HISTORY OF LATVIA
The Republic of Latvia can boast of a culture and traditions that are centuries old, but records of inhabitants in the area are a millennium old. The territory that is now Latvia was first inhabited soon after the Ice Age, in approximately 9000 BC. Ancestors of Baltic Finn peoples lived in the area since approximately 3000 BC, but during the first half of the second millennium BC the first proto-Baltic tribes entered the area and the culture of the Baltic (Selonians, Semgallians, Couronians, Latgallians) and Finno-Ugric (Livian) tribes was formed.