The Mesolithic Period The region has been populated since the end of the last glacial era, about 10,000 BC. The earliest traces of human settlement are connected with
Suomusjärvi culture and
Kunda culture. The Early
Mesolithic Pulli settlement is located by the
Pärnu River. It has been dated to the beginning of the 9th millennium BC. The Kunda Culture received its name from the Lammasmäe settlement site in northern Estonia, which dates from earlier than 8500. Bone and stone artefacts similar to those found at Kunda have been discovered elsewhere in Estonia, as well as in
Latvia, northern
Lithuania and southern Finland.
The Neolithic Period Around 5300
BCE pottery and agriculture entered Finland. The earliest representatives belong to the
Pit–Comb Ware culture, known for their distinctive decorating patterns. This marks the beginning of the
Neolithic.
Pit–Comb Ware culture Until the early 1980s, the arrival of Finnic peoples, the ancestors of the Estonians, Finns, and Livonians on the shores of the
Baltic Sea around 3000 BC, was associated with the Pit–Comb Ware culture. However, such a linking of archaeologically defined cultural entities with linguistic ones cannot be proven and it has been suggested that the increase of settlement finds in the period is more likely to have been associated with an economic boom related to the warming of climate. Some researchers have even argued that a form of
Uralic languages may have been spoken in Estonia and Finland since the end of the last glaciation. Through archaeogenetics the population has been shown to derive the bulk of its ancestry from
Eastern Hunter-Gatherers of Russia.
Bronze Age The beginning of the
Bronze Age in Estonia is dated to approximately 1800 BC, in present-day Finland some time after 1500 BCE. The coastal regions of Finland were a part of the Nordic Bronze Culture, whereas in the inland regions the influences came from the bronze-using cultures of Northern Russia. The first fortified settlements,
Asva and
Ridala on the island of
Saaremaa and
Iru in Northern Estonia, began to be built. The development of shipbuilding facilitated the spread of bronze. Changes took place in burial customs, a new type of burial ground spread from Germanic to Estonian areas, stone cist graves and cremation burials became increasingly common beside small numbers of boat-shaped stone graves. In terms of genetics, the Bronze Age population of the East Baltic derives most of their ancestry from the
Corded Ware culture with an elevated amount of Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherer ancestry, but showing no prevalence of Siberian related ancestry.
The Iron Age The
Pre-Roman Iron Age began in about 500 BC and lasted until the middle of the 1st century. The oldest iron items were imported, although since the 1st century iron was smelted from local marsh and lake ore. Settlement sites were located mostly in places that offered natural protection. Fortresses were built, although used temporarily. The appearance of square
Celtic fields surrounded by enclosures in Estonia date from the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The majority of stones with man-made indents, which presumably were connected with magic designed to increase crop fertility, date from this period. A new type of grave, quadrangular burial mounds, began to develop. Burial traditions show the clear beginning of social stratification. The first reported individuals with the y-DNA haplotype
N-M231 in the Baltic are from the Iron Age, alongside Siberian ancestry.
Early Middle Ages Finnic peoples in chronicles The word
Finn is first mentioned in the form
Fenni in the 1st century AD by Roman historian
Tacitus. However, it is possible that he was referring to the people of northern Europe in general, particularly the Lappic or
Sami people. After that the name
Finni is used by
Claudius Ptolemaeus (around 150) and the Eastern Roman writer Jordanes in his
Getica (551). References to Finnic tribes become much more numerous from the
Viking Age (800–1050). It was not until about 1171 that the word
Finni was employed to mean the
Finns. The term
Aestii, the name of the Estonians, occurs first again in Tacitus; however, it might have indicated Balts. In Northern sagas (13th century), the term started to be used to indicate the Estonians. In a Norwegian text (11th–12th century), the name
Kiriali, referring to Karelians, and the term
cornuti Finni, interpreted as referring to the Lapps or Sami people, first appear. The opening chapter of the
Old East Slavic Primary Chronicle (early 12th century) lists the following peoples living "in the share of
Japheth" among others:
Chud,
Merya,
Muroma,
Ves,
Cheremis,
Mordvin, Chud Zavolochskaya ('beyond the portages'),
Perm,
Pechera, Sum (
Suomi, possibly referring to
Finns proper), Yam (
Häme, referring to
Tavastians),
Yugra and
Liv. The
Chudes, as mentioned in the earliest East Slavic chronicles, are in a 12th-century context usually considered to be
Estonians, although the name sometimes referred to all Finnic peoples in north-western
Rus. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Chudes' lands were bounded by the Varangian Sea (Baltic Sea). The northern (or eastern) Chudes were also a mythical people in folklore among Northern Russians and their neighbours. In Komi mythology, the Northern Chudes represent the mythic ancestors of the
Komi people.
Middle Ages and Modern period In the 13th century the east Baltic world was transformed by military conquest: first the Livs and Estonians, then the Finns underwent defeat, baptism, military occupation and sometimes extermination by groups of Germans, Danes and Swedes. Finland was governed as a part of Sweden, while Estonia was under a Baltic German knightly brotherhood before becoming parts of Russian Empire. Finland and Estonia became independent in 1917–1918 (see
history of Finland and
history of Estonia). The Karelians remained under Russian and then Soviet rule, and their absolute and relative numbers dwindled. When
urbanization was peaking, less-numerous peoples rapidly lost capacity to maintain their village-based cultures and so were often assimilated to the mainstream society. ==See also==