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3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Balts? Wrong! If the Balts is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Balts then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Balts? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Balts and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Balts wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
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8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Balts site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Balts, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Balts, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
Common Era. The Eastern Balts are shown in brown hues while the Western Balts are shown in green. The boundaries are approximate.
The
Balts or
Baltic peoples (; ;
Latgalian language:
bolti), defined as speakers of one of the
Baltic languages, a branch of the
Indo-European languages family, are descended from a group of Indo-Europeans tribes who settled the area between lower
Vistula and upper Daugava and Dnieper rivers on the southeast shore of the
Baltic Sea.
The number of lakes and swamps in this area isolated the Balts, and as a result of this isolation the Baltic languages retain a number of conservative or archaic features. Among the Baltic peoples are modern
Lithuanians, Latvians and Latgalians -- all Eastern Balts -- as well as the
Old Prussians, Yotvingians and
Galindians, whose languages and cultures are now extinct.
The term
Balts was created by German linguist Georg Nesselmann in 1845 to describe similar ethnic groups that live near Baltic Sea.
History
Prehistory
The prehistoric cradle of the Baltic peoples according to archaeogenetic research and archaeological studies was the area near the Baltic sea and central Europe at the end of the
Ice Age and beginning of the
Mesolithic period. They spread in the area from the Baltic sea in the west to the Volga in the east. The Slavic cradle was in the Danubian - Krakowian region close to the Baltic. The Slavs entered the
Dnieper Ukraine region in the 6th century
Common Era after the
Eurasian Avars invasion of Europe, conquering and assimilating most of the Eastern Balts. According to some older theories, the formative region of the Balts was located until the end of the second millennium BC near the upper and middle Dniepr river in modern Ukraine, which is thought to have been settled by a hypothetical
Balto-Slavic languages; that is, a population ancestral both 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
Pasłęka and
Neman River rivers. It is not likely that this migration gave birth to the Baltic tribes.
Several scholars, such as Kazimieras Būga,
Max Vasmer,
Toporov and Trubachov, 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. This information is summarized and synthesized by Marija 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 have been at different periods of time. The Galindae, for instance, may be dated to the 4th century AD.
In the first centuries of the
1st millennium AD, the Baltic tribes settled the area between the Vistula and the Daugava. Their culture is easily recognizable and most probably they were the ancestors of the tribes of Western Balts (
Old Prussians,
Yotvingians,
Galindians, Scalovians, and Curonians), as well as Eastern Balts (Lithuanians, Semigallians, and Latgalians).
In
98 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
Sambia (Baltic) peninsula, although no other contemporary sources exist.
The proto-Baltic culture that remained in the Dnieper area, however, bore a significant resemblance to its Baltic counterpart, and was also similar to the culture of other peoples inhabitating the forests of Eastern Europe, which became almost completely
Slavic peoples between the
7th century and the
10th century Common Era.
Invasions
In the 12th century and the 13th century, internal struggles, as well as invasions by Ruthenians and
Poles and later the expansion of the Teutonic Order resulted in an almost complete annihilation of the Galindians, Curonians, and Yotvingians. The last of the Old Prussians became germanization some time in the 16th century, after the
Reformation in
Prussia. The cultures of the Lithuanians and Latgalians/Latvians survived and became the ancestors of the populations of the modern countries of
Latvia and Lithuania.
Genetic research and a possible Finno-Ugric origin
In addition, and to a 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 Poles have considerably less genetic similarity. This has led some scientists to believe that the people known today as Balts were initially largely 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 have become established through
language shift.
