6533b86ffe1ef96bd12ccee9

RESEARCH PRODUCT

The origins of the European city. Technology, typology and function of wooden architecture in the urban habitat of Celtic oppida (2nd-1st century BC). The case of Bibracte, Mont Beuvray (France)

subject

description

The aim of this thesis is to shed light on current knowledge of the architecture of the oppida of temperate Europe during the last two centuries BC, based on a site, the Bibracte oppidum (Mont Beuvray, Burgundy), which is one of the reference contexts for the period on a European scale. The research focused mainly on the study of construction techniques involving the majority use of wood, which is the main material in the architecture of these settlements from the European protohistoric tradition. The analysis required consideration of the overall woodworking process, from the sourcing of wood from the forest to the various stages of building implementation. The technical aspects linked to the foundation and elevation of the frameworks, to the choice and shaping of their constituent elements, and to the methods of partitioning the walls and building the roofs, were apprehended through the analysis of the archaeological traces - often fragmentary and difficult to read - left by these buildings, as well as through the study of the rare timbers preserved on the site in particular taphonomic conditions. Cross-checking the abundant documentation available from 75 years of research carried out on Mount Beuvray in the 19th century (1864-1907) and from 1984 to the present day, has made it possible to identify 151 habitat structures with sufficiently complete plans. Of these, 74 timber-framed buildings can be considered characteristic of an indigenous architectural tradition, while 77 buildings using masonry show more or less marked influences linked to the new Italic architectural techniques and models gradually introduced into the oppidum's habitat during the last two decades of the 1st century BC. The wooden architecture of Bibracte reflects the image of a mastered skill that was particularly well adapted to the very restrictive morphological characteristics of the terrain of Mount Beuvray. The corpus of buildings studied is made up of 13 architectural categories (6 of which concern timber-framed buildings). In the sectors with steeper slopes, we find buildings composed of one or more semi-buried rooms which form a habitat organised in terraces. The habitable volume of these buildings is more vertical, with limited floor space (the spans rarely exceed 5 m, and the structures do not require any internal load-bearing system), but with massive frameworks. The latter are built with closely spaced squared posts set in dry stone trenches or connected by foundation beams, which give the frames a remarkable bearing capacity, capable of supporting the weight of a storey. In the less steep areas, the buildings develop more horizontally, with plans consisting of several rooms and often with timber-framed cellars or public buildings of a monumental character. Although they are organised in a variety of ways, many of the structures display a certain uniformity in their dimensions, suggesting the use of consistent building modules and a real system of measurement within a standardised building activity. As with the settlement, the existence of well-defined construction parameters could also be observed for the timber-framed ramparts (murus gallicus) of the oppidum, as well as for the timber preserved on the site.