Operation: Excavation
Excavation period: 18th August – 26th September 2008
Excavation directed by: Aurélien SARTOU
Developer:Eiffage

The site is situated 3 kilometers north from Aire-sur-l'Adour, along a terrace overhanging the Adour river. This operation followed an archaeological diagnosis by S. Defaye (from INRAP, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) dating from December 2007, for the future A65 motorway that will soon be built between Pau and Langon. The excavation area is about 2,000m².

The diagnosis and excavation enabled the find of more or less organized pebble structures as well as many ceramics dating from 1st-2nd century AD. These structures lie on square areas 0.60m large. A bigger structure with several pebble layers lies on a 1.40m² area. These structures were interpreted as fireplaces.
Unfortunately, many areas on the site could not be excavated due to the presence of gas pipes and public roads. Some hollow structures may have existed on the site but none could be found during the excavation due to the high degree of bioturbation.

To compensate for the lack of data concerning possible hollow structures we ensured the collection of all artifacts found on the site (such as ceramics, amphorae, glass, metal, architectural terra-cotta). This enabled us to create artifact distribution maps and identify the various habitation areas via their relative densities. Preliminary results indicate that the site most probably included several habitations. A more detailed analysis of the artifacts collected will determine whether there were one or several settlements on the site during the Early Empire period.

Similar archaeological sites have been detected throughout the length of this future motorway. According to the hypotheses put forward so far the remains found on this site are those of gregarious, agro-pastoral populations from the Gallo-Roman period. Current analyses in progress will determine the validity of this theory.