Editing Viking Age (section)

=== Estonia ===
[[File:Iru Fort, Estonia, 1924.jpg|thumb|right|The Iru Fort in Northern [[Estonia]]]]

{{Main|Viking Age in Estonia}}

During the Viking Age, Estonia was a [[Baltic Finnic peoples|Finnic]] area divided between two major cultural regions, a coastal and an inland one, corresponding to the historical cultural and linguistic division between [[North Estonian|Northern]] and [[South Estonian|Southern Estonian]].{{sfn|Tvauri|2012|pp=321–322, 325–326}} These two areas were further divided between loosely allied regions.{{sfn|Frucht|2004}} [[Viking Age in Estonia|The Viking Age in Estonia]] is considered to be part of the Iron Age period which started around {{CE|400}} and ended {{circa}} {{CE|1200}}. Some 16th-century Swedish chronicles attribute the [[Pillage of Sigtuna]] in 1187 to Estonian raiders.<<ref name="Tarvel2007"/>

The society, economy, settlement and culture of the territory of what is in the present-day the country of Estonia is studied mainly through archaeological sources. The era is seen to have been a period of rapid change. The Estonian peasant culture came into existence by the end of the Viking Age. The overall understanding of the Viking Age in Estonia is deemed to be fragmentary and superficial, because of the limited amount of surviving source material. The main sources for understanding the period are remains of the farms and fortresses of the era, cemeteries and a large amount of excavated objects.{{sfn|Tvauri|2012}}

The landscape of Ancient Estonia featured numerous hillforts, some later hillforts on [[Saaremaa]] heavily fortified during the Viking Age and on to the 12th century.{{sfn|Mägi|2015|pp=45–46}} There were a number of late prehistoric or medieval harbour sites on the coast of Saaremaa, but none have been found that are large enough to be international trade centres.{{sfn|Mägi|2015|pp=45–46}} The Estonian islands also have a number of graves from the Viking Age, both individual and collective, with weapons and jewellery.{{sfn|Mägi|2015|pp=45–46}} Weapons found in Estonian Viking Age graves are common to types found throughout Northern Europe and Scandinavia.{{sfn|Martens|2004|pp=132–135}}