Acropolis Roquepertuse is a historical religious center for the Celts. It is located near the city of Velaux

Velaux

Velaux is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. It is near Coudoux and Ventabren.-Population:-External links:*...

, north of Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

 and west of Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence

Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur or PACA is one of the 27 regions of France.It is made up of:* the former French province of Provence* the former papal territory of Avignon, known as Comtat Venaissin...

 région

Region

Region is most commonly found as a term used in terrestrial and astrophysics sciences also an area, notably among the different sub-disciplines of geography, studied by regional geographers. Regions consist of subregions that contain clusters of like areas that are distinctive by their uniformity...

 of southern France. Roquepertuse had no domiciles available for worshippers and has been used as a sanctuary where only priests may have lived permanently. It was destroyed by the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 in 124 BC

124 BC

Year 124 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Longinus and Calvinus...

 and was discovered in 1860. Most of the excavations were done in 1923 by H. de Gérin-Ricard.

Findings

Officially, the findings have been dated to the 3rd century BC. This age has been established based on Celt

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

ic expansion into the area, which took place around the same time. However, the clothing and gestures of certain statue

Statue

A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...

s found at the site suggest that they date from the 5th or 6th century BC, instead. These statues are distinguished by their unique seated position, comparable to the upright and cross-legged seated position found in statues depicting the Buddha

Gautama Buddha

Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...

.

1. A platform of 50 m by 22 m paved with flat stones including a couple of reused headstones, divided in the middle by a staircase made of large blocks of stone. Stone walls to the left and to the right of the stairs formed a terrace, probably one of several which had originally belonged to the complex.
2. On the platform was what is variously called a portal, or door frame, or portico with pillars, of limestone. Its columns had cavities in which human stone masks, as well as human skulls, had been placed. Its lintel was carved with the heads of four horses, and additional decoration in paint. At the top of the lintel was a limestone statue of a bird of 60 cm by 60 cm which has been called a goose, but is now thought more likely to be a raptor.
3. A dualfaced, androgynous sculpture of limestone (0,2 m high and 30 cm long).
4. Two statues of a figure in a seated Buddha-like position (0,62 m high).

The first interpretations of archaeologists was that this was a secluded sanctuary. The latest findings, from various multidisciplinary studies, suggest that it was an agglomeration of about 0.5 hectares with a sanctuary to the north, as well as a bulwark of protection.

The site is important in part because it provides evidence for the Celtic "head cult" described in Greek and Roman accounts.

The site is near to another Celtic-Roman site at Entremont

Entremont

Entremont may refer to:*Entremont, Haute-Savoie, a municipality of the Haute-Savoie département in France*Entremont , a district of the canton of Valais in Switzerland and was a canton of the former Simplon département of the French Empire...

, which had similar relief sculpture of severed human and horse heads, as well as skull niches carved into pillars. Also see Oppidium

Oppidum

Oppidum is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome. The word is derived from the earlier Latin ob-pedum, "enclosed space," possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *pedóm-, "occupied space" or "footprint."Julius Caesar described the larger Celtic Iron Age...

 for other nearby archaeological sites of approximately the same historical period.

External links

• In-depth description and pictures of findings: "Roquepertuse et les celto-ligures" on the Velaux city website http://www.velaux.net/article.php3?id_article=59
• Description: Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia By John T. Koch
• Current location of findings: Musée d'archéologie méditerranéenne in Marseille :fr:Musée d'archéologie méditerranéenne#Roquepertuse
• Current reconstruction of placement in museum: http://pcturismo.liberta.it/asp/Dettaglio.asp?IDGruppo=46250&ID=8927
• Possible reconstruction of the two-headed sculpture, with comparison to another found at Holzgerlingen: http://androgynousreligions.blogspot.com/2010/01/hermes-of-roquepertuse-sketch-completed.html
• Birds in Celtic art (describes bird sculpture above portal): The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.unc.edu/celtic/catalogue/feathers
• Photograph of site location: http://www.lapf.eu/marseille.php http://www.lapf.eu/marseille.php
• Other possible reconstructions of the poses of the seated figures, i.e. holding skulls, holding weapons: http://147732.aceboard.fr/147732-601-7130-0-Ligures-Celto-Ligures.htm
• A similarly seated figure sculpture is shown on this Spanish webpage on Gauls and Celts, without identification of its origin [Celts of the Gallic Lands | http://webs.advance.com.ar/cernunnosgb/problema.htm]

Literature

(in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

)

1. Le sanctuaire préromain de Roquepertuse à Velaux, by Henri de Gérin-Ricard (Marseille
   Marseille
   Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
   
   , 1929)
2. L'art primitif méditerranéen de la vallée du Rhone, by Fernand Benoit (1955)
3. Art et dieux de la Gaule, by Fernand Benoit (1969)

(in English)

1. "The Celtic Realms: The History and the Culture of the Celtic Peoples from Pre-History to the Norman Invasion", by Myles Dillon & Nora Chadwick (1967), pages 294-297.