ETALLE Belgium.
A vicus of the civitas Treverorum, on the Trier-Rheims road, situated at the point where the road fords the Semois. The site has never been excavated systematically, but ancient remains abound. In the 17th c. ruins of Roman buildings were still visible, and coins, tombs, weapons, and a gold bracelet were discovered. The Anon museum has three glass vases found ca. 1848 that date from the late 4th c. In the mid 1950s a Roman building was located and other important remains of the vicus were found over a wide area. Potsherds found at that time date from the 2d and 3d c. Some earthworks, found on a hill overlooking the river, are possibly remains of a castellum of the Late Empire. At Fratin, 1 km from the vicus, a tomb was uncovered, with contents that date from the end of the 4th c.; it suggests the tomb of a German auxiliary (one of the Laeti mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum [occ. 42.38] as being stationed near Epoisso [Carignan], not far from Etalle). If in fact it is, this would confirm the existence of a small temporary fort at Etalle in the 4th c. However, the most important remains from Etalle have been recovered at Buzenol, 3 km to the S. There, on the Montauban hill, is an Iron Age oppidum that was reoccupied at the end of the 3d c. A.D. and changed into a fortified keep. The spur formed by the hill was blocked by a wall; in front of the keep is a forecourt surrounded by a palisade. The walls were built in workmanlike fashion and a great amount of embankment work had to be done to fortify the site. Huge blocks, taken from funerary monuments, were used for the wall foundations; almost certainly these carved blocks came, for the most part, from the necropolis at Etalle. It is not known whether the Buzenol fort was built at the initiative of the public authorities or was commissioned by a local landlord. Carved blocks were taken from the wall foundations in the 17th c., then again in the course of excavations in 1913 and finally in 1958. These funeral carvings indicate the wealth of the inhabitants of Etalle at the time of the Late Empire. Among the most interesting remains found at Buzenol is a milestone with a legend stating that the Rheims-Trier road was built under Claudius in A.D. 44; also a relief showing the vallus, a mechanical harvester of Gallic invention.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. E. Mariën, “Monuments funéraires de Buzenol,” Bull. des Musées royaux d'Art et d'hist. 15 (1948) 2-10, 58-69, 104-14; 16 (1949) 28-36, 59-70; J. Mertens, “Le refuge antique de Montauban-sous-Buzenol,” Le Pays Gaumais (1954) 1-32PI; id., “Sculptures romaines de Buzenol,” Le Pays Gaumais (1958) 17-124I; id., “Römische Skulpturen von Buzenol,” Germania 36 (1958) 386-92; id., “La moissonneuse de Buzenol,” Ur-Schweiz 22 (1958) 49-53; id., “Le refuge protohistorique de Montauban-sous-Buzenol,” Celticum III (1962) 387-400PI; id., “Quelques aspects de la romanisation dans l'ouest du Pays gaumais,” Helinium 3 (1963) 205-24; id., “Le Luxembourg méridional au Bas-Empire,” Mélanges A. Bertrang (1964) 191-202; K. D. White, Agricultural Implements of the Roman World (1967).S. J. DE LAET