Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Chatigny potter shop, located in Luxeuil-les-Bains (Haute-Saône), is a Roman artisanal establishment active in the I and II centuries. Located in the Civitas des Sequanes, near the thermal city of Luxovium, it had a strategic location: close to springs, forests (for firewood) and roads around the Vosges. The furnaces, discovered between 1978 and 1988, were grouped into two separate sets, eight of which were around a common heating area dug 1.5 m deep. Their exceptional state of conservation, particularly that of the B oven (with tubing, similar to a Lezoux model), motivated their classification as a historical monument in 1988.

The production of the workshop, analysed from 50,000 teasses, was divided into four categories: terra nigra (marginale), sigillated ceramic (notorious but minority), fine-walled ceramic (tops and tops), and common ceramic (plates, mortars, pitchers). The excavations revealed two phases of production: a first combining red and metallic sigilla (models Drag. 64-68), a second limited to red sigilla (Drag. 37), dated the last third of the 2nd century. The workshop mainly supplied the area, including the neighbouring city of Epomanduodurum (Mandeure), with some traces of diffusion to Ardèche or the Upper Rhine.

The first records of pottery activity in Luxeuil date back to the 18th century, with the discovery of mussels in 1881. Systematic excavations (1978-1988, then 1991) exhumed nine furnaces, four of which were near the modern cemetery. Despite the partial destruction of the remains during work in 1950, the site was protected and enhanced: a museum building (1994) houses the ovens, while the objects are exposed to the Museum of the Tower of the Echevins. Archeomagnetic analyses (University of Geneva) confirmed an activity extending over a century and a half, making Chatigny the only Francomtois workshop known for its diversity and longevity.

The 1988 classification pointed to the scarcity of preserved structures, such as the tubing oven or the heating area lined with sandstone walls. The potters used local clays and various techniques (direct cooking, tubing), adapted to each type of ceramic. The presence of a settling pond and ancillary workshops, although not localized, is suggested by production scrap. Today, the site, a communal property, offers a unique testimony of Gallo-Roman handicrafts in Burgundy-Franche-Comté, supplemented by didactic panels and a dedicated museum.

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