A cultivated field has taken off at the western end of La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz.
The vast slope once loaded with cereals has crumbled.
It is now covered with a brownish, dry and bumpy ground.
Contemplated from the residential edge of the town, the land now rises towards the horizon like a colossal wave, laid bare, stripped and split with science by a team of seasoned arms.
The work is not finished.
A few silhouettes are still busy in the middle of the dust, under the strong June sun.
They are fishing.
It doesn't matter that the sea is far away;
the vestiges of stone, terracotta and metal extirpated from the robust entrails of Armorica are not likely to wriggle in the distance.
Except in case of rain.
Archaeologists have fun with it, digging in Brittany is never an easy task.
To discover
Find all the results of the legislative elections
Read alsoNotre-Dame de Paris: extraordinary archaeological discoveries on the sidelines of the construction site
You have to move towards the hollows and holes of this wasteland to appreciate the archaeological nature of the operation which has been set up since March on the outskirts of La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz, about fifteen kilometers to the north of Rennes.
Here, embedded square shapes, there rectangles from which spring a few pieces of bricks and crushed stones;
between the two, a few stratigraphic trenches reveal the marbling of the earth.
Several plans and reconstructions under his arm, Bastien Simier presents the site with communicative enthusiasm.
The excavation site is located on sloping ground, that of an old field which will host a residential development in the coming years.
Emmanuelle Collado/Inrap
“We have been excavating here for three months a Gallo-Roman sanctuary”
, indicates the archaeologist, scientific manager of this site of the National Institute for Research in Preventive Archeology (Inrap).
Haunted by the days spent collecting the thousand-year-old secrets of the field, the skilful captain of the operation traverses the site at a rapid pace, pointing out to the laymen the various excavated structures.
"In the center of a vast space enclosed by a colonnaded gallery, we unearthed two square-shaped buildings, i.e. Gallo-Roman temples called fana
(or fanums, Ed.),
endowed with a high central tower.
This complex could have been inaugurated as early as the 30s before our era, i.e. at a very early period, and would have been occupied until
Read alsoTwenty years of Inrap: “Archeology gives voice to the mute of history”
show, transmit
The presentation speech is run in, the visuals presented at arm's length by the archaeologist are neat.
The site is one of the excavation sites which open its doors to the public, from June 17 to 19, on the occasion of the European Days of Archeology.
Gleaming white barnums, deployed at the foot of the shrine, display several items discovered during the operation.
A statuette of the god Mars, ceramic tiles, Gallic and Roman coins, including an
aureus
stamped with the effigy of the Emperor Domitian.
Copper alloy statuette that could represent the god Mars, whose cult was very popular in western Roman Gaul.
On the ground, the researchers are however not certain - at this stage of the construction site in any case - that the sanctuary was necessarily dedicated to him.
Emmanuelle Collado/Inrap
Several Inrap agents have volunteered to present the preventive archeology work in progress at La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz.
"There is something rewarding about going into contact with the population to mediate and show what we are working on",
testifies Ronan Louessard, archaeologist at Inrap for two years, after having officiated at the center of archeology of Finistère.
“The remains are not very impressive, but they are of little importance in themselves;
what is interesting is to put them in a network with other sites of the same kind, it brings out specificities»
, observes the archaeologist.
A medievalist, the researcher with the stature of a quartermaster bends with good grace to the study of an ancient site.
Such is the profession and its charms;
preventive archeology leads both to working on a layer of Gallo-Roman remains, and to pouring into Merovingian Europe, the Angevin Empire or into the depths of the Palaeolithic.
Read alsoThe spectacular restoration of the temple of Esna in Egypt
The past under the herons
The ancient site which is revealed at La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz, under the distracted eye of microlights and a few herons, hides its game well.
“This sanctuary is relatively classic for
Roman Gaul
, but rarely excavated in its entirety.
Here we will be able to understand the site as a whole”
, specifies Bastien Simier.
The presence of these temples in the Breton countryside is not a surprise.
On the contrary, it is precisely because it was known, since an aerial prospecting campaign in 1984, that this religious site was the subject of a prescription by the Drac Bretagne, upstream of a development project. .
