Bibracte

Bibracte was the Capitale Celtic Peuple of the Éduens of the end of second century BC at the end of first century BC Nerve center of the capacity of the aristocracy éduenne, it was also an important place of craft industry and trade where côtoyaient themselves minor, blacksmiths and strikers of currencies on a surface of almost 135 hectares.

This remarkable site, located on the commune of Saint-Leger-under-Beuvray (Saône-et-Loire) in the Morvan at the top of the Mount Beuvray (commonly called the Beuvray in the area), is with the Confluent basin S of the the Saone, Yonne, the Seine and the Loire. The Beuvray consists of three tops: the Theurot of Wivre with its stone, the Theurot of the Rock and the Porrey which is the culminating point. The site lodges the museum of the Celtic civilization which recalls the life of this city from some 5 to 10 thousands of hearts within a Oppidum strengthened that the archaeological excavations of the Mont Beuvray reveal little by little. The conservation and the management of the site are carried out by the public limit company of national mixed economy (SAEMN) éponyme of the place which became a public corporation in 2007.

Etymology

The origin of the word Bibracte is still rather badly known. This term is perhaps resulting from the Celtique biber (beaver) or from Latin biffractus (doubly strengthened). This last version is however more dubious, as well from a strategic point of view as historical. Indeed, it is very difficult to protect a Rempart on several kilometers and the use of a double rampart is thus not justified. Moreover, the enclosure of the city was narrowed since measurements of dating made it possible to show the anteriority of the external rampart compared to the interior rampart (see plane). The ashlar facing of the external enclosure was certainly re-used besides for the construction of the second wall. It is thus not certified that Bibracte had two enclosing walls simultaneously.

Very an other explanation could come from three inscriptions dedicated to the goddess Bibracte which were found with Autun at the 17th century. Unfortunately, two of the inscriptions cut in the stone disappeared; the third, engraved on a brass medallion is the subject always of a debate on its authenticity. Indeed, the old quarrels on the localization of Bibracte perhaps carried out certain scholars of the time to manufacture forgeries to justify the site of the oppidum éduen on the site of Autun (old the Augustodunum) which was indeed capital of the people éduen at the 1st century. At all events, the mystery on the origins of Bibracte is always intact.

Discovered of Bibracte

The first mention of Bibracte in the history was made by César in its Commentaires on the War of Gaules concerning the year -58. This one is again mentioned in -52 when that César wonders about the intentions of its allies Éduens which joined the revolt and crown Vercingétorix king of Gaules with Bibracte. This one will not be mentioned any more. Inscriptions of time announce that the capital éduenne received the name of Augustodunum ('' the citadel of Auguste''), under the reign of this one; this name will give rise to current the Autun.

As from the 16th century, is born a passion at the scientists, the aristocrats and the men of the church for their local past which results in raising the question of the site of Bibracte. Two theses then will clash. One wants to locate Bibracte at Autun: the Gallic city with the site of the Gallo-Roman city. The other thesis wants that the city is on the slopes of Beuvrect or Bevrect, today Mont Beuvray. This last thesis is based on three major arguments. First of all, there is a relationship between the terms Bibracte and Beuvrect. Then, this assumption calls upon a tradition transmitted by medieval chronicles which located the city at Beuvrect. This is consolidated by the existence of an annual fair first Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of May and whose seniority is already reported in texts of the 13th century. Lastly, the discoveries of pottery, currencies and the observations of the priest of Saint-Leger-under-Beuvray in 1725 go in this direction.

History of the oppidum

Chronology of the settlement of Beuvray

The excavations of the door of Rebout made it possible to discover a succession of five works of which oldest attests human presence on the Mont Beuvray (or Beuvray) as of the Neolithic era. However, the techniques of dating revealed that the oppidum was founded only towards the end of second century BC on a surface of 200 hectares protected by the external rampart. A second interior rampart was built thereafter for still ignored reasons.

