Yotvingians

Yotvingian kurhan in the area of Suwałki

The biggest Yotvingian kurhan in the area of Suwałki

Yotvingians (Lithuanian: Jotvingiai, Sūduviai; Polish: Jaćwingowie, Belarusian: Яцьвягі) were an extinct Baltic people, with culture closest to Lithuanian and Prussian. Yotvingian language (sometimes called Sudovian) was a Western Baltic language nearest to Prussian, but with small variations. Yotvingians lived in the area of Sudovia and Dainava; south west from the upper Neman, between Marijampolė, Merkinė (Lithuania), Slonim, Kobrin (Belarus), Białystok, and Ełk (Poland); today this area corresponds mostly to the northeast of Poland with Białystok and Suwałki and a part of Hrodna Province of Belarus. Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD called the people Sudinoi. From 13th century, Yotvingians were raiding adjacent areas of Masovia, Lublin and Volhynia, after Konrad I of Masovia and Daniel of Halych had invaded them. In 1280s the Northern Yotvingians were partly conquered and dispersed by the Teutonic Knights; some of Yotvingians then took refuge in Lithuania. Many of Sudovians came to live nearer Regiomontium in the area called Sudovian corner^{[citation needed]}, while the fights were going on in the wilderness area of Sudovia between Lithuania, Poland and the Teutonic Knights.