Illustrating a Bronze Age female burial from northeastern France

Three thousand two hundred fifty years ago, a woman in her fifties was buried in a valley between the rivers Yonne and Upper Seine in northeastern France, wearing the most extraordinary adornments. Her head and neck area was decorated with a pair of twisted earrings and a necklace made of bronze, along with a button. Two geometrically decorated bracelets, one twisted bracelet and one bracelet consisting of twelve amber beads decorated her left wrist, while the right wrist had one geometric and one twisted bracelet. Around the fingers of her left hand were two bronze rings, and along the same arm laid a 50 cm long pin. A pair of spiral leg ornaments were wrapped around her lower legs, with an additional twisted bronze wrap placed just below the right knee. Above these were ten cobalt glass beads, 47 bronze tubes, 61 bronze buttons (most arranged in two or three rows), all which had possibly been sewn into a garment. A beautiful boar tusk pendant meshed in a bronze net was found close to the right hip, and had probably been attached to a belt (Lacroix 1957: 26-30; Roscio 2018: 503).

The long pin, the geometrically decorated bracelets and the leg ornaments were all common objects in high status female burials in the north alpine area, with the boar tusk pendants, less common yet still purely a feminine expression, were geographically concentrated to the valleys of Yonne, Seine and Aube (Roscio 2021). Who was this woman?

In early March 2023, I had the pleasure of visiting Musée d’Archéologie Nationale in Saint-Germain-en-laye, where the funerary adornments of the burial known as 101 in the necropolis “La Colombine” in Champlay are exhibited. Seeing them in real life felt incredible, and was also vital for understanding how they might have been attached to the body or clothing, their size and weight, along with noticing details that cannot be perceived as clearly in photos and technical drawings. During my visit, which partly coincided with APRAB’s (L'Association pour la Promotion des Recherches sur l'Age du bronze) international conference about protohistoric adornments, I was also introduced to researchers who were focusing on this geographical area. Mafalda Roscio and Rebecka Peak in particular offered so much invaluable help. As the reason for the trip was to collect material for my master’s thesis, I took the opportunity to conduct research at the museum´s library. Musée d’Archéologie Nationale happen to have one of the largest archaeological libraries in France, with around 35000 works! Monsieur Meylan, its´sole librarian truly is fantastic. The entire museum is located in a castle, which on and off acted as a royal residence from its´construction in 1122 until Louis XIV´s court moved to Versailles in 1682. The library was thus quite chilly, had poor phone service and no copying machine. But…. it had nearly all the literature you could need, even handwritten and hand-painted publications that were centuries old. Due to the ongoing train strike, I could even stay longer than planned.

As the topic of my thesis was female funerary adornments, I wanted to include illustrations of the burials that acted as my case studies (three in Denmark and three in northeastern France). By the end, I only had time to create this one, so I would like to take you through parts of the process.

Reconstructing a person artistically based merely on descriptions of the osteological material (her skeletal remains), along with the surviving elements of her costume (artifacts of bronze, amber, glass and bone) was quite a challenge, albeit a very creative one. Firstly, were the adornments worn directly on her body, or were they sewn into her clothing? Secondly, could some of the objects have moved slightly after the burial took place? Given the placement of the boar tusk pendant, the glass beads, tubes and buttons along her right hip and upper leg (as they were documented during the 1938 excavation), I imagined the buttons as having formed part of a belt, the glass beads as sewn into a garment, and the tubes either likewise, or attached to cords. The tubes are in fact very similar in shape and size to the bronze tubes that probably formed part of corded skirts in Scandinavia during 1500-1100 BC, found in rich female burials (Bergerbrant 2007: 58). If this element of the Scandinavian dress found its way to northeastern France, it could point to relations between the two areas. The idea was definitely thrilling. If the leg ornaments, similar as other adornments of the feminine dress had a performative function, meaning they were visual codes that could have enabled communication along networks, the skirt or dress likely ended by the knees (otherwise they wouldn´t be visible).

The handles on the sides of the boar tusk pendant suggest that it was attached to a belt. On the inside of another similar pendant found in the necropolis La Saulsotte north of La Colombine, there is brownish residue, which supports this thesis (Rottier et al. 2012: 453-458). Pins are commonly believed to have had the function of fixating one or several pieces of clothes together, or to secure the ends of a blanket that may have been wrapped around the deceased (Roscio 2018: 106; Rottier et al. 2012: 176f). The pins given to high status women in this area were much longer than the ones given to men, and probably uncomfortable to wear. While working on the illustration, I decided to include the pin in the worn costume, but I might had done it differently today.

Compared to artefacts made from metals, preserved textile garments and fragments are, due to a faster deterioration process far fewer in numbers. The only fully preserved garments from the Bronze Age are the seven well-known wool costumes from the oak coffin burials in present-day Denmark, dated to 1468-1266 BC (Grömer 2016: 355-360; Kristiansen and Stig Sørensen 2019: 325ff). Other materials used for textile production during this period include flax, hemp, leather, and nettle fibres. As two thirds of all Bronze Age textile finds in France, Spain, Italy and Greece are of linen (Bender Jørgensen and Rast-Eicher 2018: 29ff), it is possible that this material was preferred for at least part of the woman´s outfit. Wool textile fragments found in the Alpine region, particularly the Hallstatt salt mines were of fine weaving quality, and often dyed (Grömer and Regina Hofmann-de Keijzer 2018: 58-62). It can thus be assumed that the possible wool garments worn by the wealthy women in the southeastern Parisian Basin and the valleys of Yonne and Upper Seine were fine and dyed in various hues, from blue, yellow to red and olive green, and might also had been enhanced with patterns and metal threads (Bergerbrant 2019: 258).

