The first wave of people with farming and pottery technology in northern Europe was the LBK culture which originated in central Europe and reached a geographical limit in the fertile southern Haspengouw part of Limburg about 5000 BC, only to die out about 4000 BC.
A later wave from central Europe, the Michelsburg culture arrived about 3500 BC and shared a similar fate.
Pottery technology had however apparently been taken up by local tribes of the Swifterbant culture, who remained present throughout.

The area became permanently agricultural only in the Bronze Age with the Urnfield culture, followed by the possibly related Halstatt and La Tène material cultures, which are generally associated with Celts.
Under these cultures the population increased in the region, and it is also during this period that Indo European languages are thought to have arrived.

Caesar gave the first surviving written description of the area and described its people as the Germani cisrhenani, who were a part of the Belgae.
Amongst these Germani, Belgian Limburg contained at least part of the country of the Eburones who fought against Julius Caesar under their leaders Ambiorix and Cativolcus.
Apart from the Germani, somewhere in the west of the region (but possibly outside Limburg) were the Aduatuci, who were the descendants of the Cimbri and Teutones who had settled from the direction of Denmark some generations before Caesar.

Under the Romans, the area was home to the Tungri.
Tacitus equated these Tungri to the earliest tribes of "Germani" to have settled in Gaul, implying that they were substantially still descended from the Germani cisrhenani, and also states that the use of the name "Germani" had been expanded in Roman times to cover a larger grouping of similar tribes, particularly those in Germany east of the Rhine.
The Tungri are generally accepted as being speakers of a Germanic language, but modern authors disagree over the extent to which they descend from new immigrants who came from over the Rhine after Caesar.
Notably, the Tungri participated on the Roman side in the Revolt of the Batavi against Roman rule.
In the north of Limburg during Roman times lived the Toxandri.

The site of the fort in which the Romans encamped was called Aduatuca.
This was possibly a general word for a fort, associated not only with the Eburones, but also the Aduatuci, and the Tungri.
The Roman city established in Belgian Limburg was referred to as Aduatuca Tungrorum meaning "Aduatuca of the Tungri".
Today this has become "Tongeren", in the southeast of Belgian Limburg, and it was the capital of a Roman administrative region called the "Civitas Tungrorum".
Under the Romans, the Tungri civitas was first a part of Gallia Belgica, and later split out with the more militarized border regions between it and the Rhine, to become Germania Inferior, which was later converted into Germania Secunda.
The first wave of people with farming and pottery technology in northern Europe was the LBK culture which originated in central Europe and reached a geographical limit in the fertile southern Haspengouw part of Limburg about 5000 BC, only to die out about 4000 BC. A later wave from central Europe, the Michelsburg culture arrived about 3500 BC and shared a similar fate. Pottery technology had however apparently been taken up by local tribes of the Swifterbant culture, who remained present throughout.
The area became permanently agricultural only in the Bronze Age with the Urnfield culture, followed by the possibly related Halstatt and La Tène material cultures, which are generally associated with Celts. Under these cultures the population increased in the region, and it is also during this period that Indo European languages are thought to have arrived.
Caesar gave the first surviving written description of the area and described its people as the Germani cisrhenani, who were a part of the Belgae. Amongst these Germani, Belgian Limburg contained at least part of the country of the Eburones who fought against Julius Caesar under their leaders Ambiorix and Cativolcus. Apart from the Germani, somewhere in the west of the region (but possibly outside Limburg) were the Aduatuci, who were the descendants of the Cimbri and Teutones who had settled from the direction of Denmark some generations before Caesar.
Under the Romans, the area was home to the Tungri. Tacitus equated these Tungri to the earliest tribes of "Germani" to have settled in Gaul, implying that they were substantially still descended from the Germani cisrhenani, and also states that the use of the name "Germani" had been expanded in Roman times to cover a larger grouping of similar tribes, particularly those in Germany east of the Rhine. The Tungri are generally accepted as being speakers of a Germanic language, but modern authors disagree over the extent to which they descend from new immigrants who came from over the Rhine after Caesar. Notably, the Tungri participated on the Roman side in the Revolt of the Batavi against Roman rule. In the north of Limburg during Roman times lived the Toxandri.
The site of the fort in which the Romans encamped was called Aduatuca. This was possibly a general word for a fort, associated not only with the Eburones, but also the Aduatuci, and the Tungri. The Roman city established in Belgian Limburg was referred to as Aduatuca Tungrorum meaning "Aduatuca of the Tungri". Today this has become "Tongeren", in the southeast of Belgian Limburg, and it was the capital of a Roman administrative region called the "Civitas Tungrorum". Under the Romans, the Tungri civitas was first a part of Gallia Belgica, and later split out with the more militarized border regions between it and the Rhine, to become Germania Inferior, which was later converted into Germania Secunda.
Limburg (Belgium)