Le site paléochrétien Notre-Dame de la Place à Bordeaux : nouveaux acquis chronologiques

Abstract

Abstract: In 1983, during a rescue excavation, a semi-circular apse has been discovered under the church Notre-Dame de la Place close to the medieval cathedral of Bordeaux. The context of the discovery and numerous historical and archaeological indicia led archaeologists to identify these remains as the Saint-Mary church. On the bases of the poem written by the Latin poet and hymnographer Venantius Fortunatus, the historian Aliette de Maillé suggested in 1959 a hypothesis that the church had been constructed during the episcopate of Léonce II between 549 and 567. Even if it is clear that the city centre of Bordeaux was strongly affected by paleochristianism, certain uncertainties, concerning in particular a chronology of these remains, persisted. The goal of our study was first to carry out a critical analyses of existing historical and archaeological data and second to perform physical dating of construction materials through thermoluminescence, optically stimulated luminescence and archaeomagnetism. The synthesis of the sixteen newly-acquired dates was obtained by using Bayesian chronological modelling. The results indicate that the most probable date for the construction of the apse is situated between the second half of the 4th and the first half of the 5th century AD. This new chronology which is more ancient than initially believed, atypical architectural features of the construction and numerous uncertainties pinpointed in the historical interpretation lead us to reconsider these archaeological remains, that are—since 40 years—believed to represent the most ancient attested and preserved church of Bordeaux.

Keywords

• Venantius Fortunatus
• church
• apsis
• dating
• building mortar
• brick