Winchester more urban settlement type developed, known as an oppidum, although the archaeology of this phase remains obscure. It was overrun by the confederation of Gaulish tribes known as the Belgae sometime during the first century BCE. It seems to have been known as Wentā or Venta, derived from the Brittonic for "town" or "meeting place", or the word for "white" (Welsh "gwyn"), due to Winchester's situation upon chalk. After the Roman conquest of Britain, the settlement served as the capital () of the Belgae and was distinguished as Venta Belgarum, "Venta of the Belgae". Although in the early years of
La Venta of legitimizing power.” Frans Blom and Oliver La Farge made the first detailed descriptions of La Venta during their 1925 expedition, sponsored by Tulane University. Originally La Venta was thought to be a Mayan site. It wasn't until more sophisticated radiocarbon techniques were developed in the 1950s that Olmec sites were irrefutably dated as preceding the Maya. La Venta was first excavated by Matthew Stirling and Philip Drucker (assisted by Waldo Wedel in 1943, due to Drucker’s military service during WWII) between 1940 and 1943, resulting in several articles by Stirling and in 1952 a two-volume monograph by Drucker. Stirling