DIGGING AND DESIGN OF SOUTERRAINS IN FRANCE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 19/02/2021

Souterrains are man-made caves excavated in order to allow the members of a community to live on a temporary basis underground. Most of these cavities were dug between the 11th and 16th century follows a precise planning and are designed on a human scale. They are composed of various galleries deserving one or several rooms intended to be occupied by the member of the community. Therefore, we find in those souterrains utility structures like water well or spring, niches to put lamps or objects of the daily life, stone benches, vent pipes, … A large number of these souterrains have received a defensive function. In this case, they are equipped with wooden doors blocked by a wooden bar or a sliding bar, horizontal and vertical narrow passages, loopholes, trap wells. In other souterrains a storage function is evidence by the existence of grain silos. Finally, some of these souterrains have also served as an extension of housing. At the difference of the medieval mining industry that is documented by first hand document like the one of Agricola, there is no information on the design and the conception of souterrains. The hidden nature of these souterrains may be a reason for this absence. However, a thorough analysis of those souterrains, of their relations with structures in surface, of hewing allows to draw some lessons on the planning of those souterrains, on the different digging phases and on the blueprint of these cavities. From the strategic decision of the place where the souterrain will be created to the is final operational use, several elements like extraction shafts, vent pipes, landscape morphology allow to understand the digging process of those souterrains.


Author(s): Stevens, Luc (Société Française d’Etude des Souterrains)