In : BELMONT (A.) dir., MANGARTZ (F.) dir. – Les meulières. Recherche, protection et valorisation d'un patrimoine industriel européen (Antiquité - XXIe siècle) : actes du colloque international de Grenoble, 2005. Mainz, 2006, p. 47-54., 2006
Une importante production de meules à grain datée de l’Antiquité tardive a récemment été mise en ... more Une importante production de meules à grain datée de l’Antiquité tardive a récemment été mise en évidence sur la commune de Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie (Gard). La finition des meules n’était pas réalisée sur la meulière même, marquée par d’importants vestiges, mais sur des ateliers de taille établis dans quatre établissements ruraux. Diverses campagnes de prospections pédestres nous permettent de caractériser cette production dans les grandes lignes. Elle est d'autre part comparée aux autres exploitations meulières actuellement recensées en Gaule narbonnaise, comparaison qui souligne l'originalité de ce centre. Il se place en effet à la suite du déclin des grandes carrières de meules occupant, durant le Haut-Empire, les gisements de basalte du littoral languedocien et provençal.
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"Mills have played an essential part in the processing of cereals used in a number of culinary preparations such as gruel, pancakes, or leavened bread. Millstones constitute first class archaeological evidence for the characterization of the major types of mills used between the end of the Iron Age and the beginning of the Middle Ages in Southern Gaul. Since they are widely present in archaeological sites, with many different shapes and various accomodations of drive mechanisms, they give us a vivid idea of the technical solutions contemplated during antiquity in order to increase productivity and/or the quality of grinding. The present work, including almost 700 drawings of millstones found in more than one hundred sites recently researched in the Languedoc and Provence area, constitute a survey of this basis of antique material culture. The study of these tools has made possible the development of a yet unpublished presentation of the relationship between domestic milling and more specialized milling (hydraulic mills, bakeries) showing significant differences according to the time periods considered. In addition to a history of the techniques, we also approach the history of a craft specialized in the exploitation of different millstones quarries. The largest ones recorded this day in the Gaul narbonnaise are taken into consideration, in particular the quarry of Saint Quentin-la-Poterie (Gard) which was subjected to sophisticated scrutiny including programmed excavation, topographic surveys and geological mapping presented here for the first time. This field survey reveals a particularly rational organization of the production of millstones at the end of Antiquity gathering a quarry, probably divided into concessions, and rural establishments with stone cutting workshops. This work includes almost 400 illustrated boards, presenting, inter alia, a typology of millstones and on that basis, another typology of mills. The first one is composed of different elementary shapes that can be combined in order to define the millstones used in Southern Gaul, an " open " typology also making possible a description of millstones in other regions."
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Le réexamen des données de fouille anciennes concernant l’une des maisons de ce quartier, interprétée jusque là comme une probable résidence de marchand ou d’artisan, invite aujourd’hui à en proposer une nouvelle lecture.
L’attribution à un dispositif artisanal d’une meule de dimensions importantes mise au jour dans ce contexte témoigne en effet d’une activité de mouture dépassant les besoins d’une simple maisonnée. La confrontation avec le reste du mobilier, notamment céramique, évoque ainsi un espace spécialisé associant la mouture à d’importantes capacités de stockage et de redistribution. Enfin, l’emploi intense de l’écriture ibérique doit ici être mis en relation avec la tenue de comptes et, plus généralement, avec la vocation économique de ce bâtiment.
Le degré de spécialisation de ce dernier renvoie de manière plus générale au mode de fonctionnement et à l’organisation interne de ce site à vocation emporique, caractérisé par l’omniprésence des activités d’échange et de production, pour certaines manifestement contrôlées par les représentants d’un pouvoir local.
"There have been various studies into grain mills in south-eastern Gaul during the protohistoric period over the past twenty years. This article aims to provide a summary of the sometimes disparate data. It is based on the choice of a significant sample of nearly 500 millstones from forty sites. The period selected (450-1 BC) is marked at the beginning by the introduction of the first milling machines: rotary and Olynthus-type mills. The proposed summary is organized around the following themes: how were these two innovative models introduced? Were they related to local artisans or major production centres? How can we define the morphological evolution of rotary mills, whose forms are sometimes characteristic of the Iberian world and sometimes of continental Gaul? What have typological studies shown us about their function? Did it change over time?"
How can milling activities in Late Antique Gallia
Narbonensis be defined? How important were they within the
family setting? Did water mills and bakeries, well represented
since the Early Empire, grow or decline in number? How was
trade in millstones organized along with their production
centres? These issues will be addressed through the study of
one particular centre, that of Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie (Gard).
