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Roman bricks stamped with the names Clarianus and Nebrigiac were used in the construction of the Gier aqueduct and potentially offer a clue to its date.Roman bricks bearing the Clarianus stamp have been known since the Renaissance and their dating has been a matter of discussion since 1900. Various types of stamps are grouped under the general term “Clarianus”, among them Clarianus Auli Deci Alpini, Clarianus and Clariana. Four Roman “Clarianus” brick stamps (three Clarianus and one Clarianus Auli Deci Alpini) were found in the 17th century at Villards-d’Héria (Jura), in a Roman structure identified at the time as “Roman public baths”. A coin from the reign of the Emperor Hadrian was found in the 19th century at the same place. In the 20th century, on the basis of this discovery, an archaeologist called Lucien Lerat deduced that Roman bricks bearing the “Clarianus” stamp dated from the 2nd century AD.Recent discoveries suggest that the 2nd century AD could be accepted as the production date of all the various stamps grouped under the general category “Clarianus”. However, the chronological sequence of these different stamps cannot be determined at this time.

An ancient wooden statuette of a “seated god” was discovered in a well in 1872 at Crêt-Chatelard (Saint-Marcel-de-Félines). Despite the age of this discovery, the artifact is still preserved today. This new study shows what furniture (basin, ceramics, fetters, basketry) was associated with it in the well. The date of realization of the statuette is specified by the 14C dating and specified by dendrochronology. The ensemble may have formed a ritual deposit of the second half of the 2nd century AD.

Antique architectural elements are used by the church-builder of the Middle Ages as building materials in Saint-André’s Church of Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert (Loire) for increase the prestige and the antiquity of the Saint-Rambert priory. Many of this spolia come from funeral monuments who could perhaps be linked with the villa of Saint-Côme, the most meridional of the Segusiave’s city, of which archaeological remains have been discovered 600 meters distance of Saint-André’s Church.

Rescue excavations carried out in the commune of Pommiers (Rhône), near the Asa Paulini (Anse) relay station, yielded a sarcophagus and a sculpted relief near a building identified as a mausoleum, built at the edge of a Gallo-Roman farm. The relief shows a sacrificial scene in the Roman tradition, unrelated to the usual images of sacrifice in Gaul. It can be dated to the first decades of the 2nd century. The sarcophagus is made of the same material and might be contemporary or from a later period. The man offering the sacrifice appears to be a notable, possibly a sevir, and this scene demonstrates his economic and social position.

During the excavation of a rich Late-Empire rubbish-area in 1975 on the large peri-urban villa of Bourges “Lazenay”, a decorative element (relief) carved in ivory was discovered. The examination of the associated furniture makes it possible to specify the date of burial and the status of the site at that time. The study of the object itself shows a remarkable element that undoubtedly contributes to a prestigious furniture decoration. The proposed comparisons confirm the exceptional character of this artefact, in a villa-palace, probably then of a high-ranking figure from the biturige society of late antiquity.

The Vollore-Ville milestone Vollore City was considered a unique monument which, over an above its function as an indicator of distance from the capital of the Arverni, also signalled the boundary between the provinces of Aquitaine and Lyonnaise. A review of the preserved evidence shows in fact the need to distinguish two states. This is primarily a milestone of a type also known through three other Arvernian markers, and whose adoption was without doubt to celebrate the prince. It is then a “croix à bubons” associated with Christian rites to protect against the plague. Broken up during the French Revolution, the monument became the subject of a “restoration” policy in 1848.

Discovered about 1867 in Saint-Paul-d’Uzore (Loire), three bronze statuettes featuring Mercury, Harpocrates and an unknown god, are now part of the collections of the Museum of Diana in Montbrison. The iconographic Mercury type is very unusual for the area, and the other two figurines have characteristics that tempt us to view them as fakes, contrary to what was believed until now. Burial of these three items could be the work of a forger who wanted to support the theory of a mountain of Uzore dedicated to Isis.

Nowadays we are beginning to have a better understanding of artisan activity in villas. However the owners of rural properties were equally able to have a transport activity, which can, in some cases, be highlighted. It developed either linked to local production, of wine or stone for example, or thanks to a convergence of road and river networks; it contributed to the revenue of the villa.