- Chapter Twenty-Nine -
muster remains quantitatively slight and statistically insufficient: it is not adequate to
compose a lasting synthesis.
Traditionally, the Limousin region is attributed to the Lemovices, and the
Auvergne to the Arvernes, while a series of small civitates (tribal areas) are scattered
along the fringes of the south-west massif. Historical sources describe the Arverni
as an important group who dominated Gaul politically at the time of the Celtic
invasions in Italy, and whose power was only checked after their defeat at the hands
of the Romans in 121 BC, The Lemovices seem to have kept aloof from the
great European events until the time of the conquest itself. The First Iron Age in
their area, characterized by burials under tumuli, and good-quality pottery with
graphite-based decoration, displays a certain cultural unity in the western massif. But
the characteristic elements of La Tene culture only penetrated this area very slowly.
In the Auvergne, too, these appear somewhat tardily, during the second half of the
fourth century, notably in the cemetery at Diou (Allier): about twenty burials in flat
graves which yielded weapons, torques, bronze bracelets and also brooches or fibulae
have been discovered. This short-lived cemetery bears witness to the links between
Auvergne and the classic Celtic province, centred to the north and east.
(a)Figure 1.9.7 (a) Stone sculpture from Paule (Cotes d'Armor, Brittany) compared with (b)
sculpture from the open settlement at Levroux (Indre), excavated respectively by Y. Menez
and collaborators and S. Krausz and collaborators. (Drawn by M. Dupre and S. Phillips.)