ROMAN AMPHORAE IN THE CIVITAS NERVIORUM: FROM THE LATE LA TÈNE PERIOD TO THE FLAVIANS

Patrick Monsieur

During the 1st century BC there was considerable importation of Italic products in Gaul, both in Gallia Narbonensis and Gallia Comata: wine in Dressel 1 amphorae, black gloss ware and bronze vessels. One still remains astonished at the impressive cargoes of amphorae in the wrecks of Spargi, Grand Congloué or la Madrague de Giens. The same abundance of material is noted on Gallic sites in the Seine, Aisne and Moselle valleys. After the middle of the century there is a noticeable fall of these imports, but still continued to come in at a slower rhythm. This probably has to do with the aftermath of the Gallic wars. With the exception in the territories of the Mediomatrici (Metz), Suessiones (Soissons) and Treveri (Trier-Luxemburg-Arlon), the other ancient Belgian tribes did not seem to have been affected by these products. Caesar mentions the Nervii as being particularly hostile to Italian merchantmen. Indeed, in modern-day Belgium and in the French borderland not one late La Tène site dating from before 50 BC yielded Mediterranean material. But shortly after this date the first Dressel 1 sherds in the territory of the Nervii or in the immediate neighborhood seem to turn up, as shown by the finds of Nouvelles, Zegelsem and Wange. This scarcity of material is probably due to the lack of systematic surveys and extensive excavations. After the Civil Wars, Gallia Belgica became fully organized by Augustus and Agrippa, the civitas Nerviorum was formed, with Bavay, Blicquy, Waudrez, Asse and Velzeke as main centers. With the renewed organization of Tiberius - his presence in the capital Bavay, ancient Bagacum, is attested by an inscription - the region became fully Romanized. This administrative and economic uprise has also to be seen in the light of the wars of Drusus and Germanicus in Germania at the turn of the century. Especially Velzeke, ancient Feliciacum, near Ghent, deserves attention. The vicus apparently grew from a military outpost in the Hinterland of the Rhine region, as a center for pacification and logistics, and was probably the most northerly important distribution center of Northern Gaul. Extensive excavations yielded a considerable amount of amphorae and other material of different periods. The Augustan and Tiberian periods show Italian sigillata, amphorae and 4-handled flat bottomed storage vessels (Camulodunum 176, also occurring in Haltern: dried fruit?); sigillata, beakers and mortaria from Lyon; amphorae from Southern Gaul, Tarraconensis, Baetica , Rhodes and Cos. It is an interesting facies, worthwhile to compare with the finds of the famous Treverian Titelberg. The conquest of Britain under Claudius gave new economic impulses to Velzeke. Italian, Tarraconese and Greek products are disappearing in the competition with Baetican, South-Gaulish and Lyonese imports. The case of Lyon in the second half of the 1st century AD is noteworthy: South-Gaulish fish sauces and olives seemed to be hauled in bulk (wooden casks?) by the Rhône river to the capital of Lugdunensis and put in amphorae there, to be redistributed to Northern Gaul, Britain and the Limes regions. From the Flavians on, wine, fish-sauces, olives and olive oil from Narbonensis and Baetica were dominating the market. Remarkable is the modest presence of some one-handled small Campanian olive pots (type Pompeii III), probably lasting until the first quarter of the 2nd century AD.

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