Baltic peoples and tribes
† Extinct
See also
Aesti
References
| title=Bałtowie
| work=Encyklopedia Internetowa PWN
| url=http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/5504_1.html
| accessmonthday=May 25 | accessyear=2005
-->
| first = Jerzy | last = Antoniewicz
| authorlink = Jerzy Antoniewicz
| coauthors = [Aleksander Gieysztor
| title=Bałtowie zachodni w V w. p. n. e. - V w. n. e. : terytorium, podstawy gospodarcze i społeczne plemion prusko-jaćwieskich i letto-litewskich
| location = [Olsztyn-[Białystok
| publisher = Pojezierze
| year=1979
| id=ISBN 83-7002-001-1
-->
| first = Marija | last = Gimbutas
| authorlink = Marija Gimbutas
| title=The Balts
| location = London
| publisher = Thames & Hudson
| year=1963
-->
| first = Marceli | last = Kosman
| authorlink = Marceli Kosman
| title=Zmierzch Perkuna czyli ostatni poganie nad Bałtykiem
| location = Warsaw
| publisher = Książka i Wiedza
| year=1981
-->
| first = Irena | last = Čepiene
| authorlink = Irena Cepiene
| title=Historia litewskiej kultury etnicznej
| publisher=[Kaunas, "Šviesa"
| year=2000
| id=ISBN 5-430-02902-5
-->
| first = Łucja | last = Okulicz-Kozaryn
| authorlink = Lucja Okulicz-Kozaryn
| title=Życie codzienne Prusów i Jaćwięgów w wiekach średnich
| location = Warsaw
| publisher = Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy
| year=1983
-->
| ency=1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
| edition=1
| year=1911
| article=Lithuanians
-->
| ency=Wielka Encyklopedia PWN
| edition=1
| year=2001
| article=Bałtowie
-->
External links
- Marija Gimbutas' "The Balts" e-book
- Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History
- Who were the Balts?
- The origin of the Baltic, German and Slavic people. The iceland ages
- Indo-Europeans in the Eastern Baltic in the view of an archaelogist? An article by Ilze Loze.
- "The world outlook of the ancient Balts" The English summary of book by Norbertas Vėlius.
- "We, the Balts" The article by Algirdas Sabaliauskas.
- "The Cosmology of ancient Balts" The article by Vytautas Straižys and Libertas Klimka.
Common Era. The Eastern Balts are shown in brown hues while the Western Balts are shown in green. The boundaries are approximate.
The
Balts or
Baltic peoples (; ; Latgalian language:
bolti), defined as speakers of one of the
Baltic languages, a branch of the
Indo-European languages family, are descended from a group of Indo-Europeans tribes who settled the area between lower
Vistula and upper Daugava and Dnieper rivers on the southeast shore of the
Baltic Sea.
The number of lakes and swamps in this area isolated the Balts, and as a result of this isolation the Baltic languages retain a number of conservative or archaic features. Among the Baltic peoples are modern Lithuanians,
Latvians and Latgalians -- all Eastern Balts -- as well as the
Old Prussians, Yotvingians and
Galindians, whose languages and cultures are now extinct.
The term
Balts was created by German linguist Georg Nesselmann in 1845 to describe similar ethnic groups that live near Baltic Sea.
History
Prehistory
The prehistoric cradle of the Baltic peoples according to archaeogenetic research and archaeological studies was the area near the Baltic sea and central Europe at the end of the
Ice Age and beginning of the Mesolithic period. They spread in the area from the Baltic sea in the west to the Volga in the east. The Slavic cradle was in the Danubian - Krakowian region close to the Baltic. The Slavs entered the Dnieper Ukraine region in the 6th century Common Era after the Eurasian Avars invasion of Europe, conquering and assimilating most of the Eastern Balts. According to some older theories, the formative region of the Balts was located until the end of the second millennium BC near the upper and middle Dniepr river in modern Ukraine, which is thought to have been settled by a hypothetical
Balto-Slavic languages; that is, a population ancestral both 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 Pasłęka and Neman River rivers. It is not likely that this migration gave birth to the Baltic tribes.
Several scholars, such as Kazimieras Būga, Max Vasmer, Toporov and Trubachov, 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. This information is summarized and synthesized by Marija 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 have been at different periods of time. The Galindae, for instance, may be dated to the 4th century AD.
In the first centuries of the
1st millennium AD, the Baltic tribes settled the area between the Vistula and the Daugava. Their culture is easily recognizable and most probably they were the ancestors of the tribes of Western Balts (
Old Prussians,
Yotvingians, Galindians, Scalovians, and Curonians), as well as Eastern Balts (
Lithuanians,
Semigallians, and Latgalians).
In
98 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
Sambia (Baltic) peninsula, although no other contemporary sources exist.
The proto-Baltic culture that remained in the Dnieper area, however, bore a significant resemblance to its Baltic counterpart, and was also similar to the culture of other peoples inhabitating the forests of
Eastern Europe, which became almost completely
Slavic peoples between the
7th century and the
10th century Common Era.
Invasions
In the 12th century and the
13th century, internal struggles, as well as invasions by
Ruthenians and Poles and later the expansion of the Teutonic Order resulted in an almost complete annihilation of the Galindians, Curonians, and Yotvingians. The last of the Old Prussians became
germanization some time in the 16th century, after the
Reformation in
Prussia. The cultures of the Lithuanians and Latgalians/Latvians survived and became the ancestors of the populations of the modern countries of Latvia and
Lithuania.
