Matthieu Poux

This paper focuses on two so called “construction coin offerings“ discovered in the road station of Panossas, equidistant from the colonies of Lugdunum and Vienna on the route that linked them to Italy. The first offering signs the foundation of the station in the 30’s B.C. and combines two large colonial bronzes carrying the portraits of Caesar and Octavian, issued in Vienna and Lyon, whose deposition on two layered plans of a building suggests a link with the inaugural templum. The second signs important reconstruction work undertaken under Domitian, honored by the deposit of two coins collected under an apse floor of the baths. Analysis of the two pairs of offerings, inserted in the masonry as a tribute to imperial power, sheds new light on the status of the site, its evolution, and the significance of a rite still little studied in Gaul.

L’article prend place au sein d’un recueil de trente contributions consacrées aux « modèles italiens dans l’architecture des deux derniers siècles avant notre ère en Gaule et dans les régions voisines ». Son propos essentiel, expliqué en conclusion, est de montrer que « l’architecture gallo-romaine correspond à une réalité bien tangible, nourrie de multiples influences (celtiques, grecques et romaines) échelonnées sur plusieurs siècles ». Pour illustrer ces influences, et d’une certaine manière à rebours du titre du colloque, « trois emprunts protohistoriques » sont développés. Ces emprunts concernent les fana, les theatra et les villae.

Les Gaules et les Germanies sont-elles solubles dans la romanité ? Cette question traverse et détermine une grande partie des recherches, passées et présentes, consacrées à ces cinq provinces occidentales de l'Empire constituées entre Auguste et Domitien. Pour la formuler autrement : l'appropriation et l'intégration par Rome des territoires transalpins a t-elle entraîné leur entière dissolution dans ses structures sociales et sa culture matérielle ? Ou présentent-ils encore, au Haut-Empire, des particularités qui justifient de les aborder distinctement des autres provinces de l'Empire ?

The lack of cult statues in Gallic shrines of the second Iron Age is one of the most solid common places in the archaeology of sanctuaries. It is
even one of the first criteria used by specialists to distinguish them from their Roman period successors, built to house a figurative representation
of the honoured divinity. Suggested by Diodorus, in his legendary account of Brennus saccage of Delphi, this statement is contradicted by Caesar,
though, who explicitly mentions divine effigies of Mercury (BG, 6.17).
This paper proposes to reconsider this thematic in the light of archaeological discoveries made over the past thirty years: from the rare preserved
examples of Gallic stone- or wooden statues, to their iconographic representations, up to the traces that they may have left within the temples grounds. Particular attention is paid to the central cavities, generally interpreted as “autels creux”, which may have served as implantation pits for large wooden statues such as the one in Geneva.

This paper focuses on a big storage building recently excavated on the settlement of Panossas (F, Isère) in the colonial hinterland of Vienna, at the north boundary of the Gallia Narbonensis. This construction is distinguished, beyond its typical tripartite plan with two side wings, suspended floor and retaining walls, for its exceptional measurements and amount of storage space available, as well as its early datation in the late 1st-2nd century AD. In rural settlements are for the whole Gaul and Germany no comparable structures known so far, suggesting a private rather than a public use. Although such granaries with retaining walls could be identified in several villas, they are substantially smaller and all located along the main roads to the Upper German Limes. An association with the annona militaris can be suggested on the basis of written sources, given the important logistic role assumed by the colonies of Lugdunum and Vienna for the supply of roman troops from the early Empire to the Severian period.

Cet article porte sur un grand entrepôt récemment découvert sur le site de Panossas (Isère, F) dans l’arrière pays colonial de Vienne, en limite nord de la province de Narbonnaise. Hormis son plan tripartite caractéristique, à deux bastions latéraux et murets de soutènement, cette construction se distingue par ses dimensions et sa capacité de stockage exceptionnelles, ainsi que par sa datation précoce (fin Ier-IIe s. apr. J.-C.). L’absence de structures comparables dans les campagnes des Gaules et des Germanies milite pour un usage public plutôt que privé. Si des greniers sur murets maçonnés sont identifiés sur un certain nombre de villae, leurs dimensions sont plus réduites et la plupart d’entre eux sont localisés le long des voies en direction du Limes rhénan. L’hypothèse d’un lien avec l’annone militaire est suggérée par un réexamen des sources écrites et du rôle logistique assumé par les colonies de Lugdunum et de Vienne dans l’approvisionnement de l’armée, du début du Haut-Empire à l’époque sévérienne.

