The site of Charles the Bald’s river fortifications at Pitres (figure 1) was firmly associated with that of the river crossing point at Pont-de-l’Arche by Lot (1905), who gave a detailed review of the evidence. The site was aIso noted by Hassall and Hill (1971).

Near the north bank of the Seine the abraded remains of an earthwork can still be seen at Igoville, known locally as ‘Le Fort’, opposite to the town of Pont-de-l’Arche (marked as ‘Approximate centre of visible remains of earthwork’ and ‘Land boundary and earth bank’ on figure 2).

In 1971 a small excavation was camed out by David Hill and Jane Hassall, with the kind permission of the landowner M. Paul Lambert, and M. de Boüard of the Ministère de Culture, Rouen, before the extension of M. Lambert’s factory. This investigation took advantage of a small settlement pit (marked ‘E’ on figure 3), that existed in the northern rampart of ‘Le Fort’.

The pit measured about 4 x 3 metres, and this was cleaned up to make a rectangular excavation. Features to be observed especially in the north face (see figure 4), indicated that the pit had been dug through a complex timber structure, conserved as soil shadows of former timber joists, and large voids formed by horizontal tree trunks burning in situ, firing the surrounding clay into briquetage. The timbers were of two types:– the large unworked logs, some split in half, and also worked and squared joists. The east and west sections of the excavation indicated that this structure had been inserted into a hole dug into the rampart of ‘Le Fort’. At the time of this work, it was not possible to investigate the lateral extent of the timbers. During this and a further sondage made to the western rampart (marked ‘2” on figure 3), a small amount of pottery was recovered. This was not in a satisfactory state of stratification however, due to the later demolition and spreading of the bank. A small amount of pottery was identified from the eighth-ninth centuries, with a build-up during the tenth to thirteenth centuries.