dAf 57
GUILLAUMET Jean-Paul
Bibracte
Bibliographie et plans anciens
This volume presents over 400 descriptive bibliographical notices of articles published between 1840 and 1991 as well as the manuscripts of 70 plans and surveys carried out between 1627 and 1914. The first part, devoted to the bibliography, is organised into three chapters : the first and most important bring together titles having a direct relationship with excavations ; the second concerns the polemic, debated between 1841 and 1988, surrounding the position of Bibracte within the Eduen territory ; the third regroups guides, notes on excursions, meeting and general publications. The second part of the volume brings together plans, a syntesis of several hundred manuscripts for which the originals are difficult to read and reproduce due to their bad state of conservation. These documents, of which certain are little known or unpublished, make this volume a precious working tool for all those who are interested in questions related to late Celtic civilisation and the beginning of romanisation.
Abstract
Abstract
Preface
The site of ancient Bibracte, the capital of a Gallic people, the Aedui, was rediscovered on the massif of Mont Beuvray, some 27 km from Autun, in the middle of the 19th century. Research on the site was primarily undertaken successively by Jacques-Gabriel Bulliot and Joseph Déchelette. These two scholars authored excavation reports which have become the standard reference works for the site. Aside from these publications, however, much of the literature on Bibracte, disseminated in periodicals and reviews, is difficult to locate and thus substantially unknown.
This survey had been organised in two Parts : bibliographic references (over 400 items) and plans. The bibliography comprises three components. Of these, the first includes all publications dealing with excavations at, and research on, the site from 1840 until1991. The second is devoted to books and articles concerned with the competing claims entered for the location of this Aeduan oppidum. Guides, accounts of visits by learned societies and of events that took place on the site between 1851 and 1991 make up the third element, which also includes all the general works which deal with Bibracte. Part II of the work is concerned with all the plans (including those not previously published) of the excavations undertaken by Bulliot and Déchelette. An appendix lists the present locations of the manuscripts and of the artefacts found in these excavations.
Part 1 - The bibliography (1840-1991)
1. Published academic monographs and journal articles
All publications concerned with the excavations, the structures and finds recovered, and associated research from 1840 to 1991 are considered here. "Grey literature", such as dissertations, theses and typescript reports, is included. Each bibliographic notice is complemented by a list of illustrations, including full citation of their captions and reference to the relevant page numbers. For each entry, a brief summary identifies the location of the excavations discussed, and the structures and material culture found there.
2. The dispute over the location of Bibracte (1850-1987)
Following their identification of Bibracte with Mont Beuvray, J.-G. Bulliot and his colleagues were the subject of polemical and vindictive attacks, the publication of which reached a frenzy between 1865 and 1868. Thereafter, attempts to locate this important settlement elsewhere enjoyed little support. For this section, the bibliographic references(which otherwise match the criteria described above) are ordered chronologically in order to make the evolution of the debate more readily comprehensible.
3. General works and guides, records of visits and events, catalogues, etc.
This section comprises guides which deal in general terms with the site, records of visits by learned societies, and of events that were held on it. Also included are works of synthesis and of reference, including encyclopaedias and popularizing articles in quality magazines. Novels are noted. The bibliographies of both J.-G. Bulliot and J. Déchelette are listed. Articles appearing in national or regional newspapers have been excluded.
Part II - Early plans of the site (1627-1914)
The unpublished plans of the site, whilst essential to the fuller understanding of the literature on Bibracte, have been all but unusable because of their condition and due to the fact that they are physically dispersed. Initially an inventory of these plans was compiled, and each plan was copied at its original scale ; where several versions of the same plan are known, they were compared and synthesised. The 70 plans presented here are thus the product of the consultation of about a hundred unpublished versions. Practical constraints mean that for this .publication the plans have been reduced to fit either A4 or A3 paper, and the use of colour has been restricted to red and black. The legends have been similarly treated. A note accompanying each plan provides the general title of the plan and a description of it, as well as catalogue entries for each version that has been identified and information on where it is held. The location of each plan is marked on a general site plan, and sector plans of the site allow details rapidly to be set into the context of the whole site. The general plans of Beuvray are treated first.
