Les amphores républicaines en Auvergne (Puy-de-Dôme) : importation et diffusion avant la Conquête / Republican amphorae in the Auvergne (Puy-de-Dôme) : importation and distribution before the conquest

Previous studies have contended that the distribution of amphorae in Late Iron age Gaul was late, low, and elitist. Detailed analysis of the wealth of finds in the Auvergne region has suggested that none of these propositions is true. Amphorae are found on all types of sites here, from times beginning as early as the second century BC, often in great quantity. One must conclude therefore that the influx of these imports was not due to the later Roman annexation ofGallia Transalpina, and that the possession of amphorae was not an elite prerogative, at least not until after the Conquest when they became considerably scarcer. The picture seems to be of a polity with firm international connections and one principal distribution area.