EBURODUNUM
(Yverdon) Vaud, Switzerland.
Vicus and fort at the S end of Lake Neuchâtel, on
the Thièle river (
CIL XIII, 5064;
Tab.
Peut.). There was
probably an oppidum of the Helvetii on the site, but
no traces earlier than 50 B.C. have yet been found. It
was important in Augustan and Tiberian times as a harbor and market on the water route from the Rhône to
the Rhine, like Lousonna to the S. Destroyed by the
incursions of Germanic peoples in 260-65, it was only
partly rebuilt. The Castrum Ebrodunense (
Not.
Gall.
9.6), in its center, was built under Valentinian I in the
4th c. as a link in the series of strongholds protecting
the waterway, like Salodurum, Ollodunum, and Altenburg. Eburodunum was the seat of a bishop, and settlement continued into the Early Middle Ages.
The site is mostly covered by modern buildings and
excavation has been possible only inside the fort, used
today as a cemetery. The vicus, just S of the mediaeval
center, stretched along the lake shore (which was farther
S than it is today), and developed on both sides of the
highway from Aventicum to Ariolica. Inside the later
fortress the 1st c. (?) baths, possibly used as late as the
5th c., were partly preserved until 1821. Their main
features were large twin rooms with hypocausts and
apsidal pools; votive inscriptions to the healing deities
were found there. The sulphur springs nearby are still
used. The fort is a slightly irregular rhomboid (140-130
m on a side, area 1.95 ha) with round towers at the
corners and semicircular ones in between. Incorporated
into the E gate (6 m wide) is much reused material from
the vicus, and portions of the wall can still be seen in
the cemetery. There is also a massive apsidal structure
(18 x 10 m), which may have been turned into a granary
in the 4th c.
The Musée du Vieil Yverdon is in the town hall.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. H. Bourgeois, “Le castrum romain
d'Yverdon,”
AnzSchweiz 28 (1924) 213-32
PI; F. Staehelin,
Die Schweiz in römischer Zeit (3d ed. 1948) 303-4,
616
P; A. Kasser, “Vestiges au début de l'époque romaine
découverte en 1955,”
Ur-Schweiz 19 (1955) 51-59
PI; G.
Kasser, “Yverdon:
Eburodunum,” ibid. 33 (1969) 54-57
P; summaries:
Jb. Schweiz. Gesell. f. Urgeschichte 16
(1924) 85-86; 47 (1958-59) 132-35.
V. VON GONZENBACH
