Chapter 0: Prelude

Estonian history begins with the Livonian Crusade in the early 13th century. The written sources before that time period are few and far between, so the time before the 13th century is classified as “muinasaeg” or “ancient time”. Most of the information about that period has been gathered via archeology.

The earliest possible mention of Estonia could be from 98 AD, when the Roman historian Tacitus wrote in “Germania” about a people called “Aestii”, who lived on the eastern shore of the Baltic sea. However, it is very much questionable if he really referred to ancient Estonians.

Estonia was covered by a glacier up until about 11 000 years ago. It was also around that time when the first people arrived here. Over the course of the following millennia there were several other waves of migration, during which there were seismic shifts in culture, for example how pottery was decorated or how people were buried. Modern Estonians are basically a mixture of these people, genetically speaking. It is unknown when the people, who spoke the Finno-Ugric language, which would eventually develop into modern day Estonian arrived. There are several theories ranging from the first migrants during the 9th millennium BC all the way till the 1st millennium BC. At any rate, Estonian has been spoken in Estonia for several thousand years. The first signs of agriculture appeared around 7000 BC, whilst farming and herding became widespread around 3000 BCE.





Some graves from around 1000 BC

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Chapter 2: The Livonian Crusade (1208-1227)

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