Editing Lithuania (section)

===Early history and Baltic tribes===
{{Main|Balts}}
{{See also|Lithuanian land confederation}}
[[File:Baltic-amber-colours.JPG|thumb|left|Baltic amber was a valuable trade item, transported from the region of modern-day Lithuania to the [[Roman Empire]] through the [[Amber Road]].]]
[[File:KernavėsPLK.JPG|thumb|left|Ancient [[Kernavė Mounds|Kernavė hillforts]]]]
The history of Lithuania dates back to settlements founded about 10,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite book|title=International migration in Lithuania : causes, consequences, strategy|last=Sipavičienė, Audra.|date=1997|publisher=United Nations Economic Commission for Europe|isbn=9986523397|pages=55|oclc=39615701}}</ref><ref name=kudirka13>{{Cite book|title=The Lithuanians: An Ethnic Portrait|last=Kudirka|first=Juozas|authorlink=Juozas Kudirka|publisher=Lithuanian Folk Culture Centre|year=1991|pages=13}}</ref> The first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the [[Last Glacial Period]] in the 10th millennium BC: [[Kunda culture|Kunda]], [[Neman culture|Neman]] and [[Narva culture]]s.<ref name="PoloméWinter2011">{{cite book|author1=Edgar C. Polomé|author2=Werner Winter|title=Reconstructing Languages and Cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DIj-nZWsX_0C&pg=PA298|year=2011|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-086792-3|page=298}}</ref> They were traveling hunters. In the 8th millennium BC the climate became warmer and forests developed. The inhabitants of what is now Lithuania travelled less and engaged in local hunting, gathering and fresh-water fishing. The [[Indo-European migrations|Indo-Europeans]], who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population and formed various [[Baltic tribes]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Šapoka|first1=Adolfas|title=Lietuvos istorija|date=1936|publisher=[[Šviesa]]|location=Kaunas|pages=13–17|url=http://www.partizanai.org/failai/pdf/sapokos-istorija.pdf|access-date=19 February 2018|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225035041/http://www.partizanai.org/failai/pdf/sapokos-istorija.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The Baltic tribes did not maintain close cultural or political contacts with the [[Roman Empire]],<ref name="MacDonald1996">{{cite book|author=Michael H. MacDonald|title=Europe, a Tantalizing Romance: Past and Present Europe for Students and the Serious Traveler|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BQyk0nJNsxUC&pg=PA174|year=1996|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=978-0-7618-0411-6|page=174}}</ref> while maintaining trade contacts via the [[Amber Road]].

From the 9th to the 11th centuries, coastal Balts were subjected to raids by the [[Vikings]].<ref name="Kasekamp2017">{{cite book|author=Andres Kasekamp|title=A History of the Baltic States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDA5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|year=2017|publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education|isbn=978-1-137-57366-7|page=9}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> Lithuania comprised mainly the culturally different regions of [[Samogitia]] (known for its early medieval skeletal burials), and further east [[Aukštaitija]], or [[Lithuania proper]] (known for its early medieval cremation burials). The area was remote and unattractive to outsiders, including traders, which accounts for its separate linguistic, cultural and religious identity and delayed integration into general European patterns and trends.<ref name="Ochmański 37">Ochmański (1982), p. 37</ref> Traditional [[Lithuanian mythology|Lithuanian pagan customs and mythology]], with many archaic elements, were long preserved. Rulers' bodies were cremated up until the conversion to Christianity: the descriptions of the cremation ceremonies of the grand dukes [[Algirdas]] and [[Kęstutis]] have survived.<ref name="Bumblauskas 24-25">Eidintas et al. (2013), pp. 24–25</ref>