LES BOLARDS
Côte d'Or, France.
At Nuits
Saint Georges, ca. 20 km from Dijon, the remains of a
Gallo-Roman vicus covering ca. 10 ha. Three km W of a
major Roman road (Lyon-Chalon-Langres-Trêves), the
vicus is on the northernmost boundary between Eduens
and Lingons. It was a center of commerce and manufacture related to religious sanctuaries, which attracted
crowds of pilgrims. Apparently these sanctuaries were
directly connected with the therapeutic effects of the
mineral hot springs at Courtavaux ca. 2 km away at
Premeaux.
Despite the fact that the site has provided an almost
inexhaustible amount of material for more than a
century, epigraphy has so far given no clue to the ancient
name of the Les Bolards region, which lies on a bend
in the Meuzin river. The first remains were discovered
in 1836, but not until 1964 was organized restoration
of the vicus begun, using aerial photography. Stratification uncovered six stages, from the 1st c. B.C. to the
beginning of the 5th c. A.D.: a very dense layer of Gallic
occupation (Iron Age); an early Gallo-Roman habitation, which flourished during the Julio-Claudian and
Flavian dynasties and reached its apogee under the
Antonines; a layer of demolition corresponding to the
destruction contemporaneous with the disturbed reign of
Septimius Severus. During this period began the decline
of the vicus, destroyed during the invasions. More than
700 coins found at the site recount its history, from the
time of the Gauls to the reign of Arcadius.
To date, excavation has uncovered a decumanus, a
cardo, a street provided with gutters and lined with
artisans' or merchants' shops, a cellar, its floor paved
with six large rectangular tiles, and its walls pierced with
niches (ca. A.D. 98-138); a 2d c. cellar with holes for
seven amphoras. Many rubbish heaps and eight perfectly
constructed wells yielded an important cache of pottery
from Gallic workshops (La Graufesenque, Lezoux).
There is evidence of ritual sacrifice in the layers of bones,
an altar, a ritual knife, a libation cup, an ex voto of
oolithic limestone (a hand holding an offering of fruit
and flowers), a little stele of Epona, a head of a mother
goddess, a stele of a man suffering from ophthalmia, a
bronze statuette of Minerva. In the same area were found
sanctuary rooms with monumental entries: two stylobates
and the shaft of a column, a pilaster support, mosaic
debris, painted plasterwork. Also there is the storehouse,
or favissa, of a maker of ex votos. On the site of one
shop are statuettes in the faience of the Allier region
representing Mercury; the mother goddess, Venus, and
equestrian figures. An important Mithraeum (all its
mutilated sculptures now in the archaeological museum
at Dijon) has been uncovered.
On exhibition in the belltower of Nuits Saint Georges
is a collection of intaglios, jewels, toilet articles, ceramics,
bronzes, funerary or votive stelai, and coins.
In 1969, excavation was extended toward the thermo-mineral springs. An apsidal building was uncovered, and
in its center a white marble basin, covered with pink plaster and provided with a run-off channel. Aerial photography has shown that it was part of a large group of
substructures for which exploration is planned.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
B. Thevenot, “La station antique des
Bolards,”
Gallia 6 (1948) 289-347; R. Martin, “Informations arcéeologiques,”
Gallia 24 (1966) 380; 26 (1968)
482; B. Planson & A. Lagrange, “La statuette de Minerve
des Bolards,”
RA (1970).
Work on the Dijon-Beaune highway since 1972 has revealed the important necropolis, including a large number
of infant burials in half-round tiles called imbrices.
There are also stelai recording the activities of the
deceased.
E. PLANSON
