SerpApi.Org
A cache of iron restraints discovered at a 2,300-year-old settlement in France offers a stark reminder that even sophisticated ancient communities could be built on violence and exploitation.
The discovery at the Celtic site of Allonnes in the Loire Valley suggests the small settlement may have been more than a metalworking hub and religious center — it may also have played a role in the slave trade.
What happened?
On July 9, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) publicly announced that a 2019 excavation at Allonnes had turned up five pairs of iron shackles.
The objects were found during a two-year dig at a settlement first established in the third century B.C.
As Live Science reported, the site contained both a religious complex and workshops for blacksmiths, coppersmiths, bronze workers, and sheet-metal workers.
Archaeologists recovered many high-quality metal objects there, including blades, spear points, keys, and horse harness fittings. But the restraints stood apart.
Among them were a restraint for both wrists, another for an ankle, and three other pieces of iron binding equipment — a type of find that is especially unusual for the Late Iron Age, about 450 to 50 B.C.
"The identification of restraints and weapons suggests a hierarchical social organization composed of dominant and subordinate groups — prisoners or slaves," Thierry Lejars, a specialist in Celtic metalwork, said in a translated interview with INRAP, per Live Science.
Why does it matter?
So little is documented about slavery in pre-Roman Gaul partly because the Celts left behind few written records of their own.
Physical evidence like this helps fill that gap.
It suggests that a crossroads community known for craftsmanship, trade, and worship may also have profited from the buying, selling, and control of human beings.
At 2.4 inches across, researchers said the wrist restraint was small enough to have been used on a woman or a child. They further said the ankle restraint weighed more than 2.2 pounds, underscoring the load enslaved people may have been forced to bear.
What's being done?
Study of the metal finds from Allonnes has added new details about how the settlement functioned and who moved through it.
The site's location at the intersection of major ancient roads may help explain why it became such an important place for commerce, craftsmanship, and ritual.
The excavation also revealed a sanctuary, along with offerings that included clothing, rings, and amulets.
Before they were deposited, many of those items had been intentionally bent, broken, or otherwise changed, seemingly turning everyday belongings into gifts for deities.
Hundreds of coins were recovered as well, spanning more than five centuries. Roughly one-third showed signs of filing, shearing, or chisel marks.
"These mutilations reveal a ritual intention: the removal of the coin's commercial function in order to dedicate the object to the sacred, thereby ensuring the permanence of the offering," Isabelle Bollard-Raineau, an ancient-coin expert with the French Ministry of Culture, said in a translated INRAP interview, according to Live Science.
Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.
