Lyon

Lyon-Vaise, the 9th arrondissement in the northwest of the modern city of Lyon (Rhône), is a mostly low-lying sector of the conurbation placed west of the river Saône and north of the Saône–Rhône confluence. Traces of an Early Iron Age antecedent to Roman Lugdunum, founded in 43 BC, initially came to light archaeologically in the mid 1980s during rescue excavations associated with the construction of a new subway and have multiplied as a result of subsequent development-led rescue work. Some thirty excavations now indicate the existence of a seemingly unenclosed settlement and artisanal zone here extending to at least 55 ha, and perhaps even thrice that; there is also restricted evidence for contemporary settlement at the foot of the Croix–Rousse upland on the opposite bank of the river.

While a few earlier (Hallstatt C2 onwards) inhumations are known, settlement evidence, including storage pits and four-post buildings interpreted as granaries from Vaise, spans from the end of the sixth century BC until nearly the end of the succeeding century—from late in Hallstatt D2 through to La Tène A1. The structural evidence from Vaise indicates post-built and sleeper-beam domestic structures (some with traits shared with Alpine areas to the east), storage activities, and (less commonly) fenced enclosures for livestock. Imports include fragments of c. 140 Massaliote wine amphorae, Rhodian glass perfume bottles, and other Greek and Etruscan items; imported pottery, recovered from 23 of the 30 sites tested, is widespread. There is also abundant evidence for craft activities including iron- and bronze-working (especially in the rue des Tuileries: Filippini 2015); textile production (spindle-whorls and loom weights); and the working of animal horn. In total, almost four hectares have been excavated, with some sites indicating a separation between craft and living areas, and intermittent fencing and ditching indicating sub-division of the area (Carrara et al. 2009, p. 231).

Stray finds (Perrin and Bellon 1997) recovered in earlier times from the Plateau de Loyasse, which overlooks the Vaise area from the south and dominates the sector between the Saône and the Vallon de Trion, intimate that the accompanying acropolis may have been located here. For Lyon-Vaise it has been suggested that Massaliote merchants were attracted to a pre-existing indigenous industrial agglomeration as a port-of-trade (Carrara and Maza 2009, p. 9; Carrara et al. 2009). Little is known of its seemingly rapid abandonment, but the fourth and third centuries BC are unrepresented here.

'The Complexity and Fragility of Early Iron Age Urbanism in West-Central Temperate Europe', Manuel Fernandez-Gotz, 2017.