VELZEKE-RUDDERSHOVE
Belgium.
A Gallo-Roman vicus located on the Bavai-Blicquy-Ganda road
where it crosses a diverticulum going from Turnacum
to Hofstade. Antiquities have been discovered there on
several occasions since the 16th c.: bronze statuettes,
coins, rings, bronze and iron tools, pottery, vases, glassware, etc. Some tombs and wells were also found. Excavations undertaken since 1953 have uncovered the foundations of a rectangular dwelling and of other
buildings. Numerous ditches were also found, dug to
obtain clay for the tile-works, and later used as garbage
dumps. The beginnings of the vicus go back to the first
half of the 1st c. A.D. The pottery indicates occupation
until the beginning of the 3d c., but the series of coins
is uninterrupted until the end of the 4th c. A hoard of
coins, found in the neighboring village of Grotenberge,
must have come from this vicus. It was buried in the
reign of Postumus and suggests that the vicus must
have suffered during the Frankish invasions of that period. Another hoard, found at Velzeke-Ruddershove itself, was buried in the time of Constantine.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S. J. De Laet & J. Nenquin, “Een
gallo-romeinse vicus te Velzeke-Ruddershove,”
Kultureel
Jaarboek voor de provincie Oostvlaanderen 7 (1953)
1-57
MPI; W. Jamée, “Nieuwe romeinse vondsten te
Velzeke-Rudderhove,”
Handelingen Geschied- en Oudheidkundige Kring Oudenaarde 11 (1958) 241-54; M.
Bauwens-Lesenne,
Bibliografisch repertorium der oudheidkundige vondsten in Oostvlaanderen (1962) 217-25; M. Thirion,
Les trésors monétaires gaulois et romains trouvés en Belgique (1967) 87-88, 165-66.
S. J. DE LAET
