The contrast which was already apparent during the Bronze Age in terms of material culture between Atlantic and continental groups persisted into the Iron Age. Stimulated by the establishment of the Greek colonies in Provence and by exchanges with the upper Danube valley, a culture with diagnostically Hallstatt traits developed on the Rhone-Saone-Rhine axis. In the north and the west of the Paris Basin, in the Massif Central and the south-west, recent research is helping to define a distinctive first iron age culture which was still in existence when La Tene culture became firmly established in the Marne area. The Armorican Iron Age has numerous characteristics which serve to distinguish it from the remainder of northern France: it remained untouched by second iron age La Tene influences until the last few centuries BC. The Languedoc region and Provence, their Mediterranean environment setting them apart from more northerly areas, equally developed indigenous cultures which were original not only in respect of their native origins but also in their reactions to Greek colonization.
With the exception of the spread of its characteristic iron and bronze items. La Tene culture was not archaeologically visible over much of Gaul for considerable periods. Celticization may thus be considered to have been a phenomenon of the second century BC in many areas. The early ancient geographers offer us little help: according to them the coasts of Gaul, from Biarritz to Dunkirk, were generally oriented east-west, and the great rivers flowed from south to north. Nevertheless, the Carcassonne Gap and the route to the Atlantic was well known at an early date, as was the link from Rhone to Danube. The modern reader needs to keep in mind the picture the ancient writers had of these northern territories when interpreting their writings on Gaul.
World History
