History of Latvia: a Brief Survey

In the AD 900s, the ancient Balts began to establish definabletribal realms. Gradually, four individual Baltic tribal culturesdeveloped: Couronians, Latgallians, Selonians, Semigallians(kurši, latgaļi, sēļi, and zemgaļi). The largest of them was theLatgallian tribe, which had the most advanced socio-politicaldevelopment.In the 1100s and 1200s, the Couronians were aggressive people,engaged in raiding, looting and pillaging. Located on the westcoast of the Baltic, they became known as the ‘Baltic Vikings’.Their contemporaries, the inland Latgallians, Selonians andSemigallians, were known as peace-loving and prosperousfarmers. The Latgallians had the most advanced state-likeformations (civitates in medieval Latin chronicles): Atzele, Jersika,Koknese and Tālava.4Ancient Latgallians and their clothing, 11-13th centuries.