La Tène is an ancient archaeological site located on the northern shore of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It dates to the later part of the European Iron Age and is the site that gives its name to the La Tène culture. This culture existed from about 450 BCE to the 1st century BCE and covered areas from Ireland to Anatolia and from Portugal to Czechia. La Tène is designated as a site of national importance.
Location
The site is located in a specific area called La Tène, which is connected to the Latin word "tenuis," meaning shallow waters at the northern end of the lake. It is also the place where the Thielle River exits the lake and flows toward Lake Biel. Because the site is near the lake, the artifacts found there show signs of changes in the lake's water level over time.
Research history
The site of La Tène was discovered in 1857 during a time called the "lake dwelling fever" (in French: "fièvre lacustre"). Pile-dwellings, which are houses built on wooden platforms above water, were found near many Swiss lakes. Scientists and fishermen often worked together to find these sites. In November 1857, a fisherman named Hans Kopp was sailing near Concise on Lake Biel at the request of Colonel Friedrich Schwab. While traveling, Kopp noticed something unusual near La Tène. He stopped to investigate and found about forty iron objects, including eight spearheads and twelve swords. At that time, before the Jura water correction, the lake was 2.7 meters higher than it is today, so the site was 60 to 70 centimeters underwater. Kopp’s discoveries were kept in Colonel Schwab’s private collection until Schwab died, after which they were donated to the city of Biel/Bienne.
The first people to study the site, Colonel Friedrich Schwab and Ferdinand Keller, did not think the site was especially important. However, when Édouard Desor, a professor of geology and paleontology, learned about the discoveries about a year later, he recognized the site’s importance for understanding the Three-age system, which divides prehistory into the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. In 1866, at the first International Congress of Anthropology and Prehistoric Archaeology in Neuchâtel, Desor suggested that the La Tène site should be used as the standard for the prehistoric Iron Age. A few years later, during a meeting in Stockholm, the Iron Age in Europe was divided into two periods. The first was called the Hallstatt culture, named after a site in Austria. The second period, from about 450 BCE to 25 BCE, was named after La Tène and called the La Tène culture.
The site became famous for the high quality of the artifacts found there. After Desor and Schwab, other amateur archaeologists, such as Alexis Dardel-Thorens and Victor Gross, also studied the site. Unfortunately, many people tried to steal artifacts from the area. Around 1870, the Jura water correction lowered the lake level by 2.7 meters, revealing more of the site. With the lower water level, the land became easier to study, leading to the discovery of two bridges over an old branch of the Thielle river and buildings with unknown purposes.
During the 1880s, Emile Vouga conducted excavations that helped organize the site, but the purpose of the site remained unclear. In 1907, the History and Archaeology Society of Neuchâtel, with support from the Canton of Neuchâtel, began a well-planned excavation led by William Wavre and later Paul Vouga (1909). This methodical work involved clearing the old Thielle riverbed and lasted until 1917. It uncovered many artifacts that were culturally similar. In 1913, Vouga published a detailed list of the artifacts but did not explain the site’s purpose. His work was criticized for not using known methods, such as studying the layers of soil (stratigraphy), but it remains valuable for studying the second Iron Age.
In the years that followed, interest in the site declined because it was hard to interpret. Many theories were proposed, such as the site being a place for rituals or sacrifices, or explaining the presence of broken weapons and human and animal bones. La Tène remains difficult to understand because of three major problems.
In later years, the Neuchâtel Department of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology (Office du Patrimoine et de l'Archéologie, OPAN) conducted a rescue excavation when construction began near a camping area. The dig focused on already excavated layers that had been filled in by Paul Vouga. Its goal was to study the layers of soil and date the known structures.
In 2007, a new project led by Professor Gilbert Kaenel was started with support from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the University of Neuchâtel, and OPAN. The project aimed to create a list of artifacts and records related to the site, compare them with results from a 2003 excavation, and encourage collaboration between museums that hold La Tène artifacts. The project led to the publication of La Tène collections from the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva, the Bern Historical Museum, and the British Museum in London, following a model created by Thierry Lejars for the Schwab museum in Biel/Bienne.
Discoveries
Archaeologists digging at the La Tène site found about 2,500 objects, including weapons made of iron or wood (such as swords, sword sheaths, spears, arrowheads, bows, and shields), tools for farming and industry (like axes, scythes, knives, and a wooden plow), horse equipment, rings, and brochs made of iron or bronze, pieces of fabric, a few pots, and coins from Celtic and Roman cultures.
Many of these items are now located in museums around the world, but some were sold illegally, making it difficult to create a complete list of all the artifacts. Most of the objects are stored in the Swiss National Museum in Zürich, the Neuchâtel Archaeology Museum, and the Laténium in Hauterive. A portion of Colonel Schwab’s collection is displayed at the Schwab Museum in Biel/Bienne and has been studied in detail in a written report.