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<< Our Photo Pages >> Gournay-Sur-Aronde - Ancient Village or Settlement in France in Picardie:Oise (60)

Submitted by thecaptain on Saturday, 13 December 2008  Page Views: 9591

Multi-periodSite Name: Gournay-Sur-Aronde
Country: France Département: Picardie:Oise (60) Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Compiègne  Nearest Village: Gournay-Sur-Aronde
Latitude: 49.495000N  Longitude: 2.675000E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
2
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Gournay-Sur-Aronde
Gournay-Sur-Aronde submitted by AngieLake : The placement of human and animal remains in the enclosing ditch at Gournay-sur-Aronde. Deposits of weapons were also carefully placed in the ditch. [Drawing after Jean-Lewis Brunaux]. This comes from Mysteries of the Ancient World, edited by Judith Flanders, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998). Can't help wondering if the ox-burial outside Bryn Celli Ddu is a similar 'Druid' ritual monument. M... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Gallic iron age settlement with ritualistic aspects, used for several centuries.

The ritual site was rectangular in shape, surrounded by a ditch and a palisade wall approximately 150 feet by 125 feet.

See gournaysuraronde.com
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Nearby Images from Flickr
Chemin de dcouverte
Neufvy sur aronde oise
Neige en Picardie
Blanc
neige en Picardie

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 11.7km ESE 109° Camp de César du Mont Ganelon Ancient Village or Settlement
 13.8km ESE 113° Dolmen dit la Pierre Monicart Burial Chamber or Dolmen
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 15.7km SSE 169° Les Gros Gres 2 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
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 21.0km ESE 118° La Pierre Torniche* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
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 21.8km S 186° Le Fond de Rambourg Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 22.2km SSW 194° Le Joncquoire 2 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
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 24.9km S 190° Dolmen du Cheval Blanc* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
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 28.7km SSW 213° Grotte du Retiro Cave or Rock Shelter
 29.0km E 84° Grès de Saint-Lucien Standing Stone (Menhir)
 29.4km SSE 153° Dolmen de Séry-Magneval Burial Chamber or Dolmen
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 29.7km SSW 193° Senlis Alignement* Stone Row / Alignment
 29.8km WNW 295° Vendeuil Gallo-Roman Theatre* Ancient Palace
 32.0km SE 145° Grotte Sepulcrale de Lari-Baré Cave or Rock Shelter
 32.5km ENE 75° Pierre de Saint-Hubert (A) Standing Stone (Menhir)
 32.6km SSW 213° Grotte Sepulcrale de Petit-Therain Cave or Rock Shelter
 32.7km ENE 75° Pierre de Saint-Hubert (B) Standing Stone (Menhir)
 33.0km SE 145° Grotte Sepulcrale du Laris-Goguet Chambered Tomb
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"Gournay-Sur-Aronde" | Login/Create an Account | 5 News and Comments
  
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Gournay-Sur-Aronde in Ritual Landscapes of Pre-Roman Britain by Andy B on Wednesday, 06 April 2016
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The temple at Gournay-sur-Aronde is a well cited example of ritual architecture in Northern Gaul. Located in Picardy, the site has a long period of occupation from its
origins in the fourth to first century B.C. The initial phase of the site, in the fourth
century B.C., consisted of a rectilinear enclosure, measuring approximately 45 by 38 metres. A second enclosure ditch was added in the late third to early second century, approximately at the same time as a wooden structure, which was subsequently reconstructed up until 30 B.C. These wooden structures were square in shape and were located within the centre of the enclosure ditch.

A Roman shrine, described by the excavators as a fanum , was installed overlying the first century B.C. shrine, but at a much later date, by the fourth century A.D.

Considering the lengthy period of time between these phases, the form and location of each was unusually similar. This may suggest that this space retained its importance, and that possibly its general layout was still visible, despite the large gap in the archaeological record.

