L’évangélisation et la christianisation de Huy.: Retour sur la chronologie problématique d’un vicus du Nord de la Gaule (ve-xe siècles)

Abstract

The Christianization of a community is a long process, variable in its modalities and in the duration from one region to another, whose chronology is difficult to establish precisely. This methodological observation has led some historians to propose chrono-typologies to estimate the evolution of the implantation of Christianity. Research on the Christianization of Huy, vicus of the Middle Meuse basin, was for the author the occasion to test Martine De Reu’s three-phased chrono- typology. He postulates that this agglomeration was successively a « pagan region » from the origins at the beginning of the 5th century, a « mixed region » from the beginning of the 5th century to the beginning of the 7th century and finally a « Christian region » from the beginning of the 7th century. This investigation highlights the interest of the case of Huy for the study of the Christianization of northern Gaul, insofar as rare are, for this region, the sites occupied “continuously” between Late Antiquity and the Merovingian period for which there are literary testimonies and archaeological traces sufficient to firmly envisage the change of the religious landscape.