FONTAINE-VALMONT
Belgium.
A Gallo-Roman vicus on the Bavai-Trier road immediately to the
E of the point where the road fords the Sambre. The
settlement developed on a site of more than 25 ha, at
the place called Champ des Castellains, at the boundary
between the Nervii (to the W) and the Tungri (to the E).
In the Early Empire this boundary between two civitates
would become the frontier between the provinces of Belgica secunda and Germania inferior. Many important
finds have been made here: some substructures, a cellar,
architectural fragments, a life-size horse's head of marble,
and coins that form a continuous series from Augustus
to Gallienus and Postumus. A little farther E, at La
Castia, more substructures were found but not excavated (villa? castellum of the Late Empire?). Here
also a necropolis was uncovered that had a luxurious
tomb (a vault made of marble slabs, containing a
beautiful urn of white marble from the mid 2d c.).
Systematic excavations at Champ des Castellains started
in 1955, uncovering the foundations of a double sanctuary in the Celtic tradition, with a square cella and a
peribolos, inside one surrounding wall. The twin temples
were mounted on a podium with steps and are oriented
to the E. Built toward the middle of the 1st c. A.D., they
appear to have been destroyed by fire in the 3d c. Some
400 m from this sanctuary, baths were excavated. In the
complex (38.35 x 35.4 m) were found hypocausts for
the caldarium and sudarium, a palaestra, an outdoor pool
to the N of the buildings, and a second pool that had a
tile roof on wooden posts. A small altar stood at the
entrance to the baths. The complex was built over the
substructure of a forge that probably dates from the late
1st c. A.D. or the early 2d c. The baths appear to have
been destroyed by fire in the 3d c. Not far from them
was a large burial site made up of a dozen enclosures.
In the middle of each was a solid mass of masonry, sometimes square, sometimes round, that marked a burial
vault and was very likely the base of a funerary monument. In each case smaller tombs were arranged inside
the enclosures around the monument. So far there is
no evidence that the vicus was still inhabited in the
4th c.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. De Maeyer,
De overblijfselen van de
Romeinsche Villa's in België (1940) 60-62; G. Faider-Feytmans, “Les fouilles du site romain de Fontaine-Valmont,”
Mém. et publ. de la Soc. des Sciences du
Hainaut 71 (1957) 13-65; id., “Le site sacré de Fontaine-Valmont,” ibid. 74 (1960) 3-47
MPI S. J. DE LAET
