LES CARS
Corrèze, France.
Situated at the
edge of the communes of Perols and Saint Merd-les-Oussines.
Three buildings have been located, excavated in 1936-38 and 1952-53: a temple and a mausoleum, forming a
complex, and a villa 500 m E. Coins found on the site
indicate occupation from Hadrian's time to that of
Aurelian.
The temple, built entirely of large blocks of granite,
conforms to the Graeco-Roman type. A rectangle oriented
E-W (11.3 x 8.3 m), the entrance is to the E; the W end
terminates in an apse 2.2 m deep. It was approached by
a flight of three steps extending along the whole E facade.
The roof was made of slabs of granite. Besides the podium, some huge blocks with ornamental molding are
scattered on the ground.
A slightly smaller and less well-built monument, 12 m
N of the temple, is aligned with it. An incineration burial
has been found in the middle of it, suggesting a mausoleum. The two buildings are enclosed by a wall.
A monolithic tank of granite lies 500 m to the E, in
the NE corner of a building of 15 rooms, six of them
heated by hypocaust. Some have taken it for a bath
building, but it is probably a house or inn. Two building periods can be distinguished: 1) six rooms arranged
in a rectangle, the walls made of rubble bonded with
mortar and faced with small blocks; 2) eight rooms and
a gallery were added to the S around a courtyard. The
walls here are not so carefully built; the large room at
the S end had a mosaic with a design of triangles of
red and gray sandstone, and a pool with a fountain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. Prieur & F. Delage, “Fouilles effectuées au ‘Château des Cars,’”
Gallia 5 (1947) 47-79;
M. Vazeilles,
Station gallo-romaine des Cars (1962).
G. LINTZ
