Prehistory
Traces of human occupation, old women of some four hundred and thousand years, were found in the primitive valley of Amblève, in Sprimont, and the south of Mons, towards Spiennes. Remainders discovered in 1886 in the cave of Spy, close to Namur, and the witnesses of movable art magdalénien delivered by several caves of the valley of Lesse attest that the ground of Belgium was then occupied by the man of Neandertal, then by the man of Cro-Magnon.
Towards the beginning of the IV E thousand-year-old, the wandering hunters are replaced by the first farmers, who are established in Limbourg, then in Hesbaye inhabitant of Liège (Darion) and finally in Western Hainaut (Blicquy); these men belong to civilization known as ribboned, according to the decorations with the layouts in ribbons which decorate their potteries. Among the vestiges of the Neolithic era, one will still announce the flint tools of Spiennes and the megalithic burials of Wéris, close to Durbuy.
Antiquity
Celts
During I er thousand-year-old front J. - C., tribes of Indo-European origin, pertaining to the group of the Celts, occupy, by successive waves, the space of current Belgium. Their unit is expressed by the language and the religion (the druidism).
Worsen Romain
When Julius Caesar penetrates in Beats (58 av. J. - C.), it prevents the coalition of all these “Belgian” tribes - according to the name that it gives them in the War of Beat -, and, in little time, Nerviens overcomes, demolishes Aduatiques, subjects Ménapiens and Morins, represses the rising of Trévires and Eburons (Ambiorix). It divides then Beats it in four provinces, of which three cover Belgian space: the Belgium Second (west of the country), Germanic lower (north and is country) and Belgium First (south of the current province of Luxembourg).
During the long period of peace which follows pax romana, Roman Belgium organizes itself: division of the country in districts or “cities”, installation of fast tracks (Roman roadways) - enters Bavai and Cologne, via Tongres, between Rheims and Cologne, via Arlon -, construction of the first Roman villas, development of agriculture.
At the Lower Empire, while Christianity starts to be spread in certain cities, in particular in Tongres (of which the bishop, in the middle of the IV E century, is holy Servais), of the successive waves of Germanic tribes, of which the Francs, penetrate and are established in Beats.