Titre : Contributions and limits of Lidar to Roman landscape study. Experience feedback on “Grésil” excavation (Normandy, France) Auteurs : Jérôme Spiesser, Revue : Digital Archaeology Numéro : Issue 1 Volume : 4 Date : 2020/06/11 DOI : 10.21494/ISTE.OP.2020.0522 ISSN : 2515-7574 Résumé : LidarLiDAR mapping have multiplied in recent years, revealing everywhere fossilized ancient landscapes in the topography. This truly consists of an archaeological revolution, comparable to the development of aerial surveys in the 1970s or preventive archaeology twenty years later. LidarLiDAR fever has taken over the world of archaeologists, whose main question is how to date ancient plot networks, as it is rare to find archaeological artefacts during forest surveys. The various methodological approaches undertaken recently tend to provide solutions to this problem, but without extensive forest excavations, can one be sure to have a large majority of ancient parcel boundaries? The analysis of the LidarLiDAR survey of the Rouvray Forest in Normandy reveals several ancient parcel networks. After having analysed them, a 12 000m² excavation was conducted in the heart of the forest on the Gallo-Roman farm of “Le Grésil”, in order to understand the topographical anomalies identified on the LidarLiDAR. This has revealed varied cases. Some anomalies are linked to archaeological structures, others were geographical anomalies, even fantasized structures. In the case of “Le Grésil”, all the ditches defining spaces other than the heart of the settlement were only seen during the excavation. The LidarLiDAR did not lead to their identification. While the LidarLiDAR remains a wonderful source of information, it is therefore necessary to only take into account the structures whose anthropic origin is unambiguous and to keep in mind that other parcel boundaries might not have left any traces in current topography. The rare spaces which present an absence of anomalies should not be considered as immutable forests without complementary approaches (palynology…). Éditeur : ISTE OpenScience