A skeleton of a woman from the High Middle Ages studied by Jérôme Rouquet, anthropologist at Inrap, in Verdun-sur-Garonne.
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Nicolas Stival / 20 Minutes
On the site of a future gravel pit in Verdun-sur-Garonne, Inrap archaeologists have found traces of human occupation, the oldest of which date back 5,000 years.
Remains of the Neolithic, the Gallic period and the Middle Ages have been found.
Three human skeletons, including one well preserved, date from the end of the first millennium AD.
A few hundred meters away, the sun shines and announces a nice Friday.
But in this flood-prone valley bottom, the fog hangs, even in the middle of the morning.
We are in the Pissou sector, in the commune of Verdun-sur-Garonne, 40 km north of Toulouse.
Here, as in the Verdun de la Meuse, the earth has a lot to tell historians.
But on this surface of 4,300 square meters, under high voltage lines, she does not speak to specialists of the Great War.
This Tarn-et-Garonnaise clay is aimed at four archaeologists from Inrap (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) to tell them about thousands of years of human life, since the Neolithic era.
"The area has been exploited for 5,000 years," explains Philippe Gardes, one of the specialists of the public research establishment.
Successive plowing has stirred up and destroyed remains.
But the site retains a lot of interest.
Rural occupation is relatively dense at different times.
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On October 16, archaeologists will complete their month-long work on this future extension of the gravel pit, owned by the Graviers Garonnais.
In 2014, a preventive survey led the State to prescribe excavations, at the expense, as provided by law, of the operator, who paid 100,000 euros for the case to be carried out.
Three periods on one level
Balance sheet?
"There are three periods of occupation which, on a very level ground, are on one level, details Philippe Gardes.
The first dates back to the Neolithic era, around 3,000 BC, the second to the Gallic period, between -200 and 0 and the third in the Middle Ages, between 800 and 1,000.
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For the most remote period, the “Indiana Jones” of Inrap found pebbles about 70 cm deep, witnesses of a hearth on which Neolithic farmers and pastoralists cooked their meals, indirectly, stone way: we light a fire, heat the stones, remove the embers and place the food on it.
Watch, wait, serve, it's ready ...
Philippe Gardes, from Inrap, presents a Neolithic pebble hearth.
- Nicolas Stival / 20 Minutes
Contemporary grain silos bear witness to the sedentary lifestyle of the population, which stored its provisions.
For the Gallic period (or more precisely that of the Volques Tectosages, the Celtic people who then dominated the Toulouse region), only an expert can distinguish, according to the color of the ground, the traces of the ditch which delimited an enclosure of a half. -hectare, with a farm and its outbuildings of which nothing remains.
Thank you amphorae
"We were able to carry out the dating thanks to the furniture found in the ditch, in particular the amphorae of wine imported from Italy, produced between 200 BC and 0", specifies Philippe Gardes.
The remains of the early Middle Ages, Carolingian period, are much more telling for the Boeotian.
The red terracotta betrays the presence of a large bread oven, which was to serve several families.
Three similar structures were unearthed in Pissou.
Philippe Gardes in front of a medieval bread oven.
- Nicolas Stival / 20 Minutes
Was it a small medieval village or, more likely, a hamlet?
Hard to say.
The rural houses of the time of Charles the Bald or Louis IV of Overseas were made of earth and wood, and nothing has come down to us.
This is not the case with their occupants.
Three adult graves were found, close to each other.
The gaze towards the Holy Land
The best preserved skeleton, almost complete, is described by Jérôme Rouquet, anthropologist at Inrap: “It is a woman aged 40-50 years, with a height between 1.50 m and 1, 60 m which was in a wooden formwork of which nothing remains.
It is buried in an east-west orientation, with the head at the west end and the gaze to the east.
In other words, towards the Holy Land, a characteristic of Christian burials of the time.
These bones, as well as the transportable furniture, from the site will go to the analysis laboratories.
Then Pissou, after thousands of years of farming, will become a gravel pit.
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