This paper provides a preliminary outline of the wall paintings discovered 2015-2016 during the excavation in Panossas "Buissières" (Isère), in the hinterland of the Vienna and Lyon colonies. The settlement includes several residential buildings within monumental bath, workshops, warehouses and commodious buildings for the reception of travellers, interpreted as a large stopping place, established around the middle of the 1 st century BC located on the main road to Italy. The excavation of the courtyard levels of the oldest road station uncovered hundred fragments of painted plaster, which combines all the features of the second Pompeian style (fictive architectures, marble imitations, fruit garlands, miniature frieze within riders, hunt & dancers...). Originally fixed on earthwalls and spread after destruction as backfill, they indicate the presence of a reception or accommodation room that could not be located precisely. The reassembly & inventory of the fragments (in progress) have already made it possible to identify several decorative sets, probably constituting a single piece decoration. The technical and stylistic quality of the paintings, as well as the use of relatively expensive pigments (cinnabar red, aegyptian blue) raise the question of the identity of the owner and the reasons for the presence of such a luxurious decor on a rural site so far from the residential quarters of the two colonies.

Cet article offre un aperçu préliminaire des peintures murales découvertes en 2015 et 2016 dans le cadre de la fouille programmée des « Buissières » à Panossas (Isère), dans l'arrière-pays des colonies de Vienne et de Lyon. Le site comprend plusieurs bâtiments résidentiels adossés à des thermes monumentaux, des ateliers de forge, des entrepôts et une auberge, interprétés comme les équipements publics d'une grande station routière, implantée sur la voie d'Italie dès le milieu du I er s. a.C. La fouille des niveaux de cour de la première station a mis au jour plusieurs centaines de fragments d'enduits peints caractéristiques du deuxième style pompéien (architectures fictives, imitations de marbre, guirlandes d'abondance, frise miniature de cavaliers, animaux, danseuses...). Apposés sur des parois en matériaux périssables et épandues après destruction en guise de remblai, ils indiquent l'existence d'une pièce de réception ou d'hébergement qui n'a pu être localisée précisément. Le remontage et l'inventaire des fragments, en cours de réalisation, ont déjà permis d'identifier plusieurs ensembles décoratifs, probablement constitutifs d'un seul et même décor de pièce. La qualité technique et stylistique des peintures, ainsi que le recours à des pigments relativement coûteux (rouge cinabre, bleu de fritte), soulèvent la question de l'identité du commanditaire et des motifs qui ont présidé à leur mise en oeuvre, sur un site rural aussi éloigné des quartiers résidentiels des deux colonies. Mots-clés : Gaule romaine, peintures murales, deuxième style pompéien, station routière, Vienne, Lyon.

De l'Orient à l'Occident, de l'époque hellénistique à l'avènement du christianisme, les mosaïques figurent parmi les plus grandes créations artistiques que l'Antiquité nous ait léguées. Onze ans après une précédente synthèse sur le sujet, ce numéro des Dossiers d'Archéologie propose de faire le point sur les découvertes les plus récentes en la matière, à l'aune d'approches méthodologiques qui donnent une nouvelle importance au contexte archéologique.

Religion is a matter of beliefs and rites which are
approached by social anthropology as a system of thought,
of practices that establish religious institutions and define
the function these latter serve in a society. Because
they are documented from outside by Greek or Latin
authors – which corresponds to the very definition of
Protohistory – matter of fact, the metaphysical or philosophical
principles that define the religious system, in
most cases expressed in an oral, written or artistic language,
mainly defy a positivist approach by archaeologists. In
the absence of texts the archaeologists shoulder the task
of their reconstruction based on vestigial remains uncovered
in the ground. These latter are restricted mutatis
mutandis to three large categories of documents: the
places dedicated to the practice of the religion, the objects
and the depictions it uses. This contribution presents
the diversity of the archaeology of Gaulish religions and
more particularly the excavation of sanctuaries. It highlights
the study of sacred places and covers the analysis of
rites based on objects (artefacts or ecofacts) discovered,
while emphasising the importance of a spatial approach
(geosymbols and sacred landscapes).

