Pech Maho oppidum is located in the town of Sigean,

Aude Aude (; ) is a Departments of France, department in Southern France, located in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region and named after the river Aude (river), Aude. The departmental council also calls it "Ca ...

, France. The last season of excavations on the archaeological site since 2004 has identified most of the walls and the habitats of a pre-Roman oppidum, particularly highlighting the latter stages of occupation of this site before its definitive abandonment. Pech Maho was a fortified trading post occupied from the sixth century BC to the third century BC. There are observed three successive occupations, apparently discontinuous, presumably by a people called Elisycssee :fr:Élisyques (Ἐλισύκοι ων-Greek) installed at the limit of Iberians, Celts and Ligures. The site seems to be a commercial crossroads between Etruscans, Greeks, Carthaginians, and the indigenous people. The almost total destruction of the oppidum occurred at the end of the third century BC and may be linked with the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

who opposed Rome and Carthage. This war resulted in the control by Rome of eastern Iberian peninsula and western Languedoc. The catapult bullets found in the levels of destruction of the oppidum would be probative evidence. The excavations have also revealed traces of funerary rituals and animal sacrifices mixing cremation of human remains. These celebrations were probably held in honor of fallen heroes by the people who returned shortly after the destruction of the oppidum. Then the site would have received a few visits during the following decades before being completely forgotten. This period coincides with the establishment in the region of the Romans, who made Narbonne their prefecture since they will dominate ''

Gallia Narbonensis Gallia Narbonensis (Latin for "Gaul of Narbonne", from its chief settlement) was a Roman province located in what is now Languedoc and Provence, in Southern France. It was also known as Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), because it was the ...

''.

Location

The oppidum is actually located on a low altitude (29m) hill on the shore of the small coastal river Berre. When it was established it was located near the mouths of the

and Berre, the ford of the Heraclean Lane, which then allowed to join the Italy to Iberia. The oppidum was then directly on the shore of a sea-navigable and not a lagoon separated by dry land that currently observed. It stood on a hill, providing defence, and was linked to trade routes. Location :

Discovery and excavations

The site was discovered in 1913. Its name is contemporary, the ancient name is unknown. The excavations were conducted from 1948 to 1957 (J. Campardou) from 1959 to 1974 (Y. Solier) and again since 1998 (Gailledrat, Solier). The excavations are planned until 2010. In Sigean there is a museum that brings together collections from these excavations. The site is not freely accessible to the public. It can be visited with a guide, beginning at the museum on the last Saturday of the month, off season, on Wednesday morning in July and August and on demand. Pech Maho has been listed since 1961 as a ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

'' by the French Ministry of Culture. Vestiges de l'oppidum de Pech de Maho It was acquired by the State in 1968.

References

External links

Sigean Museum
which displays many artifacts from the site of Pech Maho, virtual tour.
Report of planned excavations

Éric Gailledrat Éric eʁikis a French masculine given name, the equivalent of English Eric. In French-speaking Canada and Belgium it is also sometimes unaccented, and pronounced "Eric" as English with the stress on the "i". A notable French exception is Erik Sa ...

, Alexandre Beylier, Hugues Boisson Henri Duday, André Rivalan, 2006, PDF, 62p.
Pech Maho

Ttriennial Program 2008-2010, Interim Report 2008
Éric Gailledrat,

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

, PDF, 142p.
Pech Maho in the sixth-fifth century av. AD. A place of exchange in elisyc territory
Eric Gailledrat, Pierre Rouillard, Revue archéologique de Narbonnaise no 35, pp. 401–410, 2003. Suppléments ISSN 0153-9124. Association de la revue archéologique de Narbonnaise, Montpellier

Press release, CNRS, 10 November 2009 copied in

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pech Maho Populated places established in the 6th century BC Populated places disestablished in the 3rd century BC 1913 archaeological discoveries Oppida Iron Age sites in France Buildings and structures in Aude Former populated places in France Monuments historiques of Aude Ruins in Occitania (administrative region) Tourist attractions in Aude Second Punic War