There are famous places and monuments of Antiquity people from all over the world like to visit, such as Rome, Athens, the Pyramids, Petra, etc. There are also world famous museums such as the British Museum, the Met, the Louvre, the Vatican Museums and so on... When I have a monday off, I like to visit less famous local museums just a few hours drive from my place, displaying major unique ancient or medieval artefacts. It's a little like the Seven Wonders of France, monuments and artefacts that are not on the usual touristic circuits or in major museums like the Louvre, but are absolutely must-see. For example the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, the Bayeux Tapestry in Bayeux, the Apocalypse tapestries in Angers, the reproduction of the Chauvet Cave in Vallon Pont d'Arc, the Vix crater in Châtillon sur Seine. Getting to a little town like Bayeux, finding the small local museum, getting in without booking, not even waiting in line, and comfortably examining the whole story of Harold and William from this so famous tapestry with no crowd of visitors, is an experience (especially for a guy like me who is a historical comics fan)... Last time I went to the small town of Châtillon sur Seine to contemplate the Vix crater. It is a unique in the world object: a monumental archaic Greek bronze vase 1.64m tall (the average size of an ancient Greek man), made in some Greek city of South Italy. (Noticed? no other visitors... we had this whole museum just for us...) Herodotus mentions several monumental metallic craters, obviously like this one, that were consecrated in the 6th or 5th c. BC in Greek sanctuaries like Delphi. He especially mentions a similar one sent by Sparta to Croesus, king of Lydia, as a diplomatic gift: "(The Spartans) made a crater of bronze, ornated around the rim outside with figures, and large enough to hold 300 amphorae, and brought it with the intention of making a gift in return to Croesus". I don't know what he means with "300 amphorae", but the Bronze Vix crater contains 1100 liters. Such craters were considered so iconic that in Thebes or Thasos they were chosen as city standard coin-types in the 5-4th c. BC. (not my coins, just for illustration) All these monumental offerings, once famous in Antiquity, have been pillaged since, melted, and are just known in ancient records. Only one is still visible : the one in Châtillon sur Seine. What is such a major ancient Greek monument doing in a small town of 5,500 inhabitants in northern Burgundy, where the River Seine is just 10 m wide (125 m in Paris)? It was discovered in the 1950s by local archaeologists looking for Celtic tombs in the fields, 6 km from there. They discovered the tomb of a lady buried with precious artefacts: a ceremonial cart on which her body was carried to her tomb, jewels like a pure gold torc of 480 g, an amber necklace, bronze or iron fibulas ornated with gold, coral or amber, a silver cup, several bronze vessels, a nice Athenian black figures drinking cup depicting fighting hoplites and that can be dated to the 520s BC. And of course the huge bronze crater. All these objects could be traced : the huge crater from South Italy, the black figures drinking cup from Athens, several bronze vessels from Etruria, the silver phiale and the gold torc from Gaul (made of Spanish gold), the amber from the Baltic Sea. The lady herself probably lived in a vast wooden mansion in a citadel on top of the nearby hill and died in her early thirties c. 500 BC. Nobody knows who she was, what was her rank or title, but she was obviously some extremely rich VIP. The giant bronze crater was not just a decoration object: it has been used for what it was designed for, mixing wine and water. Traces of wine deposits were found inside. We can just imagine the crazy parties she could organize with 1000 liters of wine (that is 1333 standard 0.75 l. bottles, enough for more than 2000 guests). As far as we know the locals were beer drinkers, and had not started yet making their now famous Burgundy wine: in 500 BC wine was imported from Mediterranean countries. And she was drinking it from her own Attic drinking cup... So chic.
Great info @GinoLR. I find the small, out of the way museums to have some exciting antiquities that are much more accessible than in the large museums. I went to a very small museum in Bydgoszcz Poland when my son was stationed there. I was able to get up close and personal to their ancient coin collection. The coins were displayed behind glass, but I was able to get so close my nose touched the glass. And, I was able to talk with the curator where we compared information about the finds and my collection. The curator seemed surprised that anyone of the public took any interest. I have images somewhere, but I'd have to find them. Instead, here is an image of one of my coins:
That's a krater you could bathe (or drown) in! It must weigh a ton! (Maybe literally?) I'm envious of your visit.
So 460-some pounds, for my fellow Americans. Not quite a quarter of a ton, but heavy enough that you wouldn’t want to drag it around to parties! (Did the ancient Greeks use forklifts?) Must’ve had its own dedicated spot in some feasting hall, I suppose.
This is what archaeologists think. They recently found the remains of a small city on top of the hill and, in its centre, post-holes and foundation trenches for a large timber building of 21.5 x 35 m. They first thought it was the palace of the Lady of Vix, but they now think it was some kind of temple and that the big Greek crater was located inside. In the museum they made a model of this construction for the visitors and you can see the crater (it was not green patinated but yellow and shining!) in the last room. If this crater was used for public celebrations in a public feasting hall, I do not understand why the death of the Lady meant the end of these celebrations, for they buried the crater with her. Mourning, maybe? Did they forever give up drinking Greek wine together after she passed away? Too sad... Or maybe it was far too expensive, and they switched to some sort of more affordable Oktoberfest with beer?
