Late Iron Age (La T�ne) Fibula
c. 450 B.C. to 50 B.C.

Bow fibulae, wire fibulae, one-piece construction, spring with four turns. Early (La T�ne) bow fibula were made from one piece of bronze. The entire fibula from the catch, to the bow, to the spring, to the tip of the pin was created by shaping and bending a single piece of bronze with great expertise and skill.

Note: Another fibula group with a tied foot design, the bent foot fibula, first developed in southwest Russia and the Pontic Steppes in the 1st century A.D. It was a direct descendant of Middle La T�ne fibulae. The foot of these later fibulae is, however, bent under the bow in a simple U-shape. It ties to the bow from below, unlike the earlier Middle La T�ne fibula which is bent over the bow and ties to the bow from above. Compare the Middle La T�ne fibula below (Van Buchem 14, pl. 2, 2) with the bent foot fibula below (Almgren pl. 7, 158).

Celtic Fibulae

Early La T�ne fibula

Van Buchem 13, pl. 2, 1.

Typology: fibula, bow fibula, prehistoric fibula, early iron age fibula

References: Van Buchem 13, pl. 2, 1.

Date:

Distribution: Culture: Celtic.

Geography: Switzerland.

Date:

Description: Bow fibula, one-piece construction, spring with four turns, tendon (wire connecting two ends of the spring) above the spring.

Middle La T�ne fibula

Van Buchem 14 - 15, pl. 2, 2 - 3.

Typology: fibula, bow fibula, prehistoric fibula, early iron age fibula

References: Van Buchem 14 -15, pl. 2, 2 - 3.

Date:

Nauheim fibulae

Riha 1.1 (pl. 1, 1-8)

Van Buchem 18 - 19, pl. 2, 4 - 5.

References: Type B1.1; Riha 1.1 (pl. 1, 1-8); Van Buchem 18 - 19 (pl. 2, 4 - 5); Ettlinger 1, Genceva type I.

Culture: Celtic.

Geography: Switzerland.

Date: Nauheim fibulae are understood as characteristic for the period La T�ne D1 (Late Iron Age) and are therefore dated end 2nd - mid 1st century BC. However, Nauheim fibulae now occur so often at sites of the early Roman Principate that it is no longer convincing to explain all of them as old pieces or dislocated finds. Nauheim fibulae were sporadically still worn by the Celtic population in the second half of the 1st century BC and until the early Roman Principate.

See Nauheim for variations and derivations of Nauheim type fibulae.

References

Almgren, Oscar. Studien �ber nordeurop�ische Fibelformen. (Liepzig, 1923). PDF
Binding, U. Band 16: Studien zu den fig�rlichen Fibeln der Fr�hlatenzeit. (Bonn, 1993).
Ettlinger, E. Die r�mischen Fibeln in der Schweiz. (Bern, 1973).
Fauduet, I. Fibules preromaines, romaines, et merovingiennes du musee du Louvre. (Paris, 1999).
Mills, N. Celtic and Roman Artefacts. (Derbyshire, 2000).
Orlic, L. "Iron Age fibulae from the site of St. Theodore 's Quarter at Pula" in Histria Archaeologica 42 (Nov 1912), pp. 185 - 215. PDF
Riha, E. Die r�mischen Fibeln aus Augst und Kaiseraugst. (1979). PDF
Van Buchem, H. De Fibulae Van Nijmegen. (Nijmegen, 1941). PDF

Plates

Almgren plate 1, 1, 3, 4, 5

Almgren, Oscar. Studien �ber nordeurop�ische Fibelformen. (Liepzig, 1923). PDF

Late Iron Age (La T�ne) Fibulac. 450 B.C. to 50 B.C.