Baltų visuomenė ankstyvaisiais viduramžiais

LTBaltų visuomenės struktūros rekonstrukcija Lietuvos valstybės susidarymo išvakarėse yra gana sudėtinga. Visų pirma dėl to, jog turimi archeologiniai duomenys yra nepakankami, - Lietuvos archeologiją šiandien derėtų vadinti „nekroarcheologija”, nes greta daugelio tyrinėtų laidojimo paminklų (bet beveik nė vieno iki galo neištirto) nėra nė vienos galutinai ištirtos 1Х-ХШ a. laikotarpio gyvenvietės. Todėl nenuostabu, kad Lietuvos archeologai apie tai, kaip gyveno baltai praeityje, spėja vien iš jų kapų. Antra priežastis yra ta, jog ir kapinynų medžiaga tik pastaraisiais metais buvo pradėta analizuoti taikant palyginamuosius-statistinius metodus. Trečia priežastis - tik dabar Lietuvos archeologija atsisuka į regionines - atskirų genčių kultūrų problemas. Ketvirta - dar netiksliai datuotos Lietuvos senienos, o tikslumas, siekiant apčiuopti visuomenėje vykusius mikropokyčius, yra būtinas. Šiuo straipsniu nepretenduojama rekonstruoti išsamų baltų visuomenės modelį, o tik norima paieškoti naujų argumentų ir prielaidų, teigiančių, jog baltų visuomeninė struktūra IX-XIII a. nebuvo vienalytė atskirose gentyse ir regionuose, į valstybingumą ėjo skirtingais keliais, o tai gal padėtų atsakyti į klausimą, kodėl valstybę sukūrė Lietuva, o ne kuri kita baltų gentis [p. 14].

ENThe traditional model of Baltic society is usually formed from a compilation of all known archaeological data from the territory of all the Baltic tribes during the first millennium A. D. and the beginning of the second. It is supposed that the agricultural structure of the western Balts differed from that of the eastern Balts by the beginning of the first millennium A. D. The level of agricultural development is illustrated well by the spread of ploughing equipment (horse and plough). Most finds appear in Latvia, especially in Latgala and the lands watered by the Dauguva (Dvina), only one plough has been found in Lithuania (at Maišiagala). In the lands of the Aukštaitijans, Žemaitijans and other Lithuanians only one find connected with ploughing implements has been made. The data at our disposal indicate, that agricultural equipment together with the progressive three-field system and cultivation of rye spread in the region from the west in the XIXII centuries. In eastern Lithuania, as in the lands of the eastern Slavs, the three-field system was adopted later and rye cultivation also began there at a later date. In eastern Lithuania, where agricultural conditions were better and there was potentially more workable land available, and population density was less than in western Lithuania, extensive agriculture sufficed for a longer time - until the twelfth-thirteenth century. By contrast, conditions were worse in the west in Curonian, Prussian and Semigallian lands, but intensive agriculture according to the three-field system began earlier there. Agricultural potential in coastal districts was limited but other geographical conditions favoured the creation and expansion of commerce. Thus the Prussians, Curonians and Semigallians integrated more speedily into the economic world around the Baltic Sea.In the second half of the twelfth century, when the economy of the western Balts’ coastal territories and their hinterland declined, opposite tendencies appeared in the eastern Balts’ territories. Agricultural developments, which appeared here later than in the west, found better conditions, and the three-field system, established here in good agricultural land in the XII-XIII centuries, encouraged great improvements. Unlike in the lands of the western Balts, here a surplus in production was achieved quite swiftly and this in turn encouraged artisanry, commerce and the formation of wealthy class which took over control of the land. These economic developments which grew out of agriculture provoked social categorisation which in the second half of the twelfth century and at the beginning of the thirteenth surpassed the differentiated social structure of the western Balts. Although eastern Baltic society remained as it was at first, and its structure shared features common to all feudal societies, its development proved to bear more fruit - in the formation of the Lithuanian state. Formed at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Lithuanian state began to gather neighbouring peoples to its breast. We may speak of the consolidation of ethnic, social and religious systems only in the wake of state formation.