Situated in the Cote D’Or, France, the Vix burial is a Hallstatt period wagon burial. It is exceptional because of its lavish grave goods and the fact that the body in the grave mound is a woman rather than a man.
Vix has provided archaeologists with important evidence on the nature of trade, interaction with other cultures — and the position of women in Celtic society.
The Celtic Oppidum of Vix
Vix was a Celtic oppidum —a fortified Iron Age settlement — on Mont Lassois near Chatillon sur Seine in modern France.
It occupied a strategic position on the Iron Age tin route between northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Vix was a nexus where the tin was unloaded from transports on the river Seine before continuing its journey by land.
The settlement lends its name to the nearby burial mound, also known as the “Vix Princess tumulus” or the “Tombe Princiere”. This burial is exceptional because of the range of Mediterranean artefacts it contains and the fact that the occupant of the tomb was not a warrior chieftain but a woman.
The Vix Burial
The burial was discovered on 12th and 13th February 1953. It was dated to around 500BC, making it late Hallstatt. Until its twentieth-century rediscovery, the grave had remained disturbed.
The burial consisted of a timber mortuary house with a central room encased by a 33-diameter mound. The central room measured 9 metres square and contained the body and grave goods.
The body lay on a bronze decorated wagon at the centre of the room. The wheels of the wagon had been removed and placed against the eastern wall of the chamber.
The Princess of Vix
The body in the burial was of a woman estimated to be no more than 35 years of age. She appeared to be in good health, apart from the fact that she suffered from tooth decay.
The woman was of high status and archaeologists have suggested she was either a female ruler or a priestess. Either way, she was a significant person in her society and became known as “The Princess of Vix.”
The body of the “princess” was dressed in a large torc, two armlets of gold and lignite and a bronze anklet. She also wore necklaces of amber, diorite and serpentine beads and a 24-carat gold necklace weighing 480g.
These items were both local and Mediterranean. The torc, while locally manufactured, shows Mediterranean features in its design. Although the fabric of the princess’s clothing did not survive, its fasteners — an eight coral set fibulae — did and have been identified as italic in origin.
Grave Goods in the Vix Burial
The artistry of the Vix burial’s other grave goods also emphasised the Mediterranean link. They included many imported items from Greece and Italy, including Attic pottery cups and Etruscan basins. The most spectacular item was an over 1.5 m high lidded bronze wine krater — one of the best pieces of archaic to survive from antiquity.
Importance of the Vix Burial
The Vix burial is important for a number of reasons. It shows:
The importance of trade within Celtic society. Trade introduced not only new goods, but new ideas. The finds in the grave indicate that Mediterranean imports were highly valued and readily obtainable as part of the trade network established at Vix — for those who could afford them. From the number of goods related to wine drinking, it seems that this was perhaps one of many aspects of Mediterranean culture embraced by the Celts.
The status of Celtic women. The burial shows Celtic women were important people in their own right and did not necessarily acquire status due to their relationships with men. Gold was a symbol of power to the Celts and the amount the princess took to her grave indicates her social standing. Although it is the earliest, the Vix burial is not the only high-status Celtic female burial in the area. A series of similar graves spread over the Rhine and Moselle area where women were accorded burials sometimes more splendid than many male chieftains.
Resources
The Vix Burial, Antiquity Volume 40, Issue 157, March 1966, pp. 38 – 44
The Illustrated Dictionary of Archaeology
