- Chapter Twenty-Nine -
the Gallic temple by a Gallo-Roman [anum after a long period during which the sanc-
tuary had been closed, is not an isolated instance of such a sequence. The recovery of
material from many Gallo-Roman sanctuaries has revealed the presence of Gallic
weapons and, in the best-examined examples, further examples of wooden structures
which pre-date their Gallo-Roman masonry buildings. Sequences like that encoun-
tered at Gournay have been identified not only in the north and in Normandy but
also as far away as west-central France and in the Rhone valley.
Current excavations of the iron age levels at Ribemont-sur-Ancre (Somme),
located beneath a huge Gallo-Roman architectural ensemble, have revealed evidence
for ritual activity which was similar in format but different in its objectives from
those identified at Gournay. At Ribemont, it is human bodies which have been cut
up post mortem, then exhibited in the form of a construction made of human bone,
with structures consisting of longbones forming the corners of an enclosure. In this
case, the enclosure ditch still held both human remains and the weapons that were
put in with them when both were in an advanced state of decay. These sanctuaries,
which the Romans do not appear to have known about - perhaps as a result of a
deliberate policy on the part of the Gauls - are sufficiently numerous in the north of
Gaul for us today to be able to study their distribution across the tribal territories,
in relation to both trade routes and frontiers.
More settlement sites (Figure 29.4) have been located in northern France than in
the rest of the country. A first group is made up of native farmsl[ermes indigenes
- as opposed to the Roman villa examples which initially monopolized the attention
of aerial photographers. Consisting of large quadrangular or oval enclosures,
interrupted here and there by in-or out-turned funnel-shaped gateways, these sites
provide a clear indication of the occupation and use of extensive areas of landscape:
individual enclosures could shelter living quarters, outbuildings and livestock.
Internal structures are rarely visible and the results of test excavations are, on the
whole, disappointing. But we can now say that the northern plateaux of France were
occupied by large isolated farms, the forerunners of the aedificia (rural estate
buildings) of the Gallic nobility which are mentioned by Caesar.
It is excavations in gravel quarries that have revealed most fully the complexity
and density of the occupation of the valleys. The Aisne valley, in particular, is
crammed with complex and interrelated agricultural establishments. We can identify
dwellings and post-built granaries, surrounded by hundreds of pits of various kinds:
for storage, work activities and water extraction, groups of such pits being associated
with fences, stockades and enclosures of different types and sizes. As is the case with
settlements in the Thames Basin in England, we can identify chronological and
spatial variations; specialization in either stock-farming or in cereal production can
be posited. The range of activities on these settlements, however, remains essentially
agricultural until the end of the middle La Tene period.
The establishment of, or reoccupation of, fortifications on high ground -or on the
valley floor - and the development of craft industries in specialized sectors in proto-
urban settlements, occur during the Late La Tene and early Gallo-Roman periods.
Murus gallicus walls and massive dump ramparts continued to be built after the
conquest, by the Gauls and possibly also by troops in the service of Rome (see
Chapter 5), on the high ground which dominates the valleys of the Somme and the