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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The North Jastres Oppidum, located in Lussas in Ardèche, is a major archaeological site of the Gallo-Roman period. Also called The large wall, it is a spur barred by an imposing stone wall, visible today as the main vestige. This site could have been the capital of the Helviens before their installation in Alba-la-Romane. Three phases of construction were identified: a first dry stone wall (130 B.C.), a second with towers and lime mortar (c. 80 B.C.), and a final redevelopment (c. 50 B.C.) with walls of 6 metres thick.

Excavations in the 1970s and 1990s revealed over 160 metal objects, remnants of the burning of a monumental wooden door. The 7-hectare wall features seven alternately round and square towers, with a floor and a roof of tiles, reflecting an aesthetic and ostentatious will. According to archaeologists Joëlle Dupraz and Christel Fraisse, this site illustrates the gradual transition between Protohistory and Romanization, without cultural rupture.

The oppidum was voluntarily abandoned at the beginning of our Common Era, when the Helvians transferred their capital to Alba la Romaine, a less steep site. Nearby, the South Jastres oppidum (12 hectares), in the municipality of Lavilledieu, probably served as a refuge. The ramparts of North Jastres, classified as Historic Monument in 2006, bear witness to Gaulish military engineering and its evolution under Roman influence. The remains also include traces of dwellings and a network of lanes, organizing a protohistoric urban space.

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