The only known pictorial depiction of the Gallic god Sucellus has been discovered in a Gallo-Roman sanctuary near Tournus, Burgundy. The sanctuary was in continuous use from the late Iron Age until the 4th century.
The Mancey site is located on a high point overlooking the area. Geophysical surveys in 2020 found six large stone mounds that were part of a religious complex rather than a necropolis or a settlement. After test excavations in 2023 proved fruitful, a three-year program of excavations focused on the two largest mounds, dubbed M3 and M5, followed. Approximately 20,000 artifacts have been documented since 2023.
The smaller of the two mounds, M3, is a rectangular building with a vestibule opening into a sacred hall. It was occupied in four phases.
Phase 1: Earliest occupation in room 1, 287-289 A.D. to 324-325 A.D.
Phase 2: Construction of room 2 and raising of the floor in room 1, 324-325 A.D. to 367 A.D.
Phase 3: Floor raised in room 1, ca. 367 AD
Phase 4: Dismantling of the sacred hall and closing rituals, after 367 A.D.
The 2025 excavation reached the oldest phase of construction. They unearthed a hoard of 17 coins from that time, including an aureus struck by Tetricus I (271 – 274 A.D.), the last emperor of the short-lived Romano-Gallic empire which took over protecting Gaul from Germanic incursions when the central Roman empire lost control between 260 and 274 A.D. The coins were buried together and are believed to have been a foundation deposit made to bless the new temple.
Few remains from this first era of temple construction have been unearthed. The second phase is much more well-represented, with the floor level in particular in an exceptional state of preservation because it was encapsulated by a raised floor and fill in Phase 3 . It was replete with animal and object remains from ritual deposits. More than 10,000 animal remains of many different kinds were found, including suckling pigs, chickens, songbirds, pike and trench. Archaeologists believe ritual banquets took place on that floor, and the remains of the feasting and offerings were deliberately left in place, never cleaned and allowed to accumulate over time. Artifacts found on the floor include ceramic beakers, bone pins, jewelry and coins, objects of high quality that suggest the space may have been exclusively used by the local elite.
The temple was abandoned shortly after Phase 3.
Phase 4 corresponds to the abandonment layer of the monument, particularly spectacular both for its composition and the quality of the artifacts unearthed. It yielded an exceptional collection of stone liturgical furnishings, including two statue pedestals, a large table, a tabular altar with a rim, and a probable masonry altar (80 × 40 cm) covered with painted plaster. One of its faces depicts the Gaulish god Sucellus; based on current knowledge, this appears to be the only known painted representation of this deity.
The stratigraphy indicates that after the initial looting of the sacred hall, the tiled roof was largely removed. The two statue pedestals were then re-erected above the rubble, almost in the center of the sacred hall, and a hearth was then built at the foot of one of them, directly on the first collapsed levels. […]
Around this hearth, numerous animal remains, fragments of ceramic and glass goblets, and a significant number of coins were found. The range of artifacts observed appears very similar to that documented for phase 2. This continuity suggests that the actions performed in the temple ruins were part of a pre-existing ritual tradition. The assemblage most likely evokes a final ritual feast celebrated in the ruins of the monument, symbolically contributing to its condemnation sometime around 370 AD.
Finally, a pit dug into the first collapsed level, in front of the podium, yielded a remarkable deposit consisting of about a hundred coins, a particularly unusual cult lamp, and ten white clay statuettes of mother goddesses from the Autun workshop of the coroplast Pistillus (a century older than the pit). This deposit of condemnation thus constitutes one of the last cultic acts performed in the sanctuary.
Coins continued to be thrown into the remains of the collapsed temple until the end of the 4th century.
* This article was originally published here
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