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Countries in Europe

  • United KingdomStonehenge in Wiltshire stands as a ring of stones, each about 13 feet high and weighing 25 tonnes. These massive structures were erected between 2400 BC and…
  • LatviaThe name Latvia derives from the ancient Latgalians, one of four Indo-European Baltic tribes that formed the ethnic core of modern Latvians.
  • MaltaThe Maltese archipelago has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, during the Mesolithic period. Archaeological discoveries at Latnija Cave by researcher…
  • ItalyIn 753 BC, a settlement named Rome emerged on the banks of the Tiber River in central Italy. This small community would eventually conquer the entire…
  • MoldovaIn 1359, Prince Dragoș established the Principality of Moldavia along the Moldova River. This medieval state became a vassal to the Ottoman Empire in 1538…
  • KazakhstanThe Botai culture thrived between 3700 and 3100 BC in the region now known as Kazakhstan. Archaeologists credit this group with the first domestication of…
  • Georgia (country)The oldest traces of archaic humans in what is now Georgia date from approximately 1.8 million years ago. These remains belong to the Dmanisi hominins, a…
  • FinlandThe first people arrived in the land that is now Finland around 8500 BC. They were hunter-gatherers who used stone tools to survive the harsh environment…
  • Vatican CityThe name Vatican first appeared in the time of the Roman Republic. It described a marshy area on the west bank of the Tiber River.
  • PortugalThe Cave of Aroeira in central Portugal yielded a 400,000-year-old skull of Homo heidelbergensis in 2014. This discovery proves human presence on the Iberian…
  • SpainArchaeological research at Atapuerca indicates the Iberian Peninsula was populated by hominids 1.3 million years ago. Modern humans first arrived in Iberia…
  • FranceThe name France comes from the Latin word Francia, meaning realm of the Franks. This tribal identity emerged as a Late Latin borrowing of the reconstructed…
  • LithuaniaThe name Lithuania first appeared in written history on the 7th of May 1009, recorded in the Annals of Quedlinburg. A Latinized form called Litua described a…
  • DenmarkThe northern Jutland peninsula meets an archipelago of 406 islands in Northern Europe. A circle enclosing the same area as Denmark would be 358 kilometers in…
  • SwedenAround 12,000 BC, the Allerød oscillation brought a warm period to what is now southern Sweden. Late Palaeolithic reindeer-hunting camps of the Bromme…
  • AzerbaijanThe name Azerbaijan traces back to Atropates, a Persian satrap under the Achaemenid Empire who was reinstated as the satrap of Media under Alexander the…
  • GermanyAncient humans were present in the territory of modern Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The first non-modern human fossil known as the Neanderthal was…
  • EstoniaThe Pulli settlement dates to around 9000 BC, marking the earliest known human habitation in Estonia. Glaciers of the last ice age melted between 13,000 and…
  • NorwayThe name Norway emerged from the Old English word Norþweg, recorded in an account by Ohthere of Hålogaland around 890. This phrase meant northern way or way…
  • BelgiumIn 54 BCE, Julius Caesar marched his legions into the northern part of Gaul to confront a people he called the Belgae. These tribes inhabited an area…
  • GreeceThe year 776 BC marks the first Olympic Games, a moment that signaled the end of the Greek Dark Ages and the beginning of recorded history for these…
  • ScotlandThe earliest known evidence of human presence in Scotland dates to the Bølling, Allerød Interstadial warm period, approximately 14,500 to 14,000 years ago.
  • PolandIn 966, the ruler of the West Slavic tribe known as the Polans accepted Western Christianity under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church.
  • RussiaAbout 2 million years ago, representatives of Homo erectus migrated to the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia. Flint tools discovered in the North Caucasus…
  • TurkeyGöbekli Tepe stands as a stone monument older than Stonehenge, with some henges erected around 9600 BC. This site in southeastern Turkey predates the…
  • IcelandThe island of Iceland sits directly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a geological fault line where the Eurasian Plate and North American Plate drift apart.
  • NetherlandsOn the 14th of December 1287, the St. Lucia's flood struck the Netherlands and neighboring Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of history's most…
  • RomaniaRomania sits at the intersection of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Its borders touch Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to…
  • BelarusThe name Belarus appears in German and Latin medieval literature, with the chronicles of Jan of Czarnków mentioning the imprisonment of Lithuanian grand duke…
  • UkraineStone tools discovered in Korolevo, western Ukraine, date back 1.4 million years, marking the earliest securely dated hominin presence in Europe.
  • CroatiaThe name Croatia emerges from a linguistic puzzle spanning centuries. Medieval Latin records show the term Croatorum on an 8th-century church inscription…
  • Czech RepublicArchaeologists uncovered the Venus of Dolní Věstonice in 1925, a ceramic figurine dating to approximately 29,000, 25,000 BCE.
  • SloveniaIn the Divje Babe cave near Cerkno, archaeologists uncovered a pierced cave bear bone in 1995. This artifact dates back to approximately 43,100 years before…
  • AustriaThe Venus of Willendorf, a 28,000-year-old limestone figurine, stands today in the Museum of Natural History Vienna. This artifact proves that human life…