SAINT-AUBIN SUR GAILLON
Dept. Eure, France.
Situated 93 km W-NW from Paris and 25 km
from Evreux, at the edge of a plateau overlooking the
left bank of the Seine, this was the site of a sanctuary
in Gallo-Roman times.
Excavations carried out from 1910 to 1913 revealed
small twin temples (fana) with their annexes. All these
buildings stood in a large walled courtyard 80 x 58 m.
Backed against the N wall was a rectangular building,
26 x 3 m; it was divided into six rooms, one of them
a cellar 2 m deep reached by a flight of eight steps. The
principal fanum in the middle of the courtyard consisted of a cella measuring 9 x 6.50 m and opening to
the E. An altar was kept in the middle of the cella; steps
faced with marble led up to it. Surrounding the cella was
a concentric portico, 17.50 x 15.40 m, built on a raised
floor and approached by a flight of steps. Twelve m to
the S was the second fanum; smaller than the first
(5 x 4.10 m), it was built with its back to the S face
of the great surrounding wall. Between the main fanum
and the N wall was a little two-room building of workmanlike construction. In the course of digging, several
marble fragments were found; also sigillate pottery consisting of vases from Lezoux (2d c.) and Argonne (4th
c.); a bronze tripod; mirrors, fibulae, and coins ranging
from Claudius to Magnentius, as well as neolithic stone
axes and fossils of sea-urchins.
Examination of the coins and pottery suggests that this
place of worship was occupied from the 1st to the 4th
c. No ruins can be seen today.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Leon Coutil, “Les Ruines romaines de
St Aubin sur Gaillon,”
Journal d'Evreux (18 Jan. 1911);
G. Poulain, “Les fana de St Aubin sur Gaillon,”
Bull.
arch. (1912) 403; id., “Le péribole du temple de St
Aubin sur Gaillon,”
Bull. de la Ste Normande d'Etudes
prehist. 31 (1913); id.,
Les fana de St Aubin sur Gaillon
(1919).
M. A. DOLLFUS
