Lezoux
Site in the arrondissement of Thiers, whose ancient name is not known. Excavation has shown that it was an important industrial vicus. In Tiberius' reign the potters imitated wares imported from Italy, selling their counterfeits all over Gaul, and even in Germany and Britain. They were influenced by Mezzo, Lyon, and La Graufesenque. Then a recession set in and activity diminished for a while, but there was a period of expansion from the end of the 1st c. A.D. until the beginning of the 3d. Production continued into the 4th c.
Among the finds are potters' kilns, workshops, wells, tombs—isolated or in necropoleis—and storehouses for the bowls. The products consist mainly of terra sigillata, both plain and molded, but also include applied reliefs, lamps, thin-sided bowls, ewers, antefixes, architectural fragments, and andirons in the form of rams' heads.
BIBLIOGRAPHYJ. A. Stanfield & G. Simpson, Central Gaulish Potters (1958).
H. VERTET