliographic index of domestic and foreign literature for the period 1890-1939. M .; L, 1941; Tyulpanov A.I., Borisov I.A., Blagutin V.I. A short guide of rivers and reservoirs of the BSSR. Minsk, 1948; Lasinskes M., Macevicius J., Jabłońskis J. Lietuvos TSR upiu kadastras. Vilnius, 1959. Due to the absence of a catalog of rivers, the Lower Bug region remained uncharted. Areas inhabited by Prussian and Galindic tribes in antiquity were also not mapped.

Вūga K. Die Vorgeschichte der Aistischen (Baltischen) Stämme im Lichte der Ortsnamenforschung. Streitberg Festgabe. Leipzig, 1924, p. 34.

Engel C., W. La Baumé. Kulturen und Völker der Frühzeit im Preußenlande. Königsberg, 1937, p. 141; Alseikaité-Gimbutiene M. Die Bestattung in Litauen in der vorgeschichtlichen Zeit. Tübingen 1946, pp. 77, 84.

Engel C., W. La Baumé. Decree. op. S. 211-213; Gaerte W. Urgeschichte Ostpreussens. Königsberg, 1929, pp. 322-328.

Yatvyagi is a medieval name for one of the groups of Western Baltic tribes. This term was used by the Eastern Slavs, Poles and partly Lithuanians. The Prussians and Teutonic knights called the Yavtyag ships. A. Kaminsky proved the identity of these names (A. Kamiński, op. Cit. Pp. 25-31). In historiography, it is generally accepted that the Prussian definition of the Yatvingians is inherited from the name Soudinoi, mentioned in the geography of Ptolemy.

Talko-Hryncewicz J. Przyczynek do paleoetnologii Litwy. Cmentarzysko na Arjańskiej górce w majętności Unji pod Wierzbolowem, pow. Wolkowyszki, gub. Suwalska // Prace i Máterjaly antropologiczno-archeologiczne i entograficzne. Krakow, 1920. I. 1-9. S. 48-51.

The archeology of the Yatvingians begins in the first centuries of the 1st millennium. The initial stage of the East Azur culture, identified by the archaeologist K. Engel and considered by the followers as the culture of the Yatvingians-ships, falls on the 1st century. By the first half of the II century. the first mention of the Yatvingians in written sources (Ptolemy) also applies. The earlier stone mounds of Suwalkia could have belonged to the still undivided West Baltic tribes.

Antoniewicz J., Kaszunksi M., Okulis J. Sprawozdanie z badań w 1955 r. na cmentarzysku kurhanowym w miejsc. Szwajcaria, pow. Suwałki // WA. 1956. XXIII, 4. S. 308-324; Antoniewicz J., Kaszunksi M., Okulisz J. Winiki badań przeprowadzonych w 1956 roku na cmentarzysku kurhanowym w meijsc. Szwajcaria, pow Suwałki // WA. 1958. XXV, 1-2. S. 22-57; Antoniewicz J. Badania kurhanów z okresu rzymskiego dokonane w 1957. w miejscowości Szwajcaria pow. Suwałki // WA. 1961. XXVII, 1.C. 1-26.

A. Budzinsky. Archaeological research in Grodno, former Avgustov, now Suwalki and Lomzhinskaya provinces in the period from 1857 to 1869 // Memorable book of Suwalki province for 1875 Suwalki, 1875. P. 95; Kaczyński M. Cmentarzysko w okresu wedrowek ludów w miejscowości Osowa, pow. Suwałki // WA. 1955. XXII, 3-4. S. 346-365; Jaskanis J. Sprawozdanie z badań w 1956. na cmentarzysku kurhanowym w miejscowości Osowa, pow. Suwałki // WA. XXV, 1-2. S. 75-98; Jaskanis D., Jaskanis J. Sprawozdanie z badań w 1957 r. na cmentarzysku kurhanowym w miejscowości Osowa, pow. Suwałki // WA. XXVII, 1. S. 27-48; Jaskanis J. Wyniki badan przeprowadzonych na cmentarzysku kurhanowym w wiejscowości. Osowa, pow. Suwałki w latach 1958-1959 // Rocznik białostocki. Białystok, 1961. I. S. 131-192.

