- The Celts in France -
Gold coinage also links the Auvergne to historical evidence concerning the wealth
of the Arverni. There is evidence of ancient mines in the region, and a recent project
has shown that in Limousin the extraction of gold started no later than the Middle
La Tene period (Cauuet 1991). Gold staters of Philip of Macedonia and, more
particularly, imitations of them are very numerous in Puy-de-Dome and in the south
of the departement of Allier. Remote from the great trade axes, the Auvergne drew
its wealth from its own soil and the endeavours of its inhabitants.
Two pieces of evidence show us that the Auvergne participated fully in the
economic changes that took place in the middle La Tene period. In the so-called
'tumulus' at Celles (Cantal), a structure the function of which remains unclear, a
complete set of tools has been found which dates roughly from the middle or the
beginning of the Late La nne period. This specialized set of tools, designed for
working in horn and bone, confirms the appearance of professional craftsmen
(Guillaumet 1982) at this time.
At the same time, the hamlets that were scattered over the plains of the Limagne
and Forez tended to coalesce to form villages, in which craft activities of a range
of types played an important role. Trade with the Mediterranean became more inten-
sive: it is mainly manifested in the archaeological record by the presence of heavy
transport amphorae. These developments were sustained by a coinage of lower value
than the staters, which was aligned on the contemporary issues of southern Gaul
and Spain. Though by this time the Arverni had suffered political setbacks and may
have been on the defensive in some ways, they nevertheless participated fully in the
economic transformations that characterize this period.
The trend towards the establishment of large enclosed sites termed oppida affected
the Massif Central, but in an uneven and often distinctive way. In the east and south,
timber-laced walls of murus gallicus type have been identified, along with imported
amphorae, and the artefacts which are characteristic of these proto-urban sites. In
Limousin, the huge site at Villejoubert (Haute Vienne) seems to have consumed
many of the resources of this tribal area (civitas), many of the other oppida-like sites
here seeming to represent hasty refortifications of earlier hill-forts. An upland series
of small enclosed sites could be the equivalent of the aedificia of the lowlands
(Ralston 1992).
On the eve of the conquest several contrasting settlement patterns are thus to be
found in the Massif Central. Oppida border the valleys of the south-west, such as
the Lot and the Dordogne, or overlook the plains of Limagne, Forez and Allier, these
latter densely occupied by settlements in which agriculture, craft industries and trade
are all represented. In Limousin one immense oppidum dominated a tissue of farms
and small hill-forts, in a more traditional, highland context; mining activity there has
been too recent a discovery for it to have been integrated with other archaeological
data. These perspectives remain provisional, as researchers have had to content
themselves with putting forward interpretations in relation to those devised for the
better-known regions of Berry and Burgundy, which we shall now look at.