Charavines, an European village

The food crops are self-sufficient and the community limit the exchanges of the basic products to the nearby regions.

For very particular needs, unsatisfied on the spot, it was necessary to import objects or materials. The imports, sometimes very distant, show the intensity of the business or the barter in this time.

On the contrary, vases made in Charavines were exported to the lake of Bienne in Switzerland and in Jura, on the lake of Chalain.

Polished arrowhead
Polished arrowhead taken from a chip of green hardstone. It is a very rare type, unknown in our regions, but several of which exist in Piémont, in southern Switzerland and in the Maurienne region. It confirms the ties that Charavines had with the northern alpine massives.

Flint blades
come from Grand-Pressigny in Touraine.
56 tools, blades or daggers made with this flint were found in Charavines.

Axe-hammer
imported from Switzerland or southwestern Germany.
It is an object more symbolic than functional because it is fragile and breaks easily about the central hole.
Biconical antimoneous copper bead made in Languedoc (Diameter 9mm).
Fragment of amber bead imported from banks of the Baltic Sea (diameter : 8mm).
Axe in green stone
exploited in the Piémont (Italian Alps), which recognizes by the inclusions of garnet (in red).
Very big vase ( dolium ) for storage, imported from Languedoc.
Photo C. Thioc,
musée Civilisation Gallo-Romaine, Lyon.
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