VIEILLE-TOULOUSE
Haute-Garonne, France.
In the 1st c. B.C. about 10 km S of Toulouse on the
plateau of “La Planho,” which dominates the right
bank of the Garonne, a settlement that was neither an
oppidum nor the ancestor of Toulouse. Until the time
of Augustus, however, it was remarkable for commercial
activity linked to the Italian wine traffic, and for handicrafts producing small bronze objects and inlaid work. Italian merchants, their slaves, and their freedmen mingled with the natives. The houses, built of wood
and clay, were of a prehistoric type, and a sanctuary
discovered in 1970 is of very primitive character. The
numerous funerary pits, often containing rich grave
goods, are in the Gallic tradition, but most of the coins,
weapons, lamps, and luxury pottery come from Italy
and testify to the beginning of a truly Gallo-Roman
civilization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. Joulin, “Les stations antiques des
côteaux de Pech-David,”
Mém. de l'Acad. des Sciences
de Toulouse 10
e sér. 2 (1902) 377-94; G. Fouet, “Fouille d'un puits funéraire à Vieille-Toulouse,”
Gallia 16 (1958) 115-57; M. Labrousse, “Informations,”
Gallia 15 (1957) 256-58
I; 17 (1959) 433-35
I; 20 (1962) 573-78
I; 22 (1964) 449-51
I; 24 (1966) 429-30
I; 26 (1968) 537-38
I; 28 (1970) 413-15
I; id.,
Toulouse antique . . . (1968)
92-105 & passim (bibl. 92, n. 63).
M. LABROUSSE
