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 Countries with a predominantly Baltic population | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 5.4 million (including the diaspora)[1][2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Lithuania | 2,397,418[3] |
 Latvia | 1,182,008[4] |
| Languages | |
| Baltic languages | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlyRoman Catholicism andProtestantism; minorityEastern Orthodoxy andBaltic neopaganism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Slavs | |
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TheBalts orBaltic peoples (Lithuanian:baltai,Latvian:balti) are a group of peoples inhabiting the eastern coast of theBaltic Sea who speakBaltic languages. Among the Baltic peoples are modern-dayLithuanians (includingSamogitians) andLatvians (includingLatgalians) — all East Balts — as well as theOld Prussians,Curonians,Sudovians,Skalvians,Yotvingians andGalindians — the Western Balts — whoselanguages andcultures are now extinct, but made a large influence on the living branches, especially on literaryLithuanian language.
The Balts are descended from a group ofProto-Indo-European tribes who settled the area between the lowerVistula and southeast shore of the Baltic Sea and upperDaugava andDnieper rivers, and which over time became differentiated into West and East Balts. In the fifth century CE, parts of the eastern Baltic coast began to be settled by the ancestors of the Western Balts, whereas the East Balts lived in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. In the first millennium CE, large migrations of the Balts occurred. By the 13th and 14th centuries, the East Balts shrank to the general area that the present-day Balts and Belarusians inhabit.
Baltic languages belong to theBalto-Slavic branch of theIndo-European languages. One of the features of Baltic languages is the number of conservative or archaic features retained.[5][better source needed]
Medieval German chroniclerAdam of Bremen in the latter part of the 11th century AD was the first writer to use the term "Baltic" in reference to thesea of that name.[6][7] Before him various ancient places names, such as Balcia,[8] were used in reference to a supposed island in the Baltic Sea.[6]
In Germanic languages there was some form of the toponym East Sea until after about the year 1600, when maps in English began to label it as the Baltic Sea. By 1840, German nobles of theGovernorate of Livonia adopted the term "Balts" to distinguish themselves from Germans of Germany. They spoke an exclusive dialect, Baltic German, which was regarded by many as the language of the Balts until 1919.[9][10]
In 1845,Georg Heinrich Ferdinand Nesselmann proposed a distinctlanguage group forLatvian,Lithuanian, andOld Prussian, which he termedBaltic.[11] The term became prevalent after Latvia and Lithuania gained independence in 1918. Up until the early 20th century, either "Latvian" or "Lithuanian" could be used to mean the entire language family.[12]
The Balts or Baltic peoples, defined as speakers of one of theBaltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, are descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between the lowerVistula and southeast shore of theBaltic Sea and upperDaugava andDnieper rivers. The Baltic languages, especially Lithuanian, retain a number of conservative or archaic features, perhaps because the areas in which they are spoken are geographically consolidated and have low rates of immigration.[13]
Some of the major authorities on Balts, such asKazimieras Būga,Max Vasmer,Vladimir Toporov andOleg Trubachyov,[citation needed] in conducting etymological studies of eastern European river names, were able to identify in certain regions names of specifically Baltic provenance, which most likely indicate where the Balts lived in prehistoric times. According toVladimir Toporov andOleg Trubachyov, the eastern boundary of the Balts in the prehistoric times were the upper reaches of theVolga,Moskva, andOka rivers, while the southern border was theSeym river.[14] This information is summarized and synthesized byMarija Gimbutas inThe Balts (1963) to obtain a likely proto-Baltic homeland. Its borders are approximately: from a line on thePomeranian coast eastward to include or nearly include the present-day sites ofBerlin,Warsaw,Kyiv, andKursk, northward throughMoscow to the River Berzha, westward in an irregular line to the coast of theGulf of Riga, north ofRiga.[citation needed]
However, other scholars such as Endre Bojt (1999) reject the presumption that there ever was such a thing as a clear, single "BalticUrheimat":[15]
'The references to the Balts at variousUrheimat locations across the centuries are often of doubtful authenticity, those concerning the Balts furthest to the West are the more trustworthy among them. (...) It is wise to group the particulars of Baltic history according to the interests that moved the pens of the authors of our sources.'[15]
The area of Baltic habitation shrank due to assimilation by other groups, and invasions. According to one of the theories which has gained considerable traction over the years, one of the western Baltic tribes, theGalindians, Galindae, or Goliad, migrated to the area around modern-day Moscow, Russia around the fourth century AD.[16]
Over time the Balts became differentiated into West and East Balts. In the fifth century AD parts of the eastern Baltic coast began to be settled by the ancestors of the Western Balts:Brus/Prūsa ("Old Prussians"),Sudovians/Jotvingians,Scalvians,Nadruvians, andCuronians. The East Balts, including the hypothesisedDniepr Balts, were living in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.[citation needed]
