Aremorica plans to be more than the conference report of a 2005 university round-table, rather the start of a journal series covering the west of France in the Roman period. The title is a pointer to its intended coverage: Caesar’s fluid term Aremorica is preferred to the conventional ‘Armorica’, too often taken as simply an alternative term for Brittany. It is not surprising as one of the editors is Yvan Maligorne, author of L’Architecture romaine dans l’ouest de la France (2006), a work which embraced Brittany, western Normandy and the Pays de la Loire, though the first two volumes, drawing on the conference, confine themselves largely to Brittany. Undoubtedly Aremorica reflects growing confidence amongst the region’s archaeological community that they are not working in a Roman backwater.
The most important papers for me are probably those dealing with the fish-processing site of Plomarc’h Pella in Douarnenez, Finistère, and the Manè Véchen villa near Plouhinec, Morbihan, both in vol. 1. Sanquer and Gaillou in their 1972 survey (Gallia 2, 119–223) established that there were a number of fish-processing plants along the Breton coast, but it has been the excavations at Plomarc’h and in particular Bardel’s work here, completed prior to its consolidation for the public, that has demonstrated just how important the industry was, indeed capable of operating on a scale comparable to the Spanish garum producers. His article presents the most comprehensive picture currently available, examining the whole complex, drawing together material from a range of sources and providing details on the evidence for the techniques used. The illustrations are excellent.
Provost’s article may seem less significant, yet no coastal villa site in the region has been uncovered in anything like its entirety since the nineteenth century. Provost has identified ‘noble’ reception rooms, possible archive and library chambers, and an exceptional ‘secret’ garden hidden by high walls containing flower beds and a circular brazier or perfume pan. Fine stucco, wall-paintings and an exceptional ‘Graeco-Roman’ sculptural relief of Ariadne on Naxos support the picture of a maritime villa in the Younger Pliny mode. The lack of obvious family domestic rooms and the ‘warehouses’ attached to the west wing leads Provost to offer, however hesitantly, an alternative interpretation of the villa’s role. Perhaps it was a meeting place for an association of high-status merchants and/or landowners and a commercial storage area; if so, one is tempted to suggest those involved with the fish industry.
Surprisingly there is very little dealing with urban archaeology; we must wait for future volumes to spell out the important work carried out in the 2000s at Carhaix-Plouguer, Rennes and Rezé (Nantes). Le Clorec’s (vol. 1) study of urban road networks is limited to assembling data on road design and street furniture, while Maligiorne revisits the vexed question of whether vicus portus refers to an independent small town or to a district within the Namnetes capital, Condevincum. He re-analyses three inscriptions found in Nantes, comparing them with a very battered example from Angers and concludes — I think convincingly — that in both cities they refer to districts. Le Cloirec’s identification of a Carhaix roadside altar as a communal district aedicula or compitum could support this interpretation. Equally, future volumes are likely to give more space to small towns, as Monteil (vol. 1) describes a major project which will be reporting on a large-scale survey across the West. However, Le Goff’s rescue work covered a wide area of northern Quimper demonstrating that the Gallo-Roman town was preceded by a significant Iron Age settlement. In the major article dealing with religion, Le Bihan (vol. 1) spells out the continuity in ritual practice from the middle Bronze Age through to the end of the Gallo-Roman period at Ouessant island’s sanctuary.
Perhaps the most important question, taken up in vol. 2, concerns the rural environment. Naas’ paper looks at Gallo-Roman enclosures. From the 350 sites identified by aerial photography, field walking and sondages, 20 are briefly examined. He suggests that they are largely first-century and early second-century, representing a ‘Roman’ rectilinear approach to farmyard and field design and in a number of cases form a first stage in the evolution of a villa system. It is work in progress and raises many questions about landscape development. Among the rest in vol. 2 there is an extended examination of the evidence for an aqueduct supplying Locmariaquer, revisiting the remains of a once enormous bridge over the Auray river. The team’s new work on the approaches revealed no water channels and therefore it remained unfinished; excessive costs are considered the most likely cause for abandonment.
Recent work on Gallo-Roman art is covered by two writers. Éveillard writes beautifully and intelligently about Brittany’s rare sculptural finds, while Labaune-Jean provides an update on painting. Both assert that quality was not lacking in the region. Painted plaster followed taste trends typical of Gaul as a whole, state of preservation simply making it appear poorer than examples found elsewhere; the article is illustrated with excellent colour reproductions. In fact Aremorica sets a high standard in the provision of relevant photographs, diagrams and site plans. Some small criticism that could be rectified by editors of later volumes: more maps could be provided setting sites in a regional context and more contributors could be advised to provide site plans prepared for publication, not simple reproductions of working plans where reduction has at times made the labels unreadable.
