La Tène Culture

La Tène Culture [CP].
Term applied to the second period of the Iron Age in Europe, following the HALLSTATT: on paul REINECKE'S scheme, broadly the period 450 BC to 50 BC. The culture is defined on the basis of finds from the site of La Tène in Switzerland, and is conventionally divided into three main phases: La Tène I, c.480–220 BC; La Tène II, c.220–120 BC; and La Tène III, c.120 BC down to the Roman conquest. Elements of the La Tène first appeared in southern Britain during the late Iron Age.