Arms and armour in 13th-14th century Lithuania? -- myArmoury.com

Mikael Ranelius

I'm fascinated by the history of medieval Lithuania, the last pagan state of Europe. But I know very little about what kind of armour and weapons the Lithuanians used. Does anyone know of any archeological finds of weapons and armour from medieval Lithuania? Depictions seem rare, and so far I've only found a couple of rather crude seals showing Lithuanian grand-dukes or warriors, along with a couple of questionable illustrations in Osprey-books

Jonas Balvonas · Posted: Mon 07 Jan, 2008 1:36 pm Post subject:

http://www.vilkatlakai.tai.lt/
http://www.kovarnis.lt/
http://www.pajauta.puslapiai.lt/

Paulius B. Voss · Posted: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 4:17 am Post subject:

These reenactment groups don't present lithuanians in 14th century...
So better take a look here :

Source - http://www.kam.lt/index.php/en/101003/

Kelly Powell · Posted: Wed 26 Mar, 2008 2:05 am Post subject:

Cool shield! Does that type have a name? It kind of reminds me of a celtic oval without a boss.....is it center gripped? if it is strapped at what angle is the arm in it?

Paulius B. Voss · Posted: Wed 26 Mar, 2008 3:25 am Post subject:

Michael Wiethop · Posted: Thu 25 Apr, 2013 9:42 pm Post subject:

Apologies if it's against the rules to resurrect a thread, but I'm very curious about medieval Lithuanian armor, too.

All I know is that there have been finds of peaked, conical helmets in and around Lithuania dating to this period, but the armor is more elusive and the Lithuanians seem to have had an inconvenient habit of burning a warrior's possessions with his body.

Is there any info out there on it? What sorts of armor might the Lithuanians have used? I usually see pictures of re-enactors with some kind of lamellar, but is there any evidence found on just what protection they wore?

J.D. Crawford · Posted: Fri 26 Apr, 2013 5:05 am Post subject:

This is the only book I know that focuses exlusively on Lithuanian Arms. It goes up to 13thc.

http://www.club-kaup.narod.ru/kaup_r_kazakevicius00_orig.html

There are a few more general books on Eastern Europe that touch on Lithuania.

Michael Wiethop · Posted: Fri 26 Apr, 2013 9:06 am Post subject:

Unfortunately I can't read Lithuanian, Russian, or Polish, and I imagine the bulk of research is in those languages.

Is there any info on armor from the 14th century or during the reign of Jogaila? I imagine armor styles would not have changed much in the first few decades after conversion, and maybe there are more sources left from this later date. Would they have been more inspired by Polish and Central European armor or by Russian armor?

J.D. Crawford · Posted: Fri 26 Apr, 2013 1:23 pm Post subject:

Google Translate has Lithuanian and those other languages. All you have to do is copy the text you want to understand into their field and it will give you a reasonable translation in whatever language you prefer.