Enceinte du bois des Goislardières et enceinte dite Le Camp Romain
MonumentHidden Treasure
Au cœur de la Beauce, deux enceintes celtiques de type Viereckschanze veillent en silence depuis l'Âge du Fer : vestiges rares d'une spiritualité gauloise enfouie sous les chênes de Lanneray.
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History
In the discreet woods bordering the commune of Lanneray, in the Eure-et-Loir region, lie two of the most enigmatic archaeological sites in central France. The enclosure in the Bois des Goislardières and the enclosure known as "Le Camp Romain" belong to a family of monuments that archaeologists call Viereckschanzen - the German term for quadrangular enclosures with raised corners, typical of the La Tène Celtic civilisation. Their popular name of "Roman Camp" perfectly illustrates the age-old confusion that has long surrounded these sites: the peasants of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance readily attributed to Rome what they did not understand. Far from the military fantasies conveyed by their vernacular names, these two enclosures most likely had a sacred dimension. Contemporary research is interpreting the Viereckschanzen as enclosures with a ritual or cult function, perhaps linked to sacrificial practices, votive deposits or seasonal gatherings of Gallic communities. Deep wells found in similar enclosures in southern Germany and Bohemia sometimes contained plant, animal or human offerings to chthonic deities. The first enclosure, at Goislardières Wood, retains its entire perimeter earthwork, but its ditches remain only to the south-east and north, obliterated elsewhere by centuries of agriculture and forestry. The corners of this structure are markedly raised, a characteristic architectural detail that unambiguously links it to the corpus of European Viereckschanzen. The second enclosure, the Roman Camp, is partially eroded to the west; its southern corner is distinguished by a small mound surrounded by wide ditches, positioned at the highest point of the site, suggesting an area of ritual pre-eminence within the enclosure. This pair of monuments, listed as Historic Monuments since 1987, is a rare archaeological stop-off for lovers of prehistory and Celtic archaeology. The forest setting adds to their timeless atmosphere: beneath the foliage, the earthen levees rise up from the ground like scars of memory, inviting silent contemplation and reverie about the Carnutes people who inhabited this region before the Roman conquest.
Architecture
The two enclosures at Lanneray illustrate the canonical formal characteristics of Viereckschanzen: a quadrangular plan delimited by a continuous earthen embankment, reinforced around the perimeter by one or more ditches. This rigorous geometric form, which is unusual in a context where organic forms dominate Celtic vernacular architecture, bears witness to a conscious planning intention and perhaps a cosmological symbolism linked to the cardinal points. The first enclosure, at Goislardières Wood, features an intact earthen embankment around its entire perimeter, with raised corners forming slight eminences at the four corners of the quadrilateral. This architectural feature, found in many European examples, could correspond to watchtowers, corner altars or simply structural reinforcement. The moats, which can still be seen to the south-east and north, would originally have enclosed the entire enclosure, creating a clear demarcation between the secular and the consecrated areas. The second enclosure, slightly dented to the west by erosion, stands out for its small southern mound - the highest on the site - surrounded by wide ditches, which may have been the site of a central altar, a vanished wooden building or a ritual well that has yet to be excavated. The materials used are exclusively terrestrial: the earth extracted from digging the ditches was used to raise the levees, according to a constructional logic that was both economic and symbolic and widespread in protohistoric defensive and sacred architecture.
Related Figures
César (Jules) — proconsul romain dont les Commentarii de Bello Gallico documentent le territoire carnute, contexte historique des enceintesLes Carnutes — peuple gaulois habitant la région de Beauce et d'Eure-et-Loir, constructeurs présumés des deux enceintesJacques-Gabriel Bulliot — archéologue du XIXe siècle pionnier dans l'étude des sites celtiques en France, dont les travaux éclairèrent des monuments analoguesFerdinand Piroutet — préhistorien français ayant contribué à la documentation des enclos protohistoriques en région CentreInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques de 1987 — acteurs anonymes de la décision de protection officielle des deux enceintes