Ritual Landscapes of Pre-Roman Britain: The Margins of Practice on the Margins of the Empire by Nicky Garland
from TRAC 2012: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Oxford: Oxbow Books (2013) [p189]
https://www.academia.edu/15352488/Ritual_Landscapes_of_Pre-Roman_Britain_The_Margins_of_Practice_on_the_Margins_of_the_Empire

More related sites that are not yet in our database here.
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Re: Gournay-Sur-Aronde by AngieLake on Sunday, 14 December 2008
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Hi Nicola

I know exactly how you felt when reading this, though I haven't taken it any further yet, other than to link it in with the other two sites.
I would imagine that the Druids would have known about many other ancient bull-related rituals, and gods, from tales told by travellers from the eastern Mediterranean... the Minotaur and its Labyrinth at Knossos spring to mind. I believe Phoenicians travelled frequently to trade with the inhabitants of Cornwall for their precious tin. (King Arthur's Hall is on Bodmin Moor. Ok, I'm making two and two add up to five....!) In any case, the Celts came over from Europe so would have been closer to the source of the stories, and the Druid element of those peoples were expert at memorising stories and verse....

Looking again at the dowsing plans, I do hope they help can help give us an insight to how the ancient people used their sites, other than by interpretation of the artefacts they left behind.

NB: The writer of the quoted passage taken from his chapter on the Druids from 'Mysteries of the Ancient World', was an 'A. P. Fitzpatrick' [a field archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology].
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Re: Gournay-Sur-Aronde by nicoladidsbury on Sunday, 14 December 2008
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These posts are really interesting Angie.
They sent me off on a tangent, ending up reading about Mitras, the Bull Slayer God, and wondering if the Druids were aware of the cult prior to the Roman's bringing their cult during the occupation.
Sometimes I wish I could be there to know what the ancients intentions were when they carried out these complex rituals.
Nicola
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Re: Gournay-Sur-Aronde by AngieLake on Saturday, 13 December 2008
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Info from the book Mysteries of the Ancient World, edited by Judith Flanders, (Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1998):

"We have seen that Iron Age temples were once assumed to be rare throughout the Celtic world, yet an increasing number of Late Iron Age examples are now known. Numerous four-sided compounds, or Viereckschanzen, have been found in southern Germany and the Czech Republic. Some are likely to be farms, but others have shrines or temples in one corner, and deep wells which might have served as ritual shafts. The famous stone head of a god, again wearing a torque, was buried, perhaps after being deliberately broken, just outside the Viereckschanzen at Msecke Zehrovice.
The most important new evidence for Late Iron Age religion has come from northern France, where Roman temples were often built on the sites of Iron Age shrines. At these shrines the definition of a sacred space by a ditch may have been more important than a house or temple for the god. Underneath the Roman temple at Ribemont-sur-Ancre Iron Age ditches enclosed a square compound, in at least two corners of which long bones, mainly of people, intermingled with weapons, were carefully stacked around a post. Nearby were the remains of headless human torsos, which may have been displayed around the edge of the compound.
At Gournay-sur-Aronde, the first Iron Age structures were aligned on the cardinal points of the (modern) compass and later on a temple was built on this alignment. The brilliant excavation and analyses of this site have shown how animal sacrifices were placed in a pit in the centre of the enclosure before their remains were carefully laid in specified places of the boundary ditch. The human remains also appear to have been dismembered, in much the same way as the numerous finds of weapons. The reconstruction of the Iron Age temple suggested by the excavators is very similar to the types found later on in Roman Gaul. The sorts and methods of sacrifices and the precise, symbolic, use of space at Gournay-sur-Aronde reveal the site as a microcosm. It lays bare, and is a symbol for, the ways in which the ancient Gauls tried to understand their world.
The existence of cult sites such as La Tene and temples such as Gournay-sur-Aronde with their evidence for repeated rituals involving the sacrifice of people, animals and worldly goods, suggests that these sites served communities and that religious specialists may have been in charge of them.
In this respect the archaeological evidence and the testimonies of the classical writers complement each other. As well as feeding the gods, one of the most important roles of blood sacrifice is divination; determining when is a good or bad time to do things. This also requires the making and marking of time, and a traditional knowledge through which to interpret the omens.
Such then is the image which emerges of the ancient Druids. Romanticism, whether ancient, modern, or New Age, has treated the Druids in the same ways as mysterious, mystic, noble and other worldly. Always as different, as ‘other’. Yet they were also trying to understand their own world, their gods and their own futures. That world was very different, and it was not romantic.”

