À l’origine de Caunes-Minervois : Buffens

Résumé En Fr

Discovered by speleologists in a cave of the Argent-Double pass, in the north of the village of Caunes and at a small distance from the place called “ Roc de Buffens”, a series of Late Antiquity ceramics raises the problem of the occupation of natural cavities traditionally and wrongly interpreted as places of refuge in the context of the “ Great Invasions”. The likely contemporaneousness between the ceramics and the period of formation of the place-name ” Buffens”, doubtless of Gothic origin, allows a modest historiographical evaluation on the ancient villa Buffinis. This name preceded that of the “ villa” of Caunes, the anteriority of the first name being clearly evoked in a text of the end of the VIIIth century which also mentions the Saint-Geniès church, the ancient parochial church of Caunes. Such a place of worship may be the heir to a former religious centre which would have existed before the villa during the early Christian period. As for the deserted habitat, evoked by erudite tradition in the vicinity of the Saint-Geniès church, or further North, habitat that would have preceded the creation of the village of Caunes, its very existence deserves to be discussed for the present.

FRE: Buffens, Caunes-Minervois, Saint-Geniès de Caunes, grotte, céramique, Antiquité tardive, haut Moyen Âge