EAST SURVEY

1987 PU EAST BRITTANY SURVEY - / WATERSHED

EASTER 1987

The seventh season in a programme of fieldwork, itself part of a larger, multi-disciplinary study of the relationship between 1and-use and settlement during the last two thousand years, took place from 20 March - 4 April in the communes surrounding Ruffiac, Treal, St-Nicolas-du-Tertre and , in the departments of and 111e-et-Vi1 ai ne in eastern Brittany. The aim of the study is to détermine when, how and why the exploitation of the environment changed direction within the historic period, and the effects of such changes on social groupings and labour patterns. The complète fieldwork programme consists of systematic fieldwalking of ail available ploughed fields within the four core communes of Ruffiac, St-Nicol as, Treal and Carentoir, together with sélective geophysical and geochemical surveys, and small excavations to test results; complementary environmental analysis is also being undertaken, as is a sùrvey of ail standing buildings in the core. The complète study involves (amongst other éléments) analysis of documents, including the very detailed cadastral maps and records of the early nineteenth century. This latter analysis has been completed and is of psrticular significance for fieldwork since it allows complète reconstruction of the early nineteenth-century landscape

The 1987 season involved fieldwalking over large areas at wide intervais in sample transects in the communes surrounding the core. The team (consisting largely of past and présent students from the Universities of London, Reading, Cardiff and York) numbered twenty-two,' including the directors, and worked for twel ve deiys, from 22 March, with one day off. Six people went in advance, and worked for one day beforehand. Overall, 330 mandays were spent on this year's season, including travelling time and time off; 270 of thèse were working days. The weather was poor, with very considérable rainfal1 ; although the fields themselves were usually in good condition for walking, recording was exceptional1 y difficult.

Fieldwalking in Runs at 50m intervais (Transect Walking)

Sampling was organized in three 2km transects radiating from the core (P, M and R) and thèse were walked in the same way as Transects A to L within the core and Transect N outside it, in 1982-6. Transect P ran due west to the River Oust for 4.1km from the western boundary of Ruffiac (from the area of La Sourigaie to La Houssaie), passing through the communes of and and the northern outskirts of the town of Malestroit; Transect R ran north east for 7.75km from Trelo to Le Mur at the north-east corner of Carentoir, passing through the communes of Comblessac, Guer and Les Brûlais; Transect M ran due east to the River Vilaine for 21.5km front the area of Bat Colin and Le Boschet in south-east Carentoir, passing through the communes of La Chapelle

1 Baceline, Sixt, Bruc, Pipriac and Guipry, and just to the south of the bourg of Pipriac (see fig. 1). M was started in 1986, and six fields walked then: the alignment of this transect was slightly changed in 1987 to ensure adéquate coverage of a cross-section of land-use types between Carentoir and the Vilaine.

Suitable fields under plough and with young crop within thèse transects were walked at 50m intervais, using collection units of 100m; some were too sodden for effective and damage-free surface collection. Field conditions, features, présence of varieties of schi ste and local pronunciations were noted on standardised recording forms. Ail available fields in Transects P and M and those in Transect R for a distance of some 7.75km were covered. Hence, 858 fields were walked (72 in P, 640 in M and 146 in R), encompassing 1044 hectares: 8.57. of the surface area of Transect P (95 ha.), 18.77. of Transect M (752 ha.), and 14.67. of the portion of Transect R walked (197 ha.): see fig. 2. Two sets of cropmarks, one platform and two areas of ridge and furrow were noted in M, together with forty-one lynchets; four and three lynchets, respectively, were noted in P and R.

