L’aiguière en bronze de la tombe à char de Verna (Isère):une composition tripartite

Abstract

In 1818 in a tumulus lying to the south-west of the oppidumof Larina, not far from Lyon, one of the richest Late La Tènegraves ever found was excavated by the Count of Verna. Thegrave inventory belonged to the Verna private collection until1995  when  it  was  purchased  by  Hières-sur-Amby  Maison  duPatrimoine. It remained unpublished until 2002, when it waspresented  by  Franck  Perrin  and  Martin  Schönfelder  in  thecatalogue of the exibition on the Allobroges. In 2003 the sameauthors edited an excellent publication of the grave. It contained,among other things, the remains of a four-wheel-chariot, weapons(a bronze casket, iron swords, spearheads and shield-bosses)and an extremely large set of Late Republican bronze vessels.The grave was assigned to the phase La Tène D1b and datedbetween 100 and 80 BC.Quite  unusual  for  the  period  of  discovery  is  the  detaileddocumentation, prepared in 1818 by the director of the Museumof Lyon, François Artaud, and consisting of a report, several plateswith drawings and a list of subscriptions. One of the drawings onplate 3 represents a bronze jug with handle and cover.According to the author, the jug has all the characteristicsof  Ornavasso-type  jugs.  However,  the  handle  on  the  drawingdoes not have the form of either of two types of handles thatmake it possible to subdivide Ornavasso-type jugs into subtypesRuvo  and  Montefiascone.  Obviously  the  original  handle  wasnot found by the excavator, but was replaced on the drawingby a handle of an Idrija type beaker, also belonging to the inventory.The supposed cover consists of a round disk and an attachmentwith  three  protuberances,  fastened  onto  the  disk  by  bronzerivets with red enamel decoration. It can be compared with avery similar object, appearing on Artaud’s plate 1, which stillhad its attachment, now lost, and several other badly preservedobjects of the same form, only briefly mentioned by Artaud.They all belong to a small, but very typical, group of Late LaTène harness pendants.