Temple of Janus (Autun)

Map of the ancient city of Augustodunum showing the location of the Temple of Janus.

The temple was built outside the walls of the ancient city of Augustodunum, in a place known as la Genetoye.[1] It sits beside a road that passed through the Arroux gate, crossed the river, and headed West towards Lutetia (Paris), the valley of the Loire, and Cenabum (Orléans).[2][3]

The site sits at an average altitude of 290 meters, atop a plateau that gradually slopes downward towards the valleys of the Arroux to the South and the Ternin, one of its tributaries, to the East.[4]

The temple's history is inseparable from a broader context. The site of la Genetoye had been used since Neolithic times without any notable interruption until the Middle Ages.[5]

Geophysical exploration and aerial photography have demonstrated the existence of a vast Neolithic enclosure, accompanied with layouts whose functions are ill-defined.[6] On-site excavations over the course of 2012 have revealed the presence of La Tène usage which lasted up until the Augustan age. Some outlines, whose nature and function have yet to be determined (perhaps an earlier religious structure), have also been found within the footprint of the temple. They are dated to the first half of the 1st century CE.[7]

The Haut-du-Verger theater, discovered in the same area in 1976[8] and excavated the following year, provides an additional structure in this area.[9] The principle monuments of the site, the theater and Temple of Janus, appear to have been constructed in the second half of the 1st century or at the onset of the 2nd century,[10] with later modifications and adjustments. The site could have hosted a military presence at the end of the third century, beyond which period no convincing evidence has been recorded.

In the Middle Ages, the cella of the temple was reused for the construction of a fortification that included a ditch. This reuse may partially explain the temple's good state of preservation.[11]

The Temple of Janus was designated as a monument historique in 1840.[1]

The Temple of Janus probably dates back to the second half of the 1st century CE, like the other principal monuments of Augustodunum.[12]

While it is an ancient temple, its purported dedication to the cult of Janus is without evidence. The deity to which the temple had been consecrated remains unknown. The name of Janus could simply be a corruption of the toponym Genetoye[13] (meaning a place where broom, genêts in French, was said to grow since the 16th century[14]). A historical marker near the temple explains:

To the North-West of the ancient city, on the right bank of the Arroux, grew a district whose sole visible vestige is the temple "of Janus", underlining its cultic vocation. ... The particular form of this temple, called a fanum,[15] is of the Gaulish tradition even though its architectural technique, datable to the 1st century of our era, was Roman. The name of Janus had been incorrectly ascribed to it in the 16th century by the historian Pierre de Saint-Julien de Balleure, who thus interpreted the name of the sector where it was erected: La Genetoye. This term in fact references an area where broom (genêts) grows. The deity venerated here remains totally unknown.

Map of la Genetoye in 1872 after J.-G. Bulliot's excavations.

In 1871, Jacques Gabriel Bulliot undertook excavations to the North-West of Autun and around the temple which provided the basis for a detailed map drawn by Jean Roidot-Déléage.[25] Jean Roidot-Déléage also devoted eight plates of surveys and drawings to the Temple of Janus, which were not published or commented on until 1963.[26] The presumably Neolithic structures were revealed in 1886.[27] Until the 1970s, no excavations were carried out in the area of the Temple of Janus.[28]

Aerial surveys led by René Goguey in 1976 resulted in the discovery of the Haut-du-Verger theater,[29] allowing the collection of sparse information obtained on the district, which has since been seen as a vast peri-urban sanctuary having "the function of uniting different cults of the city".[30] In the years that followed, public authorities proceeded to acquire the lands in question, finally allowing excavations to take place.[31] Aerial surveys continued until the 2000s when, in 2009, a magnetic survey finally completed the obtained data.[32] A vast archaeological dig and study site was put in place in 2012. It is expected to complete in 2016 and put forth a global vision of the la Genetoye district, both geographically and historically.[33]

• 
  Detail of the niches found on the cella's interior Western wall.
• 
  Detail of the interior Western wall's semi-dome niche.
• 
  Interior view of the cella.
• 
  Blackbirds perched on top of the cella wall.
• 
  Western wall, face.
• 
  Southern wall, face.
• 
  View from South-West
• 
  View from North-West

• Aedui - Gaulish tribe that inhabited Augustodunum (Autun)
• Autun
• Celtic polytheism
• Gallo-Roman culture
• Gauls
• Romano-Celtic temple
• Roman temple
• Syncretism

• Carte archéologique de la Gaule 71-2 : Atlas des vestiges gallo-romains d'Autun, Paris: Maison des sciences de l'homme, 1994, p. 81, ISBN 978-2-87754-022-3.
• De Fontenay, Harols; De Charmasse, Anatole (1889), "Autun et ses monuments", Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, Autun: Dejussieu, 50 (1): 251–255.
• Duthu, Carine (2008), Recherches sur les élévations du temple dit de "Janus" à Autun (71) : mémoire de master "histoire et archéologie des mondes antiques", Université de Bourgogne, p. 636.
• Étudier les lieux de culte de Gaule romaine : Actes de la table-ronde de Dijon, 18 - 19 septembre 2009, Montagnac: Monique Mergoil, 2012, p. 263, ISBN 978-2-35518-029-3, Autun09.
• Kasprzyk, Michel; Méniel, Patrice; Barral, Philippe; Daubigney, Alain (2010). "Lieux de culte dans l'Est de la Gaule : la place des sanctuaires dans la cité". Revue de l'histoire des religions. 4 (227): 639–662. doi:10.4000/rhr.7680. culte.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Temple of Janus (Autun).

• "René Goguey pionnier de l'archéologie aérienne en France, est décédé". L'Yonne républicaine. 24 August 2015. Retrieved 24 October 2015..
• Labaune, Yannick. "Les fouilles programmées sur le complexe antique d'Autun "La Genetoye", premiers résultats / été 2013". Le site de l'UMR Artehis (CNRS, Université de Bourgogne et ministère de la Culture et de la Communication). Retrieved 24 October 2015.
• "L'enceinte des Grands Champs(Autun, Saône-et-Loire), projet 2013–2015". le site d'Artehis. 2012. p. 4. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
• Base Mérimée: Temple de Janus, notice no PA00113101, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
• Temple of Janus website (French language)