Also, regarding Bryn Celli Ddu -
Notes from 'Wales – Castles and Historic Places' [CADW]:

“Further indications of elaborate ritual were found in front of the entrance, including a pit containing an ox skeleton. Perhaps the monument should be seen not only as a tomb, but also as a temple at which relatives of the dead came to worship and leave gifts.”


And to highlight an excerpt from the previously-posted passage from the webpage in English:

“The Celts rituals had a variety of meaning, there is fact that a single old oxen was sacrificed in the large central pit and left to decompose. They performed this ritual as an offering to the underground divinities to ensure the potential fertility of the Celts oxen herds.”<

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Re: Gournay-Sur-Aronde by AngieLake on Saturday, 13 December 2008
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I found this last night by Googling:

"Gournay-sur-Aronde
The site in Northern France known as Gournay-sur-Aronde can be classified as a site similar to Stonehenge or similar to Cahokia. Gournay-sur-Aronde is similar to Cahokia and Stonehenge as to the way it is setup. Although Cahokia is not a ritual site, Stonehenge is, as well as Gournay-sur-Aronde and all three are built according to the alignment of the stars. The site at Gournay-sur-Aronde was built by the warlike tribe called Belgae dating to the ending of the fourth century to the beginning of the third century BC. The ritual site was built as a center for the Celts; they positioned the site in the pathway of the sun and the location of the Pole star in the night sky. The ritual site at Gournay-sur-Aronde in ancient Gaul was rectangular in shape, surrounded by a ditch of two meters and a wall that was 150 feet by 125 feet. The site is located near a marshy swamp, because the Celts believed their gods preferred the dead stench of the water. On the eastern wall was a entrance and once inside it contains one large pit surrounded by three pits to the North, three pits to the West, and three pits to the South. There is evidence that the entire site was decorated and painted according to Celtic standards.
The main purpose of this ritual site is sacrificial, sacrificial to humans, animals, and other items. The Celts rituals had a variety of meaning, there is fact that a single old oxen was sacrificed in the large central pit and left to decompose. They performed this ritual as an offering to the underground divinities to ensure the potential fertility of the Celts oxen herds. The nine pits located to the West, North, and South is where the Celts deposited their animal victims, and the sacrifice of weapons. This is a peculiar ritual the Celts performed, the sacrifice of weapons and armor, up to 500 different sets of armor have been found at Gournay-sur-Aronde, swords are broken, shields are twisted, scabbards busted, helmets dented. It is not understood as to whether this armor is an offering to gods or taken from an enemy. What was taken from the enemy is evident, the Celts were bloodthirsty and they beheaded their enemies after death as a punishment. It is believed they did this to honor the divinity. They hung the heads of their enemies above the eastern entrance as archaeological digs suggest. Finally, the ditch surrounding the wall plays an important part as well, human remains along with animal remains suggests this is where they dumped victims that were no longer necessary, and so the next ritual could begin."

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/europe/gournay-sur-aronde.htm

I was very interested when I stumbled across this place whilst reading Mysteries of the Ancient World [Editor Judith Flanders, Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1998] in a chapter about the Druids.

On a visit in 2002 to Bryn Celli Ddu I dowsed the Ox Burial site outside the entrance to the chamber, and found that the movement was labyrinth-like, yet kept to the shape of a rectangular border around the Ox Burial area. If there is a link with Druids, then there are many tales of Druids' links with Anglesey.

It also set me wondering about King Arthur's Hall on Bodmin Moor. Though I didn't get labyrinth-like movement there, I did follow movement around the outside, first high up on the top of the bank, anticlockwise, from SW to N. At N my rods turned 5 times towards S as I moved along anticlockwise, then I was 'taken' down to a lower level at the foot of the [inner] bank, moving [still anticlockwise] from NW to N. On arriving at the centre of the N side, the rods 'took me' into the centre, though I was unable to follow this due to the boggy ground. In the above website text, it refers to boggy ground being favoured for these sites. (See King Arthur's Hall page for photos that day.) I had a theory about the stones

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