Lutici

At least in part, the Lutici were a continuation of the Veleti (Wilzi, Wilci), who are referred to by sources of the late 8th and first half of the 9th centuries as having inhabited the same region, and according to the Bavarian Geographer were likewise organized in four tribes (regiones). Lutician tribes first appear in written records after this gap: the Redarii were mentioned first in 928 by Widukind of Corvey, who listed them in the context of Slavic tribes subdued by Henry I. likewise in addition to the Veleti, in the context of the Battle of Recknitz (Raxa). Furthermore, there are only very few mentions of the Veleti in 10th century sources: in addition to the previously mentioned records, the Veleti are referenced only in the annals of St. Gallen in 995 and in the annals of Quedlinburg in 995 and 997. The first mention of the Kessinians is an entry in Adam von Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, referring to the year of 1056. == Organisation ==

The Lutici were a federation of several smaller tribes between the Warnow and Mildenitz in the west, the Havel in the south and the Oder in the east, with the core formed by four tribes: Redarians, Tolensians, Kessinians and Circipanians. Within the federation, power was asserted by representatives of the clans and settlement communities (the "elders"). This type of government had its roots in the Veleti period: since the mid-9th century, no Veleti princes or kings are recorded, and archaeology has revealed that in this period, many small strongholds were built in the area, in part on the ruins of the earlier, large strongholds. and once a decision had been made it was enforced by "severe punishment" of any violations. Though missing a monarch, the Lutici had a social hierarchy. The cultural differences to the neighboring tribes (Obodrites, Hevelli, Pomeranians) were minor, while differences with the Saxon and Christian culture and military pressure asserted by the Holy Roman Empire have most probably resulted in a common identity, evidently in mutual solidarity expressed by the common councils and combined military campaigns. Thietmar (VIII/5) refers to the resulting way of life as libertas more Liuticio. After a period of dominance by the Hevelli, centered on the other important Wendish stronghold of Brenna (Brandenburg), the Redarii became a dominant regional power themselves after the 930s. This is documented by the amount of silver tribute the Redarii were to pay to the Holy Roman Empire, and the failure of the latter to permanently subdue the area despite multiple campaigns. == Names and spelling variants ==

The name of the Lutici has survived in its many Latinized spelling variants used by contemporary chroniclers, most of which are still used in modern historiography in addition to their English, German and Polish renderings. The etymology of these terms is not sure, it has been proposed that they derive from the ur-Slavic root *ljutъ, meaning "wild", "fierce", or from the Slavic root *lutъ or its Latin equivalent lutum, meaning "swamp". The Polabian original might have been *''L'utici''. : * as adopted from contemporary Latin sources by Anglo-Saxon historiography The names of the four subtribes relate to their respective settlement areas: the Kessini around their main stronghold Kessin on the lower Warnow, the Tollensians on the Tollense, and the Redarians lived south of Lake Tollensesee around Radgosc. In the latter case though, it is unknown whether the name of the deity is the root of the stronghold's and the tribe's name or if it is the other way around (see section on Radgosc below), and alternative theories connect their name to a hypothetical river "Rada" or propose a translation as "red-haired people". Earlier theories translating "Redarii" as "farmers", "plowers" or "warriors" have been refuted. The names of these tribes likewise survived in various spelling variants, including Tolensane and Tholenzi for the Tollensians; Circipani, Zcirizspani and Zerezpani for the Circipanians; as well as Riaderi, Redarii, and Rederi for the Redarians. == History ==

