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The Old Beech
A protected site...
A Merovingian necropolis
The necropolis of the Vieil Hêtre (old beech) has been known of since the nineteenth century thanks to the discovery of sarcophagi and fragments of tile or pottery at the edge of a wood. The place name, also called the Vieil Aïtre ou Vieil Âtre, is taken from the Latin atrium, which in the Middle Ages, designated the sacred area around a church where the cemetery was laid out.
In the 1880s studies attributed some of the broken tiles and pottery chards to the Gallo-Roman period (-50 BC. /3rd century AD) while the coffins date from the Merovingian period (sixth and seventh century). In 1937, Pierre ORIEME, architect and archaeologist of the ancient sanctuary of Genainville, discovered other remains and had the site classified as a Historic Monument. In 1956, the speleology and archaeology group of the Camping Club of France conducted the most recent survey revealing thirty sarcophagi and two tombs in open ground.
... Scattered relics
The graves were east-west facing. Some contained skeletons in poor condition and funerary objects. No Christian ornament or symbols have been found on the site. The collected objects have mostly disappeared or are now difficult to locate. Indeed, the tombs have been looted many times over the centuries. The County Archaeological Museum of Val-d'Oise has a few pieces on display in Guiry-en-Vexin, including bronze elements such as a stylus, clasps and belt buckle plates, earthenware vases and bowls some of which are decorated. The trough-shaped sarcophagi were made of plaster or most often carved in soft limestone, probably taken from quarries near Nucourt.