Éduens having obtained the friendly statute of of the Roman people , of the contacts with the Roman tradesmen is probable before the conquest of Gaulle by Jules César. This privileged statute made that Bibracte hardly suffered from the conflict: in -58, to 25 km in the south of the city, with Montmort, the armies of Jules César obtained the victory over the Helvètes, forcing them to turn over in Suisse and to be little by little built-in what was going to become the Roman Empire. In spite of a rallying with Vercingétorix in -52, when an assembly of the people of the Gaulle in Bibracte entrusted the supreme command of the Gallic armies to him, César treated the city with care after its victory with Alésia. It remained there during winter 52/51 to write its Commentaires on the War of Gaules . Those reveal inter alia the name certain high-ranking persons of the aristocracy éduenne such as Dumnorix, Vergobret of the Éduens, and his/her brother Diviciacos, Druide. The city will know full sound rise during the decades which follow the war.

The geographer Strabon, who writes a generation after César, still announces Bibracte like fortified town of Éduens.

After the foundation of Autun (Augustodunum) in -15 approximately, under the reign of Auguste, to 25 km, Bibracte was forsaken little by little by its inhabitants. Worships continue however in the temples and close to the aristocratic fountains and dwellings continue to be maintained. Two principal assumptions are advanced as for this progressive abandonment of the site over a few decades. This migration can be due to economic reasons or a will of integration to the Roman model; part of the dominant class éduenne, already pro-Roman during the War of Gaules, became certainly aware of the strategic importance of the new city located on the main axes of communication and also wanted to adapt to the Roman model of the towns of plains while a more traditional population remained a time on the site.

It is known that there remains a fair each first Wednesday of May by texts of the 13th century in the classification of the ancient populations by Gabriel de Mortillet, term now abandoned since corresponding to no historical reality, the power of the capital éduenne is reported in the Commentaires on the War of Gaules which underline many alliances of the Éduens with nearby people. César also mentions the wars which opposed the Éduens to the Arvernes and with the Séquanes for the Hégémonie on most of the Gaulle. These mentions are not alleviating since Rome is allied Éduens, “their brothers of blood”, since second century BC at least. They maintain besides the commercial links and warlike alliances: Rome helps the Éduens with by crushing the army arverne and answers their call against the invasion helvète as a Gaulle who leads to the Guerre of Gaules.

In addition to this powerful alliance with Rome, the Éduens also formed part of a confederation of Celtic tribes:

the Ambarres (in Ain)
the Aulerques Brannoviques
the Bellovaques
the Bituriges Cubes (Berry)
the Parisii
the Ségusiaves (Drill, bordering with the Arvernes)
the Sénons (area of Direction)

whose influence extended thus on a good part of the Gallic territory.

Lastly, the demographic aspect is not to neglect since the Archéologue S estimate the population of the Beuvray between: 5000 and: 10000 inhabitants at the time of full sound rise, the historian Camille Jullian writes these some lines on the Éduens: “Bibracte, I am sure, was the surest starting point and parking of their power. Around Bibracte circulated of very good roads, linking the three larger basins of France. ” Thus, the Roman products going up the the Rhone (the waterways were fastest at the time) and which borrowed then the the Saone, the the Loire or the Allier, passed in territory éduen before joining the basins of the the Loire and the the Seine. Éduens were located at an important commercial crossroads between the Celtic world and Rome, more especially as the Beuvray dominates in the west the Loire Valley and the east the valley of the Saone. They thus allowed the diffusion of the Roman products through Gaulle as of second century BC, making it possible their allies of the confederation to benefit from their trade with Rome and certainly with the Greek colonies such as Massilia. This trade is attested by the great quantities of Amphore S and Céramique S come from Italy found in pits with waste and pavements of house.

Moreover, the Éduens had installed a system of customs which taxed the products passing on their territory to increase their richness as seem to attest it the texts of César: “It was well Dumnorix: the man was full with audacity, its liberality had put it in favor near the people, and he wanted an upheaval political. Since long years it had at cheap price the farm of the customs and of all the other taxes of Héduens, because, when it raised, nobody dared to raise against him. ”. Moreover, Éduens and Séquanes fought for the control of Arar (current the Saone) since the control of the river made it possible to tax the unit with the Roman products and Celts who left towards north the continent by inland waterway.