Yatvyagi is a conditional common name for a large group of Western Baltic tribes that lived in the 1st - early 2nd millennium AD. e. in the area from the Masurian Lakes and the Narew River in the west to Neman in the east, from Suwalki in the north to the Western Bug basin (with Dorogichin and Brest) in the south. The most famous tribes are the Sudova (they are also called the "Prussian tribe"), the Dainova, the Polyaksen (or Poleshane), and the Yatvyagi (etvez) proper.

Here is what is said about the Yatvyags in the first volume of "The Entsyklapedi Vyalikaga of the Lithuanian principality" (p. 58):

“Yatvyags occupied the territory of modern western Belarus, north-eastern regions of Poland, southern regions of Lietuva.

The prevailing idea is that the Yatvingians were divided into 4 large tribes. In the northern part of their territory lived Dainova, a neighbor of the Lietuvis; in the north-west - ships (land of Sudovia), the territory of which bordered on the nadrovaya and boards (land Bartya); in the southwestern part, on the river Elk (Lykha), lived the Polaksen, neighbors of the Galiids and Mazovians; in the central and eastern parts - the Yatvyags proper, who were the first to face the Kievan Rus, which was expanding its power in the 10th-11th centuries, and later - with the Galician-Volyn princes. There could have been smaller Yatvyazh tribes, the names of which, however, have not survived. The Yatvyags did not strive to unite, to create their own state, and the Lithuanian prince Mindovg did not want to annex them to his state ”(my translation - AT).

In my opinion, in the ethnic sense (i.e., according to criteria such as physical type, language, religious beliefs, features of material culture, marriage and funeral rites), some of the Yatvingian neighbors (in particular, the Bart, Galind, and Nadrov tribes) can also be considered yatvyagami. In any case, they understood each other's speech - there is documentary evidence of this.

Our émigré historian Vatslav Panutsevich argued in his book "3 Histories of Belarus or Kryvichy-Lithuania" (1965) that the Yatvyazh tribes are of Gothic origin, and that they settled on our territory at the end of the Neolithic era. In principle, the idea is not new. Back in 1673, Theodosius Sofonovich in his "Chronicle" wrote about the Yatvingians:

"The Yatvezhs were a united people in Lithuania and with old Prussians, they went from the Goths, whose capital was Dorogichin, and Podlasie all the way to Prus, from Volyn, they settled down, they settled, Novgorodok Lithuanian and the surrounding volosts were kept."

Linguists believe that the Yatvingian dialects were close to the dialects of the Prussians. The most significant and valuable monument of the Yatvyaz language is the handwritten Polish-Yatvyazh dictionary "Роganske gwary z Narewu", found in the late 1870s in the southern part of Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

It includes more than 200 lexemes, many of which reveal important features of the life and culture of the Yatvingians (for example, aucima - "village, settlement", Naura - "Narev" (name of the river), resi - "cattle", taud - "people", waltida - "health", ward - "word", weda - "road", wulks - "wolf", etc.). In addition, the dictionary contains a significant part of Yatvingian verbs, pronouns and numerals.

The material of the dictionary makes it possible to identify a number of phonetic and morphological features of the Yatvyaz language. Their analysis allowed researchers to define the Yatvyazh dialects as close to the Prussian language, and also revealed their connection with the Gothic languages \u200b\u200b(based on a significant number of Germanisms). Let me remind you that the Germanic tribes of the Goths at the beginning of our era lived on the southern bank of the Baltic from the Vistula to Narev and Neman (where they arrived by sea from southern Scandinavia in the second half of the 1st millennium BC) and that from the last quarter of the 2nd century AD. e. these tribes began to gradually advance in a southeast direction. Thus, it will not be a stretch to judge that the Yatvingians are the offspring. By the way, modern Letuvis call Belarusians “guds”, that is, Goths.

The Yatvingians also had their own writing in the form of runes (in Belarusian - “rezaў”). In many places in the western part of our country, stones with runic inscriptions have been preserved. Unfortunately, so far no one has tried to decipher them.

