The Celts in Switzerland

13 April 2020

Greek and Roman authors used the Celts (Galatoi, Keltoi, Galli, Celtae) to refer to the tribes that inhabited much of Europe, including Ireland and the British Isles. However, the Celts never had political unity. Their economic activities included agriculture, handicrafts, trade, and cattle breeding.

The period of the pre-Roman Iron Age, the La Tène period (400-100 B.C.), takes its name from the area La Tène on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel (see also the Celtic Hallstatt period (800-400 BC) and the Laténium Museum in Hauterive.

They were traders and maintained trade relations with Greek colonies, including Massalia (Marseille), Etruscans, Rome and other Italian cities.

Bremgarten, Oppidum (Reconstruction)

Significant changes occurred in political, economic, and social structures in the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C., particularly after the Roman military advance in 122 BC and the conquest of the southeast of France and Geneva.

Helvetic tribes inhabited the Vaud area and the Swiss Plateau. Other tribes in present-day Swiss territory are the Rhaetians in the east (Graubünden), the Lepontii, Uberes, Nantuates, Sedunes, and Veragres in the Alpine region and southern Switzerland, and the Rauraces in parts of northern Jura, Basel, Basel-Landschaft and the northern Schweiz.

After the Roman conquest of Gallia and today’s Swiss territory (15 – 13 B.C.), the Celtic tribes preserved some of their culture despite Romanisation. This assimilation is nowadays called Gallo-Roman. The Celtic language disappeared, though. (vulgar) Latin replaced it.

This language gradually developed into French, except in the regions where the German-speaking Alemanni settled, the Romansh people in eastern Switzerland and the Italian-speaking Tessin.

(Source: B. Maier, Die Kelten. Ihre Geschichte von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (München 2016).