Les meules romaines de sept chefs-lieux de cité de Gaule Belgique occidentale, étude du matériel et synthèse bibliographique

Picavet, Paul; Fronteau, Gilles; Boyer, François

doi:10.3917/rdn.393.0167

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…One example can be observed in the Lutetian layers of the Paris Basin (Figure 3a) where the facies varies vertically from a weakly cemented calcareous glauconitic sand to a less sandy and more massive limestone. This sedimentary formation was exploited for the production of Neolithic and Protohistoric saddle querns (Monchablon, in press), as well as for rotary querns (Audebert & Le Quellec 2014;Jodry et al 2017;Picavet et al 2011;Pommepuy 1999;Robert & Landreat 2005), corresponding to changes in the sedimentological context: the limestone banks proceed from categories A1 to A2 (Figure 3a), then to B, before become E type (or E + D), which then served mainly as a building stone (Devos et al 2010;. The calcareous upper layers, where the quartz grains make up less than 10% of the rock, again provided material suitable for millstones: an annelid-rich facies (Ditrupa strangulata limestone; Figure 3b) and a coarse shelly limestone (Figure 4).…”

Section: Sandy Limestone Quernsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limestone millstones: Facies, provenance and use of sandy to pure limestones in France

Fronteau

Boyer²,

Jaccottey

et al. 2020

JLS

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Limestones are sedimentary rocks more commonly associated with building stones or sculptures than with millstones. Nevertheless, many examples of limestone saddle querns, rotary querns and millstones are spread across France, at times making up the bulk of the archaeological assemblages in various areas characterized by bedrocks rich of sedimentary stones. These limestone millstones are of different types, sources and geological origins: Eocene sandy or fossiliferous limestones, mainly from the various limestones layers from the Lutetian beds, Quaternary calcareous tufas, and fine Jurassic limestones. To explain the behaviour of these rocks, this study advances a classification of the rocks used for millstones, focused not only on the rock-type but mainly on the topological aspect of the stone surface. (empirical macroscopic surface roughness) This renders it possible to classify the rocks into categories by materials, rather than according to petrographic facies. The pure limestones in this study are essentially vacuolar, whereas sandy limestones or certain biodetritital limestones belong to either the granular rocks category, which also includes sandstones, or to the category of heterogeneous rocks. These limestones appear for the most part to have been used due to their availability. Moreover, they epitomise a very satisfactory compromise between their grinding properties and their ease of carving, even if the hardness of these limestones is lower than those of other rocks used as grindstone (basalts or sandstones).

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Section: Sandy Limestone Quernsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limestone millstones: Facies, provenance and use of sandy to pure limestones in France

Fronteau

Boyer²,

Jaccottey

et al. 2020

JLS

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“…In addition to the better-known volcanic rocks from the Eifel region used for the production of mills (Gluhak & Hofmeister, 2009, 2011, our study revealed the frequent occurrence of different types of sedimentary rocks: Ypresian sandstones and puddingstones from the north-western Paris Basin (Picavet et al, 2011), Lutetian limestones from the northern Paris Basin (Robert & Landréat, 2005), Thanetian quartzarenites from the Flemish Basin (Grès de Grandglise-Blaton: Reniere et al, 2016). The present paper focuses on the characterization and provenance of a particular group of conglomerates and coarse sandstones observed throughout the Roman provinces of Gallia Belgica and Germania inferior, an area that covers today the neighbouring regions of northern France, Belgium, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, southern Netherlands and western Germany (Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This leads us to the identification of a unique quarry district (i.e. one area with several closely spaced quarries in the same outcrop zone of a particular rock type) that has been intensively exploited for quern manufacturing during Antiquity, and whose products had a widespread distribution and must have possessed a Fronteau) considerable commercial importance (Picavet et al, 2011).…”

Section: The Old Quarries Of Macquenoise: Potential Geoheritage Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The latter objects, and particularly the grain millstones, have the great advantage of being most resistant to weathering, hence they have high preservation potential (Delgado-Raack et al, 2009;Picavet et al, 2011;Gomart et al 2015). Numerous fragments of small querns and larger millstones have been found on archaeological sites, providing new information on the history of domestic, craft and trade practices that were part of socioeconomic systems of the Ancient World.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Macquenoise sandstone (Devonian – Lochkovian), a suitable raw material for ancient querns and millstones: quarries, properties, manufacture and distribution in France and Belgium

Picavet¹,

Reniere²,

Cnudde³

et al. 2018

Geol. Belg.

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ABSTRACT. For some years, a French-Belgian team of archaeologists and geologists is investigating the provenance of ancient quernstones and millstones. Their study revealed the frequent occurrence of particular coarse sandstones derived from Lower Devonian strata in the Ardenne region, known as either the "Arkose of Haybes" by geologists or the "Arkose of Macquenoise" by archaeologists. Material for Late Iron Age and Roman quern-stones and millstones was quarried from open pits located west of the border between France and Belgium, between the Belgian village of Macquenoise (Commune of Momignies, Province of Hainaut) and the French town of Hirson (Aisne Department, Hauts-de-France region). This paper describes the raw materials, presents the different types of grindstones produced through historical times and provides a detailed diffusion map of the millstones.

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“…Bearing this in mind, it would be fruitless to search for Roman whetstones quarries in the Stavelot-Venn and Brabant-London inliers, due to the lack of rough-outs found in these areas. Evidence of Roman open pits is very rare in Belgium and restricted to the quarries near the border with France and to the exploitation of the famous "Arkose of Maquenoise" for querns (Picavet et al 2011). Extractions from quarries took the form of flat and roughly rectangular slabs (Figures 5, 6 and 7).…”

Section: Quarries and Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roman whetstone production in northern Gaul (Belgium and northern France)

Thiebaux

Goemaere²,

Feller

et al. 2016

JLS

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Abstract:This paper focuses on the latest research on the production of Roman whetstones in northern Gaul. To date, little has been written about this specialised industry. However, three workshops producing whetstones were discovered recently in the north of Gaul in Buizingen (Province of Flemish Brabant, Belgium), Nereth (Province of Liège, Belgium) and Le Châtelet-sur-Sormonne (Department of Ardennes, France). Production debris and rough-outs recovered at these sites allowed us to reconstruct the operational sequence of manufacture, from the choice of raw material to the finished product. Technological studies enabled us to determine the production stages and highlight the similarities and differences between the three study areas. Analyses of the materials reveal the use of fine-grained sedimentary and low-grade metamorphic rocks outcropping near the workshops. All these rocks are linked to the Caledonian inliers of Brabant-London, Stavelot-Venn, and Rocroi. The large amount of waste found at Le Châtelet-sur-Sormonne, far more than that recovered at Buizingen and Nereth, is indicative of the economic importance of this whetstone workshop. This importance is reflected in the fact that whetstones from Le Châtelet-sur-Sormonne are distributed over a large area throughout Belgium, France (Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Picardie and Champagne-Ardenne regions), Germany, and the Netherlands. This paper presents the waste and rough-outs from the three production sites. It also defines rock types and their origins and offers insights into whetstone manufacturing processes and techniques.

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Les meules romaines de sept chefs-lieux de cité de Gaule Belgique occidentale, étude du matériel et synthèse bibliographique

Cited by 14 publications

References 57 publications

Limestone millstones: Facies, provenance and use of sandy to pure limestones in France

Limestone millstones: Facies, provenance and use of sandy to pure limestones in France

The Macquenoise sandstone (Devonian – Lochkovian), a suitable raw material for ancient querns and millstones: quarries, properties, manufacture and distribution in France and Belgium

Roman whetstone production in northern Gaul (Belgium and northern France)

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