Travail de la terre, travail du fer : l'espace rural autour d'Argentomagus, Saint-Marcel, Indre

The study of a micro-region featuring various landscapes stems from the will to pursue an analysis of the area located within a radius of 20 km around the second largest Biturige town after the chief town. Located 80 km from Avaricum-Bourges, close to the borders of the territories of the Pictons and the Lemovices, Argentomagus early became a place where metallurgy was practised, which earned it the installation, under Emperor Diocletian, of one of the seven arms factories of the Gauls, the only one which produced arma omnia, all types of weapons. This investigation aimed at being manifold: ancient finds were reassessed, the diverse existing surveying methods were used, planned and rescue excavations were carried out, and a critical review of the historiographic tradition pertaining to the localization of the fabrica argentomagensis was performed. Field investigations enabled archaeologists to find traces of over 200 iron ore smelting workshops scattered all over the countryside, and the presence of slags in the layers of the 8 Roman ways which cross the territory was evidenced. It was also found that villae and farms were located next to metallurgical sites, suggesting that breeding, farming and metallurgical operations coexisted in a dynamic exchange, in which landowners most probably controlled underground and forest resources. The excavation of a smelting workshop contemporary with the weapons factory, and the physico-chemical analyses which were subsequently conducted, provided remarkable data on the organization of the workspaces, the different stages of the production and technological breakthroughs of the Late Antiquity metallurgy. The final section addresses, through a balanced comparison, the economic, cultural, and religious ties made or unmade over the five centuries of the Roman period, between a town and its surrounding rural area.