Revolt of 983 In 983, the Lutici initiated an open rebellion, and in the ensuing war (983–995) succeeded in revoking imperial control over most of the Northern and Billung marches, where the corresponding bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelberg were de facto annihilated. The rebellion did not only affect Lutician territories, but also those of the neighboring Obodrites (also Abodriti) and Hevelli (also Stodorani). Contemporary German chronicler Thietmar (VI, 25) blames the uprising on maltreatment of the Lutici by the margraves: "warriors, who used to be our servants, now free as a consequence of our injustices ["iniquitates"]." In the Obodrite principality, the Luticians initiated a revolt aimed at the abolishment of feudal rule and Christianity, In part, the Obodrite revolt was successful: the princely family, though in part remaining Christian, dissolved Christian institutions, and the Bishop of Oldenburg had to abandon his bishopric. The ensuing war with the Saxons however culminated in the sack of the Obodrite stronghold of Mecklenburg by Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor, in 995. The uprising had started when the Holy Roman Empire was weakened by the defeat emperor Otto II had suffered against the Saracens in the Battle of Stilo (982). All of them had accepted Henry's claim to the throne at the Quedlinburg Hoftag of Easter 984, and only at the Quedlinburg Hoftag of Easter 986 Otto III was accepted as king by the opposition, including the Bohemian and Polish dukes. While neither Mstivoj (also Mistui, died between 992 and 995), nor his son and successor Mstislav were present at the 986 meeting, they continued to maintain close ties to the empire, Apart from the attempted reconquest of the lost sees of the bishoprics, the Saxon armies faced wide heaths, lake- and woodlands that lacked targets suitable to decide the war. of his mother Theophanu, and after her death, under the tutelage of his grandmother, Adelaide, and Willigis, archbishop of Mainz. Among the participants of the campaign were Bernard I of Saxony, his former rival Henry the Quarrelsome of Bavaria along with his son and later emperor Henry IV (II), also the bishops of Regensburg and Freising, the archbishop of Magdeburg (Giselher with his suffragan Eiko), of Meißen, as well as the margraves Gero and Liuthar, duke Mieszko's son Bolesław I of Poland, a son of duke Boleslaus II of Bohemia, and the latter's rival Soběslav, brother of Adalbert of Prague. While Henry the Quarrelsome died before the campaign started in 995, In early 996, Otto III left for Rome to receive the imperial crown from pope Gregory V. At the same time, Adalbert of Prague was also in Rome, and both Otto and Adalbert left – on different routes – in June 996, to meet again in Ingelheim and Mainz during the fall. Eventually he settled for a mission to the Prussians, who killed him on 23 April 997. Mieszko's successor Bolesław I Chrobry however expanded his realm and denied Otto's successor Henry II homage for Bohemia, conquered in 1003. Furthermore, Bolesław supported the inner-German opposition to Henry. Since the Lutici remained pagan, this policy was widely criticised in the empire, especially by the clergy. The Lutici, who participated in the campaign, caused dismay among the Christian army when carrying idols of their deities with them. Thietmar of Merseburg blames delays that prevented the imperial army from decisively defeating Bolesław on the Lutici, and obviously it was not in the Lutician interest to eliminate Bolesław's threat to Henry as this was the basis for the German-Lutician alliance preventing the resumption of German campaigns into Lutician territory. The campaign was aborted near Poznań when Bolesław's envoys negotiated a peace. The Lutician and Bohemian envoys demanded a prompt attack on Bolesław, yet Henry faced considerable opposition of several nobles against a renewed war. The war (1007–1013) was then started by Bolesław, and sources do not mention Lutician participation. Considerable Lutician forces participated in the two following campaigns of Henry II against Bolesław in 1015 and 1017. In 1017, however, two incidents led to the temporary departure of the Lutici from the campaign. First, a stone's throw from a compagnon of margrave Hermann Billung damaged a Lutician idol, and Henry II had to reconcile them with twelve pounds of silver. Secondly, they lost fifty warriors and an idol of a female deity in a flood while crossing the Mulde river, This caused the Danish king Canute the Great to intervene in 1019, and the duke of Saxony and the bishop of Bremen, previously in a dispute about influence in the Obodrite areas, combined their forces in 1020 and ended the revolt in 1021. While he died in the same year, his son and successor Mieszko II also took on the royal title, denied paying homage to the successor of Henry II, emperor Conrad II, and coveted the Lutici territories. Whether Lutician forces participated in the campaigns is not known. Kessini and Circipani fought against Tollensians and Redarii. The dispute was decided by an intervention of the Obodrite prince Gottschalk, son-in-law of the Danish jarl Sven Estridson. After Obodrite ruler Ratibor and his sons had been killed in battle in 1043, Gottschalk had established himself as the new ruler of the Obodrite and part of the Lutician realm with the support of Sven Estridson and Bernard II, Duke of Saxony. Adam of Bremen (III, 51) further recorded the capture of the elderly Mecklenburg bishop "Iohannes" (Johann, John Scotus), who was carried to Radgosc, where his severed head was sacrificed to Redigost. In the winter of 1069, king and later emperor Henry IV led a follow-up campaign into the Lutician territories, looting and pillaging the area. After an Obodrite revolt was quelled in 1093, Henry expanded eastward in several campaigns, and subdued all Lutician areas north of the Havel river. In 1100/1101, Henry's combined Obodrite and Saxon forces sieged Havelberg to quell a revolt of the Hevelli and Brisani, while his son Mistue looted the territory of the nearby Linoni with 300 Slavs and 200 Saxons. Division and conversion of the Lutician areas , Duke of Poland, to Szczecin and east of the Oder to subjugate the Slavic Lutici, in 1121. at the Ducal Castle, Szczecin In 1110, upon getting news of the defeat of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V in the German-Polish War of 1109, the Dołężanie and the Redarians rebelled against German authority. The uprising was quelled by Lothair of Supplinburg, who had recently been made Duke of Saxony by Henry. However, Lothair and Henry became engaged in a struggle of their own. On the other hand, Lothair then followed an expansionist policy himself. In 1121, Lothair mounted another successful campaign against the Kessini, this time sacking their main stronghold Kessin and subduing their prince Sventipolk. According to Maleczynski (1939), Bolesław thereby "most likely took Demmin and Gützkow" and, with reference to the 1121 campaign of Lothair of Supplinburg, "German and Polish expansion met at Müritz lake and the upper Peene river, and probably in the vicinity of today's Stralsund." Enders (1986) says that during the same campaign, Bolesław destroyed the Ukrian stronghold of Nadam, following a thesis that Nadam was located near today's Nieden. Herrmann (1968) proposed that Bolesław's campaign followed a fork of the Magdeburg–Malchow route, which ran from Lake Müritz to Szczecin, via Nieden. In 1127, a campaign of Lothair was also targeted at the Gützkow area. A son of Henry (deceased 1125), Sventipolk struggled for his father's heritage against his brother Knud. His successor in the eastern Obodrite realm, up to the Peene river, was Niklot. and the Lutician primores of this area converted to Christianity in 1128. Thence the Pomeranian dukes occasionally styled themselves dux Liuticiorum. The conversion of the Lutici was accomplished by Otto of Bamberg, who had also missioned the Pomeranians (Slavic tribe) and the tribes on the lower Oder (Prissani and Wolinians, all under Wartislaw's rule) in 1124/1125. Otto then destroyed the pagan temples at Wolgast and Gützkow, before he mediated in the dispute between Wartislaw I and Bolesław III. Bolesław aborted his preparations for war, and in turn Wartislaw accepted Bolesław's superiority for his territories east of the Oder, while for the Lutician areas his superior was Lothair. In 1134, Lothair gave the Northern March, After a period of Danish rule in the northern part, the Holy Roman Empire's duchies of Pomerania and Mecklenburg (successor of the Obodrite state) as well as the Margraviate of Brandenburg (successor of the Northern March) had consolidated in the former Lutician areas. == Religion ==

