dAf 38
BÉMONT Colette, JEANLIN Micheline, LAHANIER Christian
Les figurines en terre cuite gallo-romaines
For the first time since the publications of A. Blanchet at the beginning of the century, about fifty french and foreigners archaeologists have reviewed research on gallo-roman pipe-clay figurines; produced in moulds and commercialised from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. Are studied here successively: the workshops, production techniques, coroplathes, iconographical inventories, chronology, the origins and use of the figurines, their distribution in and outside France. The results of physico-chemical analysis of clays which should in the future help in the identification of the principal workshops and an expert system applied to the identification of figurine fragments are finally presented. This considerable mass of informations will for many years be a reference base.
Abstract
Abstract
Introduction
Figurines have aroused the curiosity of lovers of antiquities since the beginning of the 19th century, but it was only a little before 1900 that A. Blanchet gave their study a systematic and scientific foundation; the the mes that he then defined have served as the basis for most of the subsequent studies. Since 1970, great progress has been made: the most remarkable concern the morphological classification of the statuettes, the discovery of production sites that were either only suspected or totally unknown, and the dating of the material. The analysis of the fabrics is in progress. Some of the remaining gaps in this workhave beenpartially filled thanks to two scientific investigationsthat were organizedat the sametime as the Paris round-table.Apart from the discoveryof figurines quite different from the best knownones, those of the Center,a considerationof the global problems posedby the material has enabledus to approachthe question of the origins of this industry in Gaulon a muchsurer footing.
1. The workshops
Many workshops were already known and others suspected for some time, but there was no recent methodical description of these sites. However, in recent years, chance finds have allowed us to verify the existence of certain workshops, but also to discover new ones in Burgundy, Armorica, and in the South-West. This volume brings together in a similar format 25 different accounts which present either the description of a workshop or a critical review of the evidence for a production site. This uniform presentation brings out the very variable level of our knowledge, depending on the regions and the sites. Amongst other reasons, the inventory of the coroplathes and the iconographical models presented for each workshop should incite us to develop site monographes.
2. General problems
Six articles take stock of various general questions. Written by searchers from different sectors, they sometimes tackle these problems from unusual angles. Each of these successive themes (fabrication, coroplasts, indexes, chronology, origins, and utilisation), allow us either to assemble a sum of data or to propose new research directions. Thus, we have here the totality of the makers signatures known at the moment, whilst short notices present us with the major chronological innovations. On the other hand, the problems posed by the fabrication or the attribution of iconographical models are still at the methodological stage. The problem of where were they first made is approached for the first time from a study of pre-Roman practices and the function of the material, treated experimentally on a sample using a microcomputer. This has ledto a suspicionthat there are regional particularities which might be confirmed by a methodical extension of the inventories.
3. Distribution of the figurines in France
With the help of about thirty archaeologists, a pre-inventory has been established for the majority of the French departments, which, however cannot pretend to be exhaustive, given the short time available and the difficulties of getting access to the material. Collected into regional groups, greater or lesser depending on the possibilities open to the investigators, the material has been the object of a general presentation and a uniform cartography. Despite the gaps, this census can at least furnish data on the relative abundance of the material and on the variety of the products (white or otherwise) depending on the place and the time. The dispersion and the diversity of the illustrated types has forced us to retain as being comparable from one region to another only the total numbers of figurines (sorted by site) of the most common types : the Venuses and the Mother-Goddesses. Because of their rarity, the other types are much less well documented.
4. Distribution of the figurines outside France
Six studies provide an inventory of work done in the regions importing figurines of Gaulish origin. The number and the selective distribution of the samples in Switzerland and in Belgium allows the determination of either an evolution in the clientèle or the sharing of the sales area with other workshops. On the other hand, the abundant material found in Eastern Europe along the Bregentz-Salzburg-Enns road provides us with a basic chronology. Holland and Luxembourg seem to have been little touched by this material, apparently due to the competion of the Rhenish workshops. Finally, Britain furnishes a varied and abundant material linked above all to the proximity of ports and roads.
5. Problems of method
The three reports presented in this chapter are closely linked to the history of the study of the figurines. Several hundred analyses have been carried out in a rather discontinuous fashion, and the first article presents the advantages and disadvantages of the different techniques used taking into account establishment of the workshops. The second article looks into the methods used to exploit simultaneously the analyses carried out in different laboratories. The last article, using a small sam pie, demonstrates the possibility of using an expert system to automatically identify figurines based on a very detailed morphological analysis.
