Lithuanians belong to the Baltic group of Indo-Europeans who appeared in the Baltic territories about 3,000-2,500 B.C. Tacitus, a Roman historian of the 1st century, made note of farmers and amber collectors in this area, but the name "Lithuania" appeared in a historical source for the first time in 1009 A.D. Lithuanian is the most archaic of the continuously spoken Indo-European languages and is of great interest to comparative linguists.