vervialle Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Have just watched time team on television in the U.K and it got me thinking about france, I have never seen an archaeological dig in France in fifteen years and have travelled all over France, I know in england we are probably more enthusiastic about it, especially where I live near Colchester with its roman origins, we always have a dig going on somewhere in Colchester especially when a building is being pulled down.Just interested if anyone else has seen one in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 This piqued my interest, and I did a net search on archaeology (in Normandy) and I found almost nothing. In fact, according to the net, the history of Normandy begins in June 1944.Perhaps this is a case that French archaeological societies just aren't web-oriented, and there are many interesting sites to visit. If anyone knows of any, I'd love to hear of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 My sister used to stay in Vaison-la-Romaine in the Vaucluse, wherethere are many roman remains and excavations. There must be many more,I would have thought. Pat. ps do you mean websites or archaeological sites? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 No, I mean real sites.Paul Punch put me on to Jublains, near Mayenne, when I met him a couple of years back, but I haven't seen much else.Come to that, where is Paul? He hasn't posted for a while, has he? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vervialle Posted May 6, 2006 Author Share Posted May 6, 2006 Dick I am going to be really ignorant here, I will admit I did not do history for my exams at school and only lightly covered the obvious periods of history, mainly due to being at a school in transition from CSE,S to GCSE it was a bleak time teachers strugglig with the new sylabus and I was useless with dates, but would France have had the same sort of history in Roman times as us because you do not see much about it in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 That is what surprises me - Gaul was Roman longer than Britain (seen in the language) but there don't seem to be many sites. If you get the chance, go to Jublains, there the later medieval village 'missed' the Roman town and it can still be seen. But although it is a big site with a large visitors' centre there is no website, or at least one that works. My pix are athttp://homepage.mac.com/r.c.smith/PhotoAlbum2.htmlApart from that I have seen very little, although I have heard that there are Roman remains in Normandy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyC Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 I Googled "Roman France Sites" and came up with quite a bit, although not in Normandy. I wonder whether the importance of the sites in places like Nimes and Arles means that lesser sites are passed over. It seems that anywhere in the UK with a few stones and a couple of mosaic tiles has a website and visitor centre but very few sites are of major importance. Perhaps I'm getting cynical in my old age but I do get fed up with the Romans! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 I agree, I'd like to see some medieval stuff, but in our part of France they are fixated on WW2. Probably understandable.There is an art gallery in Rennes with loads of medieval statuary and decorative stonework, but apart from that is is some rather neglected ruins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tresco Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 There are ampitheatres in Nimes, Arles (these are the best known) Vienne, Carcasonne. There are probably many more visible remains which arel less famous all over France.There is a good ampitheatre, and other remains near us in Saintes.I could never get fed up with the Romans [:)]I thought the French were mad on archeology. There is a many hectare site near us that has been preserved now because of the discovery of one very ancient skeleton. It's a new tourist attraction. Multi modern interactive everything[:D]http://www.paleosite.fr/accueil.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owens88 Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 In 66 they have thier pits of pre-history (tautagels) and then it seems to fast forward to the Cathars with minor Roman roundabouyts like teh Oppdium (spelling?) and Nimes.Anyway I thought that France doesn't have archaeological digs because it maintains evrything to a sustainable level (Carcassone and Concrete ?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tresco Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 I thought they were mad on pre-history (and therefore archeology) because of the number of what I call 'monkey progammes' on TV. Do you mean to say they don't dig here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Lots of Roman roads in the Nord/Pas de Calais/Somme.They radiate out of Cassel, Arras, Amiens, and there's a die-straight road to Boulogne from Therouanne. Often called "Chaussée Brunehaut" on maps.There is a site (Nemetacum) N of Arras that you can visit in the summer months. (spool down this page to see a pic of it.)