From a Finno-Ugric ethnos to the Liv people
Finno-Ugric and other nations have shaped and enriched the global cultural heritage. The Livs are a branch of the Finno-Ugric people, and they are indigenous residents of Latvia, just as Latvians area.
Finno-Ugric tribes arrived in the territory of Latvia approximately 5,000 years ago. Beginning in the 11th century, the Livs settled around the largest river in Vidzeme – the Gauja River. They became known as the Livs of the Gauja, because their main settlements were in the area where we find Turaida, Sigulda and Krimulda today.
The exhibition has information about the destiny of the Livs of the Gauja – who are the Livs, from where did they come, and what did they contribute to our culture?
The territory of Latvia is a place where Finno-Ugric and Indo-European cultures first encountered one another. Finno-Ugric tribes settled in this area around 3400-3300 BC. People collected plants and went fishing and hunting. They produced ceramics in the pit-comb style. Around 2300 BC, the first Indo-Europeans arrived in the region – pre-Baltic tribes which were the first to engage in farming and livestock breeding in the area. Theirs was the culture of string ceramics.
The first residents in the area of Turaida settled there around 1500 BC. These were both Finno-Ugric and Baltic ethnic tribes. They lived alongside one another for several millennia, enriching each other’s culture. The culture of the Finno-Ugric Liv people began to flourish around Turaida in the 11th century AD.
Nature and Work
The Liv people honoured their land, and they had special rituals to pray to deities related to land, water and other parts of nature, hoping that they would bless the land and ensure fertility and wealth. The lives of Livs were based on work and traditions that related to the seasons of the year. Knowledge about farm work, hunting, fishing, beekeeping and other processes was handed down from generation to generation.
Each year, Liv farmers left half of their land fallow and used the other half to grow rye, barley, wheat, peas, beans, hemp, linen, turnips and other plants. For the most part they had cows, bulls, horses, pigs, sheep and goats.
Livs collected nuts, mushrooms, berries, roots and other useful plants. Lakes and rivers teemed with fish. Fishing in deeper waters involved nets, baskets and fishing poles. Along shorelines and in shallows, fish could be killed with a spear or a gaff.
Beekeeping was of great importance to farms. Livs installed homes for bees in hollow trees at least 3 m up from the ground. Beekeepers had special equipment to scale the trees. The honey which was extracted from the hives was the only available sweetener, and it was used for food and as a medical treatment. Honey was also used to produce mead or honey beer.
Farming and livestock breeding were the main way in which Liv farms made a living in the 11th and 12th century.
The Livs at a crossroad
Catholic missionaries arrived in the Liv lands along with German tradesmen in the late 12th century. The Chronicle of Indriķis writes about a monk called Theodoric who baptised his first Liv in 1191.
Most Livs opposed Christianity, because they linked it to an alien force. By 1202, Theodoric was a priest, and Bishop Albert ordered him to establish the Order of the Brotherhood of the Sword to conquer the Baltic lands. By 1207, the Liv districts of Turaida were taken over by the bishop of Rīga and the aforementioned order. Local rulers lost their ruling status.
The Chronicle of Indriķis tells us that the wooden castle in Turaida was burned down in 1206 during a battle with the crusaders. It was restored, but it was sacked again in 1212, when local residents rose up against the conquerors. The independence of the Livs of the Gauja also disappeared under the flames. The ruins of the wooden castle became the foundation in 1214 for a stone fortress for the bishop of Rīga – the Turaida castle.
The lands which were conquered by the crusaders in what are Latvia and Estonia today were known as Livonia in the Middle Ages, thus carrying the name of the Livs forward for another period of time.
Foto: Edgars Semanis
