Bibracte, a Gallic oppidum (fortified settlement), was the capital of the Aedui and one of the most important stone hillforts in Gaul. It was located near modern Autun in Burgundy, France. The material culture of the Aedui corresponded to the Late Iron Age La Tène culture.
In 58 BC, at the Battle of Bibracte, Julius Caesar's armies defeated the Helvetii south of the fort. In 52 BC, Vercingetorix was proclaimed head of the Gaulish coalition at Bibracte. A few decades after the Roman conquest of Gaul, Bibracte was abandoned in favour of Autun, another away. Once abandoned, Bibracte remained undisturbed and unexamined until discovered by modern archaeology.
Jacques-Gabriel Bulliot initiated the first excavations at the site between 1867 and 1895. His nephew Joseph Déchelette, author of a famous Manuel d'Archéologie, continued the excavations between 1897 and 1907.
The modern site, known as Mont Beuvray, is generally identified as ancient Bibracte. The site straddles the borders of the French départements of Nièvre and Saône-et-Loire in Burgundy. The site is an archaeological park at the centre of a protected forest. It is the focus of cooperative European archaeological efforts, a training ground for young archaeologists, and a centre for interpreting Gaulish culture for a popular audience. Important international excavations have been undertaken at Mont Beuvray by teams from the universities of Brno, Sheffield, Kiel, Budapest, Vienna and Leipzig.
Before the Roman conquest in 52 BC the great Celtic city of Bibracte had more than thirty thousand inhabitants, protected by a huge stone wall of the Murus Gallicus type which enclosed an area of 135 hectares.
On 12 December 2007 the site of Bibracte received the "Great Site of France" designation.
Etymology
The origin of the word Bibracte is still poorly understood. The term may have come from the Celtic *bibro- / *bebro- (beaver) followed by the collective suffix -akti (cf. Irish, Gallic aktā)Pierre-Yves Lambert, La langue gauloise, éditions errance 1994. or from the Latin biffractrus (twice fortified).Christian Goudineau et Christian Peyre, Bibracte et les Éduens, À la découverte d'un peuple gaulois, éditions errance, 1993, p15 The latter version, however, is thought questionable from a strategic view,D'un point de vue phonétique également, Biffractus aurait donné *Beffray et non pas Beuvray. since it is very difficult to protect a battlement over a long distance, a problem which a double battlement would only have exacerbated. Moreover, the stone facing of the outer surrounding wall was reused for the construction of the second wall, meaning it is unlikely that Bibracte was surrounded by two walls at the same time.
Three inscriptions dedicated to the goddess Bibracte which were found at Autun in the 17th century provide another explanation for the name, but two of the inscriptions carved into the stone have disappeared and the authenticity of the third, engraved on a brass medallion, has been the object of debate. Some scholars of the era have cited other evidence to justify placing the Aeduian oppidum on the site of Autun (the former Augustodunum), which was effectively the capital of the Aedui in the first century.Christian Goudineau et Christian Peyre, Bibracte et les Éduens, À la découverte d'un peuple gaulois, éditions Errance, pp 1–6 1993
Discovery of Bibracte
Bibracte is mentioned only twice in Roman sources. The first mention is found in Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War in the year 58 BC. It was mentioned again in 52 BCE, when he was questioning the intentions of his Aedui allies, who had joined the revolt and crowned Vercingetorix king of the Gauls at Bibracte. Inscriptions from the era announced that the capital of the Aedui received the name (the citadel of Augustus) during the reign of Augustus, which gave rise to the current Autun.
Starting in the 16th century, a passion for local history arose among scholars, aristocrats, and clergy, which led to the question of the location of Bibracte.Christian Goudineau, Regards sur la Gaule, éditions Errance, 1998, pp. 65–82 One theory placed Bibracte at Autun: the Gallic city at the site of the Gallo-Roman city. Another placed it at Beaune and was defended by the scholar . A third located the city on the slopes of Beuvrect or Bevrect, today known as Mont Beuvray. This last theory was based on three major arguments. First, there is a connection between the names Bibracte and Beuvrect. Second, medieval chronicles situated the city at Beuvrect. This was reinforced by the existence of an annual fair on the first Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of May, the age of which is attested to in texts from the 13th century. Finally, the discovery of pottery, coins, and the observations of the priest of Saint-Léger-sous-Beuvray in 1725 supported it.
Generally, the Autun hypothesis received the greatest approval at first. Moreover, Autun was renamed Bibracte after the French Revolution and remained so for some time. Only the research of in the 19th century shifted scholarly opinion in favor of Mont Beuvray. In 1851, Bulliot communicated with the Congress of the French Society of Archeology about an ancient chapel (the Saint Martin chapel on Mont Beuvray) established to Christianize the Aedui. He also returned to Mont Beuvray to take more notes. He discovered what he thought was the embankment of a Roman camp (actually a nemeton) at the summit of Mont Beuvray next to the chapel. He documented it and considered placing Bibracte at Mont Beuvray instead of Autun, contrary to the unanimous opinion of the Aedui Society. The publication of his Essay on the Roman System of Defense in the Aedui country between the Saône and the Loire, in which he revealed his convictions, was not taken seriously by the members of the Society of Archeology.
