Balts
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The Baltic Sea |
The
Balts or
Baltic peoples (
Latvian:
balti,
Lithuanian:
baltai), defined as speakers of one of the
Baltic languages, a branch of the
Indo-European language family, are descended from a group of
Indo-European tribes who settled the area between lower
Vistula and upper
Dvina and
Dneper. Because of geographical isolation, the Baltic languages retain a number of conservative or archaic features. Among the Baltic peoples are modern
Lithuanians and
Latvians as well as the
Prussians,
Yotvingians and
Curonians, whose languages were extinct in the
Middle Ages.
The prehistoric cradle of the Baltic peoples according to
archeogenetic research and archaeological studies was the area near the Baltic sea and central Europe at the end of
ice age and beginning of the
Mesolithic period. They spread in the area from Baltic sea in the west to the Volga in the east. Slavic cradle was in Danubian - Krakowian region close to Baltic. Slavs entered the
Dnepr region in the VI a. after
Avar invasion into Europe conquerring and assimilating eastern Balts. According to some old theories the cradle area was very late near the upper and middle Dnepr river in modern
Ukraine settled by a hypothetical
Balto-Slavic community; that is, a population ancestral to the modern Balts and
Slavs. In the early
1st millennium BC several groups of people migrated from the area to the shores of the
Baltic Sea, where they settled between the rivers
Pasłęka and
Neman. It is not probable that this migration gave birth to the Baltic tribes.
Several scholars, such as Buga,
Vasmer,
Toporov and Trubachov, in conducting etymological studies of eastern European river names, were able to identify certain regions of specifically Baltic provenience, which most likely indicate where the Balts lived in prehistoric times. This information is summarized and synthesized by
Gimbutas in
The Balts (1963) to obtain a likely proto-Baltic homeland. Its borders are approximately: from a line on the
Pomeranian coast eastward to include or nearly include the present-day sites of
Warsaw,
Kiev, and
Kursk, northward through
Moscow to the River Berzha, westward in an irregular line to the coast of the Gulf of Riga, north of
Riga. This homeland includes all historical Balts and every location where Balts have been said or implied to be at different periods of time. The
Baltic occupation of Western Russia, for instance, may be dated to the 4th century AD.
In the first centuries of
1st millennium, the Baltic tribes settled the area between Vistula and Daugava. Their culture is easily recognizable and most probably they were the ancestors of the tribes of Western Balts (
Prussians,
Yotvingians and
Galindians), as well as Eastern Balts (
Lithuanians,
Curonians and
Latvians), notable during the
Middle Ages. In
98 AD Tacitus described one of the tribes leaving near the Baltic Sea (
Mare Svebicum) as
Aestiorum gentes, or
amber gatherers. It is believed that these peoples were inhabitants of the
Sambian peninsula, although no other contemporary sources exist.
The Baltic culture that remained in the Dneper area, although bore significant resemblance to its Baltic counterpart, was also similar to culture of other peoples inhabitating the forests of
Eastern Europe and became almost completely
Slavicised between
7th and
10th centuries.
In
12th and
13th centuries, internal struggles, as well as invasions of
Ruthenians and
Poles and later the expansion of the
Teutonic Order resulted in almost complete annihilation of the Galindians, Curonians and Yotvingians. The last of the Prussians became
Germanized some time in
16th century, after the
Reformation in
Prussia. Remaining cultures of Lithuanians and Latvians survived and became the ancestors of modern countries of
Latvia and
Lithuania.
In addition, and to great extent in contradiction to research on the basis of linguistic analysis, genetics-related data has started to emerge in recent years. According to Finnish research (Laitinen et al, 2001) and Richard Villems (2001, Estonia) who have carried out principal component analysis of some major genetic lines, the closest genetic relatives of modern Balts (Lithuanians and Latvians) appear to be modern Estonians and Mari people (autonomous republic of Mari-El in Russia) while Russians and Polish have considerably lesser genetic similarity. This led some scientists to believe that the people known today as Balts were initially to great extent of
Finno-Ugric origin (or in turn, modern day Finns were initially of east Baltic origin) - thus, the languages spoken today by these groups would be takeovers. Finns (genetic haplogroup N3) entered the Baltic area very late - in the middle Neolithic after sharp climate change in upper Ural and made the little influence to the baltic Nemunas and Narva neolithic archaeological cultures, but inhabited Estonian area.
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Lithuanians*
Latvians (Letts)
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Prussians*
Samogitians
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Semigallians (Zemigalians)
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Yotvingians*
Selonians*
Curonians (Kursi)
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Nadruvians*
Skalvians*
Eastern Galindians*
Dniepr (Eastern) Balts*
Pomeranian Balts*
Baltic Germans*
Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History*
Who were the Balts?*
Indo-Europeans in the Eastern Baltic in the view of an archaelogist? An article by Ilze Loze.
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"The world outlook of the ancient Balts" The English summary of book by Norbertas Velius.
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"We, the Balts" The article by Algirdas Sabaliauskas.
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"The Cosmology of ancient Balts" The article by
Vytautas Straizys and Libertas Klimka.
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