The article discusses the settlement system of the Sambian-Natangian culture of the South-Eastern Baltic region in the 1st millennium AD, the role of hillforts in it, and the structure of individual settlement centres. Hillforts are considered as dominants in the cultural landscape; together with unfortified settlements and economic zones they formed single districts. Burial grounds were located on the periphery of such centres. Individual settlement centres produced clusters of sites in the locations of amber gathering on the Kaliningrad Peninsula, along the Pregol River and the Kaliningrad Bay coast, which were important for the control of transport routes. This system was quite stable and could exist for a long period during the 1st millennium, evolving into the settlement system of the early medieval Prussians.