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Origin and history

The tomb of Vix is a princely grave dating from the Hallstatt final (470-460 BC), located in the Côte-d'Or department, in Burgundy-Franche-Comté. Discovered in 1953 by Maurice Moisson and searched by René Joffroy, she belonged to a woman about thirty years old, nicknamed the "Princess of Vix". Its funerary furniture, of exceptional richness, includes a gold torch, a Greek bronze crater of 1.64 m high, and bronze and amber jewels, revealing cultural and commercial exchanges between Celts, Greeks and Etruscans.

The site is associated with Mount Lassois, a strategic hilltop overlooking the Seine Valley, occupied from Neolithic times. This place controlled a major axis of tin trade between Great Britain and Italy, allowing the Lingons, the local Gaulish people, to levy taxes and accumulate wealth. The tomb, dug in a vault of 4 m side and covered with a tumulus of 38 m in diameter, illustrates the prestige of the Celtic aristocracy of the era.

The crater of Vix, the centrepiece of the treasure, is the largest known antique bronze vase decorated with friezes representing Greek hoplites. Made in southern Italy around 540-530 BC, it bears witness to the links between the Celtic elites and the Mediterranean world. Other objects, such as a silver phoial, gold and amber fibules, and Greek ceramics, confirm the importance of cultural and artisanal exchanges at this time.

In 2002, new excavations were launched to contextualize the grave and explore its environment, revealing missing fragments of the crater and traces of a possible funeral podium. The site, classified as Historic Monument in 2006 and 2011, is now being studied as part of a collective research project led by CNRS and INRAP, aimed at understanding the organization of the aristocratic complex of Mount Lassois.

Close to Vix, other archaeological discoveries, such as the Herbues' enclosures with its stone statues depicting figures wearing torques, or neighbouring tumulus, reinforce the importance of this territory at the Iron Age. These elements, exhibited at the Musée du Pays Châtillonnais, illustrate the power of the Celtic principalities and their integration into European commercial networks.

The tomb of Vix, with its similarities to other princely burials such as those of Hochdorf (Germany) or Ca His study continues to inform debates on the role of women in these elites, often referred to as "matriarchal", and on the political and economic dynamics of protohistoric Europe.

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