CONDATOMAGOS
(Millau) Aveyron, France.
1. On the left bank of the Tarn downstream from the
junction of the Dourbie is the plain of La Graufesenque,
which corresponds to the ancient site of Condatomagos.
In the 1st c. A.D. it was one of the largest centers of production of Gallo-Roman terra sigillata. Its potters numbered several hundred. They sold their vases on a large scale in all Gaul, in Germany, Britain, and even in Italy,
Spain, and Africa. Excavations in the last few years have
shown that the potters originally made a ware that was
not true terra sigillata in a time of trial and error at
the end of the reign of Augustus. Their first true terra
sigillata vases were directly inspired by Italic types; besides the common forms, Drag. 29, 30, 37, they also produced the Drag. 11 chalice and large lagenae. Some six thousand stamps have been collected since 1965; these
revise completely the list of La Graufesenque potters and
illustrate the diversity of their signatures. It remains to
be discovered where the first potters came from and what
technical and commercial reasons dictated their settlement at the junction of the Tarn and the Dourbie. The
site did not have, moreover, a monopoly of production.
Kilas of late date, which fired debased sigillata, have
been found on the right bank of the Tarn on the outskirts of Millau.
2. On a prominent headland of the Larzac, the oppidum of La Grinède (or La Granède) is a promontory
fort which dominates from a great height the plain of
La Graufesenque and the valley of the Tarn. New investigations were conducted there from 1957 to 1965. Its
original, dry-stone fortifications seem to be later than the
Hallstat period and contemporary to the second Iron
Age. It was repaired, reinforced, and given masonry walls
at the end of Roman times. Inside the enclosure occupation of the site seems to have been continuous from the end of the Iron Age culture on. A Gallo-Roman fanum with remains of mosaics and painted stuccos has been
identified, as well as a building with an apse which must correspond to the mediaeval establishment of the Mas de Tolzieu.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. F. Hermet,
La Graufesenque (Condatomagos) 2 vols. (1934), an older work but still fundamental; completed by A. Albenque,
Inv. de l'archéologie gallo-romaine du département de l'Aveyron (1947) 83-88, no. 187 & pls. II-III; id.,
Les Rutènes (1948) 48-55;
L. Balsan, “Les fouilles de La Graufesenque au XIX
e
siècle,”
P.V. de la Soc. des Lettres de l'Aveyron 39
(1968) 71-77.
Reports on excavations 1950-54: L. Balsan, “Reprise
des fouilles à La Graufesenque (Condatomagos), campagne de 1950,”
Gallia 7 (1950) 1-13; A. Albenque,
P.V. de la Soc. des Lettres de l'Aveyron 36 (1949-53)
141-49; L. Balsan, ibid. 36 (1949-53) 198-200, 248-53;
37 (1954-58) 6-15, 65-70 (=
Rev. du Rouergue, 8
[1954] 44-51, 399-404).
Reports on excavations 1965-72: L. Balsan, “Recherches archéologiques autour de Condatomago en
1965,”
Rev. du Rouergue 19 (1965) 403-15 (=
P.V. de
la Soc. des Lettres de l'Aveyron 39 (1968); id., “Recherches archéologiques autour de Condatomago (campagne de 1966),”
Rev. d'études millavoises, no. 8 (1966)
23-27; id., “Observations sur quelques estampilles de
potiers de La Graufesenque,”
Rev, arch. du Centre 9
(1970) 99-109; M. Labrousse in
Gallia 24 (1966) 412-15 & figs. 3-6; 26 (1968) 517-21 & figs. 1-6; 28 (1970)
398-402 & figs. 2-9; 30 (1972) 472-76
I.
Studies of graffiti subsequent to Hermet: A. Albenque,
“Nouveaux graffites de La Graufesenque,”
Rev. des
études anciennes 53 (1951) 71-81 & pls. IV-V; A. Aymard, “Nouveaux graffites de La Graufesenque,” ibid. 54
(1952) 93-101 & pls. VIII-IX; 55 (1953) 126-31 & pl. VI;
P.-M. Duval & R. Marichal, “Un compte d'enfournement
inédit de La Graufesenque,”
Méanges . . . André Piganiol (1966) 1341-52.
2. On the promontory fort: L. Balsan in
Rev. du
Rouergue 5 (1951) 531-33; A. Soutou, “Un habitat de
la civilisation des Champs d'Urnes: la Serre de la
Granède,”
Actes du XIVe Congrès d'études régionales de la Fédération des Sociétés académiques et savantes de
Languedoc-Pyrénées-Gascogne (14-16 juin 1958) 73-79;
L. Soonckindt, “Les fouilles de la Grinède,”
P.V. de la
Soc. des Lettres de l'Aveyron 39 (1968) 4-10. Cf. M. Labrousse in
Gallia 17 (1959) 410-12 & fig. 2; 20 (1962) 550-51; 24 (1966) 415.
M. LABROUSSE
