1The present publication concludes a rescue excavation carried out from 1968 to 1971 prior to construction work undertaken on the Roches mineral-water springs site at Chamalières. The ex-voto discovered there form part of a folk-worship tradition which is well-documented for Antiquity and which has continued up to the present day.

21 The excavations

3Following the discovery of a layer of wood in the section of a drainage ditch, two excavation campaigns, lasting three and five months, enabled archaeologists to dig the entire deposit by successive phases over the period from 1968 to 1971 . The ex-voto had collected over an area of a little more than 200m² in a depression hollowed-out naturally by the springs: the objects were immersed in mineral-water, encased in peat and covered by a layer of diatomite. Although the deposit had been disturbed by various XIX^th century activity, its northern and north-eastern boundaries, composed of a simple stone lining, had survived. The lack of evidence for a building or reservoir tends to suggest that it was a place of outdoor water worship. Pottery and coins associated with the ex-voto date this activity to the first century A. D., between the reigns of Augustus and Nero. This is the largest deposit ever discovered in Gaul (10,000 parts or fragments corresponding to some 3,500 ex-voto) and constitutes the remains of a rural sanctuary of considerable importance.

4Appendix 1 : Conservation of the ex voto

5To ensure long term preservation, the water-logged wood has been treated: following tests with methods using alum or alcohol / ether / resin, the finest objects were taken to Clermont-Ferrand for impregnation with Arigal C or Lyofix and then to Grenoble for freeze-drying after consolidation with polyethylene glycol.

62 The small-finds

7Several other offerings were intermingled with the wooden ex-voto: a lead spell tablet bearing the name of the god Maponos (one of the longest Gallic-language inscriptions yet known), sixty-odd coins (13 Gallic and 35 Roman, 20 of which are from Nîmes with crocodile and palm-tree motifs), pottery (primarily painted bi-conical bowls), five brooches, small objects made from metal, glass, clay, or wicker-work, and the remains of fruit (walnuts, hazelnuts, cherries, peaches, grape-seed).

83 The ex-voto : subjects and types

9The majority of the ex-voto are anthropomorphic sculptures:
– complete people, clothed and standing on a base (with the exception of one horseman, two seated women and three bound figures), or rudimentary statues with no indication of clothing;
– busts and heads which often have the beginning of the shoulders indicated or sometimes a suggestion of the neck, and three examples of superimposed heads;
– lower parts of bodies including the pelvis and legs, generally standing on a base;
– arms, hands, legs and feet cut out in silhouette or carved in Ronde Bosse;
– representations of internal and external organs (anatomical drawings, breasts, eyes).

10A small group of fifteen objects pertaining to the animal kingdom: horses, horses’ legs, cows’ feet. The deposit also includes more than a thousand thin rectangular tablets which were probably originally painted or inscribed.

11All of these subjects are known from the Greco-Roman period as well as from modern times. Comparison with other sites shows that the Chamalieres material covers a wide range of subjects with a high percentage of healing ex-voto -legs in particular- and tablets. Types vary primarily as a result of the species of wood used, as is demonstrated by technical and stylistic analysis.

12Appendix 2 : Clothing and headdress

13Male dress us ually consists of a tunic or the traditional cape, or much more rarely of a cloak pinned at the shoulder over a tunic; a hat appears only once. Most of the women wear a cloak which may be draped in different ways over a long tunic; some are wear a cape. The bodice is rarely visible; hair is occasionally covered by a veil; one bust shows both a torque and a brooch. Several long dress forms have not been identified; three seem to be children’s wraps.

14The men’s hair is most often arranged in stiff symmetrical waves, though it may sometimes be smooth, with a fringe and a point at the neck: this may be the same hairstyle given two different stylistic treatments. The women’s hair is generally long, often separated into two strips by a parting in the middle; the hair falls straight onto one or both shoulders. Hair from the top of the head was sometimes twisted into a crown or, more rarely, arranged in a shell-like shape.

15Appendix 3 : The offerings

16One third of the individuals are shown carrying attributes such as, in decreasing order of frequency, round or rectangular objects, ears of corn, pinecones, purses, bunches of grapes, a bag and bird. One quarter of the arms present a round offering, two arms are shown carrying two of the offerings. These attributes are all commonplace in Greco-Roman religious symbolism and provide little concrete information on the nature of the god being honoured.

174 The ex-voto : techniques and styles

18An inventory of wooden sculptures from antiquity indicates their rarity not only in Greece and Italy, but in Europe in general, even though texts provide information on the species of wood used and tools have been found in excavations or are represented on monumental stonework.

19The Chamalieres sculptures are primarily made from beech, much less often from oak and very occasionally from other species. The tablets, generally oak, may sometimes be from ash or conifer. Cutting technique varies according to the species but the most typical is that used for beech: logs are split into roughly triangular sections before being reworked to form droplet shapes. The tools used to produce the form and the fine detail (plane, adze, chisel, knife, gouge, burin) have left little trace inasmuch as polishing was commonplace. Occasional vestiges of paint suggest that the assemblage was painted.

20Three sculptural styles are apparent and correspond to the species used: this may indicate either three local workshops or three groups of sculptures working in the same workshop.

21The most widely used style is that which appears on the beech-wood statuary and which can be described as the "Chamalieres" style. Its quality is achieved by a perfect balance between wood-sculpting technique and indigenous stylistic expression. This is visible in the modelling of the head and the shaping of the body, as well as in anatomical features or in the way in which clothing is rendered. It would seem that this art was influenced by that of Italic ex-voto, at least insofar as the busts are concerned.

22The oak-wood sculptures are those which bear the closest stylistic resemblance to other known Gallo-Roman wooden ex-voto, in particular those found at the source of the river Seine. They are artistically and technically more varied than those made from beech and can show either Greco-Roman or Celtic stylistic tendencies. Rudimentary wooden sculptures of inferior quality are often carved from branches: unlike the oak ex-voto, they show no signs of classical influence and they are generally less well made than the beech sculptures. Although a few may be considered to be relics of early Celtic art, the majority are simply inexpensive products of sanctuary art.

23Conclusion

24The Chamalières deposit is exceptional for several reasons: the number of ex-voto discovered, their remarkable state of preservation, the diversity of subjects and types represented, the quality of the sculptures, and the date of their deposit at the beginning of the first century A. D. The ex-voto form part of a tradition of popular devotion common in the classical world and demonstrate the existence of contacts amongst sanctuaries in Gaul. At Chamalieres the ex-voto models evolved through the influence of wood-sculpting techniques and the blending of local and Italic styles.