This article presents the findings of the study of an exceptional cremation grave from the end of the Early Iron Age: the grave of tumulus B.121.6 of the cemetery of the Le Papetier site at Pindères (Lot-et-Garonne). This grave was unearthed during an archaeological investigation ahead of the development of a leisure park. The project is located on the edge of the lower plateau of the Landes, on a Pleistocene sand formation overlying a Miocene limestone substrate characterized by relatively substantial karstic activity as indicated by the presence of sinkholes and karstic springs. The typical sedimentary sequence includes, from bottom to top, an alios horizon, a layer of light grey sand, and a layer of dark grey sand. A cemetery was identified further to the exposure of subcircular stonework structures (6–12 m in diameter), associated with sandy mounds that were conserved to heights of a few tens of centimetres. A survey of one of the mounds was made on monument B.121.6 to characterize the cemetery both chronologically and culturally. The mound measures 6 m in diameter and 0.4 m in height (fig. 2). The stratigraphy observed comprises, directly under the humus horizon, the layer corresponding to the tumulus mass and a soil level. During excavation, two stone structures, two pits, a posthole, and a funerary deposit were unearthed. The stonework structures, of subcircular plan, are interleaved, with the internal structure being poorly preserved. The pits, subcircular in plan and about 1 m in diameter, are characterized by the presence of indurated charred layers comparable to the soil layer found beneath the tumulus mass. The funerary deposit was found close to one of the pits (fig. 3). It comprised two ceramic urns (C4 and C5) closed by two lids and a large batch of ceramic and metallic material found in contact with the urns. The two urns contained charred human bones, the colour of which indicates homogeneous cremation at high temperature (exceeding 650 °C) and/or for a long period. The absence of charcoals shows that the bones were sorted, as corroborated by the small quantity of bones deposited in each vessel (50.9 g in C4 and 16.6 g in C5). Each vessel contained the remains of a single individual: one juvenis or adult subject in C4 and a probable infans II in C5. The anthropological study of the bones suggests the grave of monument B.121.6 is a double grave with a double ossuary. The material buried with the two urns consists of a total of 52 objects including 5 vessels, 21 metal objects, and 24 fossil resin beads (figs 4 and 5). One of the pits in the mound has yielded two fragments of ceramic vessels, two metal items, and two fossil resin beads. The metal material includes a copper ally torque with biconical end pieces, an iron bracelet, three Navarro-Aquitainian fibulas one of which is made of iron and the other of a copper alloy, three iron knives, and various unidentified items made of iron or copper alloy. The fossil resin beads, which are particularly rare in the region, are of several sizes and must initially have been made up into a necklace or bracelet. All of the comparisons made for the grave goods indicate a date between 525 and 450 or 425 BC, that is, the very end of the Early Iron Age. This means the grave is part of a small set of double cremation graves discovered along the Leyre valley, a few tens of kilometres to the west, on the sites of Pujaut at Mios (Gironde), Le Truc du Bourdiou at Mios (Gironde), and Le Gaillard at Biganos (Gironde) (fig. 6). The discovery at Pindères is therefore an advance in our understanding of regional funerary practices: the excavation of monument B.121.6 has made it possible to make a fine-scale record of the soil levels and structures associated with the mounds, and to validate the hypothesis of the existence of double cremation graves at the end of the Early Iron Age in the region, which until now rested on old and imprecise data. The Pindères cemetery is therefore likely to be a key site in the understanding of the Early Iron Age of south-western France, as attested to by the exceptional finds of this preventive excavation, which will be supplemented by results from the 2020 excavation that are as yet unpublished.< Réduire