Dictionary:

La Tène

  (lä tĕn')

Of or relating to a late Iron Age Celtic civilization dating from the fifth to the first century B.C., influenced by early contact with Greek and Etruscan civilizations and flourishing throughout most of northern Europe until the Roman conquests.

[After La Tène, a district at the eastern end of the Lake of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.]

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Gold disk found at Auvers, La Tène culture, 5th century . (credit: Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris)

Archaeological site at the eastern end of Lake Neuchâtel, Switz. The name by extension applies to a late Iron Age culture of European Celts. La Tène culture originated in the mid-5th century BC, when the Celts came into contact with Greeks and Etruscans. It passed through several phases and regional variations during the next 400 years, as the Celts populated northern Europe and the British Isles, and ended in the mid-1st century BC, when most of the Celts came under Roman control. Objects of the early period are characterized by ornamental S-shapes, spirals, and round patterns. The middle period is notable for long iron swords, heavy knives, and burial in coffins or under stone heaps; findings with a later date, but still of the middle period, include decorated scabbards, broad-bladed spearheads, and wooden shields with iron supports. The final period, showing Roman influence, is distinguished by peasant's implements, such as iron sickles, scythes, axes, saws, and plowshares.

For more information on La Tène, visit Britannica.com.

Archaeological site at the eastern end of Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, whose name now describes late Iron Age Celtic culture. Discovered by an amateur archaeologist in 1858, the La Tène site, one of the glories of the barbarian world, marks a holy settlement of Celtic craftspersons and artisans from after 500 BC until the Roman conquest. The huge trove at La Tène includes 400 brooches, 270 spears, 27 wooden shields, 170 swords, as well as votive offerings: dogs, pigs, cattle, chariots, and human beings. La Tène culture, now classed in three phases, I, II, and III, developed from the interaction of the earlier, geometric Hallstatt style and Etruscan and Greek influences from the Mediterranean. The typical La Tène style is characterized by S-shapes, spirals, and swirling round patterns symmetrically applied. While known in all parts of Celtic Europe, the La Tène style is especially evident in the art of the pre-Roman British Isles; atrophying under Roman domination, it persisted through Christianization in Ireland until the Norman conquest, 1169.

Bibliography

• Paul Vouga, La Tène (Leipzig, 1923)
• Ruth and J. V. S. Megaw, Celtic Art (London, 1989)