La Tène (redirected from La Tene)

La Tène (lä tĕn), ancient Celtic site on Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, that gives its name to the second and final period of the European Iron Age. It is characterized by an art style that drew upon Greek, Etruscan, and Scythian motifs and translated them into highly abstract designs in metal, pottery, and wood. The earliest phase of Tenian culture, from the 6th to the late 5th cent. B.C., spread from the middle Rhine region E into the Danube valley, S into Switzerland, and W and N into France, the Low Countries, Denmark, and the British Isles; this was the period of the first of the great Celtic (see Celt) migrations. Tenian culture flourished until subjected to the advances of the Roman Empire. The Celtic peoples of the La Tène period borrowed much from older civilizations, including the Etruscan chariot, woodworking tools that enabled them to clear temperate forests for planting, and Greek agricultural implements such as the rotary millstone. Native coinage appeared in Gaul during the latter part of the period, along with the fortified townships eventually conquered by Julius Caesar. An exceptional example of late Tenian culture is found in the ancient lake dwellings of Glastonbury, S England.

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La Tène

(French; “The Shallows”)

Gold disk found at Auvers, La Tène culture, 5th century BC.

(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.