Body adornments are often seen by ethnologists as an “extension of the body”, used to demonstrate cultural (collective) and personal (individual) identity (Rolland 2019: 94). How an individual dresses therefore signals their identity in terms of gender, group membership, social role and expected behavior, important life events such as initiation rites or when they have acquired a different status and/or function (either ascribed or achieved) (Stig Sørensen 1997: 95). The combination of the adornments, and composition of the costume are therefore important aspects to understand how an individual has expressed themselves (Stig Sørensen 1997: 99; Bergerbrant 2007: 91). Apart from the dress, you also need to look at the burial context, i.e. the mortuary practices, the type and the location of the burial. In the case of the woman in burial 101 of La Colombine, she was laid to rest in the center-west of the necropolis, in a group of three female burials. The burial 101, which contained the richest artifact assemblages, was placed in the middle. At the time of her death, the valleys of Yonne and Upper Seine, due to their location experienced economic- and cultural development and prosperity, stimulated by transport of raw materials and objects, along with the free movement of people (Mordant, Peak and Roscio 2021: 168ff).

Given the rich artifact assemblages, the location of her burial in relation to the necropolis, in combination with the area acting as a “socio-economic hub” (ibid.), the Colombine woman likely had a high social position with power and influence, along with direct or indirect relations in faraway places. Caroline Tremeaud (2018) has included her in the group she refers to as ‘Les Grandes Femmes’ of the Bronze and Iron Age alpine area, which also includes the later Vix burial.

I hope you have enjoyed glimpses of the research process of creating this protohistorical illustration. I´m very passionate about shedding light on women in history, and will perhaps elaborate on this further on, if you´d like. Below is a short video of the research- and painting process. The painting itself was made in lovely Collioure, where I spent some weeks in April that year while writing my thesis.

Sending you much love ♥

Sarah

~June 2023 and November-December 2024

P.S. The thoughts and theories in this text are further elaborated in:

Billengren, S. 2023. Female funerary adornments in southern Scandinavia and northeastern France - a discussion of personhood, mobility, and intercultural relations during 1700-1100 BC. Master thesis, University of Gothenburg, 95 p.

References:

Bender Jørgensen, L. and Rast-Eicher, A. 2018. Fibres for Bronze Age Textiles. In Jørgensen, L., Sofaer, J. and Stig Sørensen, M.L. (eds.) Creativity in the Bronze Age. Understanding Innovation in Pottery, Textile, and Metalwork Production, p. 25-36. Cambridge University Press

Bergerbrant, S. 2007. Bronze Age Identities: Costume, Conflict and Contact in Northern Europe 1600-1300 BC. Bricoleur Press, 232 p.

Bergerbrant, S. 2019a. Wool Textiles in the Nordic Bronze Age: Local or Traded? In S. Sabatini & S. Bergerbrant (eds.) The Textile Revolution in Bronze Age Europe. Cambridge, p. 255- 273.

Grömer, K. 2016 The art of prehistoric textile making. Vienna, Vienna Natural History Museum. 533 p.

Grömer, K. and Hofmann-de Keijzer, R. 2018. Dull Hues versus Colour and Glamour. Creative Textile Design in the 2nd Millennium BC in Central Europe. In Sofaer, J. (eds) Considering Creativity. Creativity, Knowledge and Practice in Bronze Age Europe. Archaeopress Archaeology, p. 55-66.

Kristiansen, K. and Stig Sørensen, M.L. 2019. Wool in the Bronze Age: Concluding Reflections. In S. Sabatini & S. Bergerbrant (eds.), The Textile Revolution in Bronze Age Europe. Cambridge, p. 317-332.

Lacroix, B. 1957. La nécropole protohistorique de la Colombine a Champlay-Yonne, d’après les fouilles de Georges Bolnat. Paris, Société des Fouilles archéologiques de l’Yonne. Cahiers d’Archéologie et d’Histoire de l’Art; 2, 167 p.

Mordant, C., Peak, R. and Roscio, M. 2021.Weighing equipment in Late Bronze Age graves in the Seine and Yonne valleys. In Weight and Value, Vol. 2, p.159-172

Rolland, J. 2019. Bling-bling: le verre gaulois s’affiche! Catalogue de l’exposition, MuséoParc Alésia du 6 avril au 22 septembre 2019, Tautem, 2019, 159 p.

Roscio, M. 2018. Les nécropoles de l’étape ancienne du Bronze final du Bassin parisien au Jura souabe XIVe – XIIe siècle avant notre ère. Éditions universitaires de Dijon, 781 p.

Roscio, M. 2021. Les morts ont-ils un sexe? Genres et assemblages funéraires du Bronze final initial dans le Centre-Est de la France, In Mordant, C. and Marcigny, C. (eds.) Bronze 2019, 20 ans de recherches, Actes du colloque international anniversaire de l’APRAB, Bayeux, 19-22 juin 2019, Supplément n°7 au Bulletin de l’APRAB, OREP Editions, p. 453-465

Rottier, S., Piette, J., Mordant, C. 2012. Archéologie funéraire du Bronze final dans les vallées de l’Yonne et de la haute Seine: Les nécropoles de Barbey, Barbuise et La Saulsotte. Éditions Universitaires de Dijon, 790 p.

Stig Sørensen. M.L. 1997. Reading Dress: the Construction of Social Categories and Identities in Bronze Age Europe. In Journal of European Arachaeology 5 (1), p. 93-114.

Tremeaud, C. 2018. Genre et hiérachisation dans le monde nord-alpin, aux âges du Bronze et du Fer. Bar publishing, 251 p.