Nearly forty years after its location, and four years after an archaeological diagnosis which confirmed the presence of remains, the excavation allows researchers to inspect more closely what had been observed from the sky.
And to raise dumpers of new scientific questions.
Zenithal view of the two temples of the sanctuary.
The interior walls of the
cella
– where the cult statue stood – supported the high tower of the
fana
, which in antiquity punctuated the landscape of Roman Gaul.
Emmanuelle Collado/Inrap
One of them immediately arises when discovering each religious site.
What cults were venerated there?
According to archaeologists, the track of a sanctuary devoted to Mars Mullo, the local and benevolent variant of the god of war, is possible;
his cult was particularly strong in the Gallo-Roman West.
However, the statuette found was not directly unearthed in the sacred enclosure, which limits its determining character.
Jupiter then?
A bronze cup unearthed during the excavation is indeed struck with an eagle and a thunderbolt.
But, again, the index is too thin.
Archaeologists still have four months to clarify this religious enigma and continue to attract curious people from the surrounding area.
"It's exceptional to have a historic site of this kind in our town
"
,
indicates to
Figaro
the mayor of La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz, Christèle Gasté (without label).
When the work is completed in October, the current site will be part of a 30-hectare residential area, the last extension of the town of some 4,000 inhabitants.
"We bite on agricultural land, but it's relatively contained
", specifies the mayor who hopes that the ancient past of the site will be highlighted in one way or another.
It will not be the first time that the field has changed functions.
Read alsoStolen during the Second World War, a Roman bust bought for 35 dollars in Texas
A village, baths
In addition to a fine example of a Gallo-Roman sanctuary, the 7 hectares of the former agricultural plot indeed concealed other secrets.
“We unearthed a thermal building, baths with an area of around 120 m2”
, presents Bastien Simier, pointing to a structure still equipped with terracotta pillars, characteristic vestiges of this type of building of which they constituted hypocaust elements, underfloor heating system.
A housing sector was unearthed in the immediate vicinity of the sanctuary and the thermal baths.
The village would have housed the staff of the temples.
Restitution of the Gallo-Roman sanctuary.
In a forecourt, a well and one of the adjoining structures immediately adjoined the worship complex.
Further on, a bathing establishment and a small town also served the site.
Marie Millet/Inrap
With the serenity of the experience, Bastien Simier is convinced: other ancient structures still lie in the ground, at his feet.
“An
important and well-known Roman road
linking Rennes to Corseul passed behind the town.
But it seems that another way, new, also passed just below the whole of La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz”
, he indicates, map in support.
"At the end of the excavation, we should be able to restore a complete sequence of the landscape of this sector"
, enthuses the archaeologist.
Read alsoIn Delphi, the intriguing transformation of the sanctuary of Apollo into a Christian city
Slowly but surely, the lineaments of an ancient Gallo-Roman rural settlement thus take shape in the excavation notebooks of researchers.
There was a small housing estate, a sanctuary, thermal baths;
it was not a city in its own right, but the rural center of one of the four Gallo-Roman sub-prefectures belonging to ancient Rennes – Condate.
However, the question of the origins of the site raises questions, since the whole of La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz would have been founded before Rennes.
The city, future urban crossroads of ancient Armorica, must have been visible from the top of the hill.
“We are on a plateau which dominates the whole valley;
we could see far enough at the time”
, launches Bastien Simier from the top of the elevation, drawing with his hand an arc of a circle towards the horizon crossed out by a neighboring factory.
Finally, the track of a Celtic set also intrigues archaeologists.
“There are other things under the temple
, adds Bastien Simier.
We discovered ditches and cinerary urns dated around 500 BC.
J.-C., that is to say the end of the first
Iron Age
.”
The local Celtic populations, the Riédons, would they have seen a Roman sanctuary grow on the site of a previous sacred site?
“The excavation will continue after the European Archeology Days.
We are going to go below and see if there is a sanctuary from the Gallic era,”
says the researcher.
Before adding, mischievously:
"Or something older!"
In the absence of written sources, only happy strokes of the trowel will be able to provide some answers.