Archaeology in France

[vervialle]

 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.

[Dick Smith]

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.

[Patf]

My sister used to stay in Vaison-la-Romaine in the Vaucluse, where

there are many roman remains and excavations. There must be many more,

I would have thought. Pat. ps do you mean websites or archaeological sites?

[Dick Smith]

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?

[vervialle]

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.

[Dick Smith]

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 at

http://homepage.mac.com/r.c.smith/PhotoAlbum2.html

Apart from that I have seen very little, although I have heard that there are Roman remains in Normandy.

[KathyC]

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!

[Dick Smith]

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.

[Tresco]

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

[Owens88]

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 ?).

[Tresco]

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?

[Loiseau]

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 is
http://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.asp

Angela

 

 

[Chas]

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.

[AnnM]

There is a well developed site with museum etc. in the Indre, just outside Argenton sur Creuse, see http://www.argentomagus.com/indexgb.php

[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.html

For those of you who have experience of digging in the UK - you will find it a very, very different experience in France.

Hoddy

[Purdey]

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.

[Dick Smith]

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...

[WJT]

[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.html

For 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.

[Richard-R]

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.

[Hoddy]

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

[littlemouse]

go to www.voila.fr and put in archeologie

[dwmcn]

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.

[Hoddy]

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

[WJT]

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.

[Harley]

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.[:(]