Bronze with eagle and cross

The Carnutes occupied the territory around modern-day Chartres and Orléans, and held a position of unusual religious authority among the Gallic tribes — Caesar records that the annual druidic assembly for all of Gaul was convened in their territory. This small bronze belongs to a late series produced as Roman political pressure in the region intensified through the first century BC, culminating in the tribe's devastating reprisal massacre of Roman traders at Cenabum in 52 BC, which served as the signal that ignited the broader revolt under Vercingetorix.