Operation: preventive excavation
Excavation period: 1st September 2008 – 6th February
Operation directed by: Bruno ZÉLIE
Developer: CHU (university hospital) of Poitiers

The Pasteur hospital is located at the outskirts of Poitiers, to the South East of this antique, then medieval town built on the waterside of the ‘Clain’ river, near the bridge of St Cyprian.

The bridge leads into a Roman road to Bourges (via the ‘rue des Incurables’). The other side of the archaeological site is delineated by another antique road leading to Limoges. The hospital is located inside the Benedictine abbey of Saint Cyprian, which is known to be built in 828 by Pepin I, King of Aquitaine. Yet the earlier medieval remains identified date only to the 12^th century. Besides, some antique remains were found during an excavation campaign carried out in 1873 by the “Société des Antiquitaires de l’Ouest” directed by M. de Longuemar. This earlier occupation may explain why this location was chosen as the abbey construction site as early as the 9^th century. In 2008 various antique and medieval archaeological remains were unearthed during a new excavation campaign directed by Bruno Zélie (Eveha).

This operation followed an archaeological diagnosis completed in 2006 by Bernard Farago (from INRAP, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) before the construction of a nursing home.

Antique remains: residential parts, decor, terrace, hydraulic system…

Dating from the Roman period, a wall stands across the excavation area, along the “rue des Incurables”. It is a terrace wall (the ground level at the outer side of the wall is 60cm higher than the one inside) delineating a group of buildings at the NW and some gardens at the SE. The residential parts are made of two aisles located at the northern and western ends of the excavation window. Even if the two built-up areas mentioned here above have kept changing throughout the centuries, the general layout indicates that the two aisles have always been linked. They may have formed one building: a “U”-shaped residential unit with the central building standing along the southern bank of the “Clain” river.

Between the two aisles, we detected a circulation area, seemingly a path between the property wall and a border ditch. The latter goes along the western building and under the eastern one. Inside the ditch was a wooden channel, as indicated by the presence of ferrules. This channel must have been used for water conveyance from the aqueduct nearby and the therms discovered at the 19^th century, but also for a shower system and a pool, both found on this site. Like the walls that delineate the property, the above-mentioned path goes along the north-eastern building and leads to a large door, maybe that of a barn or stables.

Among the numerous phases (as indicated by the big amount of successive ground levels) and the changes brought to the rooms, few involve occupational levels. Nevertheless, given the abundance of architectonic elements, we should be capable of providing new architectural data about some rooms from the post-excavation study.

In a room with a warming system, the walls located at the centre of the room collapsed, seemingly when the hypocaust was uninstalled and removed from the room. Among the demolition waste, we found a big amount a painted coating and elements that must have used to build the warm air circulation system: reused quoins, tubuli… Two other rooms were covered with a thick layer of painted coating. When the roof collapsed, they were entirely covered with waste.

So is the first room, which seems to have been a service room. Indeed there are several fireplace boards at the ground level as well as ovens integrated into the walls.

Medieval period: pigeon-house, buttressed building and gardens inside the convent enclosure

At the middle ages, numerous pits were dug into this parcel. Even if these structures initially aimed to mine the sand located in deeper layers, their being filled up indicates that they were then reused to plant this area with trees and form a large orchard or garden. Later some trees were uprooted and the resulting depressions were used as rubbish dumps.

We may not be capable of determining which species were planted in this area. Yet these holes being aligned may indicate that the trees were planted more or less at the same time. Some trees are still aligned along the boundary wall of the property, which seems to indicate that the initial limits of the domain have remained the same for a long time.

In this area, a large hexagonal pigeon-house was unearthed. This is an exceptional discovery as this pigeon-house is in an excellent preservation status (4.50-high walls are still standing) and there are very few pigeon-houses in existence, dating from the middle ages. The post-excavation work has not started yet but it seems that the material present among the demolition and abandonment layers dates from the early 14^th century at the latest.

The highest concentration of medieval remains is to be found at the western end of the parcel. There was a massive building with 1.30m-large buttressed walls. Only the strong foundation walls of this building dating to the 13^th century are preserved (3m deep). Several stratified rooms adjoining these foundation walls are also preserved: a cellar, latrines and a tower. The location of these built-up structures corresponds to the limit of the gardens and to the north-eastern limit of the abbey as it was at the 12^th century.

As a conclusion, the excavation carried out on the site of the Pasteur hospital permitted a better knowledge of this part of Poitiers during Antiquity and the middle ages. It clearly shows how early this area started developing from the Benedictine settlement onwards. A more detailed analysis of the data collected should enable better understanding of the changes in this area from the Roman occupation to the abbey foundation.

Bruno ZÉLIE, April 2009.