 | La Tène culture: Encyclopedia II - La Tène culture - La Tène site
La Tène culture - La Tène site
La Tène is a village near the Lake Neuchâtel, (Lac de Neuchâtel), a lake in Switzerland. It is both an archaeological site and the eponymous site for the late Iron Age La Tène culture, also spelt "Latène" or "La-Tène".
In 1857, prolonged drought lowered the waters of the Neuenburger See by about 2 m. On the northernmost tip of the lake, between the river Zihl and a point south of the village of Marin-Epagnier, H. Kopp, looking for antiquities for Colonel F. Schwab, discovered several rows of wooden piles that still reached about 50 cm into the water. From among these, Kopp collected about forty iron swords.
The Swiss archaeologist Ferdinand Keller published his findings in 1868 in his influential first report on the Swiss pile dwellings (Pfahlbaubericht). In 1863 he interpreted the remains as a Celtic village built on piles. Eduard Desor, a geologist from Neuchâtel, started excavations on the lakeshore soon afterwards. He interpreted the site as an armory, erected on piles over the lake and later destroyed by enemy action.
With the first systematic lowering of the Swiss lakes from 1868 to 1883, the site fell completely dry. In 1880, E. Vouga, a teacher from Marin-Epagnier, uncovered the wooden remains of two bridges (Pont Desor and Pont Vouga) originally over 100 m long and the remains of five houses on the shore. After Vouga had finished, F. Borel, curator of the Marin museus, began to excavate as well. In 1885 the canton asked the Société d`Histoire of Neuchâtel to continue the excavations, the results of which were published by Vouga in the same year.
All in all, over 2500 objects, mainly made from metal, have been excavated in La Tène. Weapons predominate, there being 166 swords (most without traces of wear), 270 lanceheads, and 22 shield bosses, along with 385 brooches, tools, and parts of chariots. Numerous human and animal bones were found as well.
Interpretations of the site vary. Some scholars believe the bridge was destroyed by high water, while others see it as a place of sacrifice after a successful battle (there are almost no female ornaments). The original homeland of La Tène society is also debated: it lay somewhere in the area north of the Alps from the Marne in eastern France to the upper Danube.
Other related archives100 BC, 1857, 1863, 1868, 1880, 1883, 1885, 1st century BC, 2nd century BC, 300 BC, 350, 3rd, 400, 450, 50 BC, 6th century BC, 7th Century BC, Alps, Austria, Battersea Shield, Britain, British Museum, Burgundy, Celtic, Copenhagen, Czech Republic, Danube, Etruscan, Ferdinand Keller, France, Germany, Glastonbury, England, Graz, Greek, Gundestrup cauldron, Hallstatt culture, Hungary, Ireland, Iron Age, Lake Neuchatel, Lake Neuchâtel, London, Marin-Epagnier, Marne, National Museum of Denmark, Neuchâtel, Romania, Scythian, Spain, Switzerland, Thames, Ukraine, brooches, canton, cauldron, chariots, drought, geologist, material culture, metalwork, pile dwellings, sacrifice, shield bosses, swords, torcs
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "La Tène site", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
