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Specifically I'm talking about the area in between the Nogat and Vistula river. Googling maps of Old Prussian territory seem to have a mix of including this land and not including it.

This map includes it.

This one doesn't.

Yet this one does.

And this one doesn't again.

And here it is part of the revolting territory. Why would Christian Slavs revolt?

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  • In the middle ages?
    – John Dee
    Commented Dec 18, 2017 at 20:23
  • Look at this map "West Slavs": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomeranians_(Slavic_tribe)#/media/…
    – John Dee
    Commented Dec 18, 2017 at 20:32
  • Prussians and Pomeranians were pagans.
    – John Dee
    Commented Dec 18, 2017 at 20:40
  • I have seen that map, but I have seen 3 others who show the opposite.
    – A. Dean
    Commented Dec 18, 2017 at 21:09
  • I'm asking this question in hopes of getting archaeological evidence of Baltic or Slavic settlements in that area, since no 2 maps agree. According to wikipedia Slavic settlements reached Lechnowy, but the Baltic Kursenieki lived as far as west of the Vistula.
    – A. Dean
    Commented Dec 18, 2017 at 21:12

1 Answer 1

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Slavs settled here in the 6th century during the the period of Slavicization. It had to do with the domination of the Avar Khaganate to the south. The same migrations also saw the settlement of Polans, Morvanians and Czechs, to name a few. The slavs on the Baltic sea that you are asking about were called Pomeranians, (from Slavic Po Mer, "by the sea"). They were engaged in a long conflict with the Piast dukes of Poland, who had settled further south. By the 11th century, the German Drang Nach Osten "push for the east", brought the Saxons into the mix. It was the Polish who defeated and converted them to Christianity in 1121. The Saxon migrations were pretty successful, but in the Baltic regions their progress was hijacked by the Teutonic Order. The Teutonic Order was invited by Poland to help deal with Prussian agression. The Prussian Crusades were about 100 years after the Pomeranians had been converted to Christianity. The reason more Pomeranians didn't revolt is because of the Germanization that had taken place. The Pomeranians on the Vistula would have been a powerful tribe to due the strategic commercial interests of the Vistula. They were also adjacent to the Prussians. It is understable why, as outlined in your map, Pomeranians on the Vistula would be allies of the pagan Prussians. River deltas were often a place that hostile tribes would control for their natural defenses, similar to islands.

Edit: I see that you are looking for concrete proof that Slavs inhabited the region. I don't see much reason to question that they did. Explanations and maps seem to universally show them at the mouth of the Vistula. There should be more to go by than archaeology in the Middle Ages.

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  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursenieki
    – A. Dean
    Commented Dec 19, 2017 at 1:07
  • The curonian split is the "hotdog" to the east of the Vistula.
    – John Dee
    Commented Dec 19, 2017 at 2:05
  • But it reaches Gdansk, which is west of the Vistula?
    – A. Dean
    Commented Dec 19, 2017 at 5:16
  • It's just the thin strip of land protecting the Curonian lagoon. @A. Dean
    – John Dee
    Commented Feb 14, 2018 at 2:43

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