Bibracte was the capital of the Aedui tribe and one of the most important hillforts in ancient Gaul.
Bibracte was built on Mont Beuvray which straddles the borders of the French départements of Nièvre (58) and Saône-et-Loire (71) and lies 25 kilometres from the city of Autun in Burgundy.
A few decades after the Roman conquest of Gaul, Bibracte was abandoned in favour of Autun and without a continuous settlement to disturb the site, Bibracte remained for modern archaeology to rediscover.
The first excavations were begun by the wine merchant Gabriel Bulliot between 1867 and 1895. His nephew Joseph Déchelette, author of the famous Manuel d’Archéologie, continued the excavations between 1897 and 1907.
The site is an archaeological park at the centre of a protected forest, and a site of cooperative European archaeological efforts, a training ground for young archaeologists as well as a centre for interpreting Gaulish culture for a popular audience.
Important international excavations have taken place at Mont Beuvray, with teams from the universities of Sheffield, Kiel, Budapest, Vienna and Leipzig.