CHÂTEAU-PORCIEN
Ardennes, France.
Site
on the Aisne near the Roman road from Reims to
Cologne. Excavation has yielded traces of Neolithic occupation and, some distance away, some Gallo-Roman
objects and traces of buildings. Most of the digging has
been carried out at La Briqueterie, near the old Ecly
road, at L'Aiguillon, and on the Nandin plateau overlooking the Aisne valley.
In the lower part of the site a well-furnished incineration necropolis has been found (terra sigillata and common ware, fibulas, bracelets and an oinochoi of bronze), some harness pieces and a horseshoe by the roadside,
and traces of a Gallo-Roman villa containing frescos and
mosaics. On the plateau were found not only coins (Tiberian aureus) and quantities of sherds, but also traces
of craftsmen's workshops (fibula molds, bronze-founding
crucibles) and the cellar of a house.
Aerial photographs show that there was a city on the
plateau covering at least 20 ha, with buildings arranged
on a grid plan, several of them very large. A number of
complexes of individual buildings have also been located
on the outskirts of the city. Work on the site itself has
uncovered pits dug in the clay, the basement of a house
with clay or limestone walls where many potsherds were
found, and the foundations of a square fanum. The floor
of this building had about a dozen pits dug in it which
held a variety of objects: one pit contained about 100
bovine horns and nothing else. The pottery was varied,
consisting mainly of common wares, metalized black
ware, Gallo-Belgic ware, the pottery with a crackled
appearance and bluish tone often found in Champagne,
and a smaller quantity of imported terra sigillata. When
it is possible to date them, the wares in every case go
back to the 1st c. A.D., sometimes to the beginning of
the century. The early finds are housed, in part, at the
Musée de Rethel; recent ones are in the depot of the
Service of Antiquities in Reims.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Larmigny,
Bull. Soc. Arch. Champenoise 2 (1908) 54ff; 7 (1913) 18f; 18 (1924) 13; 20
(1926) 78-80; 21 (1927) 70f; 22 (1928) 52f; 30 (1936)
33f; E. Bosse et al.,
Travaux de l'Académie de Reims
129 (1910-11) 219-26; M. Maquart,
Bull. Soc. Arch.
Champenoise 30 (1936) 18-25;
Bull. du Comité des
Amis du Musée du Rethelois et du Porcien 9 (1939) 30f;
E. Frézouls,
Gallia 27 (1969) 291ff
I; 29 (1971) 278-80
I.
E. FREZOULS
