ABSTRACT
In 1985 the then President of France, François Mitterand, opened the prestigious excavation of the Iron Age hillfort of Mont-Beuvray in the central mountains of Morvan with the words ‘Bibracte, where the first act of our history was played’. The President became patron of the project which attracted substantial sums of money. Scientifically, one of its aims was to investigate proto-urban development; ideologically, it was intended to support national identity and national unity. The choice of this site and the money spent on it caused some controversy. The site was not threatened, and although it was declared a site national, regional archaeologists thought it ‘doit plus à Napoléon le Petit qu’à son originalité’ (Ferdière 1985) and argued that the money would have been better spent on regional archaeological priorities.
