Latgalians: settlements, social power and burial research

Names and an eastern Latvian setting

The historical Latgalians were Baltic-speaking communities of eastern parts of present-day Latvia. Their distribution changed, and extended beyond the boundaries of the modern region called Latgale. Antonija Vilcāne’s National Encyclopedia entry describes the names used in medieval sources, including Henry of Livonia’s parallel use of Letts and Latgalians. Different spellings should be read in their textual and historical setting.^[1]

Vilcāne describes hillforts and settlements alongside agriculture, livestock keeping, crafts and exchange. The Daugava and Gauja connected parts of this world. Focusing only on rulers and campaigns would leave out much of the material evidence for how communities obtained food, made things and interacted with neighbours.^[1]

Jersika and the question of social power

Andris Šnē’s 2006 study examines economic activity and power in eastern Latvia. He discusses Jersika together with Dignāja, on the opposite bank of the Daugava, and evidence for craft activity and contacts. His account also notes continued habitation at Jersika after the crusades, in the fourteenth century. The end of one political arrangement did not necessarily mean that a settlement was abandoned.^[2]

Šnē uses the concept of chiefdom as a framework for asking how economic resources supported authority. Marika Mägi’s 2013 review sets such arguments alongside other interpretations of Latgalian society, including early state formation and different readings of grave wealth. The debate concerns how to reconstruct relationships, rather than simply choosing a grander title for a hillfort.^[2][3]

Testing a claim about grave orientation

A 2024 study by Vilcāne and Valdis Bērziņš examined the orientation of burials at Nukšas, Kivti and Jaunāķēni. It tested the suggestion that changes in the direction of sunrise or sunset through the year determined the direction in which each person was buried. The authors analysed 354 usable burials, working from excavation plans and accounting for historical magnetic declination.^[4]

The observed range of grave directions did not correspond to the full annual variation of sunrise and sunset. The burials tended towards east and west, closer to equinoctial directions. That result does not establish that people were buried only around the equinoxes. The authors discuss measurement precision, changes to the visible horizon and other possible influences, and call for further work.^[4]

This is a useful example of how to read a proposed explanation. Identify the pattern first, then ask what observations would distinguish the explanation from alternatives. Here, a broad east-west arrangement and a theory about the day of burial make different predictions. A test can weaken the latter while leaving other questions open.

Later change without a single origin story

Vilcāne’s reference account places Latgalians within the longer development of Latvian populations and language. It also follows the changing political conditions of the medieval period. This process should not be reduced to a claim that modern Latvians descend from only one historical group, or that every person in a named medieval land had the same identity.^[1]

Continue with the Selonian profile to compare a neighbouring burial landscape, or the medieval transformations article for the wider political and religious setting. Comparisons work best when each site, period and source remains identifiable.