A cozy room, on the second floor of his house in Argenton. On the left, the office where Gérard Coulon, chief heritage curator and former director of the Argentomagus site in Saint-Marcel, works on his research; on the right, a library where archeology and history works pile up. It is in the silence of this haven that projects take shape.
Latest publication from our Indrian archaeologist: Wanderings in Roman Gaulpublished by Actes Sud. “Roman Gaul was larger than present-day France”, recalls the author. This book, which summarizes the latest discoveries and interpretations, draws on 74 sites, both known and lesser known.
A book that tells the story as much through words as through drawing
Themed by region, it explores a period which goes from – 51 (just after the battle of Alésia) to 486 (beginning of the reign of Clovis). As for the places, the reader will find the unmissable Pont du Gard, the town of Nîmes, but also less famous stone vestiges such as the Barbegal flour mill (Bouches-du-Rhône), infrastructure of sixteen water mills interconnected which produced more than four tonnes of flour per day!
“A unique site of its kind, of industrial proportions, and which contradicts a previous belief that the Romans did not use hydraulic power”, specifies Gérard Coulon, pointing to the drawing by Jean-Claude Golvin which appears on the cover. The two men have known each other for many years and have signed this book side by side, which aims to tell the story as much through words as through drawing.
Several characters
“Jean-Claude Golvin is not only a magnificent designer, declares Gérard Coulon. He is also passionate about archeology and an architect, who has a constant concern for veracity and detail. » Closer to our Indian region, the work takes us to Argentomagus and Drevant (Cher). We not only come across places and their history: we also meet a good number of characters. Archaeologists like the Reverend Father Delacroix who swallowed up his fortune in the excavations of Sanxay (Vienna). Writers such as Victor Hugo and Henry James, who wrote about their discovery of certain sites; Maurice Druon, author of Cursed Kingswho inhabited Theseus-the-Roman, and the fate of some ancient figures that time could have thrown into oblivion…
Embody the journey
“It was about embodying the journey on which we invite the reader. To satisfy his thirst for knowledge but also to make him want, as through a tourist guide, to visit these vestiges which are at the origin of our towns, our vineyards and numerous villages. »
Rigorous, lively and of great aesthetics, these Wanderings in Roman Gaul Each page piques our curiosity and calls into question what we took for granted. The icing on the cake is that they remind us that archeology is not a fixed science, but a dynamic knowledge that is constantly re-examined.
“Wanderings in Roman Gaul”, by Gérard Coulon and Jean-Claude Golvin (224 pages, 200 color images, €34). Gérard Coulon will come and sign at the Librairie Arcanes in Châteauroux, Thursday October 17, at 7 p.m.
