ABALLO
(Avallon) Yonne, France.
Called
Aballo in the
Peutinger Table, its location at the edge
of limestone and granite deposits and its proximity to the
Agrippan road made it a much-frequented place in antiquity. Statues, pottery, and coins have been found by
chance in the town itself, and two pink marble columns
from an unknown temple were reused in the church of
St-Martin du Bourg.
The Roman city has been located on a rocky spur
overlooking the Cousin valley. A temple of the 1st c. A.D.
was discovered in the 19th c. It consists of a room (17 m
square) surrounded by a gallery that contained the remains of some fine white marble statues (among them a
head of Minerva) and fragments of an incomplete dedication. The god that was worshiped here has not been
identified: the inscription was long thought to be a dedication to Mercury, but a recent study has suggested that
the god's name begins with NURC or NERC. . . .
Avallon has a local museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Parat,
Le temple romain du Montmartre (1928); B. Lacroix,
Dieux gaulois et romains de
la vallée de la Cure (1970).
B. LACROIX
J. M. SIMON
