3400 BC to 1207

Ancient Estonia

People have lived here since about 9000 BC, soon after the ice retreated. Finnic speakers, ancestors of the Estonians, farmed in counties defended by hill forts and traded across the Baltic. In 1030 Prince Yaroslav of Kiev captured the Estonian stronghold of Tarbatu and named it Yuryev, today's Tartu, but the Estonians drove the Rus out in 1061.