3000 BC to 1200

Baltic tribes and hillforts

For thousands of years Baltic and Finnic peoples lived along the Daugava and the coast. By the twelfth century the Curonians, Semigallians, Selonians and Latgalians, together with the Finnic Livs, had hillforts and local rulers, and the eastern principalities of Jersika and Koknese paid tribute to Polotsk in Rus'. German merchants began sailing up the Daugava later in the century.