32.82kg of pottery, 161.72kg of man-made building material, 23 flints and 611.72g of haematite were recovered from thèse transects, together with two worked pièces of quartz (from M). This breaks down, by transect, as follows:

Brick/tile Pre-Rom. Roman Medi eval Post -med. Wei ght Fl int Haemati te kg Pottery Pot Pot Pot kg by no. g P 18. 49 1.47. 2. 97. 34. 67. 61. 17. 3. 67 1 2. 72 M 121.77 0. 767. 3. 87. 347. 61. 57. 26. 01 18 545 R 21. 46 1.37. 3.77. 8.27. 86. 87. 3. 13 4 64

Table 1: proportions and quantities of material recorded

As in the core there were considérable variations in the concentration of recovered pottery, and the usual conventions are hereby used to distinguish between them: fields in which more than two neighbouring units each produced five or more sherds of the same broad period (or five or more fragments of building material) have been termed 'sites'; fields in which one unit produced five or more sherds or fragments of building material, and two or more neighbouring units produced one to four, or. two neighbouring units each produced five or more sherds or fragments, have been termed 'probable sites'; fields in which there were irregular concentrations of material not covered by the above catégories - for example, one unit with five or more sherds of the same period - have been termed 'possible sites'. (It should be stressed, yet again, that the terme are conventions for distinguishing between greater and lesser concentrations and for providing a means of référence to them; they do not necessarily dénote the location of former settlements.) In accordance with the conventions, the concentrations of surface material (total 219) may be classified as follows: P M R Si tes' 4 (5.67.) 18 (2. 87.) 4 (2. 77.) (37.) Probable' 10 (13. 9"/.) 73 ( 11 . 47.) 11 (7. 57.) 94 (117.) Possi ble' 13 (18V.) 69 (10 . 87.) 16 ( 117.) 98 (11.47.)

Ail types 27 (37.5%) 160 (25 7.) 31 (21. 27.) 219 (25.57.)

Fields 72 640 146 858 walked Table 2: concentrations of surface material (percentage of fields walked per transect and in toto)

Of thèse concentrations none had predominanti y Roman or prehistoric pottery but a small proportion had some Roman or pre-Roman sherds. Some concentrations had predominanti y médiéval or predominanti y post-medieval sherds, others more than the necessary minimum proportions of médiéval and post-medieval sherds, and others had a prédominance of man-made building material. The proportions of such concentrations are as follows, by transect:

Some Some Médiéval Post-medieval Med. + Brick Brick + pre—Rom. Roman Post-med. pottery 11. 17. P 11. 17. 7. 47. 11. 17. 48. 27. 11.17. 18.57. M 1.37. 10. 67. 8. 17. 32.57. 3.87. 45.67. 107. 6. 5 "<£ R 6. 57. 6. 57. 35. 5% 51. 57. Table 3: prédominant character of surface scatters

Di scussion Clearly the character of the surface material differs from transect to transect. Transects P and M had areas which produced a little pre-Roman pottery - as had Transect N - a phenomenon that is extremely rare in the core communes (Asti 11 and Davies 1986: 115). P is notable for its relatively high proportion of fields with significant concentrations of surface material, high by comparison both with Transects M and R as also by comparison with the core, where fields with notable concentrations averaged only 24.27. of those walked. However, P, an area topographical 1 y characterized by the drop of land down to the River Oust, was not dissimilar to the eastern section of M, where the land dropped down to the River Vilaine; here, for a comparable distance, 6.77. of fields walked had notable concentrations of material (15.67. 'possible', 177. 'probable' and 4.57. 'site'). Transect M itself produced unusually high quantities of brick and tile, and a high proportion of its concentrations were characterized by brick and tile - some of which had Roman pottery associated. Transect R was notable for its very 1ow proportions of médiéval pottery and very high of post-medieval. Thèse results are striking by comparison with patterns of material recovered from the four core communes. Whereas the amounts of Roman material collected from the surface are mueh the same, the amounts and proportions of médiéval material are 1ower (especially in R) - as in N - while those of post-medieval material are considerably higher, though not as high as in N; in the core 507. of pottery collected from the surface was médiéval and 46.77. post-medi eval . The proportion of concentrations characterized by médiéval pottery is much lower than in the core (where it was 54.77.), and that by post-medi eval much higher (20.47. in the core).

