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Origin and history

The Oppidum de La Cheppe is a former place of Gallic habitat located in the department of Marne, in the Great East. This protohistoric site, dating back to the 1st century BC, extends over about thirty hectares and has an elliptical form with fortifications, land rise and seven-metre high ditches. A palisade and ramparts surrounded the camp, which was backed by Noblette, a marshy stream serving as a natural defence. The Roman road Reims-Toul-Metz ran along the site to the north, reinforcing its strategic importance.

The first written mention of the site, around 850, designates it as Vetus Catalunum (Old Chalons), suggesting that it was the main oppidum of the Catalans, a Gaulish people. In the Middle Ages, two mounds were built, and the site was later associated, from the seventeenth century onwards, with the hypothetical passage of Attila during the battle of the Catalan fields in 451. However, no archaeological evidence or historical source confirms this hypothesis. The name "Camp d'Attila" only appeared in the 19th century, popularized by researchers and cartographers like Adrien Sanson.

Archaeological excavations were carried out on the site, notably under the impetus of Napoleon III between 1861 and 1865. Local teacher P.H. Létaudin discovered there 87 pits interpreted as hut bottoms, as well as a necropolis of ancient La Tène. Other excavations, at the end of the 19th century and in 1965-1968, revealed Gallic and Gallo-Roman objects (ceramics, bronze necklaces, wrought iron pieces), now preserved mainly at the Musée de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The camp, listed as a historic monument in 1862, was also used as an ammunition depot during the First World War.

The site is mentioned in ancient sources under the names Fanomin (Minerve Temple) in the Itinerary of Antonin and Tanomia (transcript error) in the Table of Puisinger. Its present name, "Roman Camp of La Cheppe", is a 19th century legacy, although it is actually a Gallic oppidum reused by the Romans. The dense vegetation that surrounds it today makes it an isolated and peaceful place, contrasting with its strategic and military past.

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