Archaeologists have unearthed five pairs of iron shackles at a 2,300-year-old Celtic settlement in the Loire Valley of France, providing rare direct evidence of slavery in pre-Roman Gaul. The discovery, announced July 9 by France’s National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), sheds light on a dimension of Celtic society that has remained largely invisible in the archaeological record.
The discovery
The site at Allonnes, in the Loire Valley, was established alongside a religious complex in the 3rd century B.C. It housed workshops for blacksmiths, coppersmiths, bronze workers, and sheet-metal workers, and sat at the intersection of several major roads, likely making it a hub for trade, including, the new evidence suggests, the slave trade.
Among the finds are a double-wrist restraint measuring just 6 cm (2.4 inches) in diameter, small enough to suggest use on women or children, and an ankle restraint weighing over 1 kg (2.2 lbs), heavy enough to indicate the burden enslaved people were forced to carry. Three other metal restraint fragments were also recovered.
“Iron restraints are extremely rare for this period,” said Thierry Lejars, a specialist in Celtic metalwork quoted by Live Science. “The identification of restraints and weapons suggests a hierarchical social organization composed of dominant and subordinate groups, prisoners or slaves.”
The broader context
The shackles were not the only significant find. Excavators also recovered large numbers of high-quality metal objects, swords, spearheads, keys, and horse harness fittings, along with hundreds of coins spanning more than five centuries. About one-third of the coins had been deliberately filed, sheared, or etched with a chisel.
“These mutilations reveal a ritual intention: the removal of the coin’s commercial function in order to dedicate the object to the sacred, thereby ensuring the permanence of the offering,” said Isabelle Bollard-Raineau, an ancient-coin expert with the French Ministry of Culture.
The site included a religious sanctuary where offerings, clothing, jewelry, rings, amulets, were deliberately deformed or mutilated, likely to transform mundane possessions into gifts for the gods.
What the shackles tell us
The Gauls, the Celtic tribes inhabiting what is now France, Belgium, and parts of Switzerland before the Roman conquest, left few written records. Most of what is known about their social structure comes from Roman accounts and archaeological inference. Direct evidence of slavery has been especially scarce.
The shackles at Allonnes confirm that enslavement was practiced, and that it involved restraint of a type consistent with transporting or controlling enslaved people. The small wrist restraints suggest women and children were among those enslaved, a detail consistent with historical accounts of Celtic warfare, in which captured populations were taken as spoils.
Historical and literary sources indicate that the Gauls enslaved prisoners of war, convicts, and debtors, who lost all legal rights and could be bought and sold. The Allonnes shackles provide physical evidence for a practice previously known only through text.
The location of the site at a crossroads of major routes suggests Allonnes may have been a trading hub where enslaved people were bought, sold, or transported. The presence of blacksmiths’ workshops at the site is also relevant: iron restraints would have required specialized metalworking skills to produce.
Sources
Killgrove K. “‘Extremely rare’ iron shackles discovered at 2,300-year-old settlement in France.” Live Science (July 13, 2026). https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/5-extremely-rare-iron-shackles-discovered-in-france-highlight-celtic-slave-trade-2-300-years-ago
INRAP (French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) press release, July 9, 2026.