The Antique <i>Fanum Martis</i> under the future technopole of Valenciennois

Famars, the Antique Fanum Martis, was an important city of the Early Empire. Located at the border of the Nerviens and Artrébates territories, between the Bavay-Cambrai and Bavay-Tournai routes, and along the shore of the Rhônele, a tributary of the Escaut, its geographic location contributed to its economic development. This agglomeration, which extended over nearly 150 hectares, was structured around public buildings (baths, aqueduct, temple, etc.) and defensive constructions (the wall of the castrum of the Late Roman Empire). The research realized at Famars is critical to our understanding of the economic and political zone of northern Gaul from the Early Empire to the end of Antiquity. During the Middle Ages, Fanum Martis perished due to a lack of heirs and was replaced by Valenciennes. 

The site of Mont Houy is located at the northern and western edge of the Antique agglomeration; the research in 2011 and 2012 will complete the mapping of the Antique city. They will also clarify the nature of this quarter where habitations and pottery, metallurgy, butchery and local sandstone working activities co-existed. The research will also concern a more recent period, represented by the remains of a military camp of the siege of Valenciennes in 1677, during which the French army of Louis XIV confronted the Dutch, Austrians and Spanish during the Thirty Years War. 

In 2011, the creation of a collective research program of the Minsitry of Culture and Communication, headed by Raphaël Clotuche, an Inrap archaeologist, will ensure the study and synthesis of ancient data originating from observations and archaeological excavations in the 17^th and 19^th centuries, as well as those resulting from the excavations realized since the 1970’s. 
This vast site will provide an opportunity for archaeologists to test new methods of research and recording of the remains excavated in the field (direct recording on graphic tablets, direct recording of topographic data, geomagnetism, archeomagnetism, etc.).