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dAf 77

BOURGEOIS Luc

Le sanctuaire rural de Bennecourt (Yvelines).

Du temple celtique au temple gallo-romain

Established where the Île-de-France region meets Normandy, the rural sanctuary in Bennecourt was occupied from the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD. Excavations carried out from 1982 to 1988 have revealed the gradual progression from a Gallic enclosure housing a small building on pillars, to a vast peribolus surrounding three stone temples. A set of secondary features and an abundant collection of artefacts (close to 25,000 objects and fragments) have been preserved, making this a reference site for northern Gaul. After a detailed study of the structures and the artefacts, the author Luc Bourgeois presents an overview that suggests some directions for research on Celtic cuIt structures and their evolution in Gallo -Roman era : a nuanced approach to architectural filiation, aspects of sacrificial cooking, and the place occupied by this type of site in a regional framework.

Abstract

Abstract

Chapter 1 : The structures and their chronology

The Butte du Moulin à Vent site in Bennecourt (Yvelines) was excavated in the course of a programmed operation from 1982 to 1988. The evolution of this site devoted to religious activity from the end of the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD has been elucidated, despite the fact that part of the vestiges had been heavily razed.

Excepting three metallic objects dated to the transition between the first and the second Iron Age, the first occupation of the site dates do the La Tène C2/D1 period, when a small dug-out enclosure was built. The eastern end was not completed, and a vast pit in the middle was preceded by a excavated access path. This structure was covered later by a building supported by six pillars (phase Ia-d). The ditch, which was cleared out at least once, was filled in by heaps of vestiges brought from both inside and outside the enclosure.

The site was occupied again from the La Tène D2 period as attested by occasional improvements to the enclosure and its immediate surroundings (phase Ie). Structures used for combustion seem to prefigure the central foyers of the two sanctuaries established during the time of Augustus (phase II). These two cellae were rebuilt in masonry under Tiberius Claudius and surrounded by a vast peribolus (phase III).

The site as a whole was significantly transformed in the first half of the 2nd century (phase IV). One od the cellae was turned into a fanum by adding a podium and a peripheral gallery; the central pit of the Gallic sanctuary was scraped out and surrounded by a structure that is reminiscent of a triclinium, and the peribolus was enriched by a gallery and an access building. A new square building was put up in the middle of the cult area during a final round of construction (phase Ivc).

The long decline of the Bennecourt sanctuary began at the end of the 3rd century (phase V). The multiplication of miscellaneous structures in the gallery of the fanum came first, then the roofs caved in and the mansonry fell to ruins around 350 AD. During the Valentinian epoch the recovery of materials began to be organised, but coins or small ornaments continued to be deposited from time to time. The latest evidence found at the site is a coin dating from 383-387.

Chapter 2 : Description of the artefacts

The catalogue describing over one thousand pieces is accompanied by overviews of the fauna and ancient ceramics.

Twice filled in, the phase I ditch has yielded a rich collection of objects that includes a set of at least 161 vases, a few arms and tools, four series of potins (coins of low value), a broad rand of ornaments (beads and rings, bracelets and fibulae) and an exceptional limestone statuette of a bird. Nearly 13,000 bone fragments have been inventoried. Of these, 65.8 % are pig bones, followed by goats (29.2 %) and a small number of other domesticated and wild mammals, birds and fish. A single human vestige is attested. The anatomical parts were carefully selected (absence of foot bones, large proportion of pig skulls). All of these remains - excepting the human and horse remains - had been consumed.

The artefacts from the Gallo-Roman periods include most notably several hundred coins of low denomination, many ornaments and a few cult objects (statuettes, apotropaic objects). The fauna found is fairly similar to that in the Gallic layers up to the late Empire, when a charge is discernible (a larger propostion of birds, pig feet more frequent).

Chapter 3 : Overview

Even though its dimensions are modest, the Latenian sanctuary in Bennecourt possesses significant analogies with the Celtic cult structures identified over the last two decades in norther Gaul. The systematic dismantling of this site also has parallels. While the re-emerging sanctuary of the La Tène D2 period does not math the preceding cult area and gives precedence to combustion structures, which were unobstrusive in earlier periods, certain secondary features are reminiscent of the Celtic sanctuary, up through the end of the early Empire.

Likewise, the progressive mutation towards a small rural Gallo-Roman sanctuary allows us to weight the roles of tradition and of innovation respectively in this type of monument, and reveals specific characteristics (geminated temples, late emergence of a “classical” fanum).

The artefacts also stimulate fresh thinking about the utilisation of objects and animals in this setting, particularly in relation to the presence of monetary substitutes or talismans, the mutilation ob objects, the relationships between habitat and sanctuary in sacrificial practice.

The last section takes a look at the Bennecourt sanctuary in its surroundings. Built along the border between two cities, and probably between several pagi, the sanctuary was near three oppida. The moneraty series found confirm the existence of several zones of regional influence. The Gallo-Roman sanctuary appears to have had a more local impact. The decline during the late Empire is analysed in the general context of religious history and via changes in the way land was used around the site.

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