ETALLE
Belgium.
A vicus of the civitas
Treverorum, on the Trier-Rheims road, situated at the
point where the road fords the Semois. The site has
never been excavated systematically, but ancient remains
abound. In the 17th c. ruins of Roman buildings were
still visible, and coins, tombs, weapons, and a gold
bracelet were discovered. The Anon museum has three
glass vases found ca. 1848 that date from the late 4th c.
In the mid 1950s a Roman building was located and other
important remains of the vicus were found over a wide
area. Potsherds found at that time date from the 2d
and 3d c. Some earthworks, found on a hill overlooking
the river, are possibly remains of a castellum of the
Late Empire. At Fratin, 1 km from the vicus, a tomb
was uncovered, with contents that date from the end of
the 4th c.; it suggests the tomb of a German auxiliary
(one of the Laeti mentioned in the
Notitia Dignitatum
[
occ. 42.38] as being stationed near Epoisso [Carignan],
not far from Etalle). If in fact it is, this would confirm
the existence of a small temporary fort at Etalle in the
4th c. However, the most important remains from Etalle
have been recovered at Buzenol, 3 km to the S. There,
on the Montauban hill, is an Iron Age oppidum that
was reoccupied at the end of the 3d c. A.D. and changed
into a fortified keep. The spur formed by the hill was
blocked by a wall; in front of the keep is a forecourt
surrounded by a palisade. The walls were built in workmanlike fashion and a great amount of embankment
work had to be done to fortify the site. Huge blocks,
taken from funerary monuments, were used for the wall
foundations; almost certainly these carved blocks came,
for the most part, from the necropolis at Etalle. It is not
known whether the Buzenol fort was built at the initiative of the public authorities or was commissioned by a
local landlord. Carved blocks were taken from the wall
foundations in the 17th c., then again in the course of
excavations in 1913 and finally in 1958. These funeral
carvings indicate the wealth of the inhabitants of Etalle
at the time of the Late Empire. Among the most interesting remains found at Buzenol is a milestone with a
legend stating that the Rheims-Trier road was built under Claudius in A.D. 44; also a relief showing the vallus,
a mechanical harvester of Gallic invention.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. E. Mariën, “Monuments funéraires
de Buzenol,”
Bull. des Musées royaux d'Art et d'hist. 15
(1948) 2-10, 58-69, 104-14; 16 (1949) 28-36, 59-70;
J. Mertens, “Le refuge antique de Montauban-sous-Buzenol,”
Le Pays Gaumais (1954) 1-32
PI; id., “Sculptures romaines de Buzenol,”
Le Pays Gaumais (1958)
17-124
I; id., “Römische Skulpturen von Buzenol,”
Germania 36 (1958) 386-92; id., “La moissonneuse de Buzenol,”
Ur-Schweiz 22 (1958) 49-53; id., “Le refuge
protohistorique de Montauban-sous-Buzenol,”
Celticum
III (1962) 387-400
PI; id., “Quelques aspects de la romanisation dans l'ouest du Pays gaumais,”
Helinium 3 (1963)
205-24; id., “Le Luxembourg méridional au Bas-Empire,”
Mélanges A. Bertrang (1964) 191-202; K. D.
White,
Agricultural Implements of the Roman World
(1967).
S. J. DE LAET
