What is La Tene Culture?
– Origins – History – Decline The term “La Tène” refers to a late Iron Age Celtic culture, roughly centred in Switzerland, which was practised widely across Europe from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. In Western Europe, its evolution and historical development was roughly coincident with the fate of the Celts themselves. Thus, it emerged out of the preceding Austrian-based Hallstatt Celtic culture, achieved its zenith during the expansion of Celtic power and influence during the fourth century BCE and then declined – at least on the Continent – with the Roman subdugation of the Celtic heartlands in Gaul around 50 BCE. Thereafter it morphed into a Roman-Celtic art style before fading completely. In Eastern and north central Europe, it declined at about the same time under pressure from eastern barbarian tribes arriving from Asia. Thus, by the first century CE, the only practitioners of the La Tene style of Celtic art were the insular Celts of Ireland and other islands on the western frin
