In Meaux, located some 40 km east-northeast of the centre of Paris, Inrap archaeologists have been excavating the remains of a district of the ancient city of Iantinum from the first century AD, uncovered during the construction of an apartment building, in order to learn more about the organization of the city and the lifestyle of the Meldois, as the inhabitants of the city of Meaux were know in antiquity.
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| Credit: © Hamid Azmoun, Inrap |
During the 19th century, Antoine Etienne Carro, a local historian, recognized and interpreted the discovery of some Gallo-Roman remains that had appeared during urban works as a possible street layout. The ancient city built on the Roman model is organized around perpendicular roads, and houses and shops are installed along these streets.
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| Credit: © Hamid Azmoun, Inrap |
The excavation of the site has revealed an intersection between two roads, a cardo (north-south axis) and a decumanus (east-west axis), composed of many levels of more or less compacted gravel and pebbles. More broadly, the complex is part of the viaduct network of the ancient city of Iantinum, whose complexity is increasing as more discoveries are made.
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| Credit: © Hamid Azmoun, Inrap |
The objects collected from the cardo seem to indicate that it was abandoned in the middle of the First century. Inrap archaeologists assume that this is a secondary street compared to the rest of the road network already studied during previous excavations in Meaux. The decumanus offers access to the ancient theatre, located at the current rue Camille-Guérin.
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| Credit: © Hamid Azmoun, Inrap |
The excavation of the various buildings along these two streets is expected to provide valuable information about the Gallo-Roman settlement pattern.
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| Credit: © Hamid Azmoun, Inrap |
Archaeologists have identified many stone walls and basements which are often associated with layers of clay or compact pebbles. Several cellars have also been discovered, backfilled by the demolition of the houses above.
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| Credit: © Hamid Azmoun, Inrap |
Ceramic tableware, bone remains, terracotta architectural elements such as tiles (tegula and imbrex) and even an antefix fragment (a terracotta motif placed on the edge of a building’s roof to decorate or hide the end of a row of tiles) are all indicators that could refine the dating of this district and its evolution, despite the impact of subsequent redevelopment on the remains.
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| Credit: © Hamid Azmoun, Inrap |
For the moment, the archaeological finds do not permit a distinction to be made between the different periods of occupation, as the architecture of the dwellings or workshops is very similar.
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| Credit: © Hamid Azmoun, Inrap |
The excavation of the Roman urban quarter has yielded large quantities of painted wall plaster which was created by applying pigments either to a dry surface that had been covered with a binder such as egg mixed with pigments, or to a wet surface which caused a chemical reaction that sealed the pigments in the coating.
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| Credit: © Hamid Azmoun, Inrap |
Beyond its function of protecting the walls (here in raw earth on a stone base), the more or less luxurious plaster was also a social marker.
The excavation currently underway on Rue Saint-Fiacre will continue until early November 2018.
