Baltic warfare since time immemorial to the 13th century |
Prior to the Middle Ages
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Balts |
PrehistorySince at least c. 1500 B.C., the territory of present-day Belarus was inhabited by Balts as a result of the Indo-European migrations. In the Iron Age, the south of present-day Belarus was inhabited by Baltic tribes belonging to the Milograd (7th-3rd century BC) and later Zarubintsy cultures. ProtohistoryBelarus was inhabited mostly by Balts until the 7th-8th centuries AD, and in some places even longer. According to Russian archaeologist Valentin Sedov [ru], it was intensive contacts with the Balts that contributed to the distinctiveness of the Belarusian tribes from the other Eastern Slavs. The Lithuanian professor Zigmas Zinkevičius states that Belarusians as a nation formed on a Baltic, i.e. Lithuanian, basis, which manifests in their anthropology, mythology, ethnography and language. The Belarusian geneticist Aliaksiej Mikulič [be] concluded from his research that Belarusians are genetically Balts, akin to Lithuanians and Latvians. References
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