Quelques réflexions sur les remplois antiques en Limousin au cours du Moyen Âge

Different kinds of antique material were re-used in the Limousin region during the middle ages. In this article the authors will mostly focus on the big ashlars located in the ecclesiastical rural sites. More and more of these specific kinds of spolia are now known. Around 50 sites are identified where they were used in churches or in their surroundings (mostly sarcophagi). In most examples only few pieces were used. Nonetheless, in seven cases those blocks are numerous, and in three of them parts of antique buildings – using monumental ashlars – are incorporated into churches. It is highly probable that the spoiled monuments were mausolea. At least two of them were re-used for a Christian purpose during the high middle ages. According to different indications it can be concluded that this was not such an uncommon practice. In other parts of France, the reuse of antique sites for Christian purposes – churches or cemeteries – has been studied recently. Yet it is still difficult to identify the type of structures to which these buildings belong (private or “parish” churches). One can suppose that part of the ecclesiastical landscape of the high medieval Limousin region was made of “haphazard churches”.