La fouille de la ferme gauloise de la Justice à Varennes-sur-Seine (Seine-et-Marne) a révélé un ensemble de structures et de mobilier qui situent l’établissement dans un contexte aristocratique. Trois dépôts, localisés au cœur de l’habitat et dans le fossé d’enceinte, se singularisent par leur agencement et leur composition. Les deux premiers, implantés dans des puits factices, correspondent d’une part à une grande quantité de viande de porc et de bœuf enfouie dans un coffre et, d’autre part, à une fibule en argent isolée. Le dernier est un dépôt de statères. L’analyse de ces ensembles, la restitution des gestes et la prise en compte d’autres éléments (couteau à manche aviforme, fagot d’objets métalliques, restes humains secs…) les inscrivent dans la sphère des manifestations à caractère symbolique et d’ordre privé. Ces dernières semblent avoir été l’apanage d’une frange privilégiée de la population dont tout semble indiquer qu’elle a exercé un contrôle économique sur le confluent Seine-Yonne via l’association entre l’établissement rural et l’agglomération voisine du Marais du Pont. Les données permettent de souligner l’interaction entre l’idéologie fondée sur l’appropriation de la terre et le contexte social qui servent de support au discours symbolique.
The study of sanctuaries, funerary ensembles and the re-examination of written sources provide a rich corpus for documenting the symbolic universe of Late Iron Age communities. Located at the crossroads of ideological discourse, the socio-economic sphere and the religious universe, a commensal meal, preceded by sacrifice, constitutes one of the most complex, deliberate and complete manifestations of the symbolic. However, the interpretable remains that result from such banquets are not exclusive to sanctuaries. Indeed, the occupations located in the heart of rural settlements, of oppida and of open-planned urban centers regularly provide organized and codified deposits of human and animal remains, as well as other material goods. These deposits suggest the existence of repetitive gestures that do not appear to be strictly mechanical or domestic in nature, nor are they merely related to an economy of production and consumption (agriculture, livestock farming, craftsmanship or trade). Though these deposits are composed of some of the most commonplace items (fauna, ceramics, objects of adornment, metallic instruments, coins, etc.), the interpretation of such evidence often remains nonetheless ambiguous. Their analysis is therefore dependent on their contextualization and an archaeological reading of the data, allowing for the reconstruction of singular, possibly repetitive, gestures. With rare exception, these vestiges only appear in the archaeological literature in an oblique fashion, relegated to the summaries devoted to Gallic religious practices, and lacking accessible factual analysis of the data at hand. None of this contributes to restoring the rightful place of these elements within the Latin symbolic universe. It is in an attempt to aid in filling this documentary gap that three exemplary sets and a variety of documents discovered during the excavation of the Gallic farm of La Justice in Varennes-sur-Seine (Seine-et-Marne) are presented here. Located within the confluence plain between the Seine and the Yonne rivers, in an area that was densely occupied during the Second Iron Age, this settlement has revealed a set of structures and material goods indicating that it belonged to an aristocratic milieu. Building on an enclosure that was occupied from the end of the 3rd to the middle of the 2nd c. BC and then dismantled, the settlement consists of a main enclosure of 3,500 m2 delimited by ditches and an embankment, within which were grouped various constructions dedicated to housing and storage. With its vast courtyard in front and at least two side courtyards, the site, monumentalized by its linear organization, occupies an area estimated between 6 and 11 ha. Together with the open-planned urban center of Varennes-sur-Seine, the headquarters of a rural settlement from late 2nd and 1st c. BC, formed Marais du Pont, located 500 m to the north, an aristocratic center that is considered to occupy a central role. The latter exercised economic and political control over the Seine-Yonne confluence and probably over the pagus, which was likely integral to this part of the Senone area. The three deposits studied in this article were discovered within the main enclosure (fs. 1312 and 1705) and in the ditch that surrounded it (coin deposit). Deposit number 1312 was composed of a rectangular wooden chest with a volume of 0.25 m3, installed in a small mock well and containing numerous faunal remains, lying on a bed of burned bone splinters. Detailed analysis of these anatomical parts and their arrangement demonstrates that they correspond to uneaten, quality cuts of meat, originating from 9 pigs and 5 oxen, and amounting to a mass of about 200 kg, mainly consisting of shoulders and legs. This deposit may have been the last in a series of deposits made