Traditionally, the Lutici worshipped nature in sacred groves or at springs, lakes, and rivers. with Radgosc being the most important one before the Svantevit temple at Arkona took over the leading role after Radgosc's destruction. describing its capture by bishop Burchard and the abduction of its sacred horse. Guidons (vexilla) of these deities were stored inside the temple and were only to leave the room during a war. 12th century chronicler Helmold largely followed Adam's version. The boar, who according to Thietmar came out of the lake prior to a war to take pleasure in the mud, thereby "terribly shaking and appearing to many", might likewise be a symbol Thietmar used for the devil rather than an actual oracle, in contrast to the horse oracle. The location of the former temple of Radgosc is still unknown. Theories that Radgosc might have been at Feldberg, Wanzka Abbey or Gnoien were refuted. Most theories focus on the area of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and the Tollensesee in particular. == 12th century burial site at Sanzkow ==

Archaeological records suggest an average life expectancy of 20 to 30 years, primarily due to a high infant and child mortality. Excavations in the Sanzkow burial site near Demmin revealed that 25.8% of the buried children were under the age of 6 years, another 4.4% under the age of 12 years, adding to an estimated infant mortality of 20%. The lower life expectancy of women results from puerperal mortality: An average woman gave birth to three to four children in intervals of three to four years. Medical research of teeth revealed a healthy diet with sufficient protein and low carbohydrate shares and a two-year breastfeeding period. Serious pathological deformations of bones were found in 28% of the adult Sanzkow skeletons, less serious ones in 44%. Most adults suffered from spondylosis deformans, especially men above the age of twenty years, but also women above the age of thirty years. and other skeletal deformations, this points to high physical strain, especially of the male population. An extraordinarily high rate of bone fractures (15% of the adult population, primarily men) indicates massive involvement in battles and accidents. For one of those, there is evidence for a head injury that might have resulted in brain dysfunctions: this man was buried with three large rocks placed on his face, breast and legs. One woman had a denture, and there is also evidence for trepanations. == See also ==

Notes References == Bibliography ==