Une meilleure connaissance des campagnes romaines conduit aujourd’hui à prendre de la distance par rapport à la vision peu nuancée d’un monde rural exclusivement investi par un semis régulier de villae. Nombre de travaux démontrent que le phénomène est beaucoup plus complexe et témoignent d’une grande variété dans les modèles d’occupation du sol, avec des terroirs qui semblent propices à l’émergence de petites agglomérations paysannes, tandis que, dans d’autres, on perçoit le développement des villae de grande taille, en réponse à des contingences du milieu ou des exigences spécifiques. En association à la villa, la bibliographie signale des fermes, qui ont pour caractéristiques de posséder une assiette surfacique plus réduite, inférieure à 2,50 ha, et un niveau de raffinement et de confort plutôt modeste. Ces petits établissements, qu’ils soient ou non situés dans la sphère d’influence d’une grande villa, sont à présent mieux connus, mais aucune synthèse ne leur est à ce jour consacrée. Les recherches récentes, qui multiplient les découvertes à l’occasion de fouilles et de prospections, suggèrent l’existence de plusieurs formes différentes, dont une catégorie particulière de fermes souvent bipartites, à enclos quadrangulaire. À partir de la présentation détaillée du cas de la ferme de Roncourt, qui, par sa très bonne conservation constitue un exemple éclairant, cet article a pour ambition de montrer la diffusion et la standardisation de ce type de ferme dans certains secteurs du nord-est de la Gaule, en particulier dans la moyenne vallée de la Moselle.
The Moselle valley and adjacent plateaus are often described as a major corridor of development, with strong economic dynamism in Antiquity. As a result, the cities of the Mediomatrici, Leuci and Treveri offer a remarkable range of settlements whose flourishing can be explained by several objective factors (proximity to: limes, to bodies of power, agricultural land of quality, etc.). Among these settlements and in terms of analysis, small-scale farms –which are just as representative of the Gallo-Roman countryside as the more developed and luxurious settlements– have often been neglected, despite the growing number of discoveries. Within these farmsteads, several forms co-exist, from simple constructions composed of perishable earthen and wooden materials, built within plots of land encircled by ditches, to much more structured ensembles, forming genuine small-scale agropastoral operations. The farmhouse excavated at Roncourt –with its raised walls, door sills, portions of the occupation floor levels and internal building fittings– represents a well-preserved example of a farmhouse devoid of luxury. By comparing these data with regional documentation gathered during recent excavations, and with data from Lidar surveys in the Haye forest (which benefit from comparable taphonomy), the aim of this article is to better define a category of farmhouse with quadrangular-enclosures which were widespread in the Moselle valley, among the Mediomatrici and in neighbouring territories.The buildings on the Roncourt farm were erected around the middle of the 1st century AD, and were probably destroyed shortly after the middle of the 4th century AD. The settlement appears rather modest in size with a rather unrefined infrastructure, and around 3,000 m2 of total enclosed area. The farm consists of two buildings with a total surface area of 350 m2 set within a trapezoidal courtyard, a portion of whose borders are marked by a boundary wall. Rather than revealing one speciality in terms of the activities practiced therein, a diverse spectrum of practices suggests a varied economic system, based on farming, and dominated by grains (oats, barley), livestock (domestic triad, especially goats) and, no doubt, limestone quarrying for building stone and perhaps lime. Metalworking and woodworking were very likely to have been complementary activities. Indeed, this farm was one with many resources, which flourished for more than three centuries. In the absence of material evidence, it is not possible to establish the precise status of its occupants, or to determine whether or not it was part of a state-owned farming system.A broader analysis reveals numerous parallels with the city of the Mediomatrici, but also with those of the Leuci and Treveri. The surrounding environment of these small establishments is significant. Quite often, they are associated –or at least neighbours– to large villae. They are defined by the presence of buildings located in a large enclosed courtyard. Their average surface area is no more than a third of a hectare, with a slight predominance of enclosures measuring less than 3,000 m2. A large majority –nearly three-quarters of the sites selected– are comprised of just one building, while bipartite settlements account for less than a quarter of the corpus. More complex structures, composed of three or more buildings, appear in minimal proportions. The architecture and internal organization of the buildings demonstrate a number of similarities, in terms of: room layout, equipment and activities. The buildings are not equipped with comfortable amenities, such as baths or underfloor heating systems, that would characterize a more luxurious place of residence. If we consider the whole corpus of sites examined, strong similarities can be observed in terms of the structuring of the buildings, equipped with large masonry fireplaces, preferentially installed in the main room of what can be described as a dwelling. The other service buildings appear to have been used exclusively for agricultural and maintenance activities. Generally, part of the grain production is processed, packaged or consumed on site. This suggests that these establishments were responsible for producing a portion of their own livelihood. Alongside agriculture, other activities are attested to: livestock breeding, cheese-making, wool or plant-based textile production, metallurgy and stone or lime quarrying. Some of these products may have been used for domestic purposes, but a marketable surplus cannot be ruled out. In short, when studied extensively, these small settlements attest to a wide range of activities –offering just as many means of subsistence– fuelling a diversified economy.To discuss the specific features of these farms in greater detail, we need to be able to compare the results of chemical or bioarchaeological studies, site by site, and these are still often lacking. The central question, beyond the appearance of these settlements, is the role they may have played in the local economy, the status of their occupants and the farming model they favoured. In the absence of archaeological data and texts, however, the status of land and people remain highly uncertain. In the cases presented, the most we can say is that the level of comfort allows us to exclude the use of the site by people of importance. In the specific case of Roncourt, stone quarrying could be an argument in favor of a “classic” domanial system. Indeed, quarrying, cutting and transporting blocks of stone requires considerable resources. It is tempting to imagine that this burden fell to the landowner of this small farm. And why not, by way of hypothesis, imagine that these materials supplied monumental evergetism sites in town or were used for funerary monuments.From the second half of the 1st century AD, the middle Moselle valley was covered with a relatively large number of farms possessing rectangular enclosures, many of which appear to have been founded ex nihilo. Although these settlements did not grow in luxury or in size like some villae, their economic base was stable enough, in many cases, to keep them in operation well into Late Antiquity. These small settlements –around 3,500 m2 of enclosed surface area– are characterized by the presence of one or two apparently multi-functional buildings. Thus, the divergences noted in Rurland's work on the variable situations of micro-regions appear less marked in this context, at least within the Moselle valley and along its coast, where this site profile is dominant. While the fertile plateaus to the east of Metz/Divodurum were undoubtedly home to the largest landed estates, due to the nature of the subsoil, it is clear that the farms studied were also involved in cereal farming. This type of farm therefore provides information on a different and less well-studied system than that of the villae, but one that was undoubtedly complementary. The compilation of a relatively extensive corpus, based on the results of recent excavations and surveys, suggests that this type of low-capacity, quadrangular-enclosure farm, built in the Roman style, was widespread among the Mediomatrici and neighbouring cities.
