A look at the tomb of the Celtic prince of Lavau

The Jaussen & Savignac Programme (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and The Royal Commission for AlUla) offers a unique Master 1 learning path with professors and lecturers specializing in archaeology and conservation-restoration. This programme, which reflects the multidisciplinary approach that was the foundation of Paris 1 University, aims in particular to train archaeology professionals capable of performing the initial conservation procedures.

Clotilde Proust and Delphine Gillot, senior lecturers from the Programme and conservator-restorers, participated in the project to present to the scientists and the general public a major discovery in French archaeology: the tomb of an important Celtic aristocrat from the 5th century BC, excavated before development work in Lavau, 140 km southeast of Paris. While the discovery is exceptional, the team studying the Lavau tomb intends not only to exhibit a treasure but also to place the tomb's contents within their chronological and cultural context, to reassemble them in a understandable way within the tomb itself, which is now destroyed, and to show the process followed by the archaeologists and conservator-restorers from excavation to exhibition, including the processing and analysis of the excavation data.

"Lavau: un prince celte en bord de Seine, vers 450 avant notre ère", exhibition until June 21, 2026 at the Museum of Modern Art of Troyes.