Résumé :
La religion est affaire de croyance et de rites, appréhendés
par l’anthropologie sociale comme un système
de pensées, de pratiques qui fondent les institutions
religieuses et déterminent la fonction qu’elles remplissent
dans la société. Parce qu’elles sont documentées de l’extérieur
par des auteurs grecs ou latins – ce qui correspond
à la définition même de la Protohistoire –, les religions
du second âge du Fer s’inscrivent en marge de ce cadre
d’analyse. En effet, les principes métaphysiques ou philosophiques
qui fondent le fait religieux, exprimés le plus
souvent par le langage verbal, écrit ou artistique, se
dérobent en grande partie à l’approche positiviste des
archéologues. En l’absence de textes, c’est à eux qu’il
incombe pourtant de les reconstruire à partir des vestiges
qu’ils exhument du sous-sol. Lesquels se résument, mutatis
mutandis, à trois grandes catégories documentaires : les
espaces dédiés à l’exercice de la religion, les objets et
les images qu’elle met en oeuvre. Cet article présente
la diversité de l’archéologie des religions gauloises et
en particulier la fouille des sanctuaires. Il met en avant
l’étude des espaces sacrés et aborde l’analyse des rites
à partir des d’objets (artefacts et écofacts) mis au jour,
tout en soulignant l’importance de l’approche spatiale
(géosymboles et paysages sacrés).

Summary
The paper deals with early theatre-like buildings in Gaul dating from the Late Iron Age (La Tène D) to the Late Augustan-Tiberian period. Starting with the features excavated in 2011 at Corent (Puy-de-Dôme, F) and a recent analysis of the theatre at Alba-la-Romaine (Ardèche, F), the formal developmental aspects of so-called Gallo-Roman theatres («théâtres gallo-romains») are discussed in juxtaposition with Imperial period urban theatre edifices in the Mediterranean region. Functional aspects are also studied in order to highlight the social and political role played by theatres situated within sanctuaries. The final discussion also includes other features which could lead to further theatre buildings from the very early stages of the Imperial period being identified. The paper is intended to give a provisional appraisal which may act as a basis for future examinations on the typological development of the Gallo-Roman theatre whose roots may actually lie in pre-Roman times.

Zusammenfassung
Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit frühen theaterartigen Bauten Galliens von der Späteisenzeit (La Tène D) bis zur spätaugusteisch-tibe-rischen Zeit. Ausgehend von den 2011 freigelegten Befunden in Corent (Puy-de-Dôme, F) bzw. vom neu ausgewerteten Theater in Alba-la-Ro-maine (Ardèche, F) werden formale Entwicklungsaspekte der sogenann-ten gallo-römischen Theater («théâtres gallo-romains») im Vergleich mit städtischen Theaterbauten im mediterranen Raum der Kaiserzeit diskutiert. Zudem sollen auch funktionale Aspekte untersucht werden, um die soziale und politische Rolle der in Heiligtümern errichteten Theaterbauten zu beleuchten. Abschliessend wird in der Diskussion auf andere Befunde eingegangen, die zur Identifizierung weiterer Thea-terbauten aus der frühesten Kaiserzeit führen könnten. Die Ausführun-gen verstehen sich als eine Zwischenbilanz im Rahmen zukünftiger Untersuchungen zur typologischen Entwicklung des gallo-römischen Theaters, deren Anfänge möglicherweise bereits in vorrömischer Zeit zu suchen sind.

