Five more seated Gauls found in Dijon

An excavation in a new section of the Joséphine Baker school complex in Dijon has unearthed at least five or six new seated burials dating to the Gallic period between 300 and 200 B.C. Three of them form a new alignment parallel to the first burials uncovered, while the remaining two/three follow the original alignment.

The first seated burials were excavated in 2024 in the former garden of the Corderliers convent. They had all been laid to rest in the same manner: seated on the bottom of a circular pit, backs against the eastern wall, facing west. Their hands were on their laps or legs. They were buried without grave goods, except for one individual who was found wearing a black stone armband. The style of the armband is what identified the graves as dating to the Gallic period.

While the excavation of the school complex uncovered new graves, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) revealed the results of the analyses of the first 13 burials. They were all adult males between 40 and 60 years old when they died, ranging in height from 1.62 to 1.82 meters (5’4″-6′).

They were in good overall health with excellent teeth, but osteoarthritis in the bones, particularly in the legs, attests to them having consistently experienced strenuous physical activity in their lives. Intriguingly, five or six of the 13 have signs of unhealed sharp force trauma, namely cuts on the humerus bones and in one case, two sharp blows to the skull, likely from a sword. This means they were at least cut at the time of death and even if the humerus blows were not the coups de grace, the deceased were deliberately killed.

Including earlier discoveries in 1992, about 20 tombs with sitting Gauls have been discovered in a small area of Dijon’s city centre.

That is more than a quarter of the 75 tombs featuring sitting Gauls identified worldwide. Other sites have been found in France, Switzerland and the UK.

Regis Labeaune, a researcher at the French archaeological institute, Inrap, said the latest bodies were “particularly impressive discoveries”.

“Given the number and quality of these discoveries, we can say there was a significant Gallic settlement in Dijon,” he told AFP.