Vix Grave

The Vix Grave is a burial mound near the village of Vix in northern Burgundy [1]. The broader site is a prehistoric Celtic complex from the Late Hallstatt and Early La Tène periods, consisting of a fortified settlement and several burial mounds [1]. The grave of the Lady of Vix, dating to c. 500 BC, had never been disturbed and thus contained remarkably rich grave offerings [1]. Known in French as the Trésor de Vix, these included a great deal of jewelry and the bronze "Vix krater", the largest known metal vessel from Western classical antiquity [1]. The inhumation burial was placed in a 4 m x 4 m rectangular wooden chamber underneath a mound or tumulus of earth and stone which originally measured 42 m in diameter and 5 m in height [1]. The grave also contained an assemblage of imported objects from Italy and the Greek world, all of them associated with the preparation of wine [1]. The largest and most famous of the finds from the burial is an elaborately decorated bronze volute krater, 1.64 metres in height and weighing 208.6 kilograms [1].