0000000000976701
AUTHOR
Julien Curie
Etude de travertins carbonatés du sanctuaire de Jebel Oust (Tunisie) : une contribution à l'analyse diachronique, fonctionnelle et architecturale des thermes
International audience
ÉTUDE GÉOARCHÉOLOGIQUE D'UN LIEU DE CULTE ROMAIN IMPLANTÉ SUR UNE SOURCE THERMALE : LE SANCTUAIRE DE JEBEL OUST, TUNISIE
The ancient site of Jebel Oust (Tunisia) grew up around a hot spring, which was a focus for worship at the start of the first millennium AD, until it dried up in Late Antiquity. A geoarchaeological study of the hydrological functioning of the spring, catchment mechanisms for hot water and associated anthropic infrastructure makes it possible to trace the environmental history of the sanctuary/hot spring complex and draws on the example of Jebel Oust to provide new evidence supporting the identification of a water cult in the Roman era.
Geoarchaeology of "anthropogenic" travertine: a story of water and life etched in stone
The notion of “anthropogenic” carbonate deposits takes into consideration human impact on continental limestones precipitated from hot (travertine) or cold (calcareous tufas, speleothems) waters. It is documented here by a geoarchaeological study of the Roman site of Jebel Oust, Tunisia, where the exploitation of a hot spring is attested from the first century AD to the end of Late Antiquity. Petrographical and geochemical analyses performed on travertine deposits offer evidence of the anthropisation of the hot spring and its associated deposits, and reveal new elements of water management and bathing practices during Roman times.
Occitanie, Haute-Garonne, Grenade, Le Castelet
Le lieu-dit Le Castelet à Grenade (Haute-Garonne) est situé à égale distance (1,5 km) du confluent Hers-Girou vers l’est et d’un méandre de la Garonne vers le nord-ouest. Un projet de carrière de la Société Midi-Pyrénées Granulats a permis de retrouver dans ce lieu les traces de plusieurs occupations humaines, échelonnées pour l’essentiel entre le Néolithique moyen et de la fin de l’âge du Bronze. L’ancien réseau hydrographique secondaire de la Garonne marque le paysage et draine dans le sous-sol la nappe phréatique, constituant sans doute un atout. En effet, il suffit de creuser un puits au sein d’un paléo-chenal pour créer un point d’eau au milieu d’une plaine cultivable, et réunir ainsi …
Anthropogenic travertine between History, Archaeology and Environment: a geoarchaeological study of the Roman site of Jebel Oust, Tunisia.
Travertine, known as lapis tiburtinus during Roman times, are continental limestones precipitated in calcareous environments from thermal waters of hot springs (travertine) or cool waters of karstic springs (calcareous tufa). This phenomenon is well-known during Classical Antiquity and had been described by several ancient authors (Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Vitruvius) who depicted a stone that forms extremely rapidly, a stone that outlines the landscape and which is largely used for construction (e.g. The Colosseum in Roma, the Greek temple at Segesta in Sicily). These deposits are widespread on Earth’s surface showing various morphologies and are great sedimentary records of climatic and hy…
Découverte d'un ex-voto particulier sur le site cultuel d'Essarois (Côte-d'Or) : un cas de polydactylie chez les Gallo-Romains ?
During geo-archaeological research on the slope where the source associated with the Essarois (Côte-d'Or) cult site is located, in the locality of La Cave, an anatomic votive offering of a human foot was discovered in the alluvial sedimentary deposits. Carved from local oolitic limestone, it is rather crude in appearance but it is possible to make out that it has the unusual number of six toes. Although it may have been a blunder or the result of negligence by the sculptor, the phenomenon may equally have been a deliberate representation of a case of polydactyly, a malformation that was known in Antiquity.
Geoarchaeology or the contribution of geosciences for studying past human societies
International audience