La vaisselle de bronze dite “copte” dans les royaumes romano-germaniques d’Occident. État de la question

Abstract

Bronze moulded vases (particularly basins, jugs and paterae) were discovered in rich VIIth century burrials, in Italy as well as in south-western Germany, along the Rhine and in the South West of England. On typological and stylistic criteria, those vases were most generally assigned to coptic Egypt and their geographic distribution has been interpreted as evidence for a major commercial route. Recent studies, however, challenged this interpretation, albeit still commonly admitted nowadays. First, there are no relevant parallels for that kind of vessels in Egypt. Second, metallographic analyses clearly showed that those bronze vases showed a high percentage of lead but a low one of zinc, contrary to authentified coptic bronzes. Even if we cannot exclude an east-mediterranean origin, though parallels are equally rare in the Byzantine world and Egypt, we should better surmise a production from Byzantine Italy. Several finds recently made in southern France as well as in the bed of rivers Saône and Seine testify that this vessel (which is not to be found among the materials of VIIth century burials due to the evolution of funerary customs in Merovingian Gaul) may have been equally transported from the Mediterranean to England via the valleys of Rhône, Saône and Seine. To end with, we question the interpretation of the distibution map of this luxury vessel which, even if actually related to usual trading routes connecting Italy with England via Gaul or the western parts of Germany, may well not reflect proper exchanges of economic nature, but rather a limited circulation of prestige objects particularly sought-after by the élite.