The site of Les Vaux de la Celle
Sitting in the hollow of a dell in the lower Seine valley, the archaeological site of Les Vaux de la Celle in Genainville conserves the traces of a Gallo-Roman agglomeration, including several monumental remains. Discovered in 1935 and listed as a historical monument, the site continues to be studied to this day.
A dell occupied for thousands of years
The bottom of the dell was used as a necropolis during the Iron Age (8th to 2nd century BCE) for some 60 people. During the Gallo-Roman period, in the second half of the 2nd century CE, an agglomeration emerged around a vast theatre and a place of worship. The site contained a large temple with two sacred chambers surrounded by four basins.
The boundaries and legal status of this agglomeration are still unknown: to shed light on these questions, archaeologists need to locate the Gallo-Roman necropolises that marked the boundary of the agglomeration and inscriptions that could potentially provide them with information on the community that settled in the dell.
Since there is no sign of Christian worship, the antique sanctuary seems to have been abandoned at the end of the 4th century until people who recovered materials from the site settled here again during the Merovingian period.
A site and museum
Although the site at Les Vaux de la Celle is only rarely open to visitors – during European Heritage Days, national archaeology days, and the like – the public can visit the departmental archaeology museum of the Val d’Oise at Guiry-en-Vexin to admire artefacts and remains including monumental statuary, sculpted architectural features, painted plaster, and ex votos.
Current research
Besides the archaeology field school run by CY Cergy Paris Université, the research currently carried out on the antique site of Genainville aims to determine how these structures fitted into the organisation of the agglomeration’s urban spaces, reconstruct the architectural landscape by studying the thousands of sculpted blocks brought to light, understand the impact of water on the built environment, take an integrated approach to examining the dell in relation to its immediate environment, and make use of data contained in archaeological documents produced in the 20th century.
The research team
The team coordinated by Vivien Barrière (CY Cergy Paris Université) includes a multidisciplinary scientific team of archaeologists and specialists and an organisation of archaeology students in the Val d’Oise (AEVA), which organises excavations and mediation activities related to the site.