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Introduction The buildings The votive tablets Other votive gifts |
Three Roman buildings were found on the plateau on the summit: a temple of Jupiter-Poeninus and two buildings that will have been inns (mansiones). The platform is in French known as the "Plan de Jupiter". The remains consist of foundation trenches and the lower part of some walls.
Plan of the plateau. 2: temple; 3, 4: mansio (?). Appolonia et al. 2008, 33 fig. 1, after Notizie degli Scavi 1894, 34.It is not clear how old the cult on the summit is (Celtic and Roman coins from the first and second century BC have been found). Fragments of an inscription found on the summit and in Bourg-Saint-Pierre suggest that the temple was built in the Flavian period, during the reign of Vespasianus or of one of his sons, Titus or Domitianus (69-96 AD). The words Iovi Poenino ("to the Pennine Jupiter") were reconstructed, the name Vespasianus, and the titles pontifex maximus and tribunicia potestate (EDCS-58400065). The temple measured 7.35 x 11.47 m. The walls were made of large blocks, 0.76 and 0.90 m. long, a few of which were found. It consisted of a cella and a pronaos with columns in the entrance. The plan of the two other buildings is known only partially. They must have measured some 14 x 16 m. and 12 x 25 m. The upper part of their walls will have been half-timbered.
Reconstruction of the temple and a mansio. Appolonia et al. 2008, 46 fig. 7.On the plateau many coins were found. A very large number is from the period Augustus-Claudius (27 BC - 54 AD). There is a second peak in the years 260-275 AD, when the pass must have been crossed several times by Roman soldiers to quell various revolts on the border with Germania. The latest coins are from the second half of the fourth century.
View of the excavations in 1892. Photo: gsbernard.ch.
Introduction
The buildings
The votive tablets
Other votive gifts
[9-Feb-2024]
