Le site de La Peyrouse (Saint-Félix-de-Villadeix, Dordogne) a été découvert en 2014 par C. Chevillot. Les opérations archéologiques menées depuis confirment l’existence d’une vaste agglomération ouverte à vocation artisanale et com-merciale et occupée du IIIe s. a.C. au IIe s. p.C. L’agglomération de La Peyrouse doit probablement son implantation et son développement économique à deux principaux facteurs : d’une part l’existence d’une voie terrestre majeure de long parcours (Périgueux à Agen) qui borde le site et, d’autre part, aux importantes ressources minières de fer environnantes. Afin d’appréhender plus précisément l’étendue, l’organisation et l’environnement du site, des prospections géo-physiques ont été menées à partir de 2019 dans le cadre du projet Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine RAPSODIE. Celles-ci ont permis d’améliorer notre compréhension du site. Elles confirment l’existence d’une occupation dense, s’étendant sur plusieurs hectares. Elles ont également mis en évidence, sur le point sommital du site, un grand édifice quadrangulaire dont les côtés mesurent c. 25 m. La campagne de fouilles programmées de 2020, qui a ciblé la partie orientale de ce bâtiment, confirme la vocation cultuelle du bâtiment. Des prospections pédestres aux prospections géo-physiques, cet article livre un état des recherches en cours. Plus particulièrement, il propose une synthèse des résultats issus de la première campagne de fouilles sur le sanctuaire de La Peyrouse, le premier documenté à ce jour en Aquitaine.
The La Peyrouse site (Saint-Félix-de-Villadeix, Dordogne) lies beside a major protohistoric and ancient thoroughfare linking Agen and Périgueux (fig. 1). Fieldwalking since 2014 (directed by C. Chevillot) has revealed a large settlement occupied primarily between the3rd century BC and the 2nd century AD. The plentiful archaeological evidence found on the site (glass costume ornamentation, metal objects, amphorae, ceramics, faunal remains, coins, etc.) spread over several hectares, suggests an extensive area of settlement (probably exceeding 40 ha). In the late Iron Age, the site also saw the development of intensive ironworking (from the mining of ore to smelting and smithing) that seems central to an understanding of the expansion of the La Peyrouse site in the La Tène period. Given its morphology, its chronology and the material discovered there, the La Peyrouse site was akin to the early major unfortified agglomerations that developed in the 3rd century BC in temperate Europe. These agglomerations stood apart in supporting a concentration of productive and commercial activities. Few sites of the kind are known in south-western France or more widely in Gaul, making the La Peyrouse site particularly valuable to an understanding of the early stage of Celtic urbanisation. To gain a more precise idea of the site’s extent, layout and environment, geophysical surveys have been conducted since 2019 as part of the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine RAPSODIE project (directed by E. Hiriart and V. Mathé). These have provided a clearer picture of the extent and layout of the inhabited area (fig. 2). More particularly, they have revealed, on the highest point of the site (fig. 21), a ditch-lined quadrangular enclosure similar in plan to many La Tène sanctuaries recorded in Gaul (fig. 22 and fig. 23). The enclosure has been mapped (by magnetic and electrical methods) and a resistivity section surveyed (fig. 3). The first excavations were undertaken in 2020 (directed by E. Hiriart) to explore the eastern part of the building (fig. 4) which lies beneath a truffle orchard. The excavation footprint was adapted to this constraint and covers a 6 m-wide, 36 m-long strip with a total area of 213 m 2 . This arrangement means the building can be viewed without interruption from north to south and the north, south and east ditches explored together with the interior of the structure and, in the centre of the survey area, the rear of any entranceway (fig. 5). This paper begins with a round-up of current research and a presentation of available knowledge about the La Peyrouse site. It focuses more specifically on the results of geophysical prospecting that have revealed the building and guided archaeological research in a reasoned manner. The paper then sets about a detailed presentation of the findings from excavations. On the one hand, the description of the main structures unearthed provides an outline of the stratigraphic dynamics and of the building’s architecture and its chronology despite the absence of any living floor (fig. 6 and fig. 7). On the other hand, the purpose is to reveal the main characteristics of the archaeological material the facies of which is closely related to that of other La Tène sanctuaries recorded in Gaul. Some of the items discovered most certainly reflect ritual practices : cut coins (fig. 16), weaponry (including a sword bearing traces of ritual breakage and 32 arrowheads ; fig. 19 and fig. 20), glassware, ceramics (with high proportions of beakers and micro-vases ; fig. 12), small metal items (including several fibula brooches ; fig. 17 and fig. 18), faunal remains (fig. 13 and fig. 14), human bones (fig. 15), and so on. Despite the non-negligible presence of amphorae (fig. 9), mention should also be made of two objects imported from the Mediterranean : a bearded Silenus mask decorating a black varnished wine jug of Etruscan manufacture (fig. 10) and a fragment from the belly of a Hellenistic, mosaic-like, moulded glass vessel (fig. 11). Such finds show that La Peyrouse and more especially the local elites were part of a long-distance trading network. The general top-stripping of occupation levels precludes stratigraphic relations from being established among the various structures recorded in 2020. This taphonomic bias impedes the understanding of chronological and architectural changes to the building. While there are strong suppositions for different architectural states, the evidence available at this stage does not allow precise phasing to be established. For the time being, the built environment has to be dated primarily on the basis of its typo-chronology. The ceramic material points to a coherent and homogenous assemblage dating almost exclusively from the mid-2nd to the mid-1st century BC. The amphorae and metal items (especially the fibulae) also point to a La Tène D1 horizon possibly extending into the La Tène D2a. However, a number of sporadic items (coins, fibulae, black-varnished ceramics) are indicative of earlier time horizons, attributable to the La Tène C. In addition, surface backfills have yielded material attributable to Roman times (architectural terracotta, coins, etc.). Decorative features such as marble or pigments have also been found (and the pigments analysed ; fig. 8). These probably attest to a built environment of Antiquity. The suggestion of a possible Gallo-Roman fanum cannot be ruled out, but the evidence is too skimpy at present. In short, all of the evidence from this first excavation campaign confirms the religious purpose of the building, making it the first recorded Celtic sanctuary in Aquitaine to date. The wealth and diversity of the data collected provides an outline of the site’s history and serves for some comparative thinking about cult spaces that can be extended to the rest of Gaul.