Policy

Archaeological research on the Beuvray Mount

Of 1865 with 1895, Gabriel Bulliot identified Bibracte in 1867 and started excavations there (in particular the Celtic artisanal district in the neighborhoods of the door of Rebout), using the funds allocated by Napoleon III. One finds amongst other things:

Germany: universities of Kiel, of Leipzig, of Ingolstadt, of Mainz

Austria: University of Vienna

Belgium: University of Brussels

Spain: universities of Madrid and of Saragossa

France: universities of of Besancon, of Dijon, Paris I, Paris VI, of Turns…

the United Kingdom: University of Edinburgh

Hungary: University of Budapest

Italy: University of Bologna

Slovenia: Swiss University of Ljubljana

: University of Lausanne

Each university excavates the site in the form of triennial projects which currently turn to the comprehension of the operating process of a Celtic city of the period of the Tène. Their research is composed of a field work of a few weeks which continues with a detailed study of the excavation and objects discovered which will be then stored at the research center of the site.

Archaeological prospection with the Beuvray Mount

The technique of prospection used by Bulliot is rudimentary. It consists in observing the accidents of the ground since the mount practically did not evolve/move since the time. This enabled him to almost raise a plan of the ramparts without excavating. It employed this technique on a scale site with the assistance of the Topographe S of the army which carried out a series of land surveys of the ground. Only that of the district of Porrey was preserved until our days.
These last years, it is the same technique which was used in the same district of Porrey with more precise tools such as Théodolite S and GPS. Indeed, the air or electromagnetic prospection is made impossible by the vegetation which retimbered the mount since the stop of the pastures and the excavations of Déchelette.
The second enclosure, surprisingly former to the first and which encircled a surface of 200 hectares, was the subject of research starting from 1992 for the first surveys. Did this archaeological research reveal that the rampart at present had a height from 4 to 5 meters without still unknown crowning (palisades, turns…?), an identical depth and was preceded by a ditch from 2 to 4 meters basic over a width from 6 to 10 meters. A thorough study was carried out of 1995 with 2002 with many surveys along this one by the university of Vienna. The researchers thus could note that this rampart was a Murus Gallicus which was dismantled in order to build the internal wall. The dating remains however vague and locates this event during. These excavations also put at the day a Poterne on the level of Porrey, which is the only known one at the present time for the fortifications of the type Murus Gallicus. Those revealed the existence of five different levels of repair of which a palisade of the Neolithic era (dated with carbon-14). The latter was the subject of a reconstitution as of 1996 which marks now the entry in old the Oppidum. At present, research did not make it possible to detect the trace of a system of closing of the door, nor of defense force of this one. Certain assumptions advance the idea of a double surmounted door of a tower of wood guard of the type of the Oppidum de Manching, but nothing can confirm it at present.
Last research on the ramparts, since 2005 concentrated on a line of fortifications downstream from the Door of Rebout, the datings seem to indicate that this work is posterior with the door and thus constituted a advanced fortification. This one will be studied during next excavation campaigns. In parallel, of the aristocratic funerary enclosures were found between the two lines of ramparts.

Artisanal district of Like Cauldron and Champlain
The excavations, taken again since 2000 in the districts known as of Like Cauldron and Champlain, close to the Door of Rebout revealed a district devoted to the work of metals and the housing of the craftsmen. The work of these metals seemed very specialized, one found there blacksmiths, bronziers, enamellers, whose workshops had already been located by Bulliot, and undoubtedly of the goldsmiths and the strikers of currencies. Excavations on the site of Beuvray, on the level of Champlain, and on the solid masses neighborhood start to reveal the existence of mines of extraction of metals such as gold, iron and even of the tin ore. This research will continue and will try to locate the cast iron workshops of the metals extracted outside the oppidum. Indeed, it would seem, considering the specialization of the workshops of Bibracte which metals arrived out of bars which were thus outside cast.
Another artisanal district was found on the level of the one of the tops of the site, with the stone of the Wivre, zone which had been probed little at the time of the searchs for Bulliot and Déchelette. This district will be the object of future excavations which will try to determine the operation of this district.

