Pontchevron
These two archaeological sites lie roughly midway between Ouzouer and Brivodurum (Briare). The village of Ouzouer sur Trézée (the name is derived from oratorium) lies 7 km E of Briare on the banks of the canal of the same name. Since the 17th c. this canal has linked the Loire and the Seine, which were connected in antiquity by portage. The region of Gien and Briare, now part of the department of Loiret, belonged in late antiquity to the city of Auxerre. Before it became autonomous the city was probably a pagus or dependent city of the Aedui; beyond Genabum (Gien) to the E lay the territory of the Carnutes and to the N that of the Senones.
Le Rochoir is the site farther S; it was excavated in 1858. A rectangular rampart (200 x 150 m), with small chambers backed against the wall, enclosed a number of rectangular buildings, some of which were paved with mosaics. The enclosed area is cut in two by a NE-SW road, the part to the E being considerably larger. Next to the road is a ruin with a circular plan which has been interpreted as a small amphitheater. Much pottery and two hoards of coins were discovered in the course of excavation. The plan of the complex recalls that of double-piazza conciliabula (Sanxay and Tours Mirandes), settlements found chiefly in frontier regions. No traces of the ruin can be seen today.
The site of Pontchevron lies 2 km N of Le Rochoir, in the grounds of a 19th c. château. At the bottom of a marshy valley are a number of springs. Here, in 1898, a building was discovered with mosaic floors, but they were covered again without being sketched or photographed. In 1962, however, the mosaics were located and restored, and they are now preserved in the chateau outbuildings.
The floors belonged to two connecting rectangular rooms (8.8 x 6.5 m and 6.3 x 4.3 m), with walls built of a core of mortared rubble faced with small blocks. The building, which had other unexcavated rooms to the S and SE, was burnt down. The mosaic in the larger room, which lies to the W, has a multiple decoration. The ground is divided into 35 panels 0.8 m square by white bands with black squares in them, placed point to point. Each panel has a geometric design of black on a white background. The central panel shows a maze with a stylized aedicula in the middle. There are 17 types of decoration, some of which are repeated two, three, or even four times, the similar motifs generally being symmetrical in relation to the axis of the room. Roughly onethird of the floor is destroyed.
The floor of the second room has a design of eight-pointed stars separated by hexagons. In the middle, a larger hexagon serves as a frame for a polychrome head of a man, seen full-face; long-haired and bearded, he has a deep-blue veil over his head. Near his right shoulder is a steering oar.
These two mosaics are related to those of the Rhône valley. The W one is very similar to one of the Verbe Incarné floors at Lyon, which has been dated from the reign of Marcus Aurelius or the Severan era. The Pontchevron floors are probably of the latter date.
The god in the middle of the mosaic may be Neptune, with a blue cloak over his head, but such a veil is unique and Neptune's symbol is a trident, not a rudder, which is more often associated with the river-gods. These latter are rarely veiled; but on coins of Trajan representing the river of Rome overcoming Dacia the Tiber has a wind-filled veil (of the aurae velificantes type) over his head. The cult of river-gods is rare in Gaul, only the Rhine being personified in this way while lesser rivers are represented by goddesses. The latter have feminine names. The Loire (Liger), however, is masculine in Latin as it doubtless was in Gaulish. Therefore the Loire may be the river shown in this mosaic.
The function of the building is uncertain; in plan it resembles a house rather than a sanctuary. But the proximity of the spring and the fact that the mosaics are probably religious in character perhaps indicate the second interpretation.
BIBLIOGRAPHYMosaics: cf. H. Stern, Recueil Général des Mosaïques de la Gaule II (1967) Lyonnaise 1, 55-56 and pl. XLI, no. 59; the Tiber on coins: H. Mattingly & E. A. Sydenham, The Roman Imperial Coinage (1923-) nos. 556-59; J. Le Gall, Recherches sur le Culte du Tibre (1953) pl.
XII. G. C. PICARD