Lattes/Lattara (Hérault), comptoir étrusque du littoral languedocien

Les fouilles récemment menées à Lattes/Lattara (Hérault) ont permis d’ouvrir une nouvelle fenêtre sur les niveaux de fondation de ce comptoir lagunaire protohistorique, peu accessibles en raison de l’épaisseur de la séquence stratigraphique. Ces nouvelles données invitent à dresser un bilan de nos connaissances relatives à la nature de cette première occupation et du rôle alors joué par les Étrusques. L’ampleur du programme urbanistique conduit par ces derniers au début du ve s. av. J.-C. est confirmée, tout autant que la destruction brutale qui affecte le site vers 480/470 av. J.-C. La morphologie de l’îlot suggère l’existence de maisons à plusieurs pièces et d’un plan orthonormé rigoureux. En revanche, une séquence antérieure inédite a ici été mise en évidence et correspond à la phase d’installation étrusque à proprement parler. Une division régulière du terrain précède la construction d’une maison absidiale en torchis dont le plan et la métrologie trouvent des parallèles probants en Étrurie padane. Cette succession entre une division foncière, une installation provisoire et un programme de lotissement urbain témoigne d’une véritable entreprise planifiée, qui doit être mise en rapport avec le regain de la dynamique commerciale des cités d’Étrurie méridionale à la fin du vie-début du ve s. av. J.-C. The ancient seaport of Lattes/Lattara (Hérault) is located on the lagoon coast of Languedoc, a few kilometres south of the present-day city of Montpellier. Excavations carried out at the site since 1983 have revealed an uninterrupted occupational sequence dated between the very end of the 1st c. BC and the 2nd c. AD. The seaport of Lattara, located at the mouth of the Lez river on a narrow sandbank protruding into the lagoon, was a trading post widely open to Mediterranean trade which, throughout the Late Iron Age, was part of the economic sphere of influence of the Greek colony of Massilia. The space available on this peninsula, encompassing an area of about 3.5 ha, seems to have been completely occupied as early as the foundation of the site. Equipped with a fortification, this initial core was then adjacent to a vast indigenous settlement located less than 1 km away, in the place known as La Cougourlude, which testifies to the vitality of trade maintained with the Greco-Etruscan world at that time. This highly stratified site, with levels in parts preserved beneath the phreatic level, is first and foremost known for the late phases of the Iron Age, whereas the earlier levels have only been investigated to a limited extent. Very early the hypothesis of an initial settlement phase directly involving the Etruscans was nevertheless put forward on the basis of observations made during surveys carried out in the 1960s. A step further was taken in the 2000s, when the excavations reached the foundation levels in the southern part of the site (sector 27). Here a building was uncovered, the plan and construction techniques of which are based on Mediterranean, and more particularly Etruscan, examples. The associated material remains, in addition to the significant presence of indigenous pottery exhibiting a great diversity, confirmed the predominance of Tyrrhenian contributions during this period. This combined with the presence of new epigraphic documents (property marks on ceramics) makes it possible to assume that Etruscans were physically present in Lattara. This urban quarter, erected around 500 BC, which was violently destroyed shortly afterwards, foreshadows substantial change as regards the settlement types and vestigial remains, from then on marked by the predominance of indigenous pottery which was not thrown on a potter’s wheel and of a series of imported goods dominated by products from Massilia. The hypothesis of a break in the history of Lattara, represented by the disappearance of the Etruscan component, however, leaves many questions unanswered given the restricted excavated surfaces. To put it in another way, although the Etruscans obviously played a role in the foundation of the site, its nature (Etruscan colony or settlement? multi-ethnic emporium or trading post?) is still subject to discussion. Indeed, excavations carried out at another point in the deposit (sector 1), where the levels in contact with the substratum were reached only recently, has corroborated the idea of a planned foundation, which is part of a more global movement of economic expansion of the cities of southern Etruria at the transition from the 6th to the 5th c. BC. In the eastern part of the site a residential area was discovered the construction of which was interrupted by a blaze, clearly contemporary to the burning observed in other points of the site and which was dated to 480/470 BC. Although the plans of the buildings have not yet been completely excavated, the existence of multiple-room houses, forming a rectangular insula, can be assumed. Both the metrics and the overall plan have close parallels in Etruria, and more specifically with the Fonteblanda seaport, on the Tuscan coast. The vestigial remains recovered from sector 1 largely correspond to those recovered from sector 27, also confirm the importance of Tyrrhenian imports and the common use of Etruscan vessels. In contrast to sector 27, however, an earlier phase has been identified in sector 1, in contact with the substratum, which corresponds to the proper foundation phase. It is characterised by the preceding establishment of an orthonormal subdivision of the parcel of land, immediately followed by the creation of circulation axes and the construction of an apsidal wattle-and-daub building, within what appears to be a predefined plot of land. The associated vestigial remains, which display an even more marked Etruscan character than in the following phase, leave little doubt as to the identity of the builders and the inhabitants of this quarter. Prior to the implementation of an urban planning programme this initial phase is a rather temporary settlement but it evidences pre-planned construction. The question arises as to whether it corresponds to an ex-nihilo foundation or the extension of a pre-existing urban core, which is as yet unproven. The morphological and metric characteristics of this building have no counterparts among indigenous architectures. Nonetheless; these are examples that are still poorly documented in Etruria itself, but for which striking parallels exist in the Padanian region, particularly at the Bagnolo de San Vito site.