Many coins (about 200) and pottery fragments, as well as intact oil lamps, fragments of a rare terracotta chandelier with Nubian figures, a bronze cruciform fibula characteristic of 4th century functionaries, animal remains dominated by cockerel bones (a favoured dish of cultic banquets), an exceptional zoomorphic vase with handles largely conserved, are scattered inside and around the temple.
On a sigillated ceramic beaker made in the workshops of Lezoux (Puy-de-DÙme) there is a dedication, engraved before firing, offered by a certain Genialis in the first half of the 3rd century AD†: ´ DEO†[INVIC]TO MYTRH[AE]…/…]VS GENIALIS CIVES MA […]VS EXVOTO D[†…/…]RIBVS OMNIS LOCO OMNIS (…)†ª†: ´†To the unvanquished Mithra, ,]us Genialis , citizen of … has offered an ex-voto (this vase)†ª.
A fragment of worked freestone, decorated with palmettes, has a cartouche with a four-line inscription in Greek that has been in part deciphered. It indicates a dedication by a certain Theophilos of eastern origin for the benefit of Retituitos, a name of Gallic consonance.
The richness of the findings, the conservation of the vestiges, the importance of epigraphy, the absence until now of a discovery of any mithrÊa in the west of France, offer to the Inrap archaeologists perspectives of original research concerning the fields of archaeology, of art history and of religions.
This discovery opens new perspectives for the history of Angers and early Christianisation in the fourth century. After Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Biesheim, Septeuil, Tirlmont (Belgium), Martigny (Switzerland), Rome and Ostia, Angers henceforth takes its place in the limited inventory of the mithrÊa known in Western Europe.
