The town d’ensérune – Wikipedia

L’ The town d’ensérune It is an archaeological site, including the vestiges of an ancient village, occupied, without interruption, between the 6th century BC. and the I D.C. ^[first] and a museum. It is located near the municipality of Nissan-Lez-Inserune, in France, between the cities of Béziers and Narbonne.

The settlement of the site in this place is due, in all likelihood, to the fact of allowing a good view of the surrounding plains, to be very close to the route of the Via Domitia and to have the nearby fertile lands.

The Ensérune hill is made up of a very tender rock (sedimentary seafood sands of the Miocene), this has made it possible to dig the sil destined to preserve cereals.

Following the archaeological finds, it was possible to establish that the site was permanently occupied by the 6th century BC. to the 1st D.C., with a remarkable urban development starting from the end of the fifth century. From 500 to 300, there was an increase in trade, it is the Hellenistic period of the site. Later (300 – 250 BC) the Celto -Gallic populations arrived. The oppidum was destroyed at the end of the third century, to find a certain prosperity with the foundation of Narbonne by the Romans in 118 AD. and finally turn off towards the first century of the Christian era.

During the Iron Age (VIII-II century BC) Ensérune constitutes one of the main oppida of the Celtic Mediterranean ^[2] .

Between 1843 and 1860, the Abbate A. Ginieis, edited by Montady, was able to make the first exploration of the site. In 1915, Félix Mouret was the first à digging the soil of Ensérune; He continued his work until 1928. In 1937, the architect in the head of the historical monuments, Jules Formigué, installs the Mouret collection and the subsequent findings in the villa built on the top in 1915, where it is still possible to admire them. There are an impressive collection of ceramics, which allow you to observe the cultural evolution of the site.
In the sixties, an important construction site is assigned to Hubert Gallet de Santerre. Àlla late of the eighties and in 1995, Martine Schwaller made other excavations, in particular on some tombs.
Finally, in the late nineties, the excavations made by Cécile Dubosi (surveys of the top area) and by M.-E. Bellet (an artisan area).

A necropolis was discovered to the west of the site.

The Ensérune website is famous for the fact of hosting an important amount of storage modules (silos), dug in the rocks of the subsoil. In fact, more than 300 pits can be counted on the hill and around. The set of these structures represent a capacity that can go from 10 000 to 85 000 liters, with a generally ovoïdale form.

Built throughout the period of use of the site, contrary to what Jean Jannoray thought in the 1950s (realization of the Fosse first of the 5th century BC, then reuse as cisterns, filling to allow the construction of new homes, etc.),), They are served as cereal storage structures. Use as water reserves is not very likely. Cereal reserves constituted a vital element for the survival of human groups. Appeared during the Neolithic ^[3] , the silos for the conservation of cereals have been essential in the organization of most human societies.

• Dubosse Cécile, “Ensérune (Nissan-lez-“, Hérault): Greek ceramics and Greek type in their contexts (life-IVe s. N.E.) “, Lattes, M.A.M. n° 23, 2007.
• GARCIA, D., « Mediterranean Gaul Celts, definition and characterization  », in Szabo, M. dir., Celts and Gallic, archeology in the face of history, 3: civilized and barbarians (from the 5th to the 2nd century BC)) , Proceedings of the Budapest round table, June 17-18, 2005. Glux-en-Glenne: Bibracte, European archaeological center, 2006, p. 63-76 (Bibracte; 12/3).
• Jean-Luc sheets (dir.), “Gallo-Roman agglomerations in Languedoc-Roussillon: collective research project (1993-1999)”, Lattes, M.A.M. N ° 13-14 (Chapter IV, Part 12), 2002.