Abstract
This study shows how fine and organic sediments in urban contexts can document landscapechanges, anthropogenic activities and depositional processes. We focus on the transitionbetween the late Iron Age and the Roman period in the city of Lyon (France), where anarchaeological excavation conducted on Fourvière Hill aimed at understanding theevolution of a defensive site located south-west of the former Roman city. The discovery ofa Gallic wall made of earth, wood and stone (murus gallicus) probably indicates the oppidumstatus of Lyon before the Roman colonisation. Fine-textured, organic and hydromorphicsediments containing a variety of artefacts (fine wares and amphora fragments) andabundant palaeoecological indicators (seeds, fruits, wood and charcoal fragments, pollen,shells, and parasites), were preserved at the foot of the rampart. A multidisciplinary study ofthese remains reveals the presence of a former hilltop pond surrounded by riparianwoodlands with multi-proxy evidence of arable land or gardens, discharge from humansettlements (consumption wastes, human parasites), and grazed areas (faecal inputs, animalparasites and plants tolerant to trampling). After several episodes of sediment inputs andbackfill, the palaeoenvironmental record ended at the beginning of the Roman Empire,when a defensive wall was built over the site.