GIVRY
Belgium.
A Gallo-Roman settlement
on the road from Bavai to Tongres and Cologne, situated
at the point where the road crosses the Troujile. The
settlement seems to consist of two parts: on the road
and N of it is a little roadside settlement (a mutatio?),
which has not been excavated systematically but where
many coins have been found, ranging in date from the
end of Augustus' reign to the middle of the 4th c. Nearby
is the base (14.2 x 9.6 m) of a large funeral monument,
now gone. The vicus proper lies more than 1 km to the
S of the highway, on the left bank of the Trouille, at
a place called Vieille Bruyère. Substructures have been
located there covering an area 1 km long and 400 m
wide. Among the most notable finds is a hidden storage
place containing a great many bronze objects: a statuette of Jupiter, one of Mercury, and three of Mars. One
of the latter, although of local make, is an elegant imitation of a Hellenistic model. There are also cauldrons,
ewers, dishes, and bowls of tinned bronze. It will be
recalled that Pliny (
HN 34.160-62) described the tinplating of bronzes as a Gallic invention. In the 4th c.
an Iron Age keep, the Castelet of Rouveroy, 2 km from
the vicus, was fortified so as to provide a place of refuge
for the inhabitants. Two forts, one hexagonal and the
other quadrangular, were built back to back and surrounded by a rampart 1200 m long with an interior wall.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. De Maeyer,
De Overblijfselen der
Romeinsche Villa's in België (1940) 65-67.
S. J. DE LAET
