Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric PeoplesNadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
History
Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples
Nadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
Archaeology; Prehistoric peoples
The residence of prehistoric man in the rich districts between the
Sambre and the Meuse is proved by worked flints, fragments of pottery,
and human bones dating from most remote times. The stations
successively occupied were situated near watercourses or copious
springs, and, where possible, on isolated escarped plateaux surrounded
by ravines. Hastedon, about a mile and a quarter from Namur, is one of
the best examples we can quote.2 The camp, first made out in 1865,
formed a long square, covering some thirteen hectares, or about
thirty-two acres. It is situated on an isolated mound connected with
the main plateau by an isthmus 227 feet long, and is protected on the
south and west by a deep ravine: To these natural defences men had
added important works to those parts that were accessible. The cutting
of trenches a few years ago brought to light walls of a mean thickness
of more than nine feet, formed of masses of rock and sand and round
pieces of wood parallel with a _revêtement_ of dry stones surmounted by
a palisade consisting of three pieces of wood parallel with the walls,
and seven perpendicular traverses. All the wood was charred; the
besieged had evidently been driven out by fire. Excavations led to the
finding of Roman coins; this and the resemblance of the palisades to
those described by Cæsar,3 the very name of Hastedon, and the tradition
everywhere prevalent in the district, that this bad been the site of a
Gallic Roman camp, led to the general adoption of that opinion. In
fact, Napoleon III. actually ordered excavations to be made in the hope
of finding traces of the Atuatuques, one of the roost warlike of the
tribes of northern Gaul; but side by side with historic relics were no
less than ten thousand flints. These are chiefly merely chips or nuclei
which had served as hammers, or long thin slices, with some few arrow-
and lance-heads often skilfully cut, some polished hatchets, and saws
with fine teeth. Nearly all are notched and worn with use, which does
away with the idea that the place where they were found was the site of
a workshop such as I have already described. With these worked flints
were found some fragments of coarse pottery, which could not possibly
be confounded with Roman or Gallic work. The flints and pottery, and
the walls put together without cement, point to the conclusion that if
the camp of Hastedon was occupied by the Roman legions, it was long
previous to their day inhabited by some Neolithic race, ignorant of the
use of any but stone weapons and implements.
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