The La Tene culture is characterised by its instantly recognisable art style based on captivatingly complex swirling geometrical patterns. For many people the La Tene style is Celtic art. Celtic art was not merely ornamental, however; it had symbolic religious and magical functions, so the change in style probably also represents a major change in belief systems accompanying the rise of the La Tene chiefdoms. On the continent the influence of the La Tene style continued for over 400 years, until the Roman conquests in the first century bc. In Britain and Ireland, where the style was adopted c. 200 bc. La Tene influence continued right through the Roman period into the early Middle Ages, being transformed in the process from a pagan into a Christian art form. The La Tene style was not homogeneous. Early examples of the style are clearly imitations and adaptations of Greek and Etruscan
Plate 2 Early La Tene flagon from Basse-Yutz, France Source. O The British Museum
Decorative motifs, but as it developed distinct regional styles appeared. For instance, vegetation motifs predominated in France and Germany, while in Britain and Ireland the style was more abstract and geometrical. The Greeks and Romans were pathologically incapable of recognising that barbarian art could be good art (they would have seen it as a contradiction in terms) and the dominating influence of Classicism on European art meant that it was not until the later nineteenth century that the La Tene style was recognised for the great artistic achievement that it was. The abstract style of La Tene art appeals to modern tastes and has been successfully revived by modern jewellers.
The La Tene culture is named for a site on Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland but its early centres lay far to the north, the most important being in the valley of the river Moselle and a second, smaller and poorer centre in the valley of the Marne. A third centre later developed in Bohemia, and by 400 bc La Tene influence had spread across most of Austria, Switzerland, southern Germany and France. About 150 years later the La Tene culture had spread to south-eastern Britain and had begun to spread slowly north and west to Ireland. The La Tene culture was also adopted in Celtic Iberia but only in a very selective way. The striking feature of early La Tene society was its martial character. While elite Flallstatt burials did contain weapons, these were suited mainly for hunting or for show. When the early La Tene elite went to their graves, they went fully prepared for battle. There was an increase in the number of weapons placed in elite graves and, when vehicles were placed in burials, they were not the four-wheeled funerary wagons of Hallstatt times but an altogether more martial form of transport, the twowheeled chariot. This innovation may have been adopted as a result of contacts with the Etruscans. Just as in Hallstatt times, elite burials were also accompanied by drinking sets, including Greek and, now, Etruscan vessels. As later Greek and Roman writers confirm, feasting was of central importance to the La Tene warrior elite as an opportunity to display wealth and boast of one’s prowess in battle. The appearance of this warlike culture marked the beginning of a long period of instability in northern and central Europe.
World History
