Iron Age Switzerland

The early history of Switzerland begins with the earliest settlements up to the beginning of Habsburg rule, which in 1291 gave rise to the independence movement in the central cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden and the growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy during the Late Middle Ages.

Prehistory

Paleolithic to Mesolithic

A hand-axe fashioned by Homo erectus has been found in Pratteln, which has been dated to 300,000 years ago. Neanderthal presence is known from the Grotte de Cotencher in Neuchâtel, dating to 70,000 years ago and from the caves of Wildkirchli in the Appenzell Alps, dated to about 40,000 years ago.
Anatomically modern humans reached Central Europe 30,000 years ago,
Before between 1,300 and 1,200 generations ago according to a simulation in (Figure 2)
but most of what is now Switzerland was covered by glaciers during the Last Glacial Maximum (Würm glaciation). The ice-free parts, northern Switzerland along the High Rhine and part of the Aar basin, were exposed to permafrost.
Human habitation in the Swiss Plateau can be shown for the beginning Mesolithic, in Wetzikon-Robenhausen beginning around 10,000 years ago.

File:PN-NE-MZ venus-originale ya.jpg, Venus of Monruz, BC

Neolithic to Copper Age

The Neolithic reached the Swiss plateau before 7,000 years ago (late 6th millennium BC), dominated by the Linear Pottery culture.
The area was relatively densely populated, as is attested to by the many archeological findings from that period. Remains of pile dwellings have been found in the shallow areas of many lakes, attributed to archaeological cultures such as Cortaillod, Pfyn and Horgen. Artifacts dated to the 5th millennium BC were discovered at the Schnidejoch in 2003 to 2005. The pre-Indo-European population of the Alpine region is typified by Ötzi the Iceman, an individual of the late 4th millennium BC found in the Austrian Alps (some 25 km east of the Swiss border). The Bell Beaker culture marks the transition from the Chalcolithic to the early Bronze Age.

File:Modell Pfyn Breitenloo P1020773.jpg, Pfyn culture settlement at Breitenloo, c. 3700 BC
File:HMB Essen und Kochgerät Jungsteinzeit.jpg, Neolithic implements, pottery and foodstuffs, Cortaillod culture
File:Laténium-pointe-cristal.jpg, Crystal arrowhead, Cortaillod culture, c. 3500 BC
File:Landesmuseum Württemberg Stuttgart Neolithikum 156.jpg, Wooden wheel fragment, Horgen culture
File:Pierre percee Traves dolmen 2.JPG, Megalithic dolmen, Horgen culture
File:Goldberg axe 1.jpg, Alpine copper axe, 4th millennium BC
File:Anthropomorphic stele no 25, Sion, Petit-Chasseur necropolis 13.jpg, Anthropomorphic stele, Sion, Bell Beaker culture,
File:Copper jewellery Switzerland 2700 BC.jpg, Copper necklace and ornaments, c. 2700 BC

Bronze Age

In the 3rd millennium BC, Switzerland lay on the south-western outskirts of the Corded Ware horizon, entering the early Bronze Age (Bell Beaker culture) in step with Central Europe, in the late centuries of the 3rd millennium. The Early Bronze Age Rhône culture in western Switzerland (-1500 BC) developed from the Bell Beaker culture and was closely related to the Unetice culture in central Europe. This was followed by the Tumulus culture (-1300 BC) in the Middle Bronze Age, and the Urnfield culture in the Late Bronze Age (). Settlements included lakeside villages and fortified settlements on elevated sites.

The Bronze Hand of Prêles dating from the 16th-15th century BC, is a unique find from the Tumulus culture period. Described as "the earliest metal representation of a human body part ever found in Europe", it may have been a ritual object, or mounted on a standard like similar metal hands known from the Iron Age, or possibly a prosthesis. It was found in a grave along with a bronze hair-ring, pin and dagger. The hand had a golden bracelet or cuff decorated with solar motifs.

File:Dagger-P4140344-black.jpg, Dagger, Unetice/Rhône culture
File:Età del bronzo,armi e oggetti da una tomba del 1800 ac circa, da thun 02.JPG, Thun-Renzenbühl axe,
File:Eschenz gold cup 1.jpg, Eschenz gold cup, Tumulus culture,
File:Goldschale Altstetten - 2 von 10.jpg, Altstetten gold bowl, Urnfield culture,
File:Età del bronzo finale, due spade, 1300-800 ac ca..JPG, Bronze swords, Urnfield culture, 10th century BC
File:Urnfield culture pottery inlaid with tin foil, Switzerland, c. 1000 BC.jpg, Pottery inlaid with tin foil, Urnfield culture,
File:HMB Bronzezeit Wasserfunde Bern.jpg, River and lake finds from Bern, Urnfield culture
File:Bronze Age lake settlement at Cortaillod-Est, Switzerland. Laténium museum.png, Lake settlement at Cortaillod-Est

Iron Age

The Swiss plateau lay in the western part of the Early Iron Age Hallstatt culture, and it participated in the early La Tène culture (named for the type site at Lake Neuchâtel) which arose out of the Hallstatt background from the 5th century BC.

By the final centuries BC, the Swiss plateau and Ticino were settled by Continental Celtic speaking peoples (Gauls): the Helvetii and Vindelici inhabited the western and eastern part of the Swiss plateau, respectively, and the Lugano area
by the Lepontii.
The interior Alpine valleys of eastern Switzerland (Grisons) were inhabited by the non-Celtic Raetians.

The distribution of La Tène culture burials in Switzerland indicates that the Swiss plateau between Lausanne and Winterthur was relatively densely populated. Settlement centres existed in the Aare valley between Thun and Bern, and between Lake Zurich and the Reuss. The Valais and the regions around Bellinzona and Lugano also seem to have been well-populated; however, those lay outside the Helvetian borders.

Almost all the Celtic ''oppida'' were built in the vicinity of the larger rivers of the Swiss plateau.
About a dozen oppida are known in Switzerland (some twenty including uncertain candidate sites), not all of which were occupied during the same time. For most of them, no contemporary name has survived; in cases where a pre-Roman name has been recorded, it is given in brackets.
The largest were the one in Bern-Engehalbinsel (presumably ''Brenodurum'', the name recorded on the Bern zinc tablet), on the Aare, and the one in Altenburg-Rheinau on the Rhine.
Of intermediate size were those of Bois de Châtel, Avenches (abandoned with the foundation of ''Aventicum'' as the capital of the Roman province), Jensberg (near vicus Petinesca, Mont Vully