Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Necropolis of Near Water, located in Lacrost (Saône-et-Loire), extends over 15 hectares near the Saône. It has about 40 tumuli aligned north-south, varying sizes (5 to 45 m in diameter, up to 1.8 m in height). Two tumuli have been listed as historical monuments since 1934. The land, both cultivated and floodable, has erased many mounds, making some invisible.

The first excavations, conducted in 1879 by Jean Martin for the Société des amis des arts et des sciences de Tournus, explored tumuli 1 and 2. The tumulus 1, a simple cluster of earth, housed a cinemar urn with calcined bones and a nearby beef skeleton. The more complex tumulus 2, had a circular stone wall and a urn with a vase offering, but without human remains. The objects discovered are preserved at the Greuze Museum in Tournus.

In 1962, 23 terres were recorded after Saône floods. In the 1980s, tillage and flooding destroyed the majority of tumuli, leaving only tumuli 1 and 2 protected. Emergency excavations in 1986-87 on tumuli 3 and 4 revealed a variety of structures: the tumulus 3, with a 19 m diameter slab belt, had been disturbed by a late Roman lime oven; tumulus 4 contained two ballot boxes with bones burned in one of them. A 1989 excavation of tumulus 35 revealed a lignite bracelet, a globose container and calcined bones.

The tumuli, built on areas cleaned by fire, come in four types: simple accumulation of soil, clay core, belt of slabs buried, or circular wall. The vases discovered date back to the Bronze Age (c. 800 B.C.), but neolithic flints (c. 2500 B.C.) and Gallo-Roman objects (I-II centuries) attest to prolonged occupation. Remains of Gallo-Roman houses, sometimes built on tumuli to avoid moisture, have also been identified. Other necropolises exist nearby, such as the Varennes (Lacrost) or Ormes-Simander.

Research, initiated in the 19th century and continued until the 1980s, partially documented this major site. Only three of the five tumuli searched delivered bones. The necropolis thus illustrates continued funeral and domestic attendance, from the neolithic to the Gallo-Roman era, in an environment marked by the floods of the Saône and agricultural activities.

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