The Question of the Vends and the Possibilities to Solve It with the Help of Archaeological Sources

The Question of the Vends and the Possibilities to Solve It with the Help of Archaeological Sources

Guntis Zemītis The question of the Vends in the earliest history of Latvia is a politically sensitive one. It is known, from the Chronicle of Henry and from the Papal Bull of Pope Innocent III, that Vends were christened approximately in 1206/1207. The Chronicle of Henry also states that the Vends, after Couronians drove them out of Courland, lived in the “Old Mountain” (Monte Antiquo) near Riga, and then moved into Latgallian lands. Archaeological excavations have been made in the former territory of Vends, in the hillfort of Cēsu Riekstukalns and in the burial ground near the railway station of Cēsis. The German name of the city of Cēsis is Wenden. By their artefacts or material culture, the Vends are closely related to Finno-Ugric Livs. Some Russian archaeologists however state that the Vends were a Slavic tribe which migrated to Courland in VI–VIIth centuries. This theory of migration is based on the findings of arched or finger-shaped fibulae – two such findings are from the Couronian territory in the lower reaches of Nemunas River, one from Vārves Strīķi in the lower reaches of Venta River, and one from the territories of Selonians – in the burial ground of Ābeļu Boķi. The tendency to relate unknown artefacts to migration is characteristic of many Eastern European studies. It should not however be accepted as the only explanation. The presence of such artefacts could also arise from a change in technology (travelling artisans, external studies), a change in ideas (religion, fashion, ideology), or a change in trade goods (payments, taxes, capture, gifts). The small number of such findings do not warrant speculation about migration of Slavs, especially since there is no evidence for it from other archaeological materials or from linguistic data. Nowadays the viewpoint that archaeological findings alone are unable to identify the ethnical affiliations of their carriers is becoming generally more accepted. In singular cases however archaeological evidence from artefacts can be attributed to a particular ethnos but only if it is further supported by linguistic data and by written sources. Northern Courland in the first millennium C. E. was inhabited by Baltic Finns. Evidence can also be found of Scandinavian inhabitants. According to E. Šturms and Ē. Mugurēvičs in the tenth century Baltic Finns moved from Courland to the lower reaches of the Daugava and Gauja rivers where they established the culture of Livs. R. Spirģis believes that the migrants from Courland were the former Scandinavians instead. The main problem is that the written sources of the XIIIth century do not contain records of Livs in Courland, which first appear only in the sources of the XIVth and XVth centuries (Gilbert de Lannoy). In author’s opinion, in written sources of the XIIIth century, all the Baltic Finns in Courland who were linguistically close to the Livs are referred to as Vends. They were called Vends because Wynda was the name of one of the regions in Courland. The Chronicle of Henry records the difficult situation of the Vends (lowly and miserable) and their forced emigration from Courland to Vidzeme due to pressure from the Couronians. This corresponds to the situation in the XI–XIIIth centuries when gradual northward movement of the Couronians either drove away or assimilated the Baltic Finns in Courland. In the course of the XIIIth century, through division of the occupied lands between the Bishop and the Livonian Order, the old administrative divisions lost their relevance. Since the Baltic Finns in Courland were linguistically close to the Livs, this ethnonym was also used for them. It is probable that similarly, the name Latvians (Lettonians, Latgallians) was gradually expanded to include all the Baltic inhabitants of Livonia – Semigallians, Selonians and, beginning with the XVIth century, also the Couronians, although the linguistic separation between them was apparent and started to fade only after the Reformation and wider distribution of the printed word in the XVI–XVIIth centuries.