The walls of wood and earth that the Gallic towns They made the difference between survival and submission. THE solidity of its palisades and depth of the ditches They were visible symbols of power, but also effective tools for resisting sieges. Popular culture, immortalized in the cartoons of Asterix and Obelixinherited this image of villages surrounded by defenses impossible to penetrate. This representation, although humorous, was born from a real observation: the Gallic fortification systems were designed to impress and protect.
These structures define a way of organizing the territory which combines military function and social prestige. This heritage has become tangible thanks to Recent archaeological discoveries in Indre-et-Loirewhere researchers have recovered remains which explain how an enclosure capable of resisting the Roman conquest was built.
A monumental defensive system which also served as a sign of authority
The study of the eastern sector of the Sorigny site made it possible to identify the distribution of rural constructions from the Carolingian period. Archaeologists have recorded dozens of post holes which correspond to houses, warehouses and stables, in addition to a network of roads which articulated the different productive spaces. This discovery shows the continuity of occupation in a landscape already organized centuries before by the Gallic elite.
The defensive system documented in the commune of Monts It stands out for its scale and the planning it reveals. The pit is between five and seven meters wide and almost three meters deep, accompanied by a interior slope which reinforced the closure of the premises. The single entrance, open on the south side, controlled access to an area of 1.2 hectares. The monumentality of the work suggests a function broader than the purely military domainalso linked to the prestige and authority of its builders.
The well discovered near the residential areas, along with the household objects recovered, offer a glimpse into the daily life of its inhabitants. The study of these materials will allow know what resources they used, how they organized their work and what relationships they maintained with commercial networks of the environment. Each ceramic fragment or organic remains extracted from these layers provides information on the daily activities inside the enclosure.
Metallurgical activity confirms the productive function of the colonies
THE metallurgical traces detected in Sorigny complete the panorama of economic activity in the Carolingian era. In several tombs have been identified forging waste and slagevidence that the inhabitants carried out metal processing tasks. Next to them, around twenty tombs, including 15 grouped together at the southern end, form a small funerary complex linked to the habitat. This duality between production and burial illustrates the social balance of the commune.
The internal organization of the Gallic habitat of the Mountains responds to a consistent and durable design. The dwellings, the annexed buildings and the well are distributed according to a regular pattern, preserved in the footprints of the land. This provision demonstrates a advance planning and the desire to keep it stable over time. The structures were built with perishable materials, but the layout reveals an order that goes beyond the functional.
Excavations at Sorigny revealed an agricultural settlement from the 8th to 10th centuries, the third documented in the region. The site is linked to a elitist farm located approximately 150 meters to the southwest. Archaeologists interpret that the workers who lived in this new enclave They supplied produce to this larger farm. The necropolis excavated 400 meters to the northeast, with around a hundred tombs, probably housed the inhabitants of the two colonies.
The scale of the Mounts complex reveals the power of the elite who inhabited it
The interpretation of the whole of the Mountains as the center of a Gallic elite is based on the size of the buildings and the depth of their foundations. Large section messages indicate buildings capable of supporting heavy structureswhile the arrangement of the palisades and accesses defines un control of the space of a consolidated local power.
The Gallic enclosure of the Monts, located on a terrace which dominates the Indre Riverreflects uninterrupted occupation from the end of the Second Iron Age to the early days of Romanization. The continuity of usage suggests that the new dominators did not destroy the colony, but rather They took advantage of their strategic position and their infrastructure.
The role of the site did not disappear after the conquest. The remains show that their authority persisted under Roman rulewhich makes it an exceptional reference for studying the transition between two worlds.
The archaeological work of the Monts and Sorigny, carried out under the direction of the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research and the archeology service of the department of Indre-et-Loire, traces a long history. It is home to the Gallic nobility, Carolingian peasants and the transformations that defined the Indre valley until the beginning of feudalism.
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