The overall distribution of material nevertheless shares some characteristics with that in the core. Again there are 'blank' areas in which nothing - or virtually nothing - can be found on the surface. It looks as if thèse 'blanks' are fields on land not cultivated in the historic period until the twentieth century; sometimes they are in areas clearly utilized as woodland until very recently. In P the 'blanks' lay on the steep si opes around La Hennelaye and Le Haut Couëdic. In R the 'blanks' lay near the Carentoir/Comblessac commune boundary and on the steep si opes to the north east of this area; also north of Comblessac bourg, in and around the Lande de Craon. There were also two groups of 'blank' fields south east and south west of Comblessac. Together thèse zones suggest that the settlement of Comblessac and its immediately dépendent arable may have been rather small, much smaller than the centres in the core communes: it is notable that a tile scatter with Roman material lies near the bourg of Comblessac and not on some distant periphery, as is more usual.

In Transect M there were 'blank' areas on the banks of the River Aff and its tributaries but most notable was a very marked and very large 'blank' zone in the commune of Bruc — for a distance of some 2.5km; thèse 'blank' fields begin already in the eastern part of Sixt commune though do not reach as far as the présent boundary of Pipriac on the east. Everything, including the shape of the fields, suggests that this is an area of late exploitation. Thereafter, although there are a few 'blank' fields in the neighbourhood of Pipriac it is again marked that there are very few from Pipriac east to the Vilaine. The contrast between this area and that to the west of it is very striking.

The distribution of material in relation to existing settlements was much the same as found in the core communes, with slightly fewer concentrations at distances above 300m from modem dwellings. In ail cases material tends to occur within 50 and 300m of settlements - in P, for example, 33.37. of concentrations lie within 100 and 200m, 357. in M, 25.87. in R. The most notable characteristic is the fact that the highest proportions of material do not occur in the immédiate vicinity of settlements; patterns in the core are extremely comparable. Walking within the town of Malestroit and on the edges of Pipriac was interesting. Some small plots beside houses in the town contained more médiéval material than post-medieval. Near Pipriac, although some médiéval fabrics were recovered, post-medieval sherds were far more notable.

The distribution of material in gênerai reflects the local topography. In ail transects most concentrations lay between 25 and 75m (in P 747., in M 77.57. and in R 93.67.).

4 (In R none lay below 25m.) Most lay within 250m of a mapped stream (44.47. in P, 63.17. in M and 717. in R) though a significant proportion in P lay over 250m. In P concentrations tended to lie on south-, south-east- or south-west—f aci ng slopes (48.17.) or on those facing west. (11.17.) - south-west especially; i n M they tended to lie on north-, north-east-or north-west-facing slopes (36.97.) or, south- and sDuth-west-facing slopes (23.8%) - north-east especially; in R on east-, north-east- or south-east-facing slopes (37.77.) - east especially. In P 37% lay on -Fiat land, in M 19.47. and in R 22.6%. Ail this is unremarkable in the light of the prevailing local topography.

Présence of the imported schi stes used locally for building, especially roofing, materials was also recorded for each field (though not collected). Thèse materials were not carried for long distances (10—20km maximum) but can usually be clearly distinguished from local natural, and o-ften have nail holes. Previous work suggests that they reached the fields in the course of manuring and are therefore probably a useful indicator of pre-twentieth-century manuring patterns. As in the core communes and in Transect N, it is again notable in thèse sample transects that there are some areas where such schi stes do not occur at ail; and that there are distinctions between the occurrence of black and pink 'roofing' schi stes. In ail three transects it is very unusual to find fields with pink but not black schi stes and the rare occurrence of thèse does not look significant. In Transect P there are none of thèse materials on the high ground west of Ruffiac boundary, precisely in those areas which produced no surface pottery either; there are also no pink schi stes in and around Malestroit and close to the River Oust. In Transect M there are none of thèse materials in large parts of the Bruc 'blank' zone, again in areas where there is virtually no foreign surface material; and there are none in the high zone near the Moulin des Bruyères or 1ow down by the River Vilaine. There are also very large zones which only have black material and not pink. Pink schi stes are found, however, in some discrète areas: close to south-eastern Carentoir, in western parts of the Bruc 'blank', in odd fields near Pipriac, around Patis de la Porte, Château La Frèche, La Glonnais, Malon and in small quantities around Les Emailleries. It seems highly likely that most of this transect, beyond its western parts, lay beyond the normal area of distribution of this material, whose source we have recently localized to quarries immediately south west of Guer. In Transect R there were no 'roofing' schi stes on the north-east side of the high land near the Carentoir/Comblessac boundary and none by the wood in the Lande de Craon, both areas lacking surface pottery too. There was little or no pink material on the western and south-western si des of this high land, and none from Couè'dillan north east to Comblessac, as also north from Comblessac to the Lande de Craon. The pattern of occurrences of the schi stes in thèse transects suggests that the pink schi stes. i.e. material from the Guer quarries, may wel1 have been the earliest to be used in the roofing industry in this area and hence the earliest to get scattered on the fields. Notably they do not occur in areas of relatively late arable exploitation, whereas the black materials are pretty ubiqui tous. Thèse patterns are very comparable to those -found in the core communes and wi 11 be tested further.