Riassunto
Il presente contributo si occupa delle prime forme di edifici simili a te-atri in Gallia a partire dalla tarda età del ferro (La Tène D) fino all'età tardoaugustea-tiberiana. Sulla base dei ritrovamenti effettuati nel 2011 a Corent (Puy-de-Dôme, F) e delle nuove interpretazioni del teatro a Alba-la-Romaine (Ardèche, F) si discutono aspetti dell'evoluzione dei cosiddetti teatri gallo-romani («théâtres gallo-romains») confrontan-doli con degli edifici teatrali urbani del periodo imperiale situati nell'area mediterranea. Al fine di gettar luce sul ruolo sociale e politico di tali edifici costruiti all'interno di santuari, si analizzeranno pure aspetti funzionali delle strutture. In conclusione la discussione verterà su altri ritrovamenti, i quali potrebbero condurre all'identificazione di ulterio-ri edifici teatrali dell'epoca primo imperiale. Le riflessioni proposte vo-gliono rappresentare un bilancio intermedio nell'ambito di studi futuri a proposito dell'evoluzione tipologica del teatro gallo-romano, le quali radici probabilmente sono da cercarsi già nel periodo preromano.

This paper reviews, in the light of recent archaeological discoveries made since the early 2000s, the notion of Gallic symposion and the nature of commensal practices in communities from the Late Iron Age. It leads to a halftone statement, indicating different relations of certain social categories with regard to imported wine and it reveals the complexity of a process of acculturation too often reduced to economic or colonial patterns. The detailed analysis of this process within a precise site, the oppidum of Corent, underlines the usefulness of planned archaeological excavations as an experimental field.

Cet article réexamine, à la lumière des découvertes archéologiques récentes réalisées depuis le début des années 2000, la notion de symposion gaulois et la nature des pratiques de commensalité en vigueur dans les sociétés de la fin de l’âge du Fer. Il débouche sur un constat en demi-teintes qui témoigne d’un rapport différencié de certaines catégories sociales à l’égard du vin importé et révèle la complexité d’un processus d’acculturation trop souvent réduit à des schémas économistes ou colonialistes. L’analyse fine de ce processus à l’échelle d’un site, l’oppidum de Corent, souligne toute l’utilité des fouilles archéologiques programmées en tant que terrain expérimental.

Afin de témoigner du caractère foisonnant des travaux menés par Armand Desbat, dont nombre d'entre eux ont été déterminants pour l’avancée de la recherche archéologique, les mélanges qui lui sont consacrés rassemblent une quarantaine de contributions. Le livre prend la forme, originale pour ce genre d'ouvrage, d’un abécédaire dont chaque entrée est liée à l'un ou l'autre des thèmes de recherches développés ou abordés par A. Desbat au cours de sa carrière. Près d'une cinquantaine d'auteurs présente ainsi des réflexions issues des études archéologiques les plus récentes tandis que d'autres réexaminent, sous un angle neuf, des questions au cœur de l'intérêt des archéologues et des historiens depuis plus longtemps. Etant donné les nombreux travaux qu'il a consacrés à Lyon il était presque naturel que la moitié des articles de cet abécédaire portât sur la capitale des Gaules, fournissant un aperçu sur l'actualité de la recherche archéologique et historique de la ville. Mais la curiosité intellectuelle d'A. Desbat a largement dépassé le cadre de Lyon, aussi des articles abordent-ils des aspects plus spécifiquement méthodologiques, tandis que d'autres apportent des éléments de comparaison au « cas lyonnais » ou un éclairage sur des thématiques variées comme les complexes artisanaux, les pratiques funéraires ou encore culinaires non seulement en France mais également dans des terres plus lointaines.

For a considerable time, Late Iron Age oppida have been considered as fortified hilltop settlements within reduced or unsustainable occupation, limiting the urban space to the walls and ignoring any extra muros extent. This restricted view is questioned by recent studies in the basin of Clermont-Ferrand (Auvergne, France), which reveals a singular urban pattern evolving around three important occupation poles at a distance of 5–7 km to each other. These three oppida are neither ‘competing’ nor ‘ephemeral’ succeeding capitals, but most probably an overlay of population clusters with a temporal overlapping in the course of the 1st century BC within a large, strongly urbanized area which spread over an area of more than 2500 ha. This multipolar town pattern is clustered around a large sanctuary, associated with a public square and an assembly edifice. The concentration of religious, political and civic features represents the true matrix of the Celtic town rather than any enclosing walls. It features an early stage of urban development well attested in Greece and Italy during the archaic period, which could be applied to other oppida in Late Iron Age Gaul.

