Les vestiges antiques de Rennaz-Noville (Vaud, Suisse) et leur contexte sédimentaire : nouvelles évidences de l’écroulement du Tauredunum

Ancient remains have been discovered in Rennaz-Noville, in southwestern Switzerland, where the Rhône Valley opens onto Lake Geneva. The stratigraphic sections documented during the construction of a canal revealed that the sedimentary sequence consists of a deformed and compartmentalized diamicton based, according to a thrust plane, on limnic deposits. Paleosols containing artifacts included in the transported mass have been deformed to varying degrees. About one hundred archaeological structures have been discovered in one of these with, in addition, masonry in a secondary position. The collected artifacts and 14C dates converge towards an occupation between the 1st and the end of the IVth century AD. Ground movements also affect a Late Iron Age occupation, largely obliterated by the gallo-roman settlement. These facts are compatible with a thrusting triggered in the middle of the VIth century, relating to the so-called Tauredunum event in 563 AD. In addition to unpublished chronological elements, the discoveries at Rennaz-Noville thus provide new evidence on the effects of the disaster on the terrestrial environment.