BANASSAC
Lozère, France.
in the ancient
territory of the Gabales, Banassac lies on what is now
the boundary of the departments of Aveyron and Lozère,
at the confluence of the Lot and the Urugne beside Route
Nationale 9.
Local craftsmen were attracted to the site at the beginning of the 1st c. A.D. by the quality of the clay, the proximity of the Causses forests, and the plentiful supply of
water. Besides ordinary ware, they turned out painted
bowls with a white slip and geometric patterns. The arrival of the Gallo-Roman potters, however, and especially
their novel technique, enabled Banassac to change from
a local craft workshop to a true center of industrial production.
These artisans came from La Graufesenque and settled
in the Urugne Valley about the middle of the 1st c. A.D.,
setting up a secondary workshop. The wares were exported as far as Budapest, Antioch on the Orontes,
Poland, North Africa, and England.
The Banassac workshops were active from A.D. 60 to
190, with marked growth taking place between 70 and
120. The export area shrank little by little after 150, although Banassac ware crops up again at Javols in a
stratum dating from 190.
An archaeological depot is under construction, where
all the finds will be housed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Excavation reports:
Bull. Soc. Lozère
(1860) 47-317; Balmelle, in
Cévennes Républicaines, 27
Feb. 1938;
Compte-rendu du groupe d'archéologie antique du T.C.F. (mimeo 1962);
Revue du Gévaudan
(1962) 180;
Gallia 24, 2 (1966) 482.
“Haches et monnaies romaines,”
Bull. Soc. Lozère
(1839) 158;
Congrès archéologique, Mende (1857) 29;
Fabre,
Bull. Soc. Lozère (1875) 33; (1899) 136; (1900)
62; J. Barbot, “Zigs-Zags en Lozère,” ibid. (1901); J.
Déchelette,
Les vases céramiques ornés de la Gaule
romaine (1904) 117;
Bull. Soc. Lozère (1906) Chroniques et Mélanges; C. Morel, “Céramique à Strasbourg,” ibid. (1947) 280; (1948) 363; id. in H. Boullier de
Baranche,
Feuda Gabalarum I, app. 1; id., “Quelques
aspects des céramiques Gallo-romaines de Banassac (Lozère),”
Revue du Gévaudan (1968) 78-86; id. & P. Peyre, “Les exportations des céramiques sigillées de
Banassac en Provence et dans les pays Rhodaniens,”
Provence Historique (1968) 66-76; P. Peyre, “Autour de
Banassac-La Canourgue dans Gévaudan, Decembre
1961,” ibid. (1962); id., “Exposition Gallo-romaine. Les
ateliers de céramique sigillée de Banassac-La Canourgue,”
Catalogue d'Exposition (mimeo 1963); Balmelle,
Bull. Soc. Lozère (1949) 486, bibl.; ibid. (1955) 136-61 passim; ibid. (1956) 231, 234, 251, 257; M. R. Thevenot,
“Rapports commerciaux entre la Gaule et la Mauritanie
tingitane,”
Congrès des Sociétés Savantes, Dijon 1959 (1961) 185; M. Cavaroc, “Epigraphie inédit sur céramique de Banassac (Lozère),”
Ogam (1961) 431
I; id., “Les marques de potiers gallo-romains,”
Revue archéologique du Centre 10 (1964); “Banassac-La Canourge, Août 1961,”
Revue du Gévaudan (1961) 5; ibid. 162-99 passim; Merovingian coins pl. 189.
P. PEYRE
