VERNEUIL EN HALATTE
Oise, France.
In
the Senlis arrondissement, canton of Pont-Sainte-Maxence. The configuration of the land in this area bordering the Oise has been exploited as a defensive position since the Iron Age. The Tremblay promontory (at La
Cavée Douché) is nearly 200 m long, 100 m at its widest
point and 80 m at the level of the narrow strip linking
it to the plateaus. The Romans reinforced the natural
defenses of the site by creating a vallum and a trench
on the SW and N edges, and building a rampart 2 m wide
on the trench side that separated the oppidum from the
plateau. After a period during which the site was abandoned, the trench filled in, and the rampart pulled down, building started again in the interior of the site. Toward the NE entrance a building ca. 12 m on each side with
an extra room added to it has been found. The occupation stratum covered the whole surface, but the evidence is not conclusive as to the function of this complex of buildings. Was it a group of shops, a signal tower, or a
religious complex? Whatever their purpose, the invasions
of the Late Empire destroyed all the buildings. Mention
should also be made of the oppidum, at the crossroads
of the ancient routes linking Senlis with the oppidum of
Catenoy and the Oise.
The residential settlement is better known. A large
villa has been uncovered in the area known as Bufosse.
The S section is completely destroyed, but the plan of
the central court has been recovered: the master's house
was separated from the court by a long wall, and there
are outlying farm buildings. The master's house was
heated by hypocaust; water from the bath building in
the workers' complex was drained off by a leaden pipe.
The finds suggest that the whole complex dates from the
middle of the 2d to the end of the 3d c. Other villas of
this type have been located near Verneuil. The objects
found in the Neolithic and Iron Age II tombs discovered
at the foot of the oppidum are now in the Senlis museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
P. Durvin, “Apropos de quelques oppida du pays des Bellovaques,”
Ogam 14 (1962) 38-43;
id., “Les sépultures du second âge du fer à Verneuil en Halatte,”
Celticum 6,
Actes du IIIème colloque international d'études gauloises, celtiques et protoceltiques
(1962) 103, 111; id., “La villa rustique de Bufosse à
Verneuil,”
Revue du Nord 38, no. 152 (1956) 289-306;
M. Roblin, “Le plan cadastral de Verneuil en Halatte,
toponymie, histoire et archéologie,”
Revue Internationale
d'Onomastique 16 (1964) 204.
P. LEMAN
