La Tène culture

The Celts and the La Tène culture in Europe

A Celtic settlement

A bracelet made of glass from the 5th century BC (La Tène)

The La Tène culture existed from about 500 BC to about 100 AD. Named after a town in Switzerland near Neuchâtel, it was greatly influenced by the Roman and the Greek cultures. There are two sources for this:

• Things found
• Romans and Greeks came in contact with the culture and called them Celts, usually. They wrote about them, most notably Julius Caesar's "On the Gallic War" (De bello gallico).

The Celts basically lived in clans, which were led by leaders, the druids and the bards. Women were much better off than under the Romans and were of a similar status to men. There were both polygyny (a man could have several women) and polyandry (a woman could have several men).