L’agglomération de Melun (Seine-et-Marne) durant l’Antiquité tardive : de Metlosedum à Meteglo

Abstract

The Late antique occupation of Melun is characterised by the presence of a fortified nucleus on the Île Saint-Étienne, located between two arms of the Seine. The presence of defences is attested by excavations and by observations at several points. At the end of the 3rd c. AD, the Early antique city, which covered a vast area on the left bank of the river, was restricted to the island. Its monumental buildings were dismantled and the materials were reused in the wall. The traces of occupation outside the defences are sporadic and tenuous. It is the cemeteries, some of which existed as early as the High Empire and others only at the end of Antiquity, that provide the most information on the inhabitants of Melun from the 4th to 6th c.