La production de poix dans la cité des Gabales (Lozère) à l'époque gallo-romaine

Abstract

À l'époque gallo-romaine, la forêt représentait l'une des principales ressources économiques de la cité des Gabales. La sylviculture est attestée par l'archéologie pour le Sud-Ouest (région des Causses) et le Nord (Margeride actuelle) de la civitas. L'exploitation des pins des Causses Méjean et de Sauveterre, dans le but d'alimenter en combustible les ateliers de sigillées du Haut-Empire, a donné lieu à une activité artisanale : la fabrication de poix. Les bûcherons débitaient les troncs d'arbres, acheminés par la suite jusqu'aux officines de terres cuites, et laissaient les branches aux artisans résiniers qui les distillaient dans des aires de travail, appelées des stations de résiniers, pour obtenir de la poix. Une trentaine de ces stations est connue aujourd'hui dans le département de la Lozère.

Birch Bark Tar Production: Experimental and Biomolecular Approaches to the Study of a Common and Widely Used Prehistoric Adhesive

“…However, the amorphous residues found in the perforated holes of the ceramic vessels were subjected to a chemical investigation. This system is more frequently found in Western Europe during Roman times (Balsan 1951;Jauch 1994;Connan et al 2002;Trintignac 2003) and in Central Europe during Middle Ages (Schoknecht and Schwartze 1964;Kurzweil and Todtenhaupt 1991;Voß 1997). In all of these cases, conifer tar was identified when the organic residues were investigated chemically.…”

“…Indeed, a balance has to be maintained between the exploitation and the regeneration of the resources to avoid deforestation and to maintain the activity. This explains that tar production is sometimes seasonally organised, but also depends on the accessibility of production area and the availability of natural resources (Orengo et al 2013;Trintignac 2003).…”

Pitch production during the Roman period: an intensive mountain industry for a globalised economy?

“…Archaeological evidence for resin production in the Roman period has been scarce and mostly confined to the Causses region of the French Massif Central (e.g. Loir 1940;Viré 1943;Albenque 1947;Soutou 1959;Trintignac 2003), but there are also examples from the Haut-Forez, further north in the Massif Central (Renaud 1963); the Sanguinet lake, Landes (Balsan 1951); Oberbronn, Alsace (Ulrich 1939) and East Middle Sweden (Hjulström et al 2006). All the sites in Celtic France employ pairs of big ceramic conical containers.…”

Betulin-related esters from birch bark tar: Identification, origin and archaeological significance

“…To our knowledge, the oldest allothermic ceramic system known for tar making is dated to the final Bronze Age and was a double-pot system (Dal Ri and Tecchiati, 2003). Ceramic systems and especially the "double-pot" are more frequently encountered in Roman times and in the Middle Age in Europe (Balsan, 1951;Connan et al, 2002;Regert et al, 2003;Trintignac, 2003;Burri, 2009Burri, , 2010Burri et al, 2018). According to the distribution of the triterpenoids, and particularly given the almost absence of genuine triterpenoids from birch bark, it is likely that the archaeological birch bark tar investigated in the present study was prepared using a system without separation.…”