later Rex Nameisis renewed the hillfort, but in 1280, because it was so difficult to fight against the very active invaders, the Semigallians burned down their own wooden castle and went to the southern part of northern Lithuania.

Turaida was the brick castle of the archbishop of Rīga in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The remains of the Livs hillfort (eleventh–twelfth centuries) were discovered under the cultural layers of the remains of the castle. The Turaida castle of the Livonian period, situated on the high bank of the river Gauja in the eastern part of Latvia, was investigated fully and reconstructed partly between 1974 and 1999.

Zvejnieki, a Stone Age burial field in the northeastern part of Latvia, is the biggest in Northern Europe. It was excavated by Francis Zagorskis (1929–1986) during the period from 1965 to 1971. Single, double, and group burials of the late Mesolithic and early, middle, and late Neolithic periods (6775–5100 b.p.)—totaling 308 individuals—were discovered. Rich bone, flint, and slate implements represented the funerary inventory. Red or blue clay masks with amber disks and rings in the eye sockets were discovered in some graves of people of the Comb and pit ceramic cultures. Figurines of elk heads, birds, male faces, and female figures were ritual objects.

Zvidze, in the Lake Lubāna Wetland, is a Neolithic settlement of the first farmers in the eastern Baltic region that is situated on the border of moraine plain and the ground of the old Lake Lubāna basin. Zvidze was excavated from 1973 to 1975 and from 1981 to 1984. The archaeological evidence of farming—wooden tools; spades; mattocks; cereal and grain processing tools; spinning and weaving implements; and tools for processing hemp, nettles, and flax—were discovered inside the remains of the wooden dwellings, which were of standing pole construction with ridged roofs. It was suggested that these people adopted agriculture as a result of diffusion between 5000 and 4700 b.p.

Baltic Nationalities

Curonians—Western Baltic people (kurši) described in early written chronicles such as Heinrici Chronicon and Livlandische Reimschronik as curones, who lived in the eighth through the thirteenth centuries a.d. in the territory of the western part of Latvia and the northwestern part of Lithuania.

Lettgalians—Eastern Baltic people (latgaļi), described in Heinrici Chronicon and Livlandische Reimchronik as Letti or Letthigalli, who lived in the eighth through the thirteenth centuries in the territory of the eastern part of present-day Latvia, east of the river Daugava.

Livs—Finno-Ugric people (lībieši), described in Livlandische Reimchronik as Līven or Līwen, who lived during the tenth through the thirteenth centuries in the lower flow of the rivers Gauja and Daugava, as well on the littoral of northwestern Latvia. The main excavated monuments are two villages and a cemetery dating to the tenth through the thirteenth centuries, Salaspils Laukskola in the lower part of the river Daugava. A rich inventory included bronze ornaments, tortoise-shaped fibulas, and remains of textiles including small bronze ornaments on the edges of the villaine, a special cape worn by women (Zariņa).

Selonians—Baltic people (sēļi), described in Heinrici Chronicon as sēlen, who lived in the ninth through the thirteenth centuries in the territory of the southeastern part of present-day Latvia, to the south of the river Daugava, and in the northern part of present-day Lithuania.

Semigallians—Baltic people (zemgaļi), described in Heinrici Chronicon and Livlandische Reimchronik as Semigally, who lived in the basin of river Lielupe and in the northern part of present-day Lithuania during the ninth through the thirteenth centuries. The main excavated archaeological monuments are the hillforts Mežotne (excavated by Voldemārs Ģinters) and Tērvete.

Institutions

Latvian Board of Antiquities (1923–1940)—A protection, registration, documentation, coordination, and administration center for archaeological monuments in Latvia. The Monument Protection law was accepted in the independent republic of Latvia in 1923 and supplemented in 1932, when professor Francis Balodis became the head of the board. More than 1,412 monuments