Une marque peinte sur amphore de Marseille découverte en 2010 dans la villa de Saint-Laurent-d’Agny (Rhône), à une vingtaine de kilomètre à l’ouest de Lugdunum, éclaire d’un nouveau jour les modalités du commerce vinaire dans la vallée du Rhône et l’implantation des premiers colons italiques dans la pertica lyonnaise au Ier s. av. J.-C.

The villa in Saint-Laurent-d'Agny/Goiffieux is a testimony to consumption patterns from the late Iron Age to the 3rd century. It is built at the time of the Triumvirate along the italic fashion: it demonstrates in the Augustan period an improvement in the construction techniques and in comfort, but the rupture is far more radical in its third phase when the complex undergoes a thorough reconstruction around a peristyle. In this state, the architectural ornementation includes Mediterranean marble veneer as well as mosaics and painted walls. This conspicuous consumption can also be observed through the furnishing (marble labrum), small finds, bronzes, imported pottery and in diet (animal bones, carpology). Later on, the transformation of the villa emphasizes its economic infrastructure. In the regional context, the site must understood through its relationship with the two colonial poles on which it relied, Lugdunum and Vienna.

The excavations conducted on the site of Goiffieux at
Saint-Laurent-d’Agny, between 2008 and 2011, brought to light
a vast villa belonging to the colony of Lugdunum and occupied
as soon as its foundation in the years 30-40 BC. Mainly devoted
to viticulture, this establishment is equipped at the beginning of
our era with private baths, associated to a small well-preserved
kitchen. In this article functional equipment (hob, bench) are
analysed, as well as food waste found in this area (fauna, plant
remains and pottery assemblages). The kitchen is linked to
water devices that we can identify to a water mill and latrines.
Its masonry hob equipped with vault reserves of fuel, and fed
by the adjacent praefurnium, is a characteristic of urban culinae
known in Campania and there is no equivalent in the Tres Galliae
rural space. It attests to a strong influence of Italic architectural
patterns, which goes together with the adoption of new culinary
practices.

Archaeological evidence and literary sources regarding wine production in Lugdunum territory were for a long time deficient due to the few researches devoted to its hinterland. The ongoing excavation of a vast estate situated in this territory fills the gap: traces
of a vineyard, treading-floor and press installations in use for more than three centuries, between the mid-1rst century BC to the end of the 3rd century AD, have been uncovered. The early date of this establishment, contemporaneous with the colonial foundation towards the end of the Republic, must be pointed out; this region can be considered as the bridgehead to the introduction of viticulture techniques in non Mediterranean Gaul. During the more advanced stage, the exploitation reaches a volume of production which fits to a large scale marketing and a status which can be compared to the great estates in Narbonensis. Theses discoveries provide new prospects and allow a reassessment of the reading of some written sources, of vats and palynological and carpological remains identified within villae, and also of the documentation concerning the Lugdunum amphorae, linked before to a redistribution of bulk imported wine.

Das zwischen 2001 und 2005 ausgegrabene Heiligtum von Corent (Auvergne, F) liegt im Zentrum eines grossen Oppidums, das als Hauptstadt des Arverner-Volkes zu Beginn des I. Jh. v. Chr. identifiziert wird. Seine Befunde und Funde stellen ein Vorbild für weitere, im übrigen Gallien vereinzelt beobachteten Opfer- und Spenderituale der Spätlatènezeit dar. Von der Bauform her entspricht es dem Typ der sog. „belgischen Heiligtümer“ Nordfrankreichs, das in Mittelgallien erstmals belegt ist. Das Kultareal war ursprünglich von einer Holzpalisade, dann von einen monumentalen Portikus von 45 m Seitenlänge umgeben. Es umfasste mehrere, für die Opferhandlungen spezifisch eingerichtete bzw. streng organisierte Kultbauten, die zwischen LT C2/D1 und LT D2 benutzt wurden. „Blutige“ Tieropfer lassen sich durch über 150 000 ausgewählten Tierknochen (mehrheitlich Schaf und Ziege) nachweisen, sowie durch mehrere Einrichtungen und Metallgeräte zur Schlachtung und zur Speisezubereitung. Dazu wurden über fünf Tonnen Amphorenscherben geborgen. Sie weisen auf die wichtige Rolle des importierten Weins im Kultvorgang hin, der z. T. als Opfergabe in Spendebrunnen ausgegossen wurde. Beifunde wie Waffen, Werkzeuge, Menschenschädel, Münzen und Prägestempel sind für ein städtisches bzw. dynastisches Heiligtum kennzeichnend, das von einer oder mehreren, in dessen nähreren Umfeld angesiedelten Familien kontrolliert war. Nach der Aufgabe des Oppidums in nachcäsarischer Zeit bestand das Kultareal bis ins III. Jh. n. Chr. in der Form eines gemauerten Heiligtums gallo-römischen Typs weiter.

