La nécropole gallo-romaine de la place de la Wallonie à Jambes (Namur)

n the early 1990s, the old town hall of Jambes, which had become obsolete since the merger of the communes in 1977, was destroyed in favor of the construction of new administrative buildings in the Walloon Region and the creation of the current Wallonia. Three preventive excavation campaigns (1991-1993), carried out by the Archeology Department (Namur Branch) of the Public Service of Wallonia, revealed 87 graves at incineration and several dozen secondary structures (ash pits) as well as the location of a collective pyre or ustrinum. It is a vast funerary area on the right bank of the Meuse, opposite the vicus of Namur. In 1888, the construction of the communal schools of Jambes in a neighboring plot had already led to the discovery of several tombs for incineration from the Upper Empire and late Antiquity. Managed east of an ancient path facing north-south, the burials consist of simple pits dug in the ground. Some were lined up along the way. The foundation of the cemetery dates from the middle or third quarter of the 1st century AD. J.-C. The analysis of the ceramic assemblage of the tombs reveals four chronological phases. The first phase (50-120 / 130 AD) contains the largest number of burials. Phases II (110 / 120-170 / 180 AD) and III (170 / 180-250 AD) cover the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Three tombs of late antiquity (phase IV) were found at a considerable distance from the incinerations of the Upper Empire. This monograph is the result of a multidisciplinary study involving archaeologists, draughtsmen, graphic designers, photographers and specialists of the Institute of Natural Sciences for the study of animal bones and incinerated human remains found in burials.