The calendar of “lac d’Antre”

A fragment of a Gallic calendar discovered in 1802 at “Lake d’Antre”, similar to the calendar discovered at Coligny (Ain) presented at the archaeological museum of Lyon.

“- The first discovery dates back to 1802 with a small fragment of bronze from the waters of Lake Antre near Villards d’Héria in the Jura … Its surface was very modest and we lost track of it in a Parisian antiquarian in 1888. It remains a good facsimile realized by Héron DE VILLEFOSSE (1898). In 1967, Lucien LERAT found at least 5 bronze fragments [of a] calendar in the Brook of Heria

– The most significant discovery was in November 1897 when many fragments of a large bronze plate mixed with pieces of a Gallo-Roman statue of Mars were discovered by a farmer in Coligny (Ain), in the territory Ambarri. The whole was buried 30 cm deep in a field near the Roman road Lyon-Besançon (Lugdunum-Vesontio). One can think by the shape of the excavation that the fragments were gathered in a basket in the shape of a hood. The engraved language, the form and the content leave no doubt about the nature of a Gallic calendar (a priori a technically Gallo-Roman plate engraved in bronze, written in Latin letters but in Gaulish words). These fragments (about 150) represent about 50% of the area of ​​the calendar plate of 1.48 mx 0.9 m. It is missing 30 months out of 62. The “puzzle” of this plate once reconstituted, is in the form of a table of 16 columns and 4 lines / month (except 2 columns where appear 3 months). »(Romeuf 2012)