The volcanic plateau at Corent, located some 15 km from Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne, France), has become well-known since the early 2000s for the importance of its Neolithic to Iron Age occupation evidence; this has already given rise to several publications. This volume focuses more specifically on the three fortification systems recently discovered as part of a large-scale examination of the site undertaken between 2018 and 2021. Taking evidence obtained during earlier excavations into consideration, these structures can be directly linked to major settlements identified on the plateau and dating to the Middle Neolithic (3rd millennium BC), Late Bronze Age (10th-9th centuries BC) and Late la Tѐne period (2nd-1st centuries BC). Architectural analysis of the structural remains and study of their associated material culture, informed by comparisons at a regional and European scale, provide an insight into the evolution of the defensive systems adopted for this site at different periods. Setting this evidence into context permits an overview of the successive occupation evidence identified from the Neolithic until the end of the Roman period. Contrasting the evidence recovered from the oppidum of Corent with that from other fortified settlements near Clermont-Ferrand also provides the opportunity to examine the links between late Iron Age Corent and the neighbouring sites of Gondole and Gergovia. The problem of identifying the capital of the Arverni in the 1st century B.C. and its involvement in the events described by Caesar at the end of the Gallic War leads to a fresh assessment, underpinned by the results of recent excavations, which melds both archaeological and historical data. Widening the framework, it also leads to a new consideration of late Iron Age urbanism, here envisaged as being far from confined within the ramparts of the oppida, but rather dependent on geography as well as on the enduring memory of landscape inhabitation across the longue durée.

Ce volume d’études regroupe des communications présentées lors de la Commission des Antiquités régionales du XVIIe Congrès de l’Association Guillaume Budé, qui s’est tenu en 2013 à Lyon. Plus de dix ans après la parution du volume lyonnais de la Carte Archéologique de la Gaule, il dresse un bilan des recherches très actives consacrées à la ville antique de Lugdunum et à ses campagnes, creuset de nombreux travaux épigraphiques, historiques et archéologiques menés depuis le XIXe siècle, mais aussi, de l’archéologie préventive telle qu’elle a été mise en oeuvre pour la première fois dans les années 1980.
Des archéologues et des historiens rattachés à diverses institutions — université Lumière Lyon 2, CNRS (ArAr-UMR 5138), École Normale Supérieure, École Française de Rome, Service Régional d’Archéologie de la DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Service archéologique de la Ville de Lyon, Musée gallo-romain de Lyon Fourvière, Archéodunum SA et Evéha — y présentent plusieurs monographies de fouilles en grande partie inédites, ainsi que d’utiles mises au point sur des travaux encore en cours. Mises bout à bout, ces contributions renouvellent profondément notre vision de la topographie lyonnaise durant l’Antiquité, de la fin
de l’époque gauloise jusqu’aux mutations qui l’affectent au début du Moyen-Âge, du centre-ville à son environnement régional, parsemé d’agglomérations secondaires et d’établissements agricoles longtemps méconnus. Au-delà de son apport à la recherche, ce volume est une excellente occasion de faire connaître à un public plus large cette nouvelle vision de Lugdunum forgée par les travaux des dernières décennies.

