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Camulodunum type 262, le type Besançon and Central Gaulish granite-tempered ware

Summary of distribution in département 45-Loiret (France)
Click on the site name for more details

Site name Description
Artenay Unpublished information supplied to A. Ferdière.
Beaugency Ferdière records several examples of le type Besançon from an early Roman site at Beaugency.
Lion-en-Beauce Unpublished information supplied to A. Ferdière.
Meung-sur-Loire The assemblage recovered during rescue excavations at `Le Caillou', Meung-sur-Loire, includes Dressel 1a and 1b amphoras and a jar of le type Besançon. The fabric of the jar is not described. It has a band of incised decoration on the shoulder, although the form resembles the C262, which is normally plain.
Orléans The Augustan and later occupation at Orléans is extensive but it was only in 1984 that an earlier sequence was recovered at Îlot Saint-Germain, in the centre of the Roman and medieval city (Orléans site O18; excavations directed by D.Petit for the Direction Regionale des Antiquites Historiques du Centre region; see Ferdière 1985 for a note on the excavation). A selection of material from the site has been illustrated in an exhibition catalogue published by the Musée de Châteaudun (Villes ed. 1985, 71-72, fig.45).

The ceramics from the lowest levels include fine painted wares of the early `vase balustre' style, Dressel 1a amphoras and Campanian ware. The coarse wares are rather plain and confined to simple necked jars and open bowls -- there is no sign of any moulded-rim style, either in TF1 or other wares. Large jars of class 1 (apparently) in TF1 only appear in higher levels and are succeeded by deposits containing smaller jars of the Cam.262 type associated with flagons, samian and other early Roman fine wares. This sequence is important as it demonstrates a stratigraphic relationship between an indigenous coarse ware tradition and the appearance of TF1. With further study we may even be able to place a terminus post quem on the arrival of TF1 in the region. Moulded-rim jars, including many in TF1, are undoubtedly very common at Orléans and elsewhere in the region, but we should look to the coarse wares from the lowest levels of the Îlot Saint-Germain sequence to illustrate the indigenous tradition that has been displaced.

Moulded-rim jars in fabrics TF1, TF2 and the `Standard fabric', including forms Cam.262, Cam.102, bowls and larger dolia-type vessels are common in Augustan and Tiberian contexts at Orléans.

Saint-Aignan-des-Gués Ferdière illustrates a large jar of our class 1 from an early `fossé gauloise' at Saint-Aignan-des-Gués - he records that there are several examples, mostly decorated with chevrons or oblique incisions on the shoulder. The published photograph (Ferdière 1972, fig.3) may suggest that these vessels are in TF1.
Tavers Ferdière records several examples of le type Besançon from Tavers.
Vienne-en-Val Ferdière illustrates an example of le type Besançon from an Augustan assemblage at Vienne-en-Val. It is an undecorated example of our class 1.
Location map : 45-Loiret (France)
 • Url: http://www.potsherd.org.uk/papers/cgmw/db/dept/45 • Author: • Last updated: 29 July, 2004 •