Ernests Brastiņš was educated at the Stieglitz Art Academy in Saint Petersburg from 1911 to 1915. After military service in World War I and the Latvian War of Independence he became the director of the Latvian War Museum. During his time at the museum he studied Latvian history, Latvian ethnography, folk art and symbols, and investigated around 300 Latvian hill forts and the folklore connected to them.