AHR-38 - Lugdunum et ses campagnes. Actualité de la recherche. Sous la direction de François BÉRARD et Matthieu POUX, 2018, 372 p. coul, 200p. illus. (ISBN : 978-2-35518-064-4)

This study will focus on a pit burial, discovered in 1974 during the construction of a subterranean outbuilding of the Sénat from Paris, rue Vaugirard n°36, in front of the Palais du Luxembourg (fig. 1). The excavations mounted by the Direction des Antiquités Historiques de Paris under the direction of Edmond Servat and Michel Fleury, brought to the fore a domestic and workshop area established on the western margin of the Early Empire town: materialized by strips of soil or spoil heap, two cellars, a kiln and some twenty pits, this settlement was associated with an abundant furniture dated from the reign of Tiberius to the 2nd century A.-D.
One of these pits, registered under number A19, can be easily be recognised because of its isolated position at the centre of the excavation, at the bottom an articulated human skeleton, associated with a bronze belt buckle and with numerous amphorae remains The late context and the absence of restauration of the small finds explain why this whole, dated by the excavators to the reign of Augustus, was not considered in the topic related to the origins of Lutetia. A reevaluation of the finds preserved in depots in the Commission du Vieux Paris, including objects not recognised at the time – an iron sword scabbard, two iron brooches, a bronze coin, iron nails and other ferrous remains, a whetstone, some indigenous pottery sherds and important quantity of animal bones – is the reason for this exhaustive publication.
Pit A19 is 1,35 m in length, and with an initial depth estimated at at least 7m, with a roughly circular section and straight, unbond walls (fig. 11). As most of the pits discovered in the Luxembourg neighbourhood, the aspect of the remains, the absence of stagnation levels and the depth of the water layer exclude a primary use as water pit, extraction or storage well. On the other hand these characteristics are in keying with a series of remains peculiar to this area of ancient Lutetia, made out especially to receive deposits of funerary or votive nature.
The deposits, exactly concentrated at the base of the pit, were sealed by a heap of large stones and amphorae sherds, covered with sandy earth mixed with flint. The position of the human bones, enclosed in an ashy area rich in amphorae sherds and animal remains, is only partially documented: crushed under the weight of the sediments, the skeleton was collapsed against the southern wall of the pit, one leg in extension. (fig.9). A sword sheath along his right leg, to which still adhered traces of textile, a belt buckle on the basin as well as two non localised fibulae, indicate that the body was laid dressed and equipped at the bottom of the pit. It is difficult to evaluate the modalities of the deposition for we lack of more precise taphonomic data: many observations plead for an open air decomposition, followed by the shifting of some bones. The "fractures" mentioned in a first anthropological study were more probably caused by falling stones and by the pressure of the filling than by harsh treatment, the anthropological study having failed to reveal any traces of trauma.
The assemblage of pit A19 is striking for its precocity, betraying a strong indigenous influence missing in most of the earliest contexts discovered to this day in Paris (fig. 108). The homogeneity of the typological facies, based on the combination of different types of la Tène D2 -Dressel 1 amphorae, bent and curved arch fibulae, ladder-scabbard, bronze coin, pedestal- and narrow base urns, dolia, micaceous cover pottery - sets a relatively narrow bracket of dates whose largest limits probably do not exceed the years 60 and 30 B.-C. A burial date not far from the Middle of the 1st century, corresponding to the phase La Tène D2b, equally supports the comparison with many contemporary funerary ensembles.
The chronology of the deposits is tightly related to the question of the identity of the deceased, raised by the closely association of Celtic and Roman military equipment in a same burial (fig.119). The sword-scabbard, distinctive sign of a warlike elite, the richness of the accompanying furniture and the clear reference to wine service, appoint him as a member of the Celtic aristocracy. Much more unusual is the presence of roman military equipment, which seems to be in keeping with, in Northern Gaul, a political context following the conquest - the rare examples of republican weapons prior to this date were found out of context, in secondary position, or in the limits of the Gallia Narbonnensis. This late phenomena in contrast with the conservatism tied to the composition of the Celtic equipment, is here interpreted as a sign of a direct enrolment in the auxiliary units of the roman army: this statute being already put forward for the roughly contemporary burials of Idria pri Baci, Trier-Olewig, Göblingen-Nospelt A and Fontillet whose inventory shows thigh analogies with that of pit A19 (fig. 113 et 117). This composite equipment equally sends back to other later documents and particularly burials or effigies of Early Principate auxiliary soldiers, combining roman cingulum and gaulish tradition sword (fig.114) All this arguments support the identification of pit A19 skeleton as an element of the auxiliary republican cavalry, died in Paris in unknown circumstances.
