There is evidence of early prehistoric life in what are now known as the provinces of East and West Limburg. A 300,000-year-old hunters’ camp located in the vicinity of Maastricht indicates that Limburg was part of the hunting grounds of a prehistoric tribe. Neanderthal artefacts dating back over 100,000 years have been found two kilometres west of Maastricht. Initial attempts to cultivate the Limburgish loess soil were made around 8000 BCE, when the land ice retracted from Limburg. The Bandkeramiekers or Corded Ware Culture also left many traces of activities, extending back to 5300 BCE, in the centre of East Limburg. There is also evidence dating back to the Stone Age, from 4000 to 1500 BCE, when stonecutters were digging for flints in the marlstone layers they found to the south of East Limburg. Moreover, findings from the Bronze Age, from 1800 to 750 BCE, suggest that a people influenced by Central European culture lived predominantly in the Kempen region.

At the beginning of the Iron Age, various invasions by early Celtic tribes from Central Europe occurred in Limburg and its surrounding regions. The various tribes subjugated the local inhabitants and over time their cultures merged. These Celtic Germans originated from the Kurgan culture that had existed around 5000 BCE in the regions to the north of the Caspian Sea. A thousand years later, these tribes began to expand towards Europe and by 3000 BCE they could be found in Scandinavia, the Low Countries and Northern Germany. The final wave of invasions into the Limburgish region consisted of a confederation of different tribes, which included the Eburons. The exact location of where the Eburons settled after their invasion is as yet unclear, but their remains can be found in the eastern part of the Dutch river delta, in West Limburg and in the area around Aachen.

Around 57 BCE, the Romans came to Northern Gaul, which included present-day Limburg, to extend their empire. At the end of 56 BCE, Roman rule was established over the region. Historic annals of that time, which describe the rebellion against the Romans by the Eburon tribe and several of its allies, include one of the first written records about Limburg. Led by Ambiorix, the Eburons were initially victorious and briefly managed to overthrow the Romans. However, they were soon crushed, and once again subjected to Roman rule. Their land was taken from them and annexed as the newest province of the Roman Empire, known as Gaul. The Tungri, a little-known people, replaced the Eburons during the transition years from the 1st century BCE to the 1st century CE. As an administrative region, the civitas Tungrorum was part of the province Gallia Belgica. Its caput, or capital, was Atuatuca Tungrorum, currently better known as Tongeren.

During this period of Roman rule, many Roman civil servants, tradesmen and craftsmen, who came predominantly from southern Gaul and the southern Rhine region, settled in Limburg. Heerlen, Tongeren, Maastricht and Heel were the principal towns. The farms, called villae, were the property of Roman and Gallo-Roman colonists. The southern part of Limburg was the most populated area. Around 320 CE, Maternus, the first bishop of Aachen, is said to have established the first dioceses of Tongeren and Maastricht.
The remaining local inhabitants resented Roman dominion. The Romans were viewed as pillagers, who killed and stole under the banner of establishing rule and governance. Words were not the only form of resistance used. Local inhabitants took up arms against the Roman presence in their region. As a result, the pacification of Gaul became a long and difficult process for the Romans.

The Roman conquest led to a ‘Romanisation’ of the southern Low Countries. This was in stark contrast with the northern Low Countries, which had been ‘Germanised’ since the 2nd century. Indeed, long after the collapse of the Roman empire, the southern Low Countries, which included Limburg, remained a crossroads for Germanic and Latin European cultures.

Although the disintegration of the Roman empire had already begun in the 3rd and 4th centuries, it took until late in the 5th century for Roman rule to collapse completely. In 459 CE, Cologne became a permanent part of Francia, a loose federation of Germanic tribes, who had previously inhabited an area between the rivers Rhine and Weser. This also signalled the end of Roman rule in the Limburgish region.

During this new Frankish period, Limburg became part of an area known as Austrasia, which was the heartland of the Franks. In particular, the southern part of Limburg formed part of the ancestral land from which the subsequent Frankish Carolingian royal dynasty originated. The Carolingians turned the Meuse-Rhine region, of which Limburg was a part, into their administrative and cultural centre. As a consequence, Charles Martel and subsequent Carolingians, such as Charlemagne, became local kings for the inhabitants of Limburg and for the bordering Rhine region.
Charlemagne reigned from 768 to 814 CE, and this was a time of peace throughout the entire empire. Problems began to emerge at the end of the rule by Charlemagne’s son, Louis the Pious, who was emperor from 814 to 840 CE. The Frankish empire was slowly disintegrating, torn by the internal power struggle between three sons of Louis the Pious – Lothar, Louis the German and Charles the Bald. With the Treaty of Verdun, the empire was divided amongst the three of them. Lothar I became ruler of the Middle Kingdom, to which Limburg belonged. In 855 CE, the Middle Kingdom was further divided into a northern and southern part. The northern part, which included Limburg, was ruled by Lothar II and named Lorraine, or Lower Lorraine, in his honour. In 859 CE, Lothar II died and war broke out in Lorraine. In 870 CE, the Treaty of Meersen identified the Meuse as the border line between the divided kingdom. As a result, the area of Limburg on the eastern shores of the Meuse became part of the East Frankish Kingdom and the region on the western shores became part of the West Frankish Kingdom.

In the centuries leading to the end of the first millennium, the power of the Frankish kings slowly diminished, leading to the eventual collapse of their kingdoms. With their downfall, the heartland of the Frankish Empire also began to disintegrate. The surrounding smaller kingdoms invaded and occupied different parts of Limburg, thereby inaugurating an era of political fragmentation. Limburg’s fragmentation occurred slowly at first, but gradually reached its peak in the High Middle Ages; it would continue until the end of the 18th century.

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