BRIOU: CHATEAU DE CHATILLON
Loir et Cher,
France.
The site of the Chateau de Chatillon
is near the E edge of the Forêt de Marchenoir, ca. 1500
m N of the village of Briou. It consists of a trapezoidal
rampart very close to the rectangle (155 x 120 m)
formed by a ditch and a mound. Excavations carried out
since 1967 date the site with certainty from Iron Age
III. It is therefore one of the many Gallic camps dating
from the end of the period of independence that are to
be found chiefly on the outskirts of cities, particularly in
wooded areas. In this case the Forêt de Marchenoir,
which seems to have existed in antiquity, marked the
boundary between the Carnutes and the Turones; it is
now close to the line between the departments of Loir
et Cher and Loiret. Many other ramparts of the same
type have been found there.
The Chateau de Chatillon, however, differs from other
Celtic fortifications in one respect: inside the rampart is
a large structure dating from late antiquity that has no
connection with the Gallic vallum, which it partly cuts
across. The building has not been fully excavated, but it
is a rectangular structure with an inner colonnade set
parallel on all four sides: part of the area bounded by
the colonnade is covered with a somewhat crude geometric mosaic that can be dated stylistically to the 3d c.
A.D. The building does not seem to be a private house;
nor can it be a Christian church, although its plan puts
it in the basilica family. Coins found there indicate that
it was destroyed in the invasions of the second half of
the 3d c. Thus it may well be a frontier basilica. From
these basilicas is derived the name Bazoches, Bazoges or
Bazouches, common in French toponymy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Jullian,
REA (1923) 257-58; A.
Grenier,
Manuel d'archépologie gallo-romaine II, 1 (1934)
Les routes, 200, no. 4.
G. C. PICARD
