Rye
History

Food in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

In the 13th and 14th centuries, both pagans and Christians suffered from starvation because the lack of food was a common. Low economic productivity and the shortage of alternative crops to compensate poor harvests caused dire calamities to people’s lives, as did adverse weather conditions, plant and animal diseases, epidemics, and wars. Lack of everything, especially food, and repeated famines led to a form of social welfare. Those who could afford or had access to enough food and clothing would store everything safely in warehouses, barns or sheds. The abundance of food, which usually indicates prosperity, might, and wealth, accompanied by social responsibility, has been meticulously described in many sources while speaking of feasts, both pagan and Christian, which a generous and hospitable host was expected to arrange. […]

Battle of Saulė by A. Kriuka
History

The mythology of the Battle of Saulė

The raid of the Christian army against Lithuania in 1236 was dictated by the political circumstances that occurred after the Curonians’ surrender to Livonia in 1229-1230. It was then that Germans readied themselves to invite the pagans living south of Dauguva into the “sweet yoke of Christ’s faith.” It was at this point that the Christian German immigrant community of Riga and the interests of the Pope’s curia intersected. […]

No Picture
History

Climate in medieval Lithuania

From the eighth century onwards, climate in Europe was becoming ever milder while the period from the 10th through the 13th century is often referred to as the “warm Middle Ages” or the “climatic optimum”. Summers were, on the average, one to two degrees Celsius warmer compared to the late 20th century, and precipitation was more abundant. The warm and humid climate enabled more intense development of agriculture and husbandry while also making use of new crops. By burning out sections of wood, people were rapidly expanding open areas for fields and grazing grasslands. Oat, wheat, barley, all suitable for drier climate, were the favourite corn, as well as the less-demanding rye. Archaeologists date the first traces of winter rye fields in the Samogitian Heights back at around the year 800. […]

No Picture
History

The family and the patriarchate in ancient Baltic societies

The family in the 13th and 14th century Lithuania represented a unit in many senses, from economical and productive to social, organisational, and legal. The average family consisted of five or six people. The remains of a 14th century house in the lower town of Kernavė feature a plank-bed, made of several benches, up to three by 1.7 metres. Since the average human of the time was about 1.65 metres tall, the bed could accommodate the entire family of five to six people. On the other hand, the family also had a broader meaning, the one that covered two or three generations of relatives, such as fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, as well as unmarried brothers and sisters. […]