Ancient Estonia
[2] Bone and stone artifacts similar to those found at Kunda have been discovered elsewhere in Estonia, as well as in Latvia, Russia, northern Lithuania and southern Finland.
Artifacts identified as belonging to the "Comb Ceramic Culture" have been found at sites from Northern Finland and Russia to Eastern Prussia.
Burials associated with the culture often include figures of animals, birds, snakes and humans carved from bone and amber[3] beginning from the middle of the 4th millennium BC.
Evidence of agriculture is provided by charred grain of wheat on the wall of a corded-ware vessel found in Iru settlement.
[6] Specific burial customs were characterized by the dead being laid on their sides with their knees pressed against their breast, one hand under the head.
The first fortified settlements, Asva and Ridala on the island of Saaremaa and Iru in the Northern Estonia began to be built.
The majority of stones with man-made indents, which presumably were connected with magic designed to increase crop fertility, date from this period.
[9] According to one interpretation, Ptolemy in his Geography III in the middle of the 2nd century AD mentions the Osilians among other dwellers on the Baltic shore.
[12] Saxo Grammaticus describes the Curonians and Estonians as participating in the Battle of Bråvalla on the side of the Swedes against the Danes, who were aided by the Livonians and the Wends of Pomerania.
[13] Snorri Sturluson relates in his Ynglinga saga how the Swedish king Ingvar Harra (7th century), the son of Östen and a great warrior, who was forced to patrol the shores of his kingdom fighting Estonian pirates.
[14] According to Heimskringla sagas, in the year 967 the Norwegian Queen Astrid escaped with her son, in future king of Norway Olaf Tryggvason from her homeland to Novgorod, where her brother Sigurd held an honoured position at the court of Prince Vladimir.
Six years later, when Sigurd Eirikson traveled to "Eistland" to collect taxes on behalf of "Valdemar" (Vladimir), he spotted Olaf in a market in an unmentioned city[15] and paid for his freedom.
The Oesilians, taken by surprise, had at first agreed to pay the demands made by Olaf, but then gathered an army during the negotiations and attacked the Norwegians.
The Chudes as mentioned in Old East Slavic chronicles are in early context usually considered as Baltic Finns in north-western Rus or even as all non-Slavic people in north-eastern Europe, but since 11th century mainly as Estonians.
[17] According to Nestor Yaroslav I the Wise invaded the country of the Chuds in 1030 and laid the foundations of Yuriev, (the historical Russian name of Tartu, Estonia).
By the 13th century the following major counties had developed in Estonia: Saaremaa (Osilia), Läänemaa (Rotalia or Maritima), Harjumaa (Harria), Rävala (Revalia), Virumaa (Vironia), Järvamaa (Jervia), Sakala (Saccala), and Ugandi (Ugaunia).
