Un oursin fossile sur le site celtique de Goincet en Forez (Poncins, dép. Loire) et la perspective de l’ovum anguinum

Abstract

A fossil sea urchin from the Celtic site Goincet in the Forez (Poncins, dép. Loire) and a perspective at the meaning of ovum anguinum

This article focuses on the discovery of a new fossil sea urchin in an archaeological find context. The specimen presents the necessary characteristics to define its species and its potential geographic origin. This sea urchin was probably transported for several hundred kilometres and comes from the archaeological context along a track in a Celtic proto-urban sector and from a layer dating to the end of the 1st century BC. A historiographical assessment of similar fossil sea urchins discovered in Proto-Celtic, Celtic or Gallo-Roman contexts of Western Europe results in a cosmological understanding of this fossil object based on a Celtic belief reported by Pliny the Elder. This overview shows the importance of the Goincet fossil urchin which was found near Lugdunum, capital of the Gauls and birthplace of Emperor Claudius. Historically, the emperors Augustus, Tiberius and Claudius fought increasingly bitterly against the religious doctrine of the Druids. Still, fossil sea urchins continued to be used in ritual contexts.