Fifth-Century Warrior Burial Complex Found in Alsace, France: 11 Adult Graves and Two Horse Graves With Swords and Shields Announced by INRAP
The French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, INRAP, has announced a fifth-century funerary complex in Horbourg-Wihr, near Colmar in eastern France's Alsace region, including lavish warrior burials and horse graves.
The excavations took place during preventive archaeology ahead of a housing construction project. Archaeologists unearthed 11 adult or older adolescent graves, three child graves and two horse graves, along with varying amounts of burial objects.
Two male burials were particularly notable, containing a sword in a semi-preserved wooden scabbard, a shield, a single-edged blade known as a scramasax, and an angon, a kind of javelin used by Germanic warriors. According to the INRAP statement, the objects indicate the men were either Germanic chieftains or members of tribes allied to Rome who were incorporated into Rome's fifth-century army. Gold and silver decorative elements that once graced weapons and clothing were also found.
Two burials that appear to have belonged to women yielded pairs of silver-gilt looped brooches, silver bird-shaped brooches, glass bead necklaces, belt buckles and a bone comb. Horses were buried within the cemetery with their harnesses.
The cemetery dates to the second half of the fifth century. The same site also contained a Gallo-Roman village quarter inhabited from the first to the third century, with homes, roads, hearths and wells. INRAP said the burial complex provides new material for research on settlement dynamics and upheavals in the region in the second half of the fifth century, where sites bearing evidence of Germanic settlement from the period are few.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：阿尔萨斯一座墓葬中出土的陶器与武器。CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons / Photo: Pottery and weapons found in a grave in Alsace. Wellcome M0015277. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