Active since the Early Empire, it was particularly dynamic in the
5th and 6th c. AD. It consists of one extraction site divided into
concessions and four rural establishments housing workshops
for the shaping of the millstones. One of them, the Roquésis
villa, has been the subject of a research excavation. The types
of millstones produced in Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie are also
compared with those found more broadly on Late Antique
occupation sites in southern Gaul. The products of various
quarries, they provide information on the main categories of mills
during this period and on their evolution.""
We offer a distinctive set of criteria to classify a millstone, whole or as a fragment in one of three broad categories of mills attested in antiquity, namely, manual mills, blood and water. Our study of many millstones from the South-eastern France has notably led to call into question some criteria used so far in the literature to differentiate a millstone blooded from a hydraulic wheel.
"Mills have played an essential part in the processing of cereals used in a number of culinary preparations such as gruel, pancakes, or leavened bread. Millstones constitute first class archaeological evidence for the characterization of the major types of mills used between the end of the Iron Age and the beginning of the Middle Ages in Southern Gaul. Since they are widely present in archaeological sites, with many different shapes and various accomodations of drive mechanisms, they give us a vivid idea of the technical solutions contemplated during antiquity in order to increase productivity and/or the quality of grinding. The present work, including almost 700 drawings of millstones found in more than one hundred sites recently researched in the Languedoc and Provence area, constitute a survey of this basis of antique material culture. The study of these tools has made possible the development of a yet unpublished presentation of the relationship between domestic milling and more specialized milling (hydraulic mills, bakeries) showing significant differences according to the time periods considered. In addition to a history of the techniques, we also approach the history of a craft specialized in the exploitation of different millstones quarries. The largest ones recorded this day in the Gaul narbonnaise are taken into consideration, in particular the quarry of Saint Quentin-la-Poterie (Gard) which was subjected to sophisticated scrutiny including programmed excavation, topographic surveys and geological mapping presented here for the first time. This field survey reveals a particularly rational organization of the production of millstones at the end of Antiquity gathering a quarry, probably divided into concessions, and rural establishments with stone cutting workshops. This work includes almost 400 illustrated boards, presenting, inter alia, a typology of millstones and on that basis, another typology of mills. The first one is composed of different elementary shapes that can be combined in order to define the millstones used in Southern Gaul, an " open " typology also making possible a description of millstones in other regions."
Le réexamen des données de fouille anciennes concernant l’une des maisons de ce quartier, interprétée jusque là comme une probable résidence de marchand ou d’artisan, invite aujourd’hui à en proposer une nouvelle lecture.
L’attribution à un dispositif artisanal d’une meule de dimensions importantes mise au jour dans ce contexte témoigne en effet d’une activité de mouture dépassant les besoins d’une simple maisonnée. La confrontation avec le reste du mobilier, notamment céramique, évoque ainsi un espace spécialisé associant la mouture à d’importantes capacités de stockage et de redistribution. Enfin, l’emploi intense de l’écriture ibérique doit ici être mis en relation avec la tenue de comptes et, plus généralement, avec la vocation économique de ce bâtiment.
Le degré de spécialisation de ce dernier renvoie de manière plus générale au mode de fonctionnement et à l’organisation interne de ce site à vocation emporique, caractérisé par l’omniprésence des activités d’échange et de production, pour certaines manifestement contrôlées par les représentants d’un pouvoir local.
"There have been various studies into grain mills in south-eastern Gaul during the protohistoric period over the past twenty years. This article aims to provide a summary of the sometimes disparate data. It is based on the choice of a significant sample of nearly 500 millstones from forty sites. The period selected (450-1 BC) is marked at the beginning by the introduction of the first milling machines: rotary and Olynthus-type mills. The proposed summary is organized around the following themes: how were these two innovative models introduced? Were they related to local artisans or major production centres? How can we define the morphological evolution of rotary mills, whose forms are sometimes characteristic of the Iberian world and sometimes of continental Gaul? What have typological studies shown us about their function? Did it change over time?"
How can milling activities in Late Antique Gallia
Narbonensis be defined? How important were they within the
family setting? Did water mills and bakeries, well represented
since the Early Empire, grow or decline in number? How was
trade in millstones organized along with their production
centres? These issues will be addressed through the study of
one particular centre, that of Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie (Gard).
Active since the Early Empire, it was particularly dynamic in the
5th and 6th c. AD. It consists of one extraction site divided into
concessions and four rural establishments housing workshops
for the shaping of the millstones. One of them, the Roquésis
villa, has been the subject of a research excavation. The types
of millstones produced in Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie are also
compared with those found more broadly on Late Antique
occupation sites in southern Gaul. The products of various
quarries, they provide information on the main categories of mills
during this period and on their evolution.""
We offer a distinctive set of criteria to classify a millstone, whole or as a fragment in one of three broad categories of mills attested in antiquity, namely, manual mills, blood and water. Our study of many millstones from the South-eastern France has notably led to call into question some criteria used so far in the literature to differentiate a millstone blooded from a hydraulic wheel.