Park with the horses
In the center of the Mount-Beuvray, the plate known as of the Park to the horses shelters several stone-built houses with the Roman which were excavated as of the 19th century. One finds there in particular the residence PC1 (baptized thus by Jacques Gabriel Bulliot) which is a true gold mine for the researchers. Indeed, this one evolved/moved of a timber construction (of Roman inspiration) with true a domus with a Atrium with impluvium, gantries and even of the thermal baths heated by Hypocauste, as well as a sewerage system. In its final stage, the residence measured 55 m × 67 m, covering a surface of approximately: 3500 m ², are approximately four times the size of the Domus which one finds on the site of Pompéi. One estimates that there were approximately about fifteen domus in this zone, such as the PC2 moreover small size which faces the PC1 on other side of the center lane. One also found habitats of the type Villa rustica (Italic rural residences) like the PC33. However, it is still not known if it were a residential district only reserved for an elite since the excavations also revealed the presence of forging mills close to the domus, this way of cutting the granite is unusual and rests on principles of Mediterranean size of limestone. Éduens undoubtedly called upon foreigners to build the basin. All this agrees to make of this basin a monument out of the commun run of Celtic architecture. Near this basin, one found many cellars and certainly public buildings which stored great quantities of cereals and imported wines of the southernmost countries. One of these cellars out of wooden was recently reconstituted. It is undoubtedly in these buildings that the Éduens centralized their harvests and their imports.

Places of worship

The oppidum of Bibracte counts ten sources and five fountains of the city date from the Gallic or Gallo-Roman time. The Saint-Pierre fountain was a place of worship and pilgrimage in which one found coins and ex-votos. Under the current vault of the 19th century, the excavations of 1988 discovered as for them a Gallo-Roman temple. Moreover, the abandonment of the city before the beginning of the Christian era did not prevent the continuation of the pilgrimages carried out in these places.

Necropolis
Located under the current carpark of the museum, the necropolis was the subject of excavations of rescue during the creation of the museum and the deviation of the secondary road. One found on a surface of 1,5 hectares 70 funerary enclosures (with incineration) equipped with an entry for the east. One found the places of cremation of the bodies more in the south. Other funeral urns were below discovered the Door of Rebout, certainly the remainders of an aristocratic family of the city:

1995: Europe of the Celts at the time of Bibracte

1996: History seen of the sky

1997: Glance on the Celts as Slovenia

1998: At the border between the East and the West

1999: Tombs of the last Celtic aristocrats

2000: Gallic druids

2001: The time of Gallic in Province

2002: On the traces of César

2003: Blacksmiths and scrap merchants

2004: White gold of Halstatt

2005: Wine, nectar of the Gods

2006: Treasuries of women

2007: A return ticket Bibracte-Katmandou

Research center

Located at four kilometers of Beuvray, on the commune of Glux-in-Glenne (Nievre), it comprises one of the most important libraries on the Celtic world, regularly supplied by the European researchers who bring their doubles to it. One also finds there a deposit archaeological, the administration of the archaeological park, various technical premises, a room of seminar and, in the village, a refectory and several lodgings.

Current controversy on the geographical location of Bibracte
In spite of the unanimity of the European scientific circle to locate Bibracte at the Beuvray, certain historians amateurs think that the Mont Beuvray forever be the capital of Éduens. True Bibracte would be according to them with the Mount-Saint-Vincent in Saône-et-Loire. They try to explain it, amongst other things, by the absence of coins éduennes out of gold among the currencies found at the time of the excavations and paintings of ceramics which would correspond to reasons animal and abstracted from other people Celtes. Lastly, the situation of the Beuvray to 800m of altitude, with a relatively sloping relief would offer conditions far too unfavourable to the installation of a capital.
However, the techniques of excavations and increasingly scientific investigations of the European researchers consolidate the position of Bibracte to Beuvray.

See too

Related articles

Jacques Gabriel Bulliot

Joseph Déchelette

Christian Goudineau

Murus Gallicus

Oppidum

Eduens

Dumnorix

Diviciacos

External bonds

archaeological Park of Bibracte

Controversy on the situation of Bibracte

Bibracte in the Country of Art and History of the Mount-Beuvray

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