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( La Tène culture)
The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich trove of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857. La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BCE) in eastern France, Switzerland, Austria, southwest Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. To the north extended the contemporary Jastorf culture of Northern Germany.[1] La Tène culture developed out of the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture without any definite cultural break, under the impetus of considerable Mediterranean influence from Greek, and later Etruscan civilizations. A shift of settlement centres took place in the 4th century. Our knowledge of this cultural area derives from three sources from archaeological evidence, from Greek and Latin literary evidence, and more controversially, from ethnographical evidence suggesting some La Tène artistic and cultural survivals in traditionally Celtic regions of far western Europe. Some of the societies that are archaeologically identified with La Tène material culture were identified by Greek and Roman authors from the 5th century onwards as keltoi ("Celts") and galli ("Gauls"). Herodotus placed keltoi at the source of the Danube, in the heartland of La Tène material culture. Whether this means that the whole of La Tène culture can be attributed to a unified Celtic people is difficult to assess; archaeologists have repeatedly concluded that language, material culture, and political affiliation do not necessarily run parallel. Frey notes (Frey 2004) that in the 5th century, "burial customs in the Celtic world were not uniform; rather, localised groups had their own beliefs, which, in consequence, also gave rise to distinct artistic expressions". In some cases where La Tène archaeological sites are overlain by Slavic culture, any identification of La Tène material culture with Celts may become a sensitive local issue. Extensive contacts through trade are recognized in foreign objects deposited in elite burials; stylistic influences on La Tène material culture can be recognized in Etruscan, Italic, Greek and Scythian sources. Dateable Greek pottery at La Tène sites and dendrochronology and thermoluminescence help provide date ranges in an absolute chronology at some La Tène sites.
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