Researchers from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research bring back an ancient sanctuary in Brittany.
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To see the old sanctuary at La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz (Ille-et-Vilaine), you have to be imagined. On its current site, an agricultural area near Rennes intended to accommodate residential buildings, the place of worship has left only traces on the ground, fragmented tiles and some buried vestiges. Most of its walls were recovered at the end of the Roman era for the construction of other buildings.
However, archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) have reconstructed the plan of the building with precision. Bastien Simier, responsible for the excavation operation that has been taking place there since March, visits the sanctuary as if we were there. A square of 60 meters side is dug on the ground. This is where the gallery of columns was erected which delimited the construction. Inside, other tracks designate the location of two fanums, typical Gallic temples dedicated to deities. Access to these places was reserved for certain fringes of the population. Those who could not enter it gathered on the vast esplanade in front of the building.
Expand research
But, in the absence of written sources on the sanctuary, tracing his story is a long -term job. Each unearthed object can therefore play a crucial role. Parts of ceramic, for example, have been dated precisely. They prove an occupation of the site from the i er sup> century BC. AD and for at least five centuries. At that time, the territory belonged to the semi-olds, Celts in northwestern Gaul. Some finds say a lot about their religious practices: a bronze statuette of the Mars God, a bronze cup with the reasons recalling Jupiter and coins deposited as an offering. “He was an important public sanctuary, says Bastien Simier. There should not be many around the city of Rennes [Condate], a capital in Roman times.”
Other surprises awaited archaeologists. Around the sanctuary, they found the remains of a small village and a thermal building. “This is really an opportunity for us to expand research, explains the archaeologist. Because, often, in older excavations, we only searched the temples and not necessarily what was around.” To do this, Inrap has a large playground: it plans to search more than 7 hectares by the end of the site in October, twice the covered area to date.
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