Therefore, one cannot agree with the hypothesis of Zdzislav Sitko, set forth in the book "In the Footsteps of Lithuania", according to which the Yatvingians were not an ethnic group, but "outcasts" from various tribes.

But, unlike the Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi, the Yatvyags for a long time did not unite in a stable alliance of tribes, they did not build cities. Their main occupations were fishing and hunting, but the most important was war. They constantly fought with their neighbors, then among themselves. The grave goods of the men indicate that they were warriors: a spear, shield, battle ax, spurs, flint, and horse harness were usually placed in the graves. Temple rings, beads, neck torcs, and signet rings are found in women's graves.

The Russian historian N. M. Karamzin wrote about the Yatvyags: "This people, who lived in dense forests, feeding on fishing and bee-keeping, loved wild will most of all and did not want to pay tribute to anyone." He called them in his "History ..." "wild, but courageous people", "willful" and even "predatory".

The graves of the Yatvyagi tribesmen were covered with stones, therefore such burials are called “stone graves” or “stone mounds”. Having determined the places where such graves were found, scientists have established the region of residence of the Yatvyazh tribes. The map shows that this is almost all of Western Belarus.

In Belarusian legends, the Yatvyags are forest dwellers who dressed in bear skins and made up a special tribe - mysterious and "witchcraft." I would like to note in this connection that the Slavicization of the Yatvingians began not earlier than the X century, that is, 200-250 years later than the Krivichi or Dregovichi. The same goes for the spread of Christianity among them. Ethnographer Pavel Shpilevsky wrote in his notes "A Journey through Polesie and Belorussian Territory" (1853-55) that the Yatvingian language is "a mixture of the Old Lithuanian language with Russian, Ukrainian and Polesie." In fact, it was about the Slavicized Baltic dialect.

In the annals, the word "Yatvyag" was first encountered under the year 944 (the text of the written agreement mentions the Yatvyag Gunarev, a representative from one of the tribes). The last time was in the 16th century in one of the Polish chronicles.

The first written message about the military campaign of the Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich against the Yatvingians is dated 983.

The Galician-Volyn princes went to war against the Yatvyags: in 1112 - Yaroslav; in 1196 - Roman; in 1227-1256 Daniil Romanovich. The Polish kings Boleslav IV "Kudryavy" (campaigns in 1164, 1165, 1167), Casimir "Fair" (reigned in 1177-1194) and Boleslav V "Shy" (XIII century) waged wars with them.

In 1254, the Galician-Volyn prince Daniel, the Mazovian prince Zemovit and the master of the Teutonic Order entered into an alliance against the Yatvingians with the aim of crushing them and seizing lands. In 1256 and 1264. The Yatvingians suffered severe defeats. Using this defeat, the Teutons in the period from 1278 to 1283. destroyed all large villages of the Yatvingians. At the same time, part of the population was destroyed (cut out), part was withdrawn to Prussia (the Germans settled them in Sambia, west of Konigsberg), part fled to the neighbors.

The names of the famous leaders of the Yatvingians of that time are known - Skimant (died in 1256) and Komat (died on June 22, 1264). The peasants of Grodno and Kovno provinces sang songs about them even in the middle of the 19th century!

The fate of the Yatvingians was different. Some of them died in clashes with the invaders in the XII-XIII centuries or were taken prisoner and assimilated. The other part finally created tribal reigns, from which "chronicle Lithuania" later arose. And some of them disappeared into the forest thickets, preserving their ethnographic features for a long time. Here is how S.M.Soloviev described the descendants of these forest Yatvingians who lived in the middle of the 19th century in the Skidel area:

"They differ sharply from Belarusians and Lithuanians in their swarthy face, black clothes, manners and customs, although everyone already speaks Belarusian with a Lithuanian pronunciation."

Some historians and ethnographers classify the Yatvingians as extinct peoples. However, it is not. According to the Central Statistical Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire in 1857, 30297 residents of the Grodno province still considered themselves Yatvingians. The descendants of the "forest Yatvingians" still live on the territory of modern Poland (in Suwalkia), in the Grodno and Brest regions of Belarus. There are also some cases of the use of the ancient Yatvyaz language.