Emperor Napoleon III took an interest in the battles of the Gallic Wars and an officer named Stoffel, charged by the Emperor with conducting investigations of the Roman victory over the Helvetii, visited Bulliot, who shared with him his opinions about the location of Bibracte. Stoffel was not interested, but he commissioned Xavier Garenne, another member of the Aedui Society, to make a survey of Mont Beavray. At the same time, the Viscount of Aboville, the owner of the land, conducted research and shared it with the Archbishop of Reims, who was a member of the Aedui Society and a friend of Bulliot, though he did not share Bulliot's theory about the location of Bibracte. Interested by these investigations, the Archbishop shared the various findings with the Emperor who, in 1867, assigned Bulliot to do research at Mont Beavray and funded his work.
Bulliot excavated the site from 1867 to 1905, removing all doubt about the location of Bibracte. His nephew Joseph Déchelette, whom he introduced to excavation, continued the work until 1907, comparing Bibracte to other sites in Europe such as Stradonice in Bohemia, the Manching in Germany and Velem-Zenst-Vid in Hungary, which were precursors of the cultural unification of the Celtic world and of the civilization of oppida.Stephan Fichtl, La ville celtique, Les oppida de 150 av. J.-C. à 15 ap. J.-C., éditions Errance, 2005, p. 17
History of the oppidum
Chronology of the population of Beuvray
During the excavations of the gate, five artifacts were discovered, the oldest of which demonstrated human habitation on Mont Beuvray in the Neolithic Era.Christian Goudineau et Christian Peyre, Bibracte et les Éduens, À la découverte d'un peuple gaulois, éditions Errance, 1993, p27 Dating techniques have shown that the oppidum was founded at end of the 3rd century BCE, on an area of 200 hectares protected by the exterior rampart. An interior rampart was built later, for reasons unknown.Anne-Marie Romero, Bibracte Archéologie d'une ville gauloise, Bibracte-Centre archéologique européen, 2006, p.60
Because the Aedui had the status of "friend of the Roman people," contacts with Roman merchants were probable before the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. This privileged status prevented Bibracte from suffering much from conflict: in 58 BCE, at Montmort 25 kilometers south of the site, Julius Caesar's armies defeated the Helvetii,Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Gallic War, Book I, 23 forcing them to return to Switzerland and gradually be incorporated into what became the Roman Empire. In 52 BCE, an assembly of Gallic peoples at Bibracte gave Vercingetorix supreme command of the Gallic armies.Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Gallic War, Book VII, 63Anne-Marie Romero, Bibracte Archéologie d'une ville gauloise, Bibracte-Centre archéologique européen, 2006, p16 Despite this insurrection, Caesar treated the city mercifully after his victory at Alesia. He stayed there during the winter of 52-51 BCEJulius Caesar, Commentaries on the Gallic War, Book VII, 90, Book VIII, 2 to write his Commentaries on the Gallic War. These mentioned the names of certain notables of the Aedui aristocracy such as Dumnorix, vergobret of the Aedui, and his brother Diviciacus, the druid. The city's industry boomed in the decades following the war.
Strabo the geographer, writing a generation later than Caesar, identified Bibracte as again an Aedui stronghold.Strabo, Geography, Book IV, 3, 2
After the founding of Autun (Augustodunum) 25 kilometers away c. 15 BCE, during the reign of Augustus, Bibracte was gradually abandoned by its inhabitants. However, cults continued to practise their rites in its temples and its fountains and its aristocratic residences were maintained. Two main hypotheses have been advanced concerning the abandonment of the site over several decades. Migration could have been caused by economic reasons or by a desire to integrate with the Roman model; a part of the dominant Aedui class, already pro-Roman during the Gallic War, definitely realized the strategic importance of the new city located on the principal axes of communication and wanted to conform to the Roman model of flatland cities, while a more traditional population remained for a time on the Bibracte site.Stephan Fichtl, La ville celtique, Les oppida de 150 av. J.-C. à 15 ap. J.-C., éditions Errance, 2005, pp 191–198
It is known from 13th century texts that a festival every first Monday of May survived. In the 15th and 16th centuries, a Franciscan convent was established on Mont Beuvray. It was abandoned, but the festival continued.
Influence and power
The power of the Aedui capital was related in the Commentaries on the Gallic War, which underlined the many alliances held by the Aedui with neighboring peoples. Julius Caesar also mentioned the wars that set the Aedui against the Arverni and the Sequani for hegemony over a large part of Gaul. These references were not impartial, since Rome had been allied with the Aedui, "our blood brothers",Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Gallic War, Book I, 33 since at least the 2nd century BCE. Moreover, they maintained commercial links and military alliances: Rome helped the Aedui in the 2nd century to defeat an Arverni army and rose to their defense against the invasion of the Helvetii that precipitated the Gallic War.
Gabriel de Mortillet, in his classification of ancient peoples, included the site's residents under the name "Beavraisian", a category abandoned by modern scholars.Modélisation des connaissances temporelles en archéologie (page 5)
In addition to this powerful alliance with Rome, the Aedui were part of a confederation of Celtic tribes that included: The Ambarri (in Ain) The Brannovices The Bellovaci The Bituriges (in Berry) The Parisii The Segusiavi (Forez, adjacent to the Arverni) The Senones (Sens region) Their influence extended across a large part of Gaul.
Commerce