THE ANNEXES

During the official excavation of the Les Bolards site, three additional rooms were discovered. These were located in the south-west of the mithraeum adjoining the great sanctuary. For Dr Planson, these were part of the mithraeum. He based this on their construction and their position in relation to the temple’s crypt. They thus acquired the status of annex chambers which could have been part of the liturgical or organisational set-up of the temple. Were some initiation rites carried out in them? Were they meeting rooms? These questions remain unanswered. However, archaeological digs have revealed that many other mithraea in the West also had annexes. So their presence at Les Bolards is not some far-fetched hypothesis.

But a degree of circumspection is required when considering the objects found in these rooms. The fact is, during the 1948 dig, backfill and material from the great sanctuary were dumped on the archaeological site pell mell. So it is very difficult to draw anything from these items, or to be certain that they really did originally come from these chambers and that they have anything at all to do with the Mithra cult. Overall, they have yielded a great many fragments of ordinary ceramics and painted plaster and other significant items such as Roman brooches, votive offerings and figurines in white clay from the Allier.

Thanks to the latest research, we now know the first two rooms were initially used as secondary chambers in the great temple before being incorporated into the mithraeum at the beginning of the 3rd century.