Germanic peoples lived to the west of the Baltic homelands; by the first century AD, theGoths had stabilized their kingdom from the mouth of the Vistula, south toDacia. As Roman domination collapsed in the first half of the first millennium CE in Northern and Eastern Europe, large migrations of the Balts occurred — first, theGalindae or Galindians towards the east, and later, East Balts towards the west. In the eighth century, Slavic tribes from the Volga regions appeared.[17][18][19] By the 13th and 14th centuries, they reached the general area that the present-day Balts and Belarusians inhabit. Many other Eastern and Southern Balts either assimilated with other Balts, or Slavs in the fourth–seventh centuries and were gradually slavicized.[20]
In the 12th and 13th centuries, internal struggles and invasions byRuthenians andPoles, and later the expansion of theTeutonic Order, resulted in an almost complete annihilation of the Galindians, Curonians, and Yotvingians.[citation needed] Gradually, Old Prussians becameGermanized or Lithuanized between the 15th and 17th centuries, especially after theReformation inPrussia.[citation needed] The cultures of the Lithuanians and Latgalians/Latvians survived and became the ancestors of the populations of the modern-day countries ofLatvia andLithuania.[citation needed]
Old Prussian was closely related to the other extinctWestern Baltic languages,Curonian,Galindian andSudovian. It is more distantly related to the survivingEastern Baltic languages,Lithuanian andLatvian. Compare the Prussian wordseme (zemē),[21] Latvianzeme, the Lithuanianžemė (land in English).[citation needed]
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In the modern era, the Balts — primarily Lithuanians and Latvians — have sustained a unique cultural and linguistic identity along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, speaking the only survivingEastern Baltic languages, Lithuanian and Latvian, which are among the most conservative Indo‑European tongues and retain archaic features from their Proto‑Indo‑European roots. Following nearly five decades ofSoviet rule, Lithuania and Latvia restored their independence in 1990–1991 and subsequently pursued integration with Western institutions, culminating in accession to both theEuropean Union andNATO in 2004. In the 21st century, these two Baltic nations have established stable democracies with parliamentary systems, preserved local languages and traditions, and address common economic, political and cultural priorities.[22]
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| Baltic religion |
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Deities
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The Balts originally practicedBaltic religion. They were gradually Christianized as a result of theNorthern Crusades of theMiddle Ages. Baltic peoples such as theLatvians,Lithuanians andOld Prussians had their distinct mythologies. The Lithuanians have close historic ties to Poland, and many of them areRoman Catholic. TheLatvians have close historic ties toNorthern Germany andScandinavia, and many of them are irreligious. In recent times, the Baltic religion has been revived inBaltic neopaganism.[23][24]
The Balts are included in the "North European"gene cluster together with theGermanic peoples, some Slavic groups (thePoles and NorthernRussians) andBaltic Finnic peoples.[25][failed verification]
Saag et a. (2017) detected that the eastern Baltic in theMesolithic was inhabited primarily byWestern Hunter-Gatherers (WHGs).[26] Their paternal haplogroups were mostly types ofI2a andR1b, while their maternal haplogroups were mostly types ofU5,U4 andU2.[27] These people carried a high frequency of the derivedHERC2 allele which codes for lighteye color and possess an increased frequency of the derived alleles for SLC45A2 and SLC24A5, coding for lighter skin color.[28]
Baltic hunter-gatherers still displayed a slightly larger amount of WHG ancestry thanScandinavian Hunter-Gatherers (SHGs). WHG ancestry in the Baltic was particularly high among hunter-gatherers in Latvia and Lithuania.[28] Unlike other parts of Europe, the hunter-gatherers of the eastern Baltic do not appear to have mixed much withEarly European Farmers (EEFs) arriving fromAnatolia.[29]
During theNeolithic, increasing admixture fromEastern Hunter-Gatherers (EHGs) is detected. The paternal haplogroups of EHGs was mostly types ofR1a, while their maternal haplogroups appears to have been almost exclusively types of U5, U4, and U2.[citation needed]
The rise of theCorded Ware culture in the eastern Baltic in theChalcolithic andBronze Age is accompanied by a significant infusion ofsteppe ancestry and EEF ancestry into the eastern Baltic gene pool.[29][26][30] In the aftermath of the Corded Ware expansion, local hunter-gatherer ancestry experienced a resurgence.[28]
Haplogroup N reached the eastern Baltic only in the Late Bronze Age, probably with the speakers of theUralic languages.[28]
Modern-day Balts have a lower amount of EEF ancestry, and a higher amount of WHG ancestry, than any other population in Europe.[31][a]
Modern-day Baltic peoples
Slavic tribes had reached the territories of the Finns and Balts in the eighth century.
moved ... to the Baltic in the eighth-ninth centuries
no finds of Slavic character can be identified before the eighth century
