[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":27},["ShallowReactive",2],{"hreflang:/en/zoom/p2ch2z1-the-princely-tomb-of-vix-480-bce":3,"zoom:p2ch2z1:en":7},{"fr":4,"en":5,"es":6},"/zoom/p2ch2z1-la-tombe-princiere-de-vix-480-av-j-c","/en/zoom/p2ch2z1-the-princely-tomb-of-vix-480-bce","/es/zoom/p2ch2z1-la-tumba-principesca-de-vix-480-a-c",{"period":8,"chapter":17,"zoom":20},{"id":9,"title":10,"titleEn":10,"titleEs":11,"range":12,"rangeEn":12,"rangeEs":13,"covers":14},"p2","Antiquity","Antigüedad","≈ 600 BC → 51 BC","≈ 600 a. C. → 51 a. C.",[15],{"filename":16,"url":16},"Lionel Royer - Vercingetorix Throwing down His Weapons at the feet of Julius Caesar.jpg",{"id":18,"title":19},"p2ch2","The Birth of the Gaulish World",{"id":21,"title":22,"chapterId":18,"html":23,"hasEn":24,"isFallback":25,"seoDescription":26},"p2ch2z1","The Princely Tomb of Vix (~480 BCE)","\u003Chr>\n\u003Cp>At the foot of the \u003Cstrong>Mont Lassois\u003C/strong> oppidum, whose fortification and control of the tin trade begin, as early as \u003Cstrong>600 BCE\u003C/strong>, the opening of the Celtic world to the Mediterranean, a princely tomb dated to roughly \u003Cstrong>480 BCE\u003C/strong> — over a century after that turning point — illustrates the spectacular outcome of this process. Discovered near the village of Vix, in the Côte-d’Or, it remains one of the richest burials ever uncovered anywhere in Hallstatt Europe.\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>🔍 The 1953 discovery\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>In \u003Cstrong>January 1953\u003C/strong>, \u003Cstrong>Maurice Moisson\u003C/strong>, in charge of the excavation site for the archaeological society of Châtillon-sur-Seine, noticed a slight mound and an abnormal concentration of stones in a field at the foot of Mont Lassois. On \u003Cstrong>January 5, 1953\u003C/strong>, he uncovered the gorgon-shaped handle of an immense bronze vessel. He immediately alerted \u003Cstrong>René Joffroy\u003C/strong>, a self-taught archaeologist then president of the local archaeological society, who took charge of the excavations throughout the winter of 1953, under difficult conditions, and drew up a complete inventory of the grave goods. The burial chamber, roughly four meters on a side, was originally covered by a tumulus 38 meters in diameter and about a meter high, made of stone and earth.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>More than six decades later, a new excavation campaign led by \u003Cstrong>Inrap\u003C/strong> starting on \u003Cstrong>August 20, 2019\u003C/strong> complemented this pioneering work: it recovered missing fragments of the great vessel, notably pieces of the frieze depicting Greek warriors equipped as hoplites, clarifying a decoration that had remained partly incomplete since 1953.\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>🏺 The Vix krater\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>The most spectacular piece in the tomb remains the largest bronze vessel known from antiquity: 1.64 meters tall, 208 kilograms, with a maximum diameter of 1.27 meters and a capacity of 1,100 liters. Its manufacture attests to exceptional technical skill: the ovoid body was first cast in the shape of a large thick-walled egg, then thinned by hammering down to a final thickness of only 1 to 1.3 millimeters, while the foot and handles, cast separately, were then welded and riveted to the whole. The most recent stylistic analyses place its manufacture around \u003Cstrong>530 BCE\u003C/strong>, in a Greek workshop of Magna Graecia — probably in the region of \u003Cstrong>Sybaris\u003C/strong>, in southern Italy — rather than in Sparta, as was long assumed. The vessel is adorned with gorgon-decorated handles and a frieze depicting hoplites and chariots, at once a work of art and a direct testament to the exchange networks already linking the Celtic world and Greek Mediterranean at this date.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Chatillon-sur-Seine_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Pays_chatillonnais_-_Crat%C3%A8re_de_Vix_-_012_%28cropped%29.jpg\" alt=\"The Vix krater\" class=\"kb-img-contain\">\n\u003Cem>Caption: The Vix krater, Musée du Pays châtillonnais, Châtillon-sur-Seine — Ismoon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>❓ The deceased, the gold torque, and a historiographical debate\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>The deceased, a woman in her thirties according to successive osteological studies (estimates have ranged from roughly 30 to 40 years old), lay on the box of a ceremonial four-wheeled chariot with a pole, decorated with bronze fittings — a funerary practice characteristic of Hallstatt. Around her neck was a pure gold torque weighing 480 grams, its terminals decorated with small winged horses; it was probably made locally by craftsmen inspired by Greek and Oriental styles, using goldsmithing techniques of Iberian origin.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cimg src=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Ch%C3%A2tillon-sur-Seine_(21)_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Pays_ch%C3%A2tillonnais_-_Torque_du_tr%C3%A9sor_de_Vix.jpg\" alt=\"The Vix gold torque\" class=\"kb-img-contain\">\n\u003Cem>Caption: The gold torque from the Vix tomb, Musée du Pays châtillonnais — GO69, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons\u003C/em>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>The deceased’s gender identity long remained a matter of historiographical debate. René Joffroy had attributed female sex on the sole basis of the grave goods — the absence of weapons combined with an abundance of ornaments — but researchers such as Ludwig Pauli and Gertrudis Wamser subsequently questioned this reading, making the “Lady” of Vix an emblematic case in gender archaeology: the debate centered on the difficulty of reconciling the warrior imagery associated with Celtic elites with the evidence of a woman of clearly privileged status. An osteological study conducted in \u003Cstrong>1980\u003C/strong> confirmed that the remains were indeed those of a woman, a conclusion since reinforced by more recent DNA analyses.\u003C/p>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>🧠 Key points\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>Discovered in January 1953 by Maurice Moisson, excavated by René Joffroy, at the foot of the Mont Lassois oppidum.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>The Vix krater, 1.64 m and 208 kg, remains the largest known bronze vessel from antiquity, made around 530 BCE in Magna Graecia (the Sybaris region).\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>A new Inrap excavation in 2019 recovered missing fragments of the krater, including part of its frieze of Greek warriors.\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>The identity of the deceased, a woman adorned with a 480-gram gold torque, long fueled a historiographical debate over gender, settled by later osteological and genetic studies.\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ul>\n",true,false,"At the foot of the Mont Lassois oppidum, whose fortification and control of the tin trade begin, as early as 600 BCE , the opening of the Celtic world to the",1786625708905]