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The wall-top of the Late-Roman defences at Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges: interim report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2015

Jason Wood
Jason Wood*
Affiliation:
Heritage Consultancy Services, Carnforth, Lancs., jwhcs@yahoo.co.uk
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Extract

Between 1993 and 2001 a British team led by S. Esmonde Geary, M. J. Jones and the author examined the Late-Roman defences of the ‘ville haute’ of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges (SW France). The project fell within the overall theme of studying the transition from the classical to the late antique/early mediaeval town, a principal objective of the international Trojet Collectif de Recherches’ at Saint-Bertrand. The primary aim of the British investigation was to document and analyse the construction of the Late-Roman defences and their subsequent development through a combination of architectural survey and excavation. During the nine seasons of fieldwork, the architectural remains of the entire wall circuit were analysed and 11 separate trenches excavated. The evidence obtained from these excavations dates the wall's construction to the early years of the 5th c.

The architectural survey included collating old photographs and unpublished excavation records; preparing a plan showing the surviving original and rebuilt stretches of the walls; making a general survey of the principal external and internal elevations, and recording the outline of all visible Roman facing and corework, vertical and horizontal breaks, offsets, tile courses, drains, re-used masonry and later building and repairs; making stone-by-stone drawings of the best surviving elevations and features; making a detailed analysis of the wall fabric, interpreting its building periods and phases of construction, and identifying changes in alignment of the defences, the presence of external towers, work-gang divisions, and so on. For ease of reference, the circuit was divided into 26 sectors on the basis of criteria such as change of alignment and state of preservation.

Type
Archeological Reports and Notes
Information
Journal of Roman Archaeology , Volume 15 , 2002 , pp. 297 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of Roman Archaeology L.L.C. 2002

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References

1 Work is well advanced on the final report, which will be submitted in 2002 for publication in the series Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges: Etudes d'Archéologie Urbaine in 2003. For a description and interpretation of the preliminary findings for 1993-97, an assessment of the significance of the defences at Saint-Bertrand, and discussion of their place within the debate on the functional and symbolic aspects of Late Roman urban fortifications, see Cleary, S. Esmonde, Jones, M. and Wood, J., “The late Roman defences at Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges (Haute-Garonne): interim report,” JRA 11 (1998) 343–54Google Scholar. See also Jones, M. J., Cleary, A. S. Esmonde and Wood, J., “Les remparts de la ville haute de Saint- Bertrand-de-Comminges 1993-1997: rapport préliminaire,” Aquitania 14 (1996) 65–71 Google Scholar.

2 The methodology for the architectural survey was devised by the author: see Wood, J. (ed.), Buildings archaeology: applications in practice (Oxford 1994)Google Scholar, id., “Le Castrum de Tours: étude architecturale du rempart du Bas-Empire,” Recherches sur Tours 2 (1983) 11–60; id., “The fortifications,” in A. Northedge, Studies on Roman and Islamic Amman, 1: history, site and architecture (Oxford 1993) 105–27.

3 The features have now been concealed by a temporary covering of geotextile and masonry to ensure their protection against frost damage.

4 Render has also been discovered (in the excavations of 1995 and 1997-98) applied to the internal face of the wall substructure. A sondage excavated in 2000 against the external face of S part of Sector 21 revealed evidence for render applied to that face of the wall substructure.

5 For comparison see Darles, Badie and Malmary on Saint-Lézer (below pp. 317 ff.).

6 Analysis of the render by G. Morgan (Univ. of Leicester) confirms the presence of a whitewash coating rather than a natural calcite film, although in some areas there is evidence of both.

7 General discussions of wall-walks and crenellated parapets on Greek fortifications can be found in Lawrence, A. W., Greek aims in fortification (Oxford 1979) 355–62Google Scholar; and Adam, J.-P., L'architecture militaire grecque (Paris 1982) 36–43 Google Scholar. For the Roman period in Gaul, see Blanchet, A., Les enceintes romaines de la Gaule (Paris 1907) 260–61Google Scholar; Grenier, A., Manuel d'archéologie gallo-romaine, 1 (Paris 1931) 519–23Google Scholar; and P. Varène, L'enceinte gallo-romaine de Nîmes: les murs et les tours (Gallia Suppl. 53, 1992) 144-45. For Britain and Germany, see P. Bidwell, R. Miket and B. Ford, “The reconstruction of a gate at the Roman fort of South Shields,” in iid. (edd.), Portae cum turribus: studies of Roman fort gates (BAR 206, Oxford 1988) 200–7.

8 Blanchet (supra n.7) 213.

9 Grenier (supra n.7) 520.

10 Varène (supra n.7) 144.

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21 The function of traverses is discussed by Winter, F. E., Greek fortifications (Toronto 1971) 139 Google Scholar and Lawrence (supra n.7) 361. It is agreed that their primary function is structural — i.e., to buttress the parapet and merlons and bind them more firmly together — rather than to protect defenders from lateral fire that might come through the embrasures.

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28 J. Maloney, “Recent work on London's defences,” in Maloney and Hobley (supra n.26) 109-10.

29 See Bidwell, Miket and Ford (supra n.7) 204-5. A reconstruction drawing of the town defences at Rottenburg also shows traverses: Filtzinger, P., Planck, D. and Cämmerer, B. (edd.), Die Römer in Baden- Württemberg (Stuttgart 1976) 125 Google Scholar. The evidence for these comes again from coping stones.

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38 ORL (supra n.17).

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40 Bidwell, Miket and Ford (supra n.7) 204-5.

41 Baatz (supra n.26) 139.

42 Lehner (supra n.24) 222; Grenier (supra n.7) 520-21.

43 Bertaux (supra n.25) 82.

44 Strickland (supra n.16) 107-10; LeQuesne (supra n.16) 95-96, 110-14.

45 Maloney (supra n.28) 110.

46 Bidwell, Miket and Ford (supra n.7) 174-75.

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