Menu

• Introduction
• Visit
• Preface
• Content
  1. Environment
     1. The geological context
     2. The Aisne valley
     3. Flora
     4. Fauna
     5. The first settlements
        1. Places of worship in the final Bronze Age
        2. The Bronze Age in the region
        3. The first Iron Age
        4. The Second Iron Age
        5. The 5^th century BC
        6. Chariot burials
        7. The harnesses
  2. The Gallic village
     1. The story of a Remi village
     2. The birth of the village
     3. Establishing the village
     4. Village life
  3. Daily life
     1. Agriculture and subsistence
     2. Men and animals
     3. Fishing
     4. Meat in the diet
     5. The table and crockery
     6. Craftsmanship
     7. Trade
  4. The Necropolises
     1. Distribution of the necropolises
     2. Funerary rituals
     3. Funeral plots
     4. The funerary population
     5. Funerary buildings
     6. Food for the dead
     7. Tombs of the sacrificers?
     8. A hierarchy of tombs
  5. Sacred sites
     1. Large sacred sites
     2. The environs of the village in the 1^st century BC.
     3. Another Gallic village: Avançon
     4. Acy-Romance and Romanisation
  6. Archaeological research
     1. 20 years of archaeological research
     2. Methodology
     3. Archeozoology
     4. Experimental archaeology
     5. Acy-Romance seen from the air
     6. Reconstruction and archaeology
     7. Acy-Romance at the Museum of the Ardennes
• Appendices
  1. Resources
  2. Site map
  3. Chronology
  4. Accessibility policy
  5. Credits
• Versions
  1. Version française
  2. Version Flash

The first settlements

In about 1100 BC, a small group of humans settled on the lowest plateau overlooking the river at Acy-Romance, at the places now known as La Croizette and Le Terrage. Their tombs are all that remains of them. The deceased lies in a rectangular grave, generally at the centre of a circular enclosure, 7 to 11 metres in diameter. The circular ditch provided a base for the posts which supported the earth of the tumulus raised above the tomb. The corpses had only one personal item with them, in this instance a bronze pin for the women and a bronze dagger for the sole male tomb. The pins were used to hold a garment together at the right shoulder and a bronze bracelet was worn on the right wrist. No offerings were placed with the deceased. The deterioration of the skeletons in these five tombs made it impossible to determine their average age at death.

Pins with a round or conical top are characteristic of a vast cultural entity centred on the Rhine Valley and Switzerland at the beginning of the final Bronze Age. Although the bronze objects originated from the East, the funerary practice of their owners, burial under tumuli, is more consistent with what was known in Lorraine and southern Belgium.