Châtelet de Gourzon

Châtelet de Gourzon is a locality located mainly on the current commune of the Bayard-on-Marne, in the north of the Haute-Marne, near the Fountain-on-Marne, between Saint-Dizier and Joinville.

Châtelet de Gourzon is a barred spur which knew successive occupations, Neolithic with the Early middle ages. The hill is invaded today by the forest.

The plate, accessible only in two points, was surrounded by small valleys and marshes which insulated it. This geographical position, along the valley of the Marne, zone of human passage, made this eminence a strategic and economic point.

Pre-Celtic and Celtic period

Although the excavations attest discovery of furniture as of the Neolithic era (tools and weapons), it is starting from the Bronze Age (- 1800 to -700 before J.C) that the human habitat develops on the hill of Châtelet. Some isolated lucky finds allow this dating: an axe with ring, of the tools, of the knives, daggers and pins.

It is then the introduction of the technique of transformation of the iron ore, largely present in the area, which will support the economic advancement of the site in final Hallstatt and the beginning of Tène: it is the time of the Celtes. On the Oppidum, they build quadrangular constructions (with four posts).

Châtelet, located then on the territory of the Catalaunes, becomes a center of exchanges, as testify some the monetary lucky finds (statères). The oppidum is also a strategic station, with the limit of the territory of the close Leuques, while having a role of monitoring of the traffic along the Marne.

Gallo-Roman period

The five centuries which will last the Gallo-Roman time correspond to the golden age of the citadel.

The whole of the plate, approximately 24 hectares, then entirely is occupied and surrounded by a wall with three bastions. There was a clear distinction between the residential district and the artisanal district.

The plans of excavations of the 18th century show a traditional scheduling of the type gross rural village of Gaulle Roman of the North-East, with more than 300 houses grouped in small islands, about thirty paved streets more or less quite squared and rectilinear. The many careers of the sector (Gallo-Roman sites of Brauvilliers, with a few kilometers), will allow the construction of the city.

The excavations made it possible to put at the day of many houses with course, cellars with shelters, well or cisterns. The archaeological material is dense: mosaics, low-reliefs, sculptures, columns, vases, jewels various and currencies of various times.

In the middle of the site a temple with a was released concealed (big room of prayer) of approximately 65 m ² and the thermal baths heated by a system of Hypocauste.

On the other hand, the excavations revealed the artisanal district, whose activities were mainly centered on the pottery and the transformation of iron (workshops of blacksmith, metal worker or nailsmith). Work of foundry was to probably be done more in withdrawal, in the valley.

The unit was probably supplied with water by an semi-air aqueduct, semi-underground, this last part being at present still visible (the photograph below shows the entry of it). In its underground part, the aqueduct was built in average apparatus and had a service shaft every 6,21 meters. Water came from various sources located upstream of the megalith of the High Terminal. It went down regularly towards the city.

The town of Châtelet de Gourzon with was crossed of two Roman ways: that, probable, of the valley of the Marne (Langres with Perthes) and especially that of Segessera (Bar-sur-Aube) to Nasium (Naix-with-Forging mills). These ways were of average importance but facilitated the commercial exchanges with the other sites of Gaulle. The discovery of the bases of one military camp at the exit of the village however makes it possible to confirm the strategic role that its geographical position and geopolitics conferred to him.

The exit of the city, along the Roman way leading to Nasium, still quite visible today, of the excavations allowed to update some necropoles.

Near the site, some villas were discovered. They largely ensured the city in products of first need.

During the great migrations of the S, the city will be partially destroyed (many traces of fires gone back to this time testify some). The site will be however again re-occupied as of the Early middle ages. Many burials mérovingiennes, superimposed on the Gallo-Roman tombs attest of this fact.

The relative safety and the stability which will follow this time will reduce its inhabitants in the close valley. The site then will be forgotten, the antique quoted of Châtelet de Gourzon becoming, as it was often the case, a stone quarry for the construction of the surrounding villages.

Found Châtelet - excavations of Oil cake

At the 18th century, the ironmaster of the factories close to the Bayard-on-Marne, Pierre-Clement Grignon, scholar and impassioned, will organize the excavations of the hill.

He often noticed important stone remains to the forms various, brick remainders and quickly concluded with the seniority from the site (“a place formerly inhabited and destroyed” in Essays ).

In 1772, he undertakes the first excavations, made in a very methodical way: they are preceded by surveys and give place to detailed reports/ratios. These talks are a whole of facts and observations, far from sometimes poetic interpretations of the discoverers of the time: it is a first in the French archeology which a site is excavated in a methodical, scientific and analytical way.

This work quickly will interest the Academy of the Beautiful Letters and Oil cake will continue its research campaigns, thanks to a financing granted by the king Louis XV. The excavations of Châtelet de Gourzon are thus the first subsidized excavations of France.

Excavations with

After the important work undertaken by Oil cake, some archeologists continued his work:

The Gélin abbot - work on the aqueduct and the necropolis,

The Fourot abbot,

Governed Colson,

Yvon Gaillet,

Louis Lepage - several campaigns on the city itself.

At the present time, the site is entirely invaded by the vegetation. The successive excavations released only one negligible part of the city (a few hectares on the 24 of the plate), which lets imagine if one or more campaigns could again be carried out on the hill.

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