This is not the place -For comprehensi ve considération o-F contrasts between the core communes and the transects sampling the surrounding area o-F the Oust/Vilaine watershed. However, it may be useful to make one or two observations about the material, prior to sustained examination o-F it. Preliminary examination of the pottery suggests that there are some distinctions between the fabrics collected between Pipriac and the Vilaine (Transect M, eastern portion) and those characteristic both of the core and of sample transects near it (N, P, R and the western section of M). Some of the Roman fabrics in eastern ti had not been noted before, and included a late Roman roi 1er-stamped sherd of Argonne ware from M447, near 'Château Gaillard', 2.5km east of Pipriac bourg■ This ware has an essentially coastal distribution, although there are finds from the /Vi1 ai ne river Systems and one sherd from Pipriac is already known (Galliou 1977: 91-2). The médiéval fabrics from this eastern région seem to have less mica, fewer spi cul es and more grog.

Some of the fields with Roman material are of particular interest, although the gênerai tendency in thèse transects - as in the core - is for Roman material to be found on ridges and in areas with no subséquent settlement, unless in the vicinity of châteaux (which themselves tend to lie in areas peripheral to commune centres). Hence Roman material was found near Le Boschet, Château de la Boulaye, 'Château Gaillard' (ail in M) and near le Mur (R). There are, however, two cases of such material being found near (apparently) non-seigneurial settlements - 300m from Comblessac in R and 100m from La Rigaudiere, 1km south of Pipriac, in M. It is also of note that no Roman material was found in fields near the River Vilaine nor in the large 'blank' zone in Bruc (M). As in the core, Roman pottery is nearly always found in association with a distinct scatter of brick and tile (though this was not so in four cases, M502 and nearby M509, M516, M542), and as in the core the quantities of Roman pottery were very small. Thèse tile scatters were sometimes surprisingly extensive, being évident over a distance of 300, and sometimes even 600m. In two cases fields were walked in the vicinity of already known Roman settlements in Missiriac (P) and Comblessac (R). In Missiriac the scatter associated with the excavated bath-house at Bermagouet continuée! to the west of the excavation for at least 250m (Gallia 1977: 346-7). In Comblessac, a field (R9), adjacent to the field near Le Mur where a 'temple' is sited (R8), was observed to have a ploughed-out stone building, apparently unrecorded and suggesting a larger complex of buildings than has previously been supposée) Gai 1i a 1977). Slag was collected from both R8 and R9; that from RS is tap slag, produced by smelting iron ore in shaft furnaces; that from R9, however, weighed 2kg and came from the bottoms of bowl furnaces; first- and second-century pottery was collected from the surface in this

6 area.

This season's work has produced several indications that the core communes at the heart of the study area lie in a discrète zone of settlement and exploitation that does not occupy the whole of the Oust/Vilaine watershed. This zone did not extend to the Vilaine; a comparable zone, which did run to the Vilaine, and which shared many though not ail of the characteristies of the former, was separated from the Ruffiac/Carentoir core by the great Bruc 'blank'.

