The Helvetii and the La Tène culture
Swiss Plateau, La Tène, Mont Vully, Bern
Key figures: Hans Kopp, Friedrich Schwab, Paul Vouga
Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (German): Helvetii, La Tène
A people seen from outside. We know little about the Helvetii, and almost always from foreign authors. The Greek writer Posidonius, in the 1st century BC, describes them as “rich in gold but peaceful”; a cup found in Mantua, from around 300 BC, bears the scratched name of a “Helvetian”, the oldest mention of the people. For Julius Caesar their territory is enclosed by the Rhine, the Jura, Lake Geneva and the Rhône, and their civitas is divided into four pagi, among them the Tigurini. The historian Tacitus still places them in southern Germany in the 2nd century BC: many scholars think they settled on the plateau at the time of the migrations of the Cimbri and Teutons (113–101 BC), but archaeology does not confirm this, and telling the Helvetii apart from their neighbours, the Rauraci and the Sequani, on the basis of objects alone is difficult.
Farmers, craftsmen, traders. Society consists mainly of farmers and herders, but craftsmen work iron, bronze, glass and gold with great skill. Baltic amber and Mediterranean coral show long-distance trade. Graves tell of daily life: in the cemetery of Münsingen-Rain near Bern, more than 220 burials and some 1,200 objects span almost three centuries, and the fibulae, the brooches used to fasten clothing, change shape almost from one generation to the next. The first coins are of gold and silver; from the 2nd century BC coins of potin, a copper-based alloy, are cast, and a die for striking silver coins has been found on Mont Vully.
The first towns: the oppida. From the end of the 2nd century BC fortified centres appear, often on a hilltop, with craftsmen’s quarters, sanctuaries and mints: the oppida, the first towns north of the Alps. The largest is probably Brenodurum, on the Enge peninsula near Bern, protected by a bend of the Aare and covering more than 140 hectares. On Mont Vully, between the lakes of Neuchâtel and Murten, around 120 BC a rampart of timber and dry stone enclosed 50 hectares; other oppida rise on the Uetliberg near Zurich, at Yverdon-les-Bains and at Altenburg-Rheinau on the Rhine. According to Caesar, in 58 BC the Helvetii burned twelve oppida and some four hundred villages before setting out for Gaul.
The discovery of La Tène (1857). In November 1857 the fisherman Hans Kopp, who was looking for prehistoric objects for the Biel collector Friedrich Schwab, discovered the site of La Tène, at the northern end of Lake Neuchâtel near the mouth of the Thielle. The first Jura water correction (1868–1891) lowered the lake and left the site dry: Emile Vouga excavated there and in 1885 published Les Helvètes à La Tène. The official excavations, from 1907 to 1917, were directed by William Wavre and then by Paul Vouga. Today more than 4,500 finds are known, scattered across some thirty museums around the world.
A sanctuary on the water. Most of the objects lay in an old branch of the Thielle, between two wooden bridges. Over 90 per cent date from the 3rd and early 2nd centuries BC: swords, decorated scabbards, spearheads, shields, brooches, tools and gold coins, together with animal bones and human remains, including twenty skulls. Many weapons were bent or broken on purpose. For this reason most scholars now see La Tène as a place of worship, where weapons and trophies were displayed and then offered to the waters. The water also preserved wood, textiles and wickerwork: a cart wheel, yokes, a rope, and a shield board dated by tree rings to around 225 BC, which became a reference point for the chronology of the whole Celtic world.
From a site to the name of an era. In 1874 the Swede Hans Hildebrand proposed dividing the Iron Age into two periods named Hallstatt and La Tène. Since then “La Tène culture” has meant the Late Iron Age in Europe, conventionally dated in Switzerland from 480 to 30 BC; scholars warn, however, against confusing a material culture with a people. The most important collections are in the Nouveau Musée Bienne, which holds the Schwab collection, and at the Laténium in Hauterive, the archaeology park and museum of the canton of Neuchâtel, opened in 2001 not far from the site. The name of the Helvetii lives on in Helvetia and in the abbreviation CH, Confoederatio Helvetica.
Celtic weapons from La Tène, Laténium, Hauterive
Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
The shore at La Tène with the remains of exposed piles, painting by Auguste Bachelin, 1878
Laténium, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The Erstfeld gold treasure (Uri): Celtic neck rings and bracelets from the 4th century BC, Swiss National Museum, Zurich
Photo Jononmac46, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Model of the gate and rampart of the Mont Vully oppidum, Laténium, Hauterive
Photo Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Reconstruction of a Celtic bridge in the archaeological park of the Laténium, Hauterive
Photo Paebi, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Celtic iron sword scabbard with engraved decoration, Middle La Tène (300–100 BC), from the La Tène site
Photo J. Roethlisberger / Laténium, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Gold stater attributed to the Helvetii, with a head modelled on Greek coins
Bibliothèque nationale de France, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The reconstructed section of the Helvetian rampart on Mont Vully
Photo WWHenderson20, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0