CHAMPALLEMENT
or St. Révérien, Nièvre, France.
Spread over the two communes of Champallement and St. Révérien, in the area known as Compierre,
the site is thickly wooded and has been partially explored;
only the sanctuary area has been excavated. Some residential sections, the probable remains of a theater, and
the substructures of streets have been located, but the
boundaries of the site have not been determined.
The sanctuary has a surrounding wall of slightly trapezoidal shape, with a porticoed gallery on all four sides.
The sides are 58.53 and 45 m long. The N, W, and S
porticos are 4 m deep, but the E portico is 7 m deep and
has a monumental entrance with staircase ramps and
apsidal sections. The entrance was probably framed by
two projecting wings.
The shrine stands far back in the W half of the courtyard and is centered on the E-W axis of the complex
with its entrance to the E. Of the indigenous type, it consists of an octagonal cella with a circular interior (diam.
8.84 m). A second octagonal wall surrounds the cella,
forming a gallery 2 m wide. The walls are 1.15 m thick
at the reinforced corners but only 0.75 m in the sections
between, which would seem to rule out a cupola roof and
justify the restoration of a wooden frame supporting a
tile or stone roof. Fragments of a white marble cornice
have been found, probably from the cella, the molding
of which would seem to indicate a date in the 2d c. A.D.
The fairly large number of coins found on the site, ranging from Marcus Aurelius to Gordian III, are evidence
that it was occupied over a considerable period. On the
other hand, the presence of Gallic coins and the type of
plan suggest that there was an earlier sanctuary, probably
of wood, and roughly built, such as that found in the
fanum of St. Germain-le-Rocheux near Chatillon. A number of limestone sculpture fragments and two small
bronzes of Mercury have been found on the site. To
judge from the offerings (baskets of fruit, cornucopias),
it appears that the sanctuary may have been dedicated
to a god or goddess presiding over agrarian life and
fertility.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Espérandieu,
Receuil général des
bas-reliefs . . . (1907-66) 2228ff; A. Koethe, “De Keltischen Bund- und Vielecktempel der Kaiserzeit,”
Ber.
RGKomm 23 (1933) 66-68; L. Mirot,
Bibliographie des
articles de géographie pubiés dans les Revues savantes
du Nivernais (1936) nos. 256, 260; Grenier,
Manuel IV,
2 (1960) 668-71; R. Martin, “Informations,”
Gallia 20,
2 (1962) 459; 22, 2 (1964) 325-26; 24, 2 (1966) 398;
26, 2 (1968) 490.
R. MARTIN
