Uncertainties over Lothéa relics cleared (Carnoët Forest, Quimperlé, Finistère) (Abridged version)

Abstract

The chamber of the Lothéa barrow in the forest of Quimperlé (Finistère, France) was excavated in 1843. The finds from the site have since been on a perilous journey, firstly housed in the Hôtel de Cluny Museum in Paris and then transferred to the musée des Antiquités nationales (MAN) in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in 1887. It was not until 1974 that the collection was studied in detail, having incorporated artefacts from other sites, after they had been presented in various other collections or papers. The discovery of previously unpublished correspondence provides additional knowledge with a paper published in Gallia Préhistoire in 2013. However, this first paper questioned the bronze spear butt, probably added to the collection during the 19th century, as it was typologically and technologically incompatible with the date of the tomb. A new overview of the documentation has made it possible to complete the inventory of the finds that includes a now lost dagger, and the bronze spear identified as an Italic Iron Age spear shaft tip that seemingly does not belong to the burial.