Aubenas-les-Alpes

Aubenas-les-Alpes is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of south-eastern France.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Albascecois'' or ''Albascecoises''.

The commune has been awarded two flowers by the ''National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom'' in the ''Competition of cities and villages in Bloom''.

Geography

Aubenas-les-Alpes lies in the ''Regional Natural Park of Luberon'' and in the ''Geological Reserve of Luberon'' some 18 km north-west of Manosque and 20 km west of La Brillanne. The village is at an altitude of 650m above sea level. Access to the commune is by road D555 which branches off the D5 some 4 km north of Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire and goes west by a circuitous route to the village. There are also other country roads to access the commune. Apart from the village there is the hamlet of Le Paraire in the north. The commune is mixed farmland and forest.Google Maps
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The Largue river forms the eastern border of the commune as it flows south to eventually join the Durance. Many tributaries rise in the commune and flow east to join the Largue including the Ravin d'Aiguebelle and the Riou.

Geology

The soils of the commune are formed on a substrate which is mainly limestone: this limestone is also used to roof the housing. The village is however located on a hill of red marl of the Oligocene period and has yielded bones of large mammals and reptiles (crocodile and turtle). In the Aiguebelle valley (a stream that never runs dry even in the most severe droughts) fossils of plants and fish (''Smerdi macrurus'') have also been found. The areas of both deposits are classified as geological reserves (included in the ''Natural Geological Reserve of Luberon'') and collecting of fossils is prohibited. Information panels are placed close by. A selection of fossils from there can be seen at the Vachères Museum, at the Natural Regional Park of Luberon ''Maison du Parc'' in Apt (Vaucluse in Paris (''Jardin des Plantes'').

Along the Largue and the Aiguebelle towards Vachères and Revest-des-Brousses, the Oligocene limestone contains lenses of brown flint which were extensively exploited from the Middle Paleolithic (Levallois-type industry) to the end of the Neolithic period. Flint was exported all over the south-east of France as far as Italy by Neolithic man.

Natural and technological hazards

None of the 200 communes of the department are in a no seismic risk zone. The ''Canton of Reillane'', to which Aubenas-les-Alpes belongs, is zone 1b (low risk) according to the deterministic classification of 1991 based on its seismic history, and zone 3 (moderate risk) according to the probabilistic classification EC8 of 2011. The commune of Aubenas-les-Alpes is also exposed to three other natural hazards:

*forest fire;
*landslide: the commune is almost entirely rated with an average to high hazard.

The commune is not exposed to any risk of technological origin as identified by the prefecture.

There is no risk prevention plan for foreseeable natural risks (PPR) for the commune and also no DICRIM.

Toponymy

The locality appears for the first time in texts from the 11th century in the form ''de Albenassio''. According to Charles Rostaing, ''Aubenas'' comes from the Gallic ''alba'' with the suffixes ''-enne'' and ''-ate'', in the general sense of a "citadel". According to Ernest Nègre, the name comes from the Roman name ''Albinus'' with the suffix ''-àtis''. The ''Fénié'' propose another interpretation coming from the name ''Aubenas'' in the theme ''*Al-b-'', having reference to the mountain.

None of these explanations can explain the form of the name ''Aubenas'' in Occitan which is ''aùbo'' meaning "white poplar".

The commune changed its name to Aubenas-les-Alpes in 1934.

History

The territory of the commune was inhabited in the Middle Paleolithic period but it was especially in the Neolithic that the area experienced increased human activity. The quality of the flint outcroppings in the Largue valley allows its breakdown into large blades. Due to the use of leverage, these materials were produced in large numbers and many of these workshops are known to be in the commune. These blades were distributed over a wide geographical area. The density of Neolithic occupation in the Largue valley was recognized early in the 20th century. In 1906, Mr. Deydier mentioned the existence of many Neolithic flint quarries over an area of hundreds of hectares in the communes of Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire, Vachères, and Aubenas-les-Alpes. The ''Inventory of Neolithic and protohistoric settlements'' lists 12 sites in the commune of Aubenas-les-Alpes.

There is no indication of occupation during the metal ages.

In several parts of the commune there are ceramic ''Tegulae'' and Terra sigillata which indicate occupation in Gallo-Roman times. In Antiquity the Aubenas area was part of the land of the ''Sogiontiques'' (Sogiontii), whose territory extended from the Baronnies to the Durance and, after the Roman conquest, they were attached with them to the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis. In the 2nd century they were detached from Vocontii and formed a distinct ''Civitas'' with their capital at Segustero (Sisteron).

While the south-east of Gaul was Burgundian land, the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric the Great, conquered the region between the Durance, and Isère