Vix Grave

The Vix Grave is a burial mound near the village of Vix in northern Burgundy. The broader site is a prehistoric Celtic complex from the Late Hallstatt and Early La Tène periods, consisting of a fortified settlement and several burial mounds.

This article is about the Celtic settlement and burial site in France. For other uses, see Vix.

The grave of the Lady of Vix, dating to circa 500 BC, had never been disturbed and thus contained remarkably rich grave offerings. Known in French as the Trésor de Vix, these included a great deal of jewelry and the bronze "Vix krater", the largest known metal vessel from Western classical antiquity.

The oppidum of Mont Lassois[edit]

Fortifications and architecture[edit]

Excavation of the settlement on the summit of Mont Lassois revealed extensive fortifications, with ditches and walls up to 8 m thick. The walls were built in the Pfostenschlitzmauer technique, but also yielded nails of the type common in murus gallicus walls. Excavation inside the enclosure revealed a variety of buildings, including post houses, pit dwellings, hearths, and storage units built on stilts. Geophysical work shows a large planned settlement, with a central, north–south axis and several phases of buildings.

The krater was made of seven or more individual pieces with Greek alphabetical markings, indicating that it probably was transported to Burgundy in pieces and assembled in situ.

[12]

The vase proper, made of a single sheet of hammered bronze, weighs about 60 kg. Its bottom is rounded, its maximum diameter is 1.27 m, and its capacity is 1,100 litres. Its walls are only 1 mm to 1.3 mm thick. The krater was found crushed by the weight of the tumulus material above it. It had telescoped completely: the handles were found at the same level as the base. It was restored after excavation.

Its foot is made of a single moulded piece, its diameter is 74 cm, its weight 20.2 kg. It received the rounded bottom of the main vase and ensured its stability. It is decorated with stylised plant motifs.

The three handles, supported by lionesses, weighed about 46 kg each. Each is a 55 cm high volute, each is elaborately decorated with a grimacing gorgon, a common motif on contemporary Greek bronzes.

rampant

A frieze of decorates the neck of the vessel, which is made of a bronze ring inserted into the main vase and supporting the handles. It depicts eight chariots, each drawn by four horses and conducted by a charioteer (depicted smaller than the hoplites for reasons of space), each is followed by a single fully armed hoplite on foot. The frieze is an important example of early Greek bronze relief art, which has rarely survived.

hoplites

The lid was a hammered bronze sheet, weighing 13.8 kg and shaped to fit the krater's opening. It is concave and perforated by multiple holes, probably because it also served as a strainer for purifying wine. A protrusion at its centre supports a 19 cm statuette of moulded bronze, depicting a woman with one outstretched arm, which once may have held some object such as a . She wears a peplos, the body-length Ancient Greek garment worn by women, and her head is covered by a veil. The statuette appears of a somewhat older style than figures on the rest of the vessel.

plastinx

Significance of site[edit]

In the area, as elsewhere in central and western Europe, the early Iron Age led to changes in social organisation, including a marked tendency toward the development of social hierarchies. It seems that at the top of these hierarchies was an aristocracy that had developed in the context of the increasingly important trade in iron ore and iron. Whether they really were "princesses" or "princes" in a modern sense (i.e., a noble or religious aristocracy) or simply represented an economic or mercantile elite is still the subject of much discussion.

Evidence for these changed social conditions is seen in the richly equipped graves of this period, which stand in sharp contrast to the preceding habit of uniform simple urn burials. It is also seen in the changing settlement patterns of the region. Whereas large open settlements had previously served as central places, smaller enclosed settlements developed, often in locally prominent locations (so called manors or "princely sites"). Several of these sites are known from Late Hallstatt and Early La Tène Europe, for example, the burials at Hochdorf and Magdalenenberg, the Heuneburg settlement and the Glauberg settlement and burial complex.

Iron ores were far more widespread than the more rare copper and especially tin ores needed to produce the previously dominant bronze. Thus economic success ceased to be determined simply by access to the raw materials, but started to depend on infrastructure and trade. The increasing economic surplus in well-situated places was invested in representative settlements (and fortifications), jewellery, and expensive imported luxury materials, a differentiation not previously possible.

Gold torc detail

Reconstruction of the Vix burial chamber

Vix palace model, Musée du Pays Châtillonnais

Vix palace model

Excavation of a wall at Mont Lassois

Artefacts from the Vix grave

Silver phiale

Ceremonial wagon wheel hub

Ceremonial wagon model

Etruscan oenochoe

Greek pottery

Vix krater

Vix krater detail

Vix krater lid

Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave

Graves of Sainte-Colombe-sur-Seine

Lavau Grave

Heuneburg

Glauberg

Hohenasperg

Ipf (mountain)

Burgstallkogel

Alte Burg

Vorstengraf (Oss)

Grächwil

Grafenbühl grave

Reinheim grave

Princely Grave of Rodenbach

Mitterkirchen Keltendorf

Lingons

Oppidum of Manching

René Joffroy : Le Trésor de Vix (Côte d'Or). Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1954.

René Joffroy: Das Oppidum Mont Lassois, Gemeinde Vix, Dép Côte-d'Or. In: Germania 32, 1954, pp. 59–65.

René Joffroy: L'Oppidum de Vix et la civilisation Hallstattienne finale dans l'Est de la France. Paris 1960.

René Joffroy: Le Trésor de Vix. Histoire et portée d'une grande découverte. Fayard, Paris 1962.

René Joffroy: Vix et ses trésors. Tallandier, Paris 1979.

Franz Fischer: Frühkeltische Fürstengräber in Mitteleuropa. Antike Welt 13, Sondernummer. Raggi-Verl., Feldmeilen/Freiburg. 1982.

Bruno Chaume: Vix et son territoire à l'Age du fer: fouilles du mont Lassois et environnement du site princier. Montagnac 2001, 2907303473.

ISBN

Bruno Chaume, Walter Reinhard: Fürstensitze westlich des Rheins, in: Archäologie in Deutschland 1, 2002, pp. 9–14.

(ed.): La tombe princière de Vix, Paris 2003, ISBN 2708406973

Claude Rolley

Vix, le cinquantenaire d'une découverte. Dossier d'Archéologie N° 284, Juin 2003.

Bruno Chaume/Tamara Grübel et al.: Vix/Le mont Lassois. Recherches récentes sur le complexe aristocratique. In: Bourgogne, du Paléolithique au Moyen Âge, Dossiers d'Archéologie N° Hors Série 11, Dijon 2004, pp. 30–37.

Detailed information and digital reconstructions of the Mont Lassois oppidum.

An unfinished trend: towards urbanisation in Celtic regions north of the Alps (575-450 BC) (Brun et al. 2021)

More information including digital reconstructions of the 'aristocratic complex' on Mont Lassois.

Entre l'État et la chefferie simple: Le complexe aristocratique de Vix/le mont Lassois (Chaume et al. 2021)

Port facilities at Mont Lassois, including digital reconstructions.

Vix (Côte-d'Or) and the emergence of Celtics principalities: the port hypothesis and the concept of port of trade (Chaume et al. 2020)

Crossing the Alps: Early Urbanism between Northern Italy and Central Europe, 900-400 BC (2020)

Vix museum: The Vix Treasure

Vix museum: Excavations of the Vix Grave and Mont Lassois oppidum

Archaeologie en Bourgogne: Vix, Une Residence Princiere au Temps de la Splendeur d'Athenes (2011)

German-language documentary, including digital reconstructions of Mont Lassois and other sites from the Hallstatt era.