within the same mock well. It is suggested that this assemblage is a propitiatory or consecration offering, perhaps even constituting the portions reserved for the deities of a commensal meal. The decomposing juices from the meat were likely intended as nourishment for the subterranean deities, which makes it possible to compare this structure to the hollow altars of Latin sanctuaries. A copper alloy end-piece representing a bovid head could be associated with the locking system of the chest. This object may represent an allusion to the importance of oxen within the economy of the Seine-Yonne confluence; a hypothesis which is based on archeozoological data and echoed by a votive andiron decorated with a bull protome discovered in a neighboring town. Deposit number 1705 consists of a silver fibula of the Almgren 65 type, discovered as an isolated artefact, in the initial backfill of a small stone clad mock well, which begs for comparison with a structure correlated to the most recent phase of the Braine settlement, in la Grande des Moines (Aisne). This precious metal ornament, which belongs to a rare type, sometimes discovered in pairs linked by a chain, is likely related to the privilege of the site’s occupants. Along with the discovery of several elements of militaria (belt buckle, spur, etc.), it was dated to the final phase of occupation. This deposit likely constitutes an offering to subterranean deities. The third deposit consists of a set of 29 globular coins bearing gold crosses, which were discovered at the top of the enclosure ditch filling. This deposit is incomplete and was disturbed during both the Roman and contemporary period. It is suggested that these objects may be characterized as ingots. Indeed, their unit weight is that of a stater and they were likely used as pseudo-coins. The metrology of the globules reflects the later chronological affiliation of the objects themselves, as well as of their burial. Compared to other assemblages of a similar nature, including that of Saint-Denis-lès-Sens (for which a re-analysis is encouraged), this batch of globular coins appears to belong to a series of monetary deposits buried at the time of the abandonment or renovation of a small number of high-ranking establishments. Thus, it would seem necessary to consider these deposits as indicative of a marking of definitive closure rather than as foundational deposits. In addition to these deposits, other elements, related to the question of symbolic interests are presented. The first is a heterogeneous bundle consisting of a metallic sword frog, and a fibula fragment, both dated to the Early La Tène period, and associated with a small wheel shaped object, linked by two fibulae dated to the first part of the end of the La Tène period. This assortment of objects may have been a talisman or a kit considered to have magical virtues, and it may have been thrown away or lost in a domestic dump. The second complement to the deposits is an iron knife bearing a handle decorated with a wading figure, likely a common crane, whose eyes are made of copper alloy inlays. Discovered within a rich detrital context, dated to after the Gallic War, this instrument, for which there is no known equivalent other than a knife from Ifs (Calvados), was certainly reserved for use in special circumstances (perhaps for sacrifice?). The representation of a waterfowl lends this knife a strong symbolic significance and links it to myths of regeneration. As in many other settlements, skeletal human remains (six adults and an older adolescent) were discovered in the surrounding ditches. Their orientation favors an eastern axis for the upper portion of the body (cranial fragments, scapula, humeral diaphysis) and the opposite, western side for the lower limbs (femoral diaphyses). Here, as elsewhere, the handling and exhibition of skeletal human remains, extracted from burials or collected from excarnation platforms, are part of rituals that sit at the crossroads between beliefs and systems of social representation. Finally, the sharing of meals is attested to by the large number of wine amphorae, and related instrumentum, as well as the impressive quantity of consumed and discarded faunal remains, all of which accumulated in the settlement ditches. Well number 1511 in the large southern courtyard appears to have been linked to one of these events. Indeed, the base of its backfill yielded an assemblage consisting exclusively of the remains of at least six goats bearing cut marks, which is reminiscent of the goat deposits of the village of Acy-Romance and a series of comparable assemblages dated to the transition between the First and Second Iron Age. Considered together, this evidence testifies to the plurality of structures and arrangements therein, as well as of gestures involved in practices with symbolic connotations, of a private nature, within a rural settlement. Such testimony makes it possible to highlight the interaction between land ideology and the social context that serves as a foundation for symbolic discourse.