Genetic research and a possible Finno-Ugric origin
In addition, and to a 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 Poles have considerably less genetic similarity. This has led some scientists to believe that the people known today as Balts were initially largely 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 have become established through language shift.
Baltic peoples and tribes
† Extinct
See also
Aesti
References
| title=Bałtowie
| work=Encyklopedia Internetowa PWN
| url=http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/5504_1.html
| accessmonthday=May 25 | accessyear=2005
-->
| first = Jerzy | last = Antoniewicz
| authorlink = Jerzy Antoniewicz
| coauthors = [Aleksander Gieysztor
| title=Bałtowie zachodni w V w. p. n. e. - V w. n. e. : terytorium, podstawy gospodarcze i społeczne plemion prusko-jaćwieskich i letto-litewskich
| location = [Olsztyn-[Białystok
| publisher = Pojezierze
| year=1979
| id=ISBN 83-7002-001-1
-->
| first = Marija | last = Gimbutas
| authorlink = Marija Gimbutas
| title=The Balts
| location = London
| publisher = Thames & Hudson
| year=1963
-->
| first = Marceli | last = Kosman
| authorlink = Marceli Kosman
| title=Zmierzch Perkuna czyli ostatni poganie nad Bałtykiem
| location = Warsaw
| publisher = Książka i Wiedza
| year=1981
-->
| first = Irena | last = Čepiene
| authorlink = Irena Cepiene
| title=Historia litewskiej kultury etnicznej
| publisher=[Kaunas, "Šviesa"
| year=2000
| id=ISBN 5-430-02902-5
-->
| first = Łucja | last = Okulicz-Kozaryn
| authorlink = Lucja Okulicz-Kozaryn
| title=Życie codzienne Prusów i Jaćwięgów w wiekach średnich
| location = Warsaw
| publisher = Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy
| year=1983
-->
| ency=1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
| edition=1
| year=1911
| article=Lithuanians
-->
| ency=Wielka Encyklopedia PWN
| edition=1
| year=2001
| article=Bałtowie
-->
External links
- Marija Gimbutas' "The Balts" e-book
- Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History
- Who were the Balts?
- The origin of the Baltic, German and Slavic people. The iceland ages
- Indo-Europeans in the Eastern Baltic in the view of an archaelogist? An article by Ilze Loze.
- "The world outlook of the ancient Balts" The English summary of book by Norbertas Vėlius.
- "We, the Balts" The article by Algirdas Sabaliauskas.
- "The Cosmology of ancient Balts" The article by Vytautas Straižys and Libertas Klimka.
Balts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Balts or Baltic peoples (Latvian: balti; Lithuanian: baltai; Latgalian: bolti, lit. "white", with reference to the Baltic or "white" sea by which they live), defined as ...
BALTS - Definition by AcronymFinder
No matches for BALTS; however, we have 1 unverified definitions for BALTS in our Acronym Attic
BALTS
Balts definition of Balts in the Free Online Encyclopedia.
Balts (bôlts), peoples of the east coast of the Baltic Sea. They include the Latvians, the Lithuanians, and the now extinct Old Prussians. Their original home was farther east ...
Balts - Wikipedia
Balts is de algemene naam voor een speciaal gedrag bij dieren, bedoeld om partners aan te trekken en over te halen tot de paring. Veel diersoorten hebben in de paartijd speciale ...
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EU/International Organisations Job Pages An EU or UN career in Brussels, Geneva or Frankfurt? Check out the jobs pages of the EU Institutions and agencies, and the European offices ...
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History of Lithuania Balts Slavs Slavonic Sarmatia Sarmatian Prussia East Nord Scandinavia Nation book
Dniepr (Eastern) Balts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dniepr Balts (part of Eastern Balts) - the Baltic tribes used to live near Dnieper River in the Bronze Age and later, still were assimilated by Slavs.
Global Lithuanian Net. COSMOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT BALTS
Reviews the outlook of ancient Balts on the structure and origin of the world as reconstructed from the archaeological excavations, folklore, mythology, linguistics and chronicles.
Marija Gimbutas — The Balts — Contents
This e-book was brought to you by the efforts of Gabriella at http://www.vaidilute.com It is free, of course, for anyone to download and read. However, if you want to put it on ...
