- The Celts in France -
Elsewhere, weapons, no longer included amongst grave goods, were now disposed
of in vast sanctuaries. Indeed it was the discovery of deposits of weapons that drew
the attention of researchers to sanctuary sites. The excavation of a ditch filled with
some 2,000 weapons and 3,000 bones at Gournay-sur-Aronde in Oise (Figure 29.3)
by Jean-Louis Brunaux and his team led them to the reconstruction not only of a
sanctuary but also of a complicated suite of rituals which indicates to us something of
the strict formalization of Gallic religion. This sanctuary, set in the very centre of a
fortified site, is demarcated by a ditched enclosure with a side length of 40 metres.
Centrally placed within this enclosure there is a pit which has been covered at various
times by a succession of wooden buildings, the last of these replaced by a small
rectangular temple (janum) during Roman times. Animals were sacrificed and their
carcases placed in this pit: their remains were subsequently thrown into the enclosure
ditch. Weapons, too, were exhibited in this sanctuary, before being deposited in the
same ditch. These discoveries give rise more readily to comparisons with the
Mediterranean world than with the primitive and bloody cults generally associated
with Celts' ritual practices. The sacrifice of livestock, usually oxen, pigs and sheep,
brings to mind the Roman suovetaurilia. Whereas the last-mentioned two species were
eaten, the slaughtered oxen and some horses were exposed and not consumed, then
eventually thrown into the ditch in the same way as the weapons. The replacement of
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Figure 29.3 General plan of the excavations at the multi-phase sanctuary at Gournay-sur-
Arondc (Oisc). (After J.-L. Brunaux.)559