Association de Sauvegarde du

CHATEAU DE GAVRAY

THE DUNGEON

the excavation

Excavations carried out from 1982 to 1987, carried out every year in July with a team of volunteers, led to the belief that it was a massive late construction that had taken the place of a large round tower, totally destroyed. It was, in fact, an English building from the middle of the fifteenth century. The excavation inside the keep revealed occupations prior to its construction:
- a fourteenth-century kitchen layer,

- and, under the foundations, the remains of an eleventh century occupation layer.

Occupation in the eleventh century

Although the excavation did not uncover any such ancient building, it did prove that it was occupied at the end of the eleventh century.Indeed, inside the keep, under a thick layer of  almost sterile backfill, the remains of a layer rich in material have been unearthed, which it has been possible to date. This discovery took place in the south-west corner of the keep, about 2 m below the last occupation layer (kitchen layer).  The observation was not easy given the configuration of the place: the south wall of the keep, located beyond the break in the slope of the rocky spur, will seek a solid foundation much deeper than the others.

The southern end of the two rooms of the keep could therefore only be occupied after a significant filling, bringing it to the level of the upper outcrop of the rock. It was when the embankment at the south end of the room was emptied, in a narrow pit bounded by the walls of the keep and, to the north, by the steeply sloping rock, that this narrow, black, greasy, waterlogged layer was unearthed, it occupied only the western part of the pit and disappeared under the foundations of the south and west walls. She was resting on the rock. Among the material collected, the following were noted:
- A jeton of tric-trac in OS,
- two belt buckles,
- a ring,
- a fragment of fabric 4 to 5 cm on each side, slightly rounded at the corners and woven into plain weave,
- Two particularly interesting currencies:

- one of the very first deniers of Le Mans, at the end of the eleventh century. It seems to have circulated little and would have been damaged by fire.- a denarius of Conan II, Duke of Brittany who died in 1066. Very well preserved, it would also have circulated very little. It should be noted that the discoveries of Breton coins from this period are very rare in Normandy.

Their discovery provides an interesting chronological indication by attesting to an occupation of the site in the middle of the eleventh century. Moreover, the very nature of the material, in particular the tric-trac token and the ring, seems to indicate an aristocratic or military occupation from this period.

This layer, however, does not appear to be contemporaneous with any known building. We can simply see that it predates the walls of the tower and the keep under which it is lost. Given the configuration of the rock, it is inconceivable without the existence of a palisade or a perimeter wall. This is a crucial observation in tracing the history of the site.

The Kitchen

The remains of a kitchen have been unearthed, inside the keep, directly on the embankment layer. The layout was very rudimentary, consisting of two small clay hearths and a mediocre garbage pit. The discovery of this occupation inside the west room of the keep seemed to indicate the purpose of this room. However, several observations suggest that this kitchen layer predates the occupation of the keep:

- The layer of black, sticky earth, rich in charcoal, bone and charred shards, was about twenty centimetres thick in the centre of the room, but almost non-existent at the edge of the walls. No trace of it was found on the gravel.
- This layer, as well as the embankment that supported it, was abruptly interrupted 2 m from the south wall and near the north-west corner: these are pits dug to allow the construction of the walls in elevation of the keep.

- On the other side of the shear wall, traces of a layer of the same type were discovered, at the same level, on the gravel.

Finally, another observation allows us to place the construction of the shear wall, after the kitchen layer. It is as follows: the
kitchen layer has obviously been cut to allow the construction of the south wall of the keep. However, the shear wall is visibly supported in its entire lower part of the south wall.
It is therefore later than it.

A coin has been unearthed there: it is a white one with a fleur-de-lis castle of John the Good (1356). The ceramics were coarse, essentially, white-pasted. Observations suggest that this occupation layer predates the construction in which it was located. On the other hand, it is difficult to specify its place in relation to the construction of the round tower. In view of the coins found, it is reasonable to date this kitchen to the Navarrese occupation, between 1356 and 1378.

Construction technology and materials

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