dAf 36
RALSTON Ian B.M.
Les enceintes fortifiées du Limousin
Les habitats protohistoriques de la France non méditerranéenne
What is known about the settlement sites of non-Mediterranean Gaul at the end of the Iron Age ? Relatively little compared to our knowledge of contemporary sites near the Mediterranean littoral. This study, based on a regional inventory of the settlement sites of Limousin, is a contribution to filling that gap. The author considers archaeological, numismatic and historical data from Corrèze, Creuse and Haute- Vienne in relation to information from other regions of France, and proposes an analysis of Gaulish society and political structures in the immediately pre-Conquest period. The study is avowedly regionalist in perspective and offers a critique of earlier, broader-scale models of change during this period.
Abstract
Abstract
This work is based on a doctoral thesis, sustained at the University of Edinburgh in 1983.
Chapters 1 and 2 endeavour to set the research, the primary focus of which is on the late Iron Age, into context. Previous studies, which draw on the archaeology of settlement sites with particular reference to the problems of socio-political development during the last two centuries BC, are discussed. It is argued that generalising statements on this period often overreach the database on which they are founded; hence the need for further regional reviews, to which the present work is one contribution. Other difficulties that are identified in the study of the later Iron Age include the significance accorded to the presence of imported materials; and the treatment of coinage.
The later prehistoric record for Limousin is summarised from published sources. Finds, primarily from the excavation of burial sites, demonstrate a rich regional culture in the later stages of the First Iron Age. Artefacts belonging to the early part of the Second Iron Age are conspicuous by their rarity. The evidence for coin finds from Limousin is summarised.
An account of the physical and vegetational geography of the region is given. The latter, particularly the expansion of forest at the expense of heathland since the 19th century, is particularly pertinent to fieldwork strategies for the identification of further sites. The predominantly upland character of the region is relevant to the possible nature of its Iron Age societies. Mention is made of the metal resources of the region.
Chapters 3, 4 and 5 present preliminary surveys and critical evaluations of the published evidence for settlement sites from the departments of Correze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne. The differing research objectives in the three departments since the pioneering days of the 19th century are outlined.
Only the seemingly more significant sites, from the 200+ considered in the thesis on which this account is based, are treated here. Whilst the accent is on fortified sites, other types (with the exclusion of funerary ones) are included where relevant. Sites are examined individually, in a gazetteer arranged by commune. La Tene III emerges as the most widely represented Iron Age period on the settlement sites of Limousin, but excavation evidence obtained to modem standards, remains relatively sparse. Many enclosed sites remain formally undated.
Chapters 6 and 7 attempt to set the data accrued for Limousin into a wider framework, essentially that of non- Mediterranean France. The focus of this section is substantially on the later pre- Roman Iron Age. Settlement types are considered with particular reference to the integration of archaeological and historical data. Fortification types, being the kind of evidence most widely available at present for non-Mediterranean France, are accorded extensive treatment. Evidence for the nature and extent of settlement within enclosed sites is currently paltry in Limousin, compared with better-studied parts of the country; there are no plans derived from area excavations.
Small rectilinear enclosures are discussed with particular reference to the Viereckschanzen series increasingly identified in non-Mediterranean Gaul ; it is concluded that some Limousin examples may, belong to this category. The patchy evidence for unenclosed settlement is also reviewed.
The principal question tackled is whether the available evidence from the territory of the Lemovices is sufficient to demonstrate whether the apparatus of the archaic state had developed in Limousin prior to the Roman Conquest. To this end, consideration is given to the historical record contained in De Bello Gallico; techniques culled from geography are also employed. Comparanda are introduced, primarily from Berry, but also from other sectors of non- Mediterranean France as appropriate. The settlement record of Limousin in the late Iron Age is dominated by the huge site of Villejoubert (Haute-Vienne); other certain sites of this period are generally small, with few examples exceeding 10 ha in area. Such a pattern contrasts with that identified in some other civitates in non- Mediterranean Gaul.
The conclusion reached in Chapter 8 is that it may prove difficult to distinguish between the existence of archaic states and other forms of socio-political organisation in non-Mediterranean France prior to the Roman Conquest on the basis of archaeological data, and its juxtaposition with historical and numismatic information. Further quantification of the data, and the setting of thresholds where appropriate, may be of assistance in future. ln the case of the Lemovices, it is argued that presently-available information is insufficient to prove that an archaic state existed in this civitas prior to the Roman Conquest
