Le Chasseron is a mountain to the north-west of Yverdon-les-Bains with an elevation of 1607 meters above sea level. A presence of people on the summit in the Roman era was first established around 1760, when a significant number of coins emerged. In the middle of the 19th century tiles were found, some with stamps of legions stationed in Vindonissa (Windisch AG). The site was then plundered by local treasure hunters. Among the finds were a large bronze torque (neck ring), three iron votive hatchets, two bronze lamps, and little bells. Archaeologists suspected the presence of a temple, an inn for pilgrims and a military building. More objects were found during the presence of soldiers in the First and Second World War and during the establishment of a weather station. These included a bronze statuette of a rooster, to which a lead plaque with an inscription was attached, a dedication to the Genius of the 11th legion. The whereabouts of these two objects are unknown. Were they fact or fiction? A bronze plaque with an identical inscription had been found in 1897 in Vindonissa, and the discovery was published in a local newspaper on March 31 1948, one day before April 1.
(Centuria) DOMITI
MET(h)ODI(ci)
VAL(erius) TERTIVS
GENIO LEG(ionis) XI C(laudiae) P(iae) F(idelis)
PVLLVM V(otum) S(olvit)
L(ibens) L(aetus) M(erito)From the centuria of Domitius
Methodicus,
Valerius Tertius,
for the Genius of the 11th legion Claudia Pia Fidelis
fulfilled his vow (with the statuette of a) chicken
willingly, joyfully and deservedly.Inscribed bronze plaque from Vindonissa. W. 0.05, h. 0.032. 70-101 AD.
Kolb et al. 2022, nr. 432. Photo: EDCS-11201820.Proper excavations took place in 2004 and 2005. At the "Terrasse" ("Terrace") a Gallo-Roman temple was found. It measured 15.90 x 14.40 m., and had a cella of 10.60 x 9.60 m. It was built around 40 AD, and modified at the end of the second or the beginning of the third century. The latest coins in its destruction layer date from the last third of the fourth century. Amongst the votive gifts were coins, rings, brooches, a small axe, and miniature vessels. No inscriptions or fragments of a cult statue were found, so the deity to which the temple was dedicated cannot be identified with certainty. The Gallo-Roman Mercurius has been suggested. A similar temple, of Mercurius, has been found on the Puy de Dôme in France.
View of the excavations of the temple in 2005. Luginbühl et al. 2013, Pl. 3.1.
Reconstruction of the temple. Paunier et al. 2016, fig. 698.At the "Plan des Centurions" ("Plateau of the Centurions") the remains were found of a wooden or timber-framed building that had a roof of tiles and measured 8 x 3 m. It may have been the accomodation of workers involved in the construction of the temple in the first half of the first century. At the "Falaises" ("Cliffs") many coins were found in two ravines. These were interpreted as evidence of iactatio stipis, the "tossing of a coin" in the dwelling place of a deity, in this case from a spur at the top of the cliffs. It is mentioned by Pliny the Younger (Epistulae VIII,8) and Seneca (Quaestiones naturales IV,2,7). Old descriptions of the site suggest that there was a votive deposit (sacrarium) to the north-west of the temple and an inn (hospitalia) to the east, on the spot where a hotel-restaurant now stands. The pilgrims could recover in the inn after an arduous climb, before performing their rituals.
Map of the summit. Luginbühl et al. 2013, fig. 9.4.
Reconstruction of the buildings on the summit. Luginbühl et al. 2013, Pl. 2.
Literature
Luginbühl et al. 2013.
[26-Mar-2024]
