Hello Dear friends ! And welcome to the Chatillonnais museum – The Vix Treasure ! My name is Gaspard and I'm an archeologist ! That is to say, that I study ancient societies and our history by digging up certain sites and analyzing the remains I find in them ! Pretty exciting, don't you think ?! And I must say, Chatillonnais territory happens to be my very favorite archeological terrain ! The ground here has been dug up repeatedly since the late 19th century! I guess you could count me among the heroic explorers of the Chatillonnais region !Now, hold onto your hat! As the museum has a truly impressive archeological collection !Take a look at this photograph, for example… It depicts Mont Lassois / located some 6 kilometers from Chatillon-sur-Seine. Not only does its summit offer a magnificent view, but on top of that, and most importantly, it was at the foot of this mountain, near the village of Vix, that an extraordinary discovery was made!Indeed, in January 1953, René Joffroy and Maurice Moisson discovered a woman's tomb filled with objects that are so precious that we call them THE VIX TREASURE. The lady, known as the Princess of Vix, was laid out on a wagon, or chariot, and was wearing precious jewelry. The tomb also contained a colossal bronze vase.This dates all the way back to around 500 B.C. ! Do you realize that's almost 2,500 years ago ?! Back then, Mont Lassois was surrounded by a gigantic system of fortifications and on its summit you could find huge houses !I've always found this sort of discovery to be truly amazing ! I mean, like, Wow !Anyhow, let's move along ; just head on upstairs to discover the early Iron age, which was when the Princess of Vix lived out her life !On the way, you'll see panels describing the history of the archeological digs and of the restoration work that was done on our famous Vix vase.