[EDIT: Whoops, seem to have forgotten the link to this page: here it ishttp://www.nordmag.fr/nord_pas_de_calais/arras/histoire_arras.htm ]There's also an important site at Ribemont-sur-Ancre (Somme), but you don't get to see the site itself - only a museum of the finds in the village centre. http://www.culture.gouv.fr/fr/arcnat/aerien/fr/decou3-pg9.htm and http://www.somme-tourisme.com/fr/decouvrir/avisiter/archeologie/archeologie_ribemont-sur-ancre.aspAngela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chas Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 As well as the paleosite mentioned by Tresco there is also quite a large roman site being excavated at La Fa near Barzan - www.le-fa.com. The local archaeological society recently put on an exhibition of sites and artifacts in Le Clerc in Royan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnM Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 There is a well developed site with museum etc. in the Indre, just outside Argenton sur Creuse, see http://www.argentomagus.com/indexgb.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 This site tells you how to volunteer to dig in France, but it costs £20 a year to subscribe.http://www.britarch.ac.uk/archabroad/digging.htmlFor those of you who have experience of digging in the UK - you will find it a very, very different experience in France.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purdey Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 On the hillside above our village in the Ariege is the site of a cemetery dating from the Merovingienne period - 6th to 8th century ( Cemetiere de Tabariane) The first dig took place in 1901 and each summer archaeology students come there to dig. Last year while we were there the villagers were invited to the site where the professor explained a little of it's history and what had been found. We saw three skeletons in the process of being excavated. To date 130 have been found along with various artefacts - necklaces, brooches, buttons etc. It was very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Smith Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 This is very frustrating! All this interesting stuff (couldn't get le-fa to open) and none of it in Normandy! I feel a field trip coming on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WJT Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 [quote user="Hoddy"]This site tells you how to volunteer to dig in France, but it costs £20 a year to subscribe.http://www.britarch.ac.uk/archabroad/digging.htmlFor those of you who have experience of digging in the UK - you will find it a very, very different experience in France.Hoddy[/quote]Hoddy, not having any experience in digging, would be interested to learn what the difference would be and why you say this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard-R Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Hi Owens88. I think you mean Tautavel, a very famours pre-historic site and mueseum (and website). Plus the are loads of Roman remains. Cellars and Roman road in Narbonne, Wine cellars in Portel des Corbieres, plus the big sites in Beziers, Nimes (+ Pont du Gard), Montpellier, and all along the south coast.Type archaeolgie into www.pagesjeaunes.fr and you we find the societie in Paris.Plus some universities have archaeolgy departments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Bearing in mind that my digging experience in France is limited so I may be generalising too much…It’s that things which are accepted as normal practice in the two countries are very different. For example in all the digs I’ve worked on in England, when a breaktime approaches it’s understood that you clean up any loose soil that you’ve scraped away and take it to the spoil heap and that you leave your patch clean as if you weren’t coming back. Also if you find something, it is usual in England to have the co-ordinates and levels recorded on the site plan as soon as possible so that you can continue to work easily. Neither of these things was usual on the site I worked on in France.If you’re interested in volunteering in the UK www.archaeology.co.uk has a booklet available for £7.95, which lists digs which are looking for volunteers this summer.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlemouse Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 go to www.voila.fr and put in archeologie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwmcn Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 There was an article in the British Archaeology magazine in July/August 2005 about where the Romans might have crossed the Channel from France. Digging in the US is also different from digging in GB, at least on the sites I worked on. Lots of small square areas. The sites I worked on in GB: Winchester, Repton, and St. Albans were large open areas with 20cm baulks left standing every five or ten meters. A neighbor's son worked on a site in Angouleme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 Now there's a coincidence. I worked at St Alban's and Repton too(Trench10 ruled).I take it you're a Biddle fan ? Will anything ever be published ?Perhaps we ought to continue this conversation in private - pretty boring to everyone else I should think.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WJT Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 Oh go on, I for one would be interested and I am sure others would be as well. By the way thank you for the information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harley Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 It's a great pity there is not a lot going on in our area (Normandy, West). We love to watch Timeteam and my daughter (10) is fascinated by the subject and would really enjoy getting involved in this kind of thing.[:(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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