[citation needed] The Latin form, Livonia, gradually referred to the whole territory of modern-day Latvia as well as southern Estonia, which had fallen under Germanic influence.

The first indications of human inhabitants on the lands of modern Latvia date archaeologically to c. 9000 BC, suggesting that the first settlers were hunters that stayed almost immediately following the end of the last ice age.

Colonizers from the south arrived quickly, driving many of the hunters northward as polar ice caps melted further, or east, into modern-day Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.

[citation needed] Baltic ethnic religion was followed in Latvia before it was invaded by the Christian Teutonic Order (see: Latvian mythology).

[41] In the late 18th century, a small but vibrant Herrnhutist movement played a significant part in the development of Latvian literary culture before it was absorbed into the mainstream Lutheran denomination.

N1a1-Tat mutation originated in Northeast Asia and had spread throughout the Urals into Europe, where it is currently most common among Finno-Ugric, Baltic and East Slavic peoples.

Genetically, Latvians cluster closest with neighboring Lithuanians and Estonians; to a lesser extent with Poles, Czechs, Scandinavians, Germans, and Belarusians.