MEDIOLANUM BITURIGUM
(Châteaumeillant）
Cher, France.
The Mediolanum of the
Peutinger Table between Néris (Aquae Nerii) and Argenton (Argentomagus) can be identified with the modern Châteaumeillant. Five Roman roads met there, including one coming from the Rhône valley and the Argenton road
leading W. The oppidum covered 18 ha. It was protected
to the S by a wall, to the E and W by two small rivers,
and to the N, above the junction of the rivers, by a ditch,
which can be recognized, crossing the mediaeval town.
The old finds (material filling ancient pits and ditches,
massive stores of amphorae) were attributed without
distinction to the Roman period. Excavations were begun in 1956 in the settlement and in the sloping rampart; they demonstrate the importance of the Gallic town. New trenches were found with amphorae aligned
in them: some of them were simply stores of empty or
used receptacles; others were wine cellars which had
been abandoned suddenly. All the amphorae found in
groups at Châteaumeillant are Republican: Dressel IA
Italic types and variants of the Graeco-Italic types with
wide or elongated bodies. There were small pieces of
floors and remains of diggings, with abundant pottery
dating from the end of La Tène II to about 30 B.C.;
dumps of the time of Augustus and the Julio-Claudians
in the dug-out bottoms of earlier dwellings; and pits
filled with trash of the earlier Empire. Under the sloping rampart there was a murus gallicus with posts
notched together and with stone facings. It contained
preconquest pottery with polished features. The murus
was already damaged when it was covered by the sloping
construction, probably at the beginning of the Gallo-Roman period.
Mediolanum provides one of the richest deposits of
amphorae on land. It played an important part, either
as a stopping point or a market, in the Italian wine
trade from the end of the 2d c. B.C. until the period of
the conquest (and perhaps later, since its destruction in
52 B.C. is not certain). This trade ended before the appearance of the large amphorae of the time of Augustus,
rare at Mediolanum. An earth wall covered the ruined
murus at that time. The settlement was active in the 1st
c. A.D., but retained clay dwellings of traditional type. It
continued to exist in the 2d c., but no public monument
of Roman type was built. It seems to have suffered
during the invasions of the 3d c. and vegetated in the
Late Empire. This idiosyncratic history and the exceptional potential for studies of pottery, both before and
after the conquest, are among the major points of interest at the site of Mediolanum.
The local museum has on exhibit remains of the
murus gallicus, a bust of a god with a torque found in a
ritual pit of the time of Augustus, and a first-class
ceramic collection. The Bourges museum has a part of
the old finds.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Chenon,
Hist. de Châteaumeillant I
(1940); J. Gourvest & E. Hugoniot, “Un emporium gaulois à Châteaumeillant,”
Ogam 9 (1957); id., “L'oppidum de Mediolanum” (Actes du I
er colloque d'Etudes Gauloises),
Ogam (1960); C. Picard, “Informations
arch.,”
Gallia 17 (1959); A. Cothenet, “Les trouvailles
monétaires gauloises de Châteaumeillant” (Actes du 3
eme colloque)
Ogam (1962); E. Hugoniot, “Un nouveau dépôt d'amphores à Châteaumeillant,” ibid.
E. HUGONIOT
