Archeology and historic records confirms the length of time that this area has been occupied by people. One hypothesis holds that a column constructed by Romans, in a locus originally dedicated to Tiwaz, Tius, god of war, may explain ancient ceremonies in the old saint-Dié chapel, under the Kemberg mountain locally called Saint-Martin. Deodatus, who might have been a hiberniensis pope – and not a niverniensis pope, or a bishop from Nevers – would have lived in an old monastery or "vieux moutier" above this old chapelle and water.