I'm currently in process of writing a story based in the pagan Prussians that populated Prussia before (and during) the crusades against them, and I was wondering what sources and methods you historians have so I can get more information on the topic. What I'm most interested in knowing is their social structure, their beliefs, how their villages looked like and worked, how their people looked like, and other historical facts that would help me build a world based on east Prussia during the 13th century.
I'm afraid you have to rely greatly on non-written evidence (aka archaeology) for re-construction of pre-Conquest Prussian society and economy.
In addition to Christiansen's Northern Crusade (1980, 1998 in revised), an indispensable classic, Aleksander Pluskowski, The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade: Holy War and Colonisation, London: Routledge, 2013 (to be updated to the 2nd edition soon in 2022) is must-read in this field in research.
(Added): I cited his work (though very briefly) before in Was Slavery A Part Of The Hanseatic Trade?
Pluskowski is primarily a zoo-archaeologist (studying animal remains in the past), and has involved a few international research project on the "ecological" (including the settlement) transformation the Prussian land use and food culture during the conquest in the last decade. You can also check some of his co-authored article as well as those by members of these research projects (mainly from Baltic countries and Poland) below:
The following is also an example of recent settlement archaeology research on southern and eastern Baltic in the High Middle Ages (NB: on Livonia): Šnē, Andris. “The medieval peasantry: on the social and religious position of the rural natives in southern Livonia (13th–15th centuries). Keskaja talupoeg: Lõuna-Liivimaa maarahva sotsiaalsest ja religioossest seisundist (13.-15. sajandil).” Ajalooline Ajakiri. The Estonian Historical Journal 2008-1/2 : 89-100.
(Added): Just in case that you are not good at reading (medieval) Latin, some of the important primary texts on the Prussian Crusade is now more accessible in English (and in form of paperback), though even scholars have not apparently easily reached an agreement on how to interpret their narratives behind the possible propaganda: Fischer, Mary (ed. & trans.). The Chronicle of Prussia by Nicolaus von Jerochin: A History of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia, 1190-1331. London: Routledge, 2010 (2021 paperback).