Patrick Thollard, in collaboration with Sabine Groetembril, Excavations of the Bavay forum (1993- 1998). III. Habitat, street grid and stratigraphy south of the forum.
Following works carried out on the monumental centre of the city, a series of excavations was performed on the block located south-west of the Bavay forum. It concerned the north-east angle of the block, the remaining part of the area being covered with the earth-work of the mediaeval fortification. On the western part of the area explored, two dwelling rooms, whose latest state probably dates back to the middle of the Ilnd century A.D., have been identified : a vast half-buried room and a cellar, built along a classical plan but with a vaulted ceiling in brickwork ornemented with a partially preserved painted coating. These two rooms, in direct alignment with the street, belong to a set that no doubt develops far to the south. Stratigraphical diggings carried out in the north-east of the block allowed to identify previous levels whose oldest belongs to a workshop area dedicated to iron working. Finally, this led to adding more accuracy to the history of the evolution of the street network. The pavement that runs along the cardo has known three stages, that along the decumanus only two. Only the latest stage displays a tiling made of blue limestone slabs. Chronology confirms the anteriority of the cardo and shows that the development of the decumanus, which takes place in the third quarter of the 1st century A.D., is one of the direct consequences of the construction of the first stage of the forum.