Craftsmen and Shopkeepers Serving the Army: The Example of the Colony of Lugdunum (First Century AD)

The retail trade has profoundly shaped the urban and economic landscape of the ancient colony of Lugdunum (Lyon, France). Between the first century BC and the end of the third century AD, domestic and monumental blocks coexisted with numerous small ‘shops/workshops' for ironed and copper alloyed goods production, repair and sale. Among these, some shops were aimed at specific customers: three Augustan shops at ‘Clos du Verbe Incarné' produced offensive weapons for military use, according to the discovery of unfinished arrowheads. This type of production has not often been recognized in an urban context, especially far from the military lines. The interpretation and the spatialization of the activities carried out in these three shops will be proposed from the artifacts and associated archaeological structures. This study then allows us to question the economic relationship between civilian craftsmen and the Roman army, which is underexplored at the scale of urban centres. The collaboration between producers and unusual customers will be at the heart of our discussion. Several leads regarding the integration of this production into long-distance trade networks or on the contrary into a local market will be discussed, as well as the uncertain identity of the actors involved.