The largest cemetery of the city was the West Cemetery, which was excavated and partially destroyed in the 19th century, without detailed reports. About 500 meters to the north of the city, at the locality En Chaplix, a combined funerary and religious complex was discovered. Amongst the graves (cremations and inhumations from the first to the early third century) were two mausolea, each in its own enclosure. Through dendrochronology they have been dated to the years 23-28 AD and around 40 AD. They consisted of a semicircular exedra in front of a tower-like structure that was more than 20 m. high. In the upper part three statues will have been standing. Of the sculptural decoration sea creatures, Dionysiac figures, and Attis were found. From the southern mausoleum comes a male portrait. Later, but still in the first century, two small Gallo-Roman temples were built nearby in adjacent enclosures. The complex might be related to a villa to the south, at the locality Le Russalet, known only from aerial photos.
Plan of the En Chaplix funerary and religious complex. 1: northern temple and Augustan tomb; 2: southern temple;
3: northern 'chapel'; 4: Augustan tomb enclosure; 5: northern temple enclosure; 6: southern temple enclosure;
7: enclosure of villa to the east; 8: street; 9: tombs; 10: northern mausoleum; 11: enclosure of northern mausoleum;
12: southern mausoleum; 13: enclosure of southern mausoleum; 14-17: burials. De Pury-Gysel 2012(2), Abb. 18.
Reconstruction of the En Chaplix funerary and religious complex. De Pury-Gysel 2012(2), Abb. 19.
Detail of the sculptural decoration of the mausolea: a Triton and a Nereid on a sea creature.
Photo: Wikimedia, Fanny Schertzer.
Male portrait from the southern mausoleum. Tufa. H. 0.34.
30-40 AD. Photo: Wikimedia, Ludovic Pélron.A further cemetery was discovered at the locality Les Tourbières. A cemetery near the harbour was used in the late first and second century. One grave consisted of a tool case, apparently of a carpenter, in which the ashes and the funerary gifts had been placed, including a bent saw. A cemetery at the locality A la Montagne, in the south-eastern part of the city, was used only in the first century until the city wall was built.
The tool case of a carpenter. Photo: De Pury-Gysel 2012(2), Abb. 57.
[1-May-2024]
