Coverage of the Prussian lands in Peter of Dusburg's “Chronicle of the Land of Prussia”

this article investigates the question by what features and criteria Peter of Dusburg in his Chronicle of the Land of Prussia defined the area of Prussian tribes and distinguished eleven Prussian lands. The principle of compiling the spatial representation, which was created by the Order historiography, is analysed. The article also considers linguistic and archaeological data confirming the general area of Prussian tribes' distribution in the lands described by the chronicler, and determines how close this description is to the historical reality. The role of this chronicle in the formation of the image of the ‘alien’ is also investigated, namely, what parameters the chronicler was guided by when creating this image. The article reveals the value of the chronicle as a written source that conveys both objective historical reality and further layers formed on the basis of the personality and tasks that were set by the Teutonic Order to the compiler of this historical document.

Teutonic Order, colonization, Prussia, Prussians, Peter of Dusburg, ethnicities