Work outside the main season. 19B6—B7

During the past year work has continuée) on other aspects of the project, both field and archivai. Micromorphological analysis of soi 1 samples from the 198é> excavations has been undertaken by Anne Gebhardt, under the supervision of Marie-Agnès Courty. Analysis of pottery fabrics has continuée), the sorting and classification of fabrics from the three 19B6 seasons now being half completed. Further work on local quarries has allowed the provenancing of the few remaining unprovenanced local schi stes used for building in the core area.

During the months of March and April 19B7 a team of four, under the supervision of Mog Tingle, worked fui 1-time at intensive surface collection within the core, adding a further 13 fields to the 26 from which 'total collection' has been made. Transcription of land-use information from miscel1aneous thirteenth- to eighteenth-century archives in , and Nantes was completed in August and September 19B6 by Lesley Ritchie, who then - between October and January 19B7 - undertook the indexing and organisation of this material, together with basic analysis of démographie data she had previously collected. Ail data from the survey of standing buildings has been put on dise, ready for analysis in the coming year.

Future work A team of four will return to the core communes in October-November 1987 to do one final month of 'total collection'. In August and September 1988 we plan an extended season of small-scale excavation in the core, to continue to investigate the relationship between surface and subsoil features, as in 1985 and 1986, in order to be in a position to interpret the now large corpus of fieldwalking data. Analysis of the standing building records will be undertaken in 1987-8, and work on pottery fabrics and soils will continue.

•*•*■*•***■ ■*■*•**♦■**

The season's work was undertaken with the authorisation of the Ministère de la Culture, Direction des Antiquités de Bretagne, and many thanks are - as always - due to M. Le Roux, director of the circonscription, and to the conservateur M. Clément, for their considérable help. Fieldwalking of the sample transects, as also total collection in the core, were

7 financed by the Leverhulme Trust, with some additional assistance from the University of London Central Research Fund and the University of Reading; archive work was financed by a grant from the British Academy; we are deeply indebted to thèse bodies for their support. We are also especially p grateful to M. Plaine of the Musée de Géologie in the University of Rennes for assistance with identification of local schi stes and to Bill Campbell for use of his software 'Mapics'; to Pat Foster, Liz Musgrave and Kate Sergeant for their invaluable supervision in the field - with especial appréciation of kate and Liz, who have taken part in ail fieldwalking seasons since 1982; and, as ever, to our team, who coped heroically with sodden recording forms and with the additional strains of scattered accommodation: despite very difficult working conditions, they achieved an astonishing rate of work and easily broke ail records. We owe profound thanks, as always, to ail who have given time, labour and energy to the project, as wel1 as to those who have provided financial support.

G. G. Astill Wendy Davies Department of Archaeology Department of History University of Reading University Collège London Whi tekni ghts Gower Street Reading RG6 2AA London WC1E 6BT

9 July 1987 REFERENCES Astill, G. and Davies, W. 1982 'Un nouveau programme de recherche sur le terrain dans l'est de la Bretagne', Arch. en Bretagne. 35, 24-42.

Astill, G. and Davies, W. 1983 'Recherches sur le terrain dans l'Est de la Bretagne - 1983', Arch. en Bretagne. 39, 13-23.

Astill, G. and Davies, W. 1984 'Prospection dans l'Est de la Bretagne. Résultats de la campagne de mars-avril 1984', Dossiers du CRAA. 12, 49-59.

Astill, G. and Davies, W. 1985 'Prospections archéologiques dans l'Est de la Bretagne. Prospections de terrain en mars-avril 1985', Dossiers du CRAA. 13, 85-9B.

Astill, G. and Davies, W. 19Bé> 'Prospections archéologiques dans l'Est de la Bretagne: mars-avril 19B6', Dossiers du CRAA. 14, 111-20.

Gai lia. 35 (1977): Direction des Antiquités de Bretagne annual report.

Galliou, P. 1977 'Les importations céramiques du IVe siècle en Armorique', Fi qli na. 2, 85-95.

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