LA VILLENEUVE-AU-CHÂTELOT
Aube, France.
Potters' kilns, discovered near the Seine valley
and the Roman road from Troyes to Senlis, and fairly
close to a necropolis of the Iron Age and another from
the Merovingian period, have led to the excavation of
a pottery center.
About a dozen kilns varying in size and orientation,
with walls made of tiles or vases, were found within a
small area. Close by was pottery stored ready for shipment, a cellar full of varied wares including imported
terra sigillata (Lezoux, Lavoye, Argonne), and a number
of wells and rubbish pits. The pottery made on the site
often, though not exclusively, has the crackled appearance and bluish tone found in many Gallo-Roman settlements in Champagne. La Villeneuve exported this pottery,
but also other types of ware, particularly an imitation
terra sigillata with varied and often original forms. A
huge number of sherds have been recovered as well as
many intact or restored vessels (over 1300 different pieces
in a single year). Both the coins and the La Graufesenque
terra sigillata show that the workshop was active from the
middle of the 1st c. A.D., perhaps even earlier. A hoard
of bronze and silver Gallic and Roman coins was
recently discovered a few hundred m away. Consisting
entirely of coins from the 1st c. B.C., it provides evidence
that the site was occupied and had far-flung trade links
as early as the first years after the Roman conquest.
A part of the early finds are in the Saint-Germain
Museum (musée des Antiquités Nationales); the recent
ones are in the Nogent-sur-Seine museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Brisson & A. Loppin,
BAC (1936-37)
262-65; id.,
Bull. du Groupe Archéologique du Nogentais
4 (1965) 5-20; P. Benoît & R. Guéry, ibid. (1963) 4-5,
11-18; Guéry, ibid. 19-28; Tessier & Boisset, ibid. 29f;
R. Martin,
Gallia 22 (1964) 297; E. Frézouls, ibid. 25
(1967) 281-83
I; 27 (1969) 299; 29 (1971) 285-88
PI; 31
(1973) 407.
E. FRÉZOULS
