Janusz Zasławski

What people wore

Simple leather footwear and puttees

Ordinary residents often wore naginės, which were simple, plain-sole footwear crafted from animal skin, and they frequently wrapped their shins and feet with cloth puttees.

Daily life

Peasant home construction and features

Most peasants lived in modest wooden farmhouses equipped with a stove, though some in the Samogitia region resided in dwellings called a numas that featured a fireplace.

Work

Working hours from sunrise to sunset

Peasants worked from sunrise to sunset, with three scheduled breaks for those using draught animals, and shorter half-hour breaks for others.

Music

Sutartinės and folk instruments

Traditional sutartinės songs were performed by women, while men played instrumental versions on the kanklės psaltery, skudučiai pan-pipes, and horns.

At the table

Rye bread as a staple and currency

Rye was the primary cereal used for staple black bread, which was often baked in large oblong loaves on wooden peels and sometimes placed on leaves like maple or cabbage for flavor. Bread was so valued that in earlier periods it was even used as a form of currency to pay fees when traveling across private lands.

Getting around

Slow travel for common people

Commoners traveled on foot at about 20-25 km per day, while carts pulled by horses or oxen moved at a similarly slow pace.

What it cost

Rising prices of livestock

During the 16th century, the price of common livestock such as cows tripled and pigs doubled due to a period of significant price increases.