The Samogitians were a tribe of BALTS who inhabited the region known as Samogitia (Zemaitija) in present-day western Lithuania. Their name means “lowlanders”; they lived to the west of the Aukstaiciai, or “highlanders,” the latter tribe sometimes referred to as Lithuanians proper. (Although the Samogitians are known as lowlanders, some among them lived in the Zemaiciai Upland, separating the coastal region from the Baltic Highlands, with the Middle Lithuanian Lowland in between.) To the northwest of the Samogitians lived the CURONIANS and to their south and southwest the Skalvians.
The Samogitians are considered among the ancestors of modern Lithuanians (see Lithuanians: nationality), as well as of those peoples living in the Kaliningrad Oblast, an enclave of Russia to the south of Lithuania and to the north of Poland (see Russians: nationality).
Origins
Baltic-speaking peoples migrated westward to the Baltic Sea region by about 2000 to 1500 B. C.E. By the ninth century C. E. identifiable tribes had coalesced.
LANGUAGE
The Samogitian dialect, or Low Lithuanian, is one of the two major speech patterns of the
Lithuanian language; the other is Aukstaitich, or High Lithuanian.
History
By the 13th century Lithuania was ruled by local noblemen. The Samogitians played a central role against the Germanic crusaders. Their resistance prevented the two primarily Germanic religious and military orders—the Knights of the Sword in the region of Livonia (part of modern Latvia and Estonia) to the north and the Teutonic Knights of the Cross in the region of East Prussia (now part of Poland and Russia)—from uniting their occupied lands.
In the 13th century the Samogitians competed with the Lithuanians for control of the region. The Samogitian Vykintas competed against the Lithuanian Mindaugas, who was in the process of uniting different Lithuanian principalities under his banner. Vykintas died in battle in 1251. In 1263, Treniota, possibly the son of Vykintas, took part in the assassination of Mindaugas and succeeded him as Lithuania’s ruler until his own death the next year. No other Samogitian prince ever ascended the Lithuanian throne.
After their fortresses were attacked and their farms and crops burned by crusaders, many Samogitians took refuge in the forests and marshes. in 1329 crusaders managed to take the fortress of Medvegalis, in which several Samogitians had taken refuge. But the resistance continued. Between 1345 and 1382 the Teutonic Knights out of Prussia carried out some 70 forays against the Samogitians and their allies from other tribes; the Livonian Knights of the Sword made 30 military forays. The allied Balts retaliated with 31 expeditions into Prussia and 11 into Livonia. Samogitia was
Samogitians time line
SAMOGITIANS
Location:
Western Lithuania time period:
Ninth to 15th century c. E.
Ancestry:
Baltic
Language:
Lithuanian (Baltic)
C. E.
Ninth century Identifiable Baltic tribes coalesce.
1263-64 Treniota rules Lithuania.
1329 Medvegalis, where several thousand soldiers, women, and children take refuge, stormed by crusaders.
1401 and 1409 Samogitians successfully revolt against Teutonic Knights. 1410 Allied Lithuanians and Poles defeat Teutonic Knights at Tannenberg. 1413 Samogitians accept Christianity.
1422 Lithuanians defeat Teutonic Order; Lithuanian Grand Duchy established.
SAN MARINIANS:
NATIONALITY
Nation:
San Marino; Republic of San Marino (Repubblica di San Marino)
Derivation of name:
After Saint Marinus of Rimini
Government:
Independent republic
Capital:
San Marino
Language:
Italian is the official language.
Religion:
About 90 percent of the population are Catholic; a small numbers of citizens have no religious affiliation.
Earlier inhabitants:
Italics; Illyrians; Celts
Demographics:
Population of San Marino consists primarily of San Marinians and Italians.
See Nenets.
Surrendered in 1382, 1398, and 1404, but the Samogitians revolted in 1401 and 1409. Allied Lithuanians and Poles defeated the Teutonic Knights at Tannenberg (modern Stebark in northern Poland) in 1410. In 1413 the Samogitians officially accepted Christianity. In 1422 Samogitia became part of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy.
CULTURE (see also Balts) Government and Society
Samogitians developed a social and political structure different from that of the rest of Lithuania, with more free farmers and fewer big estates than in eastern Lithuania.
Clothing
The Samogitian women favored bright colors, wide striping divided into checks, and fancy scarves. Their costume consisted of a white blouse with long sleeves, a long wide bright-colored skirt, and an apron. Skirts were mostly striped lengthways; Aukstaiciai skirts were checked. Girls used to cover their heads with wreaths or ribbons; married women wore white linen kerchiefs called nuometas. All women, young and old, liked to wear amber necklaces as well as glass and metal trinkets.
Men’s clothes were of a more simple fashion—gray overcoats of coarse heavy cloth, while linen shirts, and striped or checked trousers. They wore broad colorful sashes. The traditional footwear called nagines was made of leather at home. The chief footwear in Samogitia, wooden sabots called klumpes, were often decorated with floral or herringbone patterns.
Art
Samogitia was famous for its woodcarving. The statuettes of the saints made by rustic artists were used to decorate churches, wayside chapels, and crosses. Such folk artists were called dievdirbiai (god makers).
In the early 19th century, descendants of the Samogitians were central to a Lithuanian revival, opposing influences of Russians and Poles and promoting the native Lithuanian language. Samogitia is now perceived as an ethnographic and historic region in Lithuania and is not defined administratively.
World History
