Les productions du « groupe de pâtes champenois »: Caractérisations archéologiques, pétrographiques et chimiques

The area limited by the valleys of the Marne and the Vesle rivers in the vicinity of the Montagne de Reims (Marne) delivered about twenty potters’ workshops dating from a period stretching from the end of the Ist century BC to the IVth A.D. Belgian pottery (terra rubra and terra nigra) makes up the most characteristic productions, but numerous other categories are inventoried in this paper. One hundred and fifty samples taken from these productions were analyzed through X fluorescence and seventy-eight were cut into thin slices in view of a petrographic observation. Beyond the characterization of the artefacts, the analyses allowed us to identify the origin of the clay, of a single type for the whole production : the layer of the Lower Ypresian (Sparnacian), present on the edge of the Montagne de Reims plateau. Hence it appears that the location of the workshops was chosen in connection with the supply requirements in raw material or the convenience of the communication and urban area networks. The group of Champagne pastes is thus homogeneous, but petrography enabled us to make out sub-groups (CHAM 1 and 2) which correspond to different uses according to the types of pottery the potters were making : table crockery or cooking pots.