BRONZE AGE CULT PRACTICES AND TERRITORY MARKING. THE CASE OF METAL HOARDS
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-12-21

Systematic field survey campaigns conducted since the early 2000s in the area of the fortified hilltop settlement of the Camp du Château at Salins-les-Bains (Jura, France) have revealed about fifty Bronze Age metal hoards mainly from the turn of the Middle to Late Bronze Age. The accuracy of the record of their location allowed us to study the topographical choices made for these still not well understood practices, but for which we think more and more of social and cultic interpretations. Hoards were placed fairly systematically in locations that could be seen from the contemporary fortified settlement, other hilltops and other hoarding sites, thus forming a real network of visual relationships with the Camp du Château in its centre. Hoards were also deposited at places which were from afar easily recognizable: in joints, in limestone pavements or near large erratic boulders. Disposed along the edges of plateaus, along crests, they delineate the main natural lines structuring the landscape of Salins-les-Bains. We propose to interpret these topographical choices as an intentional marking of the landscape through collective, repetitive and symbolic acts that might be carried out to demonstrate the control of the boundaries of the territory belonging to the Camp du Château at this period.


Author(s): Gauthier, Estelle (University of Franche-Comté; UMR CNRS 6249 Chrono-Environnement) - Piningre, Jean-François (UMR
CNRS 6298 ARTeHIS)