dAf 53
GARMY Pierre et MAURIN Louis
Enceintes romaines d'Aquitaine : Bordeaux, Dax, Périgueux, Bazas
Considered as the result of the barbarian invasions in 275 AD, four late roman town defences have been examinated here, Bordeaux, Dax, Périgueux and Bazas. The caracteristics of each one depend on its past, on its role during the late roman period, on the various solutions adopted by the constructors and the date to witch one can attribute the defences. However, in their general conception, the construction methods of the rampart, the details of organization of defensive structures (positioning of tower, small numbers of gates, absence of ditches, abundance or rarety of reused building materials), these fortified towns do not represent individual cases but take their place within a system of defence created at different dates between the gallic empire and the end of roman domination in south-west Gaul.
Abstract
Abstract
Introduction
P. GARMY, L. MAURIN
The study of late roman urban defences is reconsidered here for south-west Gaul. The choice of four urban centres, Bordeaux, Dax, Périgueux and Bazas was made because of their position within the same modern administrative area concerning archaeology (the region of Aquitaine). Not only did it provide notable facilities for this study, but this region also offered an appropriate setting during this period of Antiquity and reflects well the opposition which existed between the civitas capitals of the north and those of the native population to the south. Within these two large geographical are as, towns show no regularity : the four civitas . capitals chosen are each very different types of late fortified town.
1. Bordeaux
D. BARRAUD, J. LlNÈRES, L. MAURIN
The plan of the defences of Bordeaux, a nearly regular rectangle is due, apparently, to a predetermined choice made before their implantation: the architects wishing to enclose the course of the river Devèze and the port of Bordeaux by organising an area nearly equal to the main east-west axis. The position of the rampart and the construction technique of the wall itself are well known, except on the eastern side along the Garonne, where the liaison between the inner port and the river remains unclear. The positions and construction technique of the towers, and more particularly the gates are often uncertain. Regardless of the importance that the 4th century town conserved, the most important part of the early roman town notably the civic centre, was outside the ramparts and abandoned, the areas close to the defences being reoccupied by buildings only in the late 4th century.
2. Dax
L. MAURIN, B. WATIER, M.-C. MÉLENDEZ collab.
The defences of Dax were constructed on the same site as the early roman town, a point that distinguishes it from the ramparts of other civitas capitals of Novempopulania. They enclose the largest part of the early agglomeration. The ramparts of Dax should be on principal well known, for large sections still existed during and up until the middle of the 19th century. As a result, its position is well known and attested on early town plans and elements have survived; in the construction of the rampart one should note that reused building material is rare, by contrast with Bordeaux and Périgueux. It is only in detail that elements remain unclear, in particular that concerning the gates. Dating: second half of the 4th century.
3. Périgueux
C. GIRARDY-CAILLAT
The defences of Périgueux enclose a small area of 5.5 ha on the highest part of the early roman town. Situated on the right bank of the river Isle, within a meander. It englobed the amphitheatre which formed an important strong point to the north. More than half of the defensive perimeter is still visible today. Constructed mostly from reused material from public buildings, the rampart is on average 6 m thick and 8 m in elevation. The defensive wall comprises 23 sections separated by 24 towers consolidated by earth. Three gates control the entries to the inner town, which conserved its earlier urban layout. Recent observations place the construction of the rampart in the first half of the 4th century.
4. Sazas
L. MAURIN, J.-F.PICHONNEAU collab. Our knowledge of the defences of Bazas, constructed during the late roman period has been recently re-actualised by excavations carried out in 1990 and 1991 by J.-F. Pichonneau in particular near the south west corner of the cathedral. An element of rampart, known before only from the famous text of Paulin de Pella, can now be positioned with more certainty and therefore reducing earlier presumptions. Seen its topographical situation on a rocky eminence, its exiguity, the construction technique used (no reuse of building material), the defences of Bazas are comparable to those which are known in other civitas capitals of Novempopulania, with the exception of Dax.
5. Town planning and urban defences
P. GARMY, M. GUY
Map and photointerpretation methods have been called on here to define the principal planned urban systems and precise the limits within which the rampart was positioned. This preliminary approach has enabled simple questions concerning the positioning of defences within the pre-existing urban tissue : did the rampart take into account the earlier street grid within which it was placed and did it engender new forms of urban layout ? The reply is evidently not uniform : to an earlier urban layout, much more complex than previously imagined, corresponds a series of solutions to the conception of the rampart and give life to the new agglomeration.
Conclusion
P. GARMY, L. MAURIN
The study highlights for these four defensive systems the different phases in the choice of position, the area enclosed, the construction technique and the dating that can be proposed. In reality, each one could be placed in a defence system elaborated at different periods. To the north of the Garonne, if Bordeaux contrasts with Périgueux by size and topography, the construction details bring closer together the two fortresses and each particularity, for example the ornamentation of the Mars gate at Périgueux, situates them as the result of municipal tradition of the early roman period; their construction having taken place within a vast programme of defence between the Garonne and the Rhine elaborated during the gallic empire and continuing up until the first half of the 4th century. Bazas offers another type of defence specify to Novempopulania where the rampart, in a dominant position, appears to join the earlier town and not replace it; this system could be situated during the last decades of the roman occupation in the region. It is between these two periods that one must place the construction of the defences at Dax, which are not at all comparable with those of Bayonne.
