The Merovingians found in the Jura

This cabin background revealed the arrangement of a hearth inside the latter. • INRAP / PRESS SERVICE

The site looks like a vast construction site in preparation, and it takes a little imagination to transport yourself there a few centuries back. But there was indeed, in this district of Gravilliers in Pontarlier, in the Doubs, an entire Merovingian village, with its church, its necropolis, its houses and its area of ​​​​economic activity. A unique complex in France, according to archaeologists from Inrap (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) who unearthed it, before a modern economic zone was developed there.

Thousands of bones of domestic animals, oxen and horses, reveal the existence of a butchery of at least 600 m ² .

This village is located near the Swiss border and, in Merovingian times, Pontarlier represented a stopover when crossing the Jura, on the road leading from northern Europe to Italy. Today, only the foundations remain, which date from the 6th century. and VII ^th century, i.e. from the High Middle Ages. They indicate the presence of about ten large buildings of 200 to 300 m ² . Supported by large posts, they included a partitioned part probably dedicated to living and another more open part reserved for animals. They were made of wood, just like the basilica plan church; until this discovery, this type of architecture was known only in German-speaking Switzerland and in Bavaria. Dozens of bottoms of huts intended to store food or shelter animals were also discovered, as were 74 tombs spread over the village. Not far away, thousands of bones of domestic animals, oxen and horses, reveal the existence of a butchery of at least 600 m ² .

This village is contemporary with the conquest, in 533, of the Burgundian kingdom by the Merovingians, a Frankish tribe from present-day Belgium. They could have settled families of Germanic nobles there to establish their domination. The objects recovered during the excavation of the tombs (jewellery, swords, spurs, etc.) testify to the high social status of the inhabitants:perhaps this village was in fact an estate. It was occupied for about 200 years, then quickly abandoned, but apparently without violence.