- Chapter Twenty-Nine -
Figure 29.1 Map of sites mentioned in this chapter.publication of J. Dechelette's four-volume Manual underlines the importance of the
French contribution to archaeological research on the Iron Age. This major archaeo-
logical synthesis of European prehistory from the earliest times until the expansion
of the ancient civilizations was matched by the work of C. Jullian, especially the first
volume of his Histoire de La Gaule. Published in I907, this provided the philological
and linguistic source for the later periods covered by Dechelette's Manual
(Dechelette 1914).
These two syntheses seem to tower over the achievements of the inter-war
generation. The most important work in France at this time was that of English
researchers (in particular M. Wheeler in Normandy) or of individual amateurs. More
recently, the establishment in the 1950S of the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique has provided the framework for the recruitment of professional
researchers. CNRS personnel can be attached to institutions such as those mentioned
above, or to the universities of Strasbourg, Paris, Aix and Montpellier. A new gener-
ation of learned societies (Ogam, Societe Prehistorique Fran<;:aise, Association
Fran<;:aise pour l'Etude de I' Age du Fer) acted as a fresh focus for research. Lastly,
the great increase in rescue excavations in the 1980s produced new information in
quantity on the rural world of the Iron Age, in particular on its smaller settlements,
its farms and its fields.
554