Temples to Tradition

Features November/December 2025

A looted cache of bronzes compels archaeologists to explore Celtic sanctuaries across Burgundy
The temple at the Gallo-Roman sanctuary in Couan in east-central France The temple at the Gallo-Roman sanctuary in Couan in east-central France
M. Thivet, MSHE
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Elderly and ailing, a potter named Georges-André Colas penned a six-page letter to the Regional Archaeological Service of Burgundy in October 2008. “Dear Sir or Madam, although I am aware of the tremendous scientific interest of the deposit of bronzes of Couan, I hesitated for a long time to make it known, because of the legal consequences of the circumstances of its discovery,” he began. “However, I wanted to do it while I was still alive.”

Thirty-one years earlier, in 1977, wrote C

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