CHAPTER FOURTEEN A PRAYER FOR BLESSINGS ON THREE RITUAL OBJECTS DISCOVERED AT CHARTRES-AUTRICUM (FRANCE/EURE-ET LOIR) 1 Richard Gordon, Dominique Joly and William Van Andringa he ritual objects presented here were discovered as the result of a for- tunate accident that occurred on 20th July 2005. Terracing-work for the construction of an entrance stair-way to the underground car-park in the Place des Épars in Chartres, where an excavation had been con- ducted about a year earlier, had revealed about three metres of occu- pational strata, including a thick burned layer (Text-ig. 13). 2 Caroline de Frutos and Frédéric Dupont, members of the technical section of the Archaeological Service of the municipality of Chartres, went to carry out a routine check and decided to make a section through it and remove one or two sherds from the layers thus exposed. During the following hour the fragments of pottery were washed, revealing that one of them bore a text in Latin and that others were fragments of unusual vessels decorated with moulded snakes, and whose handles carried inials in the shape of miniature bowls. hese inds at once recalled the fact that a sanctuary of Roman date had been uncovered in the course of the earlier excavations nearby, and were enough to cause us to return to the site at once and take a closer look at this destruction-level. A sounding immediately produced the complete incense-burner that is the main object of this study, and it was removed for conservation. On the same day, in accordance with the regulations, we informed the Ministry of Culture (DRAC Centre—Service régional de l’Archéologie) and the mayor of Chartres of this exceptionally important discovery. Measures were taken to protect the site, which is immediately adjacent 1 A diferent version of this paper is due to appear in French in Gallia. R.L.G. wishes to express his gratitude to Bernard Mees of the University of Adelaide, who is writing a book on the Gaulish deixiones, for sending the text of Lambert 1998–2000, and other help with these texts. 2 he original excavation was conducted by Hervé Sellès, Inrap.