Givry - Conférence : Bibracte, de l'Europe celtique à l'empire romain

Givry-Oppenheim Twinning Committee + A2c / Lecture by Dr Andrea Fochesato, Head of the Bibracte archaeological research programme. This lecture was made possible thanks to the support of the Fonds citoyen Franco-Allemand. It is often said that Bibracte is a Gallic town under the forest. Nestling in the heart of a 1,000-hectare forest, Bibracte was home to between 5,000 and 10,000 inhabitants during the pivotal period of the Roman conquest of Gaul. A short-lived town, the capital of the powerful Eduens people, it was a leading centre for crafts, trade and politics in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and was home to Vercingetorix and Julius Caesar. Thanks to the excavations carried out on the site over the last 40 years, we can see, through the customs, everyday objects and architecture of Bibracte, the changes that over the centuries, under the influence of Roman culture, transformed the Gallic oppidum into a Gallo-Roman town. These same transformations would later lead to the founding of Autun, Augustodunum, the new Roman capital of the Aedui, which replaced the old oppidum. Bibracte's remains bear witness to the process of integrating Gaul into the Roman political and cultural sphere, culminating in the establishment of the limes on the Rhine, the Empire's new frontier, during the following century.