Before 13th century, the territory was inhabited by the Old Prussians also
called Baltic Prussians, a Baltic ethnic group that lived in Prussia (the lands
of the southeastern coastal region of the Baltic Sea around the Vistula Lagoon
and the Curonian Lagoon). The territory of later Masuria used to be called that
time Galindia and was probably peripheral, very much forested and little
populated area. Its inhabitants spoke a language now known as Old Prussian and
followed pagan Prussian mythology. Although a 19th-century German political
entity bore their name, they were not Germans. They were converted to Roman
