Gisement de plein air néolithique du Collet Redon
MonumentHidden Treasure
Gisement de plein air néolithique du Collet Redon, located in Martigues (Bouches-du-Rhône), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Martigues, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 43.3418, 5.0636
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00081380
Sur les hauteurs de Martigues, le Collet Redon dévoile les vestiges d'un habitat néolithique à ciel ouvert, rare témoignage des premières sociétés agropastorales qui peuplèrent la Provence il y a plus de 5 000 ans.
History
Nestling on a limestone plateau overlooking the ponds and sea around Martigues, the open-air Neolithic site of Collet Redon is one of the most significant archaeological sites on the Provencal coast. Unlike the ornate caves and dolmens that often attract the attention of the general public, this site offers a rare window onto the everyday life of Neolithic populations: here, it's not death or the sacred that are on display, but the fascinating ordinariness of a human community permanently established in the Mediterranean landscape. The site stands out for the density and quality of its surface and subsurface archaeological material: cut flint flakes, nuclei, scrapers, retouched blades and ceramic shards with incised decoration typical of the Middle and Final Neolithic of Provence. These remains bear witness to stone-cutting activities, ceramic manufacture and, in all likelihood, agropastoral practices on terraces overlooking resource-rich wetlands. The experience of visiting Collet Redon is above all sensory and contemplative. Visitors move through an area where the landscape has changed only superficially since the Neolithic period: the outcropping limestone, the fragrant garrigue, the low-angled evening light revealing the micro-reliefs in the soil all provide a setting that is conducive to the imagination. It's easy to see why these populations chose these heights: the panoramic view over the Etangs de Berre and Caronte, the natural traffic routes, the proximity of water and game resources. Protected as a Historic Monument since 1989, this site is part of a dense network of prehistoric sites, making the Martigues region one of the best-documented areas for understanding the Neolithisation of western Provence. For the amateur archaeologist and the cultured visitor alike, it represents direct and authentic contact with the dawn of our civilisations.
Architecture
Collet Redon is an open-air site, i.e. an archaeological site with no monumental built structures preserved in elevation. Open-air Neolithic dwellings in Provence are typically characterised by lightweight structures - hut floors dug into the ground, wooden post holes, fireplaces built in troughs - of which only negative traces remain in the stratigraphy. The materials used were organic (wood, branches, skins) or local (uncut limestone used to demarcate spaces), which explains their almost total disappearance from the surface. The topography of the site played a role that architecture would later play in other civilisations: the limestone plateau itself, its ridge lines and rocky outcrops formed the 'natural walls' of this dispersed settlement. The probable spatial organisation of the site, as reconstructed by analogy with other Chassean sites in the south of France (such as Baume de Ronze and Claparouse), suggests an arrangement of small domestic units around collective work and storage areas. The archaeological material constitutes the site's real 'architectural heritage': flint tools (blades, scrapers, sickles), stoneware millstones for grinding cereals, coarse-paste ceramics for storage and fine vases for consumption form the functional equivalent of a building, revealing the economic and social organisation of a community adapted to the limestone Mediterranean environment.
Related Figures
Communautés chasséennes (4500-3500 av. J.-C.) — premiers occupants identifiés du plateau, porteurs de la culture néolithique moyen provençalePremiers agriculteurs cardials (vers 5500 av. J.-C.) — possibles occupants de la phase la plus ancienne du site, introduisant l'agriculture en Provence littoraleGérard Sauzade — préhistorien provençal ayant contribué à la documentation des sites néolithiques de la région de MartiguesDRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur — institution ayant porté la procédure d'inscription aux Monuments Historiques en 1989
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Gisement de plein air néolithique du Collet Redon located?
Gisement de plein air néolithique du Collet Redon is located in Martigues, Bouches-du-Rhône department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France.
Is Gisement de plein air néolithique du Collet Redon open to visitors?
Gisement de plein air néolithique du Collet Redon is currently closed to visitors.
