LA CANOURGUE
or Cadoule, Lozère, France.
A Gallo-Roman site known as Ron de Gleïso in the
commune of La Canourge, in the NW section of the
Sauveterre plateau on the top of a hill 850 m high. One
km from the site is an ancient road linking Banassac-La
Canourgue to Chanac and Grèzes.
The site consists of dwellings scattered on the summit
and the W and S slopes of the hill. The dwellings are
rectangular and divided into two sections along the long
axis of the settlement. One section is for artisans, the
other, which is subdivided, is simply residential. The
walls here are of a regular masonry, mortared rubble
faced with small blocks. Traces of an earlier occupation
have been noted below these remains and elsewhere. The
site was inhabited at the beginning of the 1st c. B.C. and
finally abandoned at the end of the 4th c. A.D. There is
a distinct hiatus in the 3d c.
A number of fibulae of the Late Iron Age, a bowl fragment with a repeated inscription, CATTIOS, bowls with a
white slip and geometric decoration, and coins of the
Arveni provide evidence of the first occupation. Among
the finds of the Roman period are a lifesize sculpture of
the head of a woman, many bowls of terra sigillata from
Banassac, various bronze and bone objects, and coins. All
these objects are in the archaeological depot at La Canourgue.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Chantier de Cadoule,” in H. Vigarié,
Fouilles du groupe d'archéologie antique du Touring
Club de France; “Banassac-La Canourgue, Août 1961,”
Revue du Gévaudan (1961) 30; ibid. (1963) 80, 167,
190 (Roman villa); P. Peyre,
Les habitats de “Ron de
Gleïso,” commune de La Canourgue, Lozère (mimeo
1966); id., “Ensemble Gallo-romain de Ron de Gleïso,
Cadoule,”
Revue du Gévaudan (1968) 99-135;
Gallia
27, 2 (1969) 413-14.
P. PEYRE
