Archaeologists have discovered a Bronze Age princely grave of the Armorican tumulus culture in northwestern France. The grave goods, including 31 dozens of artfully crafted flint arrowheads and two bronze daggers, speak for the dead man’s high rank. The grave was also part of a whole ensemble of Bronze Age sites concentrated in a few kilometers. This also suggests that the deceased, who has not been preserved, belonged to the ruling elite of this area, as the archaeologists report.
In the northwest of France, in what is now Brittany and parts of Normandy, the Armorican Tumulus culture dominated in the Bronze Age. It left behind more than a thousand burial mounds, in which mostly individual dead people of high social rank were buried. Unlike most “normal” deceased people of that time, these high-ranking dead received rich grave goods with them into the afterlife, including weapons such as flint arrowheads and bronze daggers and axes. Bronze and gold jewelry are also preserved in such princely tombs.
Now archaeologists from the French National Institute for Preventive Archeology (INRAP) have discovered another of these Bronze Age princely tombs in Normandy. During excavations in advance of construction work near the town of Écouché-les-Vallées in the Orne district, they came across a grave on one of the slopes of the Orne Valley, which they date to around 1900 to 1800 BC. The researchers assume that this grave was originally covered by a burial mound, which was leveled over the course of thousands of years by erosion and agriculture. The skeleton of the deceased has also not been preserved because bones and other organic relics have been decomposed by the acidic soil.
Flint arrowheads and bronze daggers
The grave goods still in their original positions have still been preserved, which clearly characterize this grave find as an Armorican prince’s grave: “The grave pit contained prestigious goods, a real luggage for the afterlife,” reports the INRAP. Among the finds are 31 flint arrowheads that are strikingly crafted. “The level of technical sophistication could only have been achieved by master craftsmen,” said the archaeologists. Arrowheads of this quality were found almost exclusively in the context of high-ranking burials; they were considered a sign of wealth or power.
Also found in the grave was a fragment of a piece of rock crystal jewelry – possibly part of a pendant – and two bronze daggers. The larger of the two daggers was around 30 centimeters long and still has the remains of a leather sheath. The smaller, around 20 centimeter long dagger, however, was originally surrounded by a much rarer basket-weave sheath, as the team discovered. Parts of the metal pins with which the bronze blades were once attached to wooden handles can still be seen on both dagger blades. However, these have not been preserved either. The design of these daggers is typical of the Armorican culture, explains the INRAP.
Several Bronze Age sites in a small area
What is also interesting about this newly discovered princely grave is the local context: On the one hand, such graves from the Armorican tumulus culture are common in Brittany, but much rarer in Normandy to the east: only six such graves have been found so far, as the archaeologists explain. On the other hand, the grave at Écouché-les-Vallées appears to have been part of a larger ensemble of ritual sites and graves. Just a few hundred meters away is a smaller district complex that was probably once a place of worship. In the town of Moulins-sur-Orne, six kilometers away, a larger enclosure surrounded by ditches was discovered.
This collection of several Bronze Age sites in a small area could suggest that this was the core area of the ruling elite’s domain. The dead man in the prince’s grave could have been a representative of this elite.
Source: INRAP, Service régional de l’archéologie (Drac Normandie)