Around the year 2000 BC, the Ljubljana Marshes were settled by lake dwellers, who lived in wooden dwellings built on stilts driven into the marsh ground or lake bed. The lake dwellers were mostly hunters, fishermen, stockbreeders and primitive farmers. To get around, they used dugout canoes made by cutting out the inside of tree trunks. As the Ljubljana Gateway has since ever had a key geographical position, it saw migration flows of numerous tribes and peoples.

The territory of the present Ljubljana was first settled by the Veneti, who were later followed by the Illyrians, the Illyrian-Celtic tribe called Yapodi, and in the 3rd century BC by the Celtic tribe called Taurisci.

Emona, the earliest name of the present Ljubljana, has been known since the Roman times, but was probably of Celtic origin. Until the 1st century BC, when the Ljubljana Basin was conquered by the Romans, the settlement was part of the Celtic kingdom of Noricum.