Prehistoric and archaeological sites in France
Le Petit Mont
Dating from c. 4600 BC at the earliest, Le Petit Mont is one of the most significant Cairns in Brittany, but unfortunately one of the most brutaly vandalized. The cairn measures 60 meters in length, 46 meters in width, and between 6 and 7 meters in height. It is built over several dolmens with antechambers. The dolmen in the southwest has engravings that include axes in circles, fitted axes, and undulating signs. The Roma ...
Founded: 4600 BC |
Location:
Arzon, France
Lugdunum Convenarum
In 72 BCE the Roman General Pompey, while on the way back to Rome after a military campaign in Spain, founded a Roman colony in Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. The goal was to defend the passage to the Aran Valley and the Iberian peninsula. The colony was named Lugdunum Convenarum and had reached around 30,000 people at its highest point. It belonged to the Roman province of Novempopulana and had a growing Christi ...
Founded: 72 BCE |
Location:
Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, France
Vieux-la-Romaine
During the 1st century AD, Aregenua (Vieux) became the capital of the Viducasse tribe. Situated at the crossroads of two Roman roads it became an important commercial staging town. Aregenua and Lillebonne are the only two capital towns in Gallo-Roman Normandy that did not become Medieval towns. A number of buildings have been excavated, and some have been partially reconstructed.
Founded: 0 - 200 AD |
Location:
Vieux, France
Gavrinis Passage Grave
The Gavrinis island is famous because of its important passage grave, a megalithic monument from the Neolithic period, belonging to the same broad context as the Breton megaliths of Carnac and Locmariaquer. At the time of its construction, c. 3500 BC, the island was still connected with the mainland. The rich internal decorations make Gavrinis one of the major treasuries of European megalithic art. The tomb is also remark ...
Founded: 3500 BC |
Location:
Larmor-Baden, France
Cave of Niaux
The Cave of Niaux contains many prehistoric paintings of superior quality from the Magdalenian period. It is one of the most famous decorated prehistoric caves in Europe still open to the public. The paintings had been emerging on the cave walls during a long period between 11500 and 10500 years BC. From the very beginning of the seventeenth century the cave was of great interest for tourists, who left numerous traces on ...
Founded: 11500 BC |
Location:
Niaux, France
Alauna Roman Therms
There are imposing remains of the Roman therms of the ancient antique city of Alauna (today Valognes), built in the 1st century AD. The edifice was built in a symetric plan and had about ten rooms, including a steam room, a hot pool and a cold pool. The masonries were elevated at about a dozen metres and neatly built, associating small cubic stone block bases to brick layers.
Founded: 0 - 100 AD |
Location:
Valognes, France
Ambrussum
Ambrussum is a Roman archaeological site in Villetelle. Ambrussum is