algusaegade

Algusaegade is a term used in Estonian historiography and archaeology to designate the earliest periods of human activity in a given region, typically before or at the onset of written records. The word comes from algus, meaning “beginning,” and aeg, meaning “time” or “period,” with algusaegade functioning as a genitive plural when referring to the cultures or periods of the early ages.

The scope of algusaegade is relative and region-specific. Definitions rely on material evidence—stone tools, pottery styles, settlement patterns, burial practices—and dating methods such as artifact typology and radiocarbon dating, rather than fixed calendar dates. In practice, algusaegade covers prehistoric times and, for some regions, the earliest metal ages before sustained literacy or robust state documentation.

In Estonian scholarship, the term is used to frame studies of early economies, social organization, and cultural exchange, distinguishing these from later medieval and modern periods. Exact boundaries of algusaegade vary by region and by scholarly tradition, and some researchers subdivide the interval into the Stone Age, Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age when discussing local sequences.

See also: Prehistory, Protohistory, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age.