Around 500 BC, the territory of future France was inhabited by Iron Age populations (Late Hallstatt and early La Tène): Celts in the centre and east, Ligurian and Iberian populations in the south, and Greeks of Massalia on the Mediterranean coast. There was no unified state, only chiefdoms and local communities.
🏛️ Politics
Celtic societies were led by aristocratic warrior elites, as attested by the rich princely burials (Vix, Hochdorf). Massalia, founded around 600 BC, was a Greek city governed by an oligarchy. No common political structure existed on the scale of the territory.
⚖️ Economy and society
The economy was based on agriculture, livestock farming and iron metallurgy, with long-distance exchanges: tin, salt, amber, wine and Greek or Etruscan pottery travelled along the Rhône and the Saône. Hilltop fortified sites, such as that of Mont Lassois, concentrated power and wealth.
🔬 Science
Technical skills were advanced: iron forging, bronze working, goldsmithing, and the four-wheeled chariot. There was no written science among the Celts of Gaul; the Greeks of Massalia had writing and Greek knowledge.
🎭 Culture
The Celtic world of this period was marked by the transition from Late Hallstatt to Early La Tène, with the emergence of a decorative art featuring vegetal and ornamental motifs, and by aristocratic funerary rites under burial mounds. The famous Vix krater, a Greek import, dates from this time, around 500 BC.
Key events
No precisely dated event known for this year.
Historical context
- c. 600 BC
Greek colonists from Phocaea founded Massalia (Marseille), opening southern Gaul to Mediterranean exchanges.
- c. 600–450 BC
The Late Hallstatt Celtic principalities (Vix, Mont Lassois) prospered through trade with the Mediterranean world, before declining in favour of new La Tène centres.
- c. 450–25 BC
La Tène culture developed and spread, preceding the Roman conquest.