Celtic chieftains graveyard

[Grandpa Greenman]

Interesting find. I love Archaeology.

An Iron Age graveyard has been uncovered in France that experts believe will provide a fascinating insight into the life of the Celts.

French reports on the find, carried on the Irish website TheJournal.ie, outline how a muddy field located between a motorway and a meander of the Seine southeast of Paris is home to the graveyard.

Archaeologists believe the Celtic Age find will shed light on the great yet enigmatic civilization of Gaul.

Read more: http://www.irishcent...l#ixzz2RCqmFIFX

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Edited April 22, 2013 by Darkwind

[Tutankhaten-pasheri]

And this quote from the article is intriguing. I think we all know women in Celtic societies had more power than women in other cultures during those times, but I never heard of a woman's burial quite like this before. Their final report should prove very interesting.

My bold

Remains of a tall warrior, complete with a 28-inch iron sword still in its scabbard were placed at her side.

[shrooma]

you might find this place interesting darkwind.....

.

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/index.php

[Clarakore]

Can't wait to read about the first assessments they will make over the fibulae and other jewerly as well as the weapons and shields.

More exciting would be if, since fibulae were used across regions and cultures, if the design of these show any influence from neighboring cultures or perhaps even a fibulae, bangle, or torc that was outright received in trade.

A French language article from Belgium mentioned only half (of the 30 or so) burials had been excavated, so more and possibly something different might still be yet to come.

Thery are theorizing this Iron age burial site was actually overlayed over a Bronze age burial site, unsure if they will find any Bronze age evidence, this site lists 15 graves found including some from the Bronze age but that they were empty? In either case the Celts were fairly recent to this area so any Bronze age evidence yielded will be of an earlier non-Celtic culture.

Then there are these beautiful photos.

[Clarakore]

And this quote from the article is intriguing. I think we all know women in Celtic societies had more power than women in other cultures during those times, but I never heard of a woman's burial quite like this before. Their final report should prove very interesting.

My bold

"Remains of a tall warrior, complete with a 28-inch iron sword still in its scabbard were placed at her side."

That is most likely a typo by the author since if a woman was found with a scabbarded sword affixed to her, that would have generated more interest and likely would have been the focal point of the story.

Edited April 22, 2013 by Leave Britney alone!

[Tutankhaten-pasheri]

That is most likely a typo by the author since if a woman was found with a scabbarded sword affixed to her, that would have generated more interests and likely would have been the focal point of the story.

Or not a typo. See this link to Celtic chariot burial for a woman. And though not Celtic, Scythian burials incate that some women were warriors.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/britain/the_wetwang_chariot_burial/the_wetwang_chariot_burial.aspx

[Clarakore]

I would be overjoyed if not a typo but none of the other stories mention that and even that article clearly differentiates between the male warriors and the females buried next to them.

We do have some more hints in the Celtic culture such as the following but nothing definitve.

No scientific examination was carried out on the skeleton to establish the dead person's sex and it was assumed that a mirror and jewellery must belong to a woman. However, in 1999 a second mirror was found in a Cornish grave. This time a sword accompanied the mirror. It is often assumed that swords are only found in men's graves in the Iron Age, but this time modern scientific techniques will be used to establish if the person buried in the grave was a man or a woman.

http://www.britishmu...nze_mirror.aspx

The following also hints at the equality of genders in Celtic culture but this time the burial goods in question take on the form of a cauldron and not a weapon.

In cases where a man and woman were buried in the same grave, it may be possible to tell whether they were related, or if one of the people in the burial was just another grave good. “There are gender-specific grave goods, so gender differences existed in this society,” Arnold says. “On the other hand, the Celts seem to have recognized some women in the upper echelon of society as powerful leaders and treated them with respect, unlike the Greeks and Romans, who treated women as property. One Celtic woman’s grave in France had a five-and-a-half-foot-tall bronze drinking cauldron, as if she was ready to throw a major political fundraiser in the afterlife.”

http://www.graduates...No2/celtic.html

I also want to add that egalitarian attitudes are theorized among both the Celts and Etruscans, at least among the upper strata of those societies. The reason the same cannot be spoken for all classess is simply due to the fact that we usually find the rich and their servants buried instead of the poor, so we have less evidence in learning how that part of society lived.

Edited April 22, 2013 by Leave Britney alone!

[Grandpa Greenman]

you might find this place interesting darkwind.....

.

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/index.php

That one is ready on my favorites list. Thanks anyway. So many places to go...

[moonshadow60]

Thank you for educating the curious who are just passing through to take a peek at what you are all talking about. So much can be gleaned on this site just by being nosy.

[coolguy]

Great find and shrooma thanks for the link

[Junior Chubb]

Five Celtic warriors unearthed in France

They probably got lost on the way home from the 1967 Cup Final...

Edited April 24, 2013 by Junior Chubb