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Introduction The settlement The fortress |
Despite several excavations, the settlement is still only fragmentarily known. The largest excavated area is that of the Northern Baths (40 x 30 m.), in the northern part of the late-antique fortress. The ruins were investigated in the early 20th century. Hypocausts of heated rooms with apses were found. Traces of sulfur were seen in the lead water pipes, so the water must have come from hot sulfur springs. One of the springs, a well twelve meters deep, was found a bit to the east. There seems to have been a sanctuary there, witness the discovery of a fragment of a marble statuette and of altars dedicated to Apollo, Mars, and Mars Caturix.
Plan of the settlement and the fortress. In light blue the ancient shore of the lake and the river Thièle. Lanthemann 2022, fig. 2.
View of the excavations of the northern baths in 1906, seen from the south-west. Photo: Wikimedia, Archives canton Vaud.Deities are recorded in many other inscriptions: Apollo, Mars Caturix, Mercurius, Minerva, Victoria, and the Celtic deity Sucellus. One dedication was made by a physician, perhaps working in the healing sulfur baths.
MARTI
AVG(usto)
C(aius) SENTIVS DIADV
MENVS MEDICVS
V(otum) S(olvit) L(ibens) M(erito)For Mars
Augustus
Caius Sentius Diadumenus,
physician,
fulfilled his vow gladly, deservedly.Limestone altar, found in 1825. W. 0.65, h. 1.49, d. 0.615.
Kolb et al. 2022, nr. 105. Photo: EDCS-10800456.In the years 2002-2003 and 2006-2011 two sites were excavated where remarkable, similar features were discovered: pits and parallel trenches in which a variety of objects had been buried, near small rooms with hearths. Both sites have been interpreted as sanctuaries: the "Sanctuaire de l'Ouest", to the west of the river Thièle, and the "Sanctuaire du Parc Piguet", a bit to the north of the baths. The objects would have been ritually buried after communal meals in the presence of gods. It has also been suggested that the gatherings were not primarily religious in nature, but were for example weddings.
Plan of the "Sanctuaire de l'Ouest". Meylan 2015, fig. 2.The "Sanctuaire de l'Ouest" was in use from around 15 BC until the third quarter of the first century. The most striking feature is a series parallel trenches. Next to these were tiny masonry rooms with hearths, possibly chapels. It is however not clear to which deities these would have been dedicated (a terracotta statuette of Minerva was found). In the trenches and in a few pits broken vessels were found (both crockery and for cooking), metal cooking utensils, coins, and animal bones, mainly from cattle and pigs, but also from sheep, goats, horses and dogs. Poultry, fish and molluscs were also identified. The bones showed traces of cutting, cooking and consumption.
Plan of the "Sanctuaire du Parc Piguet". Lanthemann 2020, fig. 4.The "Sanctuaire du Parc Piguet" was in use from around 40 BC until the middle of the first century, thus bridging the Late Iron Age (La Tène D2b) and the Roman Imperial period. In trenches and pits a wide variety of objects was found: coins, animal bones (again showing traces of cutting, cooking and consumption), terracotta vessels and lamps, and metal objects, such as brooches, knives, a mirror, a key, and a strigilis (a scraper used by bathers).
Brooches found in the trenches. Photo: Lanthemann 2020, fig. 8.
Introduction
The settlement
The fortress
[4-Mar-2024]