The interpretation of this whole is left open because of lack of direct comparison elements. A detritic origin of the deposits, already excluded at the time of the discovery in 1974, is naturally confirmed by this study. The hypothesis of a funerary deposit is supported by the offerings, whose composition, clearly previously selected, sends directly back to those from the late Iron Age aristocratic burials. With the exception of their context, the deposit of the Senat, seem to fit in a local tradition of warriors burials. The use of inhumation is not a totally isolated phenomena on a local scale, the incomplete offerings fit with the practices of pars pro toto frequently observed in contemporary burials. The situation of the deposits sends back to other types of remains much less known as the so called "relegation" tombs of Northern Gaul and the “ritual shafts” of South-west France. If pit A19 is related to them in many ways a tight comparison is confronted with numerous obstacles: the negative turn attached to the first concept reduces this kind of ensembles to simple rubbish tips used to hide the bodies of the lower social classes, that is not the case here. The usual absence of human skelettons in the series of the "amphorae pits" of the South-west and the rest of Gaul is another obstacle to a closer comparison . The unusual position of the body and the disorder of the deposits fits with other possibilities, going from a hastily prepared grave to a secondary burial, implying putting back bones and offerings exposed to the open air. Finally, the particular context of pit A19 in an area marked by votive observances lasting more than three centuries, as well as some details, like the traces of decomposition of the body in open air and the absence of the sword, do not allow to exclude a ritual interpretation: the hypothesis of a sacrifice or execution, is not to be totally set aside even if there is no anthropological evidence.
The consequences of this discovery on a local scale are examined at the end of this volume. Because of its perfectly closed character, pit Al9 represents the first undeniable trace of a frequentation of the site before the foundation of roman Lutetia, at the end of the first century B.-C. Its date, theoretically contemporary to Caesar’s account in 52 B.-C., is proper to revive the debate on the localisation of the oppidum of the Parisii. The isolated position of pit A19, on the margins of the roman town, does not plead for a synchronous occupation of the left bank of the Seine. As in pit A19 the oldest facies brought to light, the first settlement levels of the roman town do not go back beyond the most recent la Tene D2 phase, posterior to the Gaulish War. The presence of early military small finds at some hundred thousand meters of the Luxembourg, Montagne Sainte Genevieve, do raise many questions evoked as an epilogue; submitted to discussion, pit A19 example, represents only an element of a new research perspective dedicated to the military and civilian origins of the capital of the Parisii.

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Un cadavre, deux enquêtes, menées à deux millénaires d’écart. Dans une bourgade de Gaule romaine, des moissonneurs butent sur un corps décapité aux doigts brûlés, gisant dans un fossé. Sur sa poitrine repose une poupée en ivoire, enroulée dans un rouleau de plomb, sans tête elle aussi. L'édile du bourg, Caius Julius Sénovir, se rend sur place pour procéder aux premières constatations. Deux mille ans plus tard, dans la banlieue de Lyon, un squelette sans tête est retrouvé sous un futur parking. L’archéologue Karin Olafson est appelée sur le chantier. Un étrange hasard de l'Histoire fait de Caius et de Karin les co-enquêteurs d'un même crime, commis dans un monde dévasté par la guerre, où les affairistes, les militaires et les coupeurs de têtes dictent leur loi ; un monde en pleine mutation, où les derniers Gaulois n’ont d’autre choix que se frotter aux bienfaits de la civilisation, ou de se terrer dans les collines. Le récit d’une conquête de l'Ouest avant la lettre, qui entraîne le lecteur dans les coulisses de l’Histoire et de ses petites histoires du quotidien, pétries dans la boue séchée et les tréfonds de l’âme humaine.