L’opération du 118, rue de la Boule est source de données nouvelles sur les prémices de l’urbanisation de la ville de Saintes dans ses franges septentrionales, entre la fin du i er s. a.C. et les années 30 p.C. La mise au jour d’un nouveau decumanus et de structures, au sein desquelles les faunes marine et terrestre se distinguent nettement, permet en effet de s’interroger sur la première trame urbaine de ville, sur les pratiques alimentaires en usage à cette période, sur la nature des activités exercées et sur la gestion des déchets carnés au nord du centre urbain.
The excavation work at 118 rue de la Boule is located on the left bank of the River Charente, north of Saintes- Mediolanum , within one of its suburban fringes characterised by craft activities and necropolises (fig. 1). This operation has made it possible to describe and date the development of a crossroads and its approaches on the northern edge of the town, from their first development at the very end of the 1st century BC to their abandonment at the end of the following century. The settlement was structured, in the years -10 / + 10, on either side of a decumanal thoroughfare (fig. 2). The road surface of this decumanus , which is 5–5.30 m wide with no ditches beside it, is made up of layers of pebbles and flints (fig. 3). Its northern side is lined by a packed stone pavement, then by a unit built on ground sills. This building, the ground plan of which is incomplete, is made up of at least two rooms opening onto a courtyard that probably had a well. Its only identified features are a hearth and, in the rear courtyard, a waste pit (206). The southern approaches to the decumanus are an open space at the heart of which a second waste pit was dug (264). In the course of the AD 30s, this initial urban layout was redeveloped and a crossroads laid out with a new building beside it. The occupation of this housing block does not seem to have extended beyond the final quarter of the C1st. Because it proved the best documented of the excavation operation and a source of new data, the Augustan-Tiberian phase of the site is highlighted here. Its levels have yielded plentiful waste, either food waste (pit 206), or artisanal waste (pit 264 and level 331 of the decumanus ). Pit 206 is filled by a series of organic and detrital levels with a high ash and charcoal content, that might have been from the emptying of hearth remains (fig. 4). It has yielded abundant and varied material (ceramic ware, knife blade, fibula components, glassware and oil lamp fragments) among which terrestrial and aquatic fauna are apparent. For mammals and birds, the list of fauna is headed by oxen, with the anatomical distribution of remains strongly marked by the main skeleton (figs 5 and 6). Then come goats and pigs in similar proportions and finally horses and the like. Birds are illustrated by the presence of fowl. The occurrence of at least six species of shellfish (mussels, cockles, oysters, scallops, golden carpet shells and grooved carpet shells), at least one species of crab (green shore crab) and as many as 15 fish taxa (flatfish, sparidae, red mullet, bass, sardines, gurnards, eels, grey mullet, shad and cyprinidae) illustrate the diversity of marine and fresh water resources consumed here. Traces of preparation before eating (opening marks, heating traces) have been identified on the marine invertebrates. The second type of detrital waste found on the site consists of waste from artisanal activities from the processing of ox carcasses (pit 264 and level 331). Pit 264 was excavated by hand and meticulous bone by bone samples collected. It has been subdivided into five zones (fig. 7) and bones sampled in a series of three stages (dismantling A, B and C) (fig. 8). The faunal cluster is mostly composed of remains of oxen and some remains of goats and pigs (fig. 9). This bone assembly is mostly made up of bones attributed to the head and backbone (fig. 10). It is therefore composed of waste from two stages in the processing of ox carcasses. The bones attributed to the head are ‘primary waste’ of the butchery process, along with ankle bones and the lower parts of the legs, the absence of which suggests hard parts were removed from the animals by specialised artisans. A number of dislocated and sectioned jaw bones also illustrate the processing of the head (fig. 11a). The sections of the backbone and fragments of ribs and vertebrae are more closely associated with the next stage, ‘boning and slicing’, which involves removing the backbone so the carcass can be halved or quartered, as attested by anthropic traces identified on thoracic vertebrae (fig. 11b). These bones come mostly from individuals slaughtered on reaching their full-grown weight at between 2 and 4 years old for meat production (fig. 12, 13). The decumanus has also yielded waste from artisanal activities. Bovine metapods and ankle bones have been identified in the road surface and underlying fill 331 (fig. 14). Only the bones discovered in the fill have been collected and studied. This waste displays little organisation with metacarpals positioned indifferently and mixed at random with the road ballast. It is mostly composed of remains attributed to bovines, primarily made up of fragments of skull, metacarpals and phalanges (fig. 16). A few stigmata have been observed on the bovine ankle bones and phalanges attesting principally to the removal phase of the horny sheath and tendons (fig. 17). These bones are in the main from animals that had reached their adult weight and been slaughtered at between 2 and 4 years old for their meat (fig. 18). The disproportion between metacarpals and metatarsals is also to be noted, since metatarsals are the more suitable for making objects and in particular hinges. The composition of this assemblage suggests, then, that it is made up of waste processed first by butchers and the other artisans working with hard materials of animal origin. This rescue archaeology operation, despite its limited footprint, is the source of new data on the early urbanisation of the Ancient city of Saintes, along its northern edges between the end of the 1st century BC and the 30s AD. The unearthing of a decumanus , the development of which is dated to the end of the reign of Augustus, is the first notable point about this operation. Its discovery has added to the small corpus of streets that belonged for sure to the city layout and that is currently made up of just 10 or so occurrences (fig. 19). The waste from pit 206, characterised by the wide diversity of species, has provided insight into some of the dietary tastes and practices at Saintes-Mediolanum during this period. The archaeozoological assemblages from pit 264 and from level 331 of the decumanus are most likely waste from the processing of bovine carcasses. Their presence on the site naturally raises questions as to the activities that might have gone on in the immediate vicinity of the excavated plot (bovine butchery, work on hard materials of animal origin ?). However, in the absence of any buildings, developments and material remains relating to those activities and despite the presence of waste from production (fig. 19), it is impossible to attest to the existence of any artisanal activity in this locality. It is merely possible to localise the waste products. To date, just one site in the north-west of the city of Saintes, rue Daubonneau, has yielded buildings, structures and archaeozoological assemblages characteristic of a production site. At 118 rue de la Boule, it is possible simply to recognise in the building identified to the north of the decumanus , a building where various activities might have been practised, mixing dwelling and artisanal work, as is often encountered in Saintes. More than the marker of the presence of any workshop, the presence of these two large assemblages may also be considered as an illustration of the management of meat waste of artisanal origin in the north-west of the city. In the present instance, the waste is found on a plot away from the city centre, either discarded in a secondary position in a waste pit or backfill, or re-used sporadically as road-building material. In urban settings, space is a major constraint. Waste of this kind is thus regularly discovered on the city edges, on wasteland, tip zones, spaces for backfilling or in disused wells as at Autun or Lyon. These practices relating to city waste management are increasingly recorded by archaeology, but it is often difficult to determine whether they are local and formed at the initiative of artisans or whether they are part of waste collection and processing organised on the scale of the city as a whole.
