Rennes/Condate, cité des Riédons : aux origines d’une ville-capitale

Abstract

Several important excavations have taken place in Rennes since the late 80’s. Although they were all located in the northern half of the civitas-capital of the Riedones, the evidence they have furnished has profoundly renewed our vision of urban organization between the 1st and the 4th c. AD. Between 2012 and 2014, archaeological operations carried out in the Couvent des Jacobins (Dominican friary) and in the Place Sainte-Anne have again provided essential information about the processes of the foundation of Condate in the reign of Augustus. Above all, they confirm that the heart of the city lies in this precise area, where the most ancient settlements and the highest density of remains are concentrated. The discovery of a large public building and the presence of a crossroads monument attests to the importance of this area from the beginning. However, it did not escape the temporary decline which seems to have hit the settlement in the early 1st c. AD. After this stage recognized, but still hard to understand, things were in hand again during reign of Claudius, as is evidenced through the layout of spaces for public circulation and the construction of new buildings. Excavations show the fundamental part played by craftsmen, particularly metalworkers and potters, in the lasting installation of urbanism, but several pieces of evidence raise the question of the involvement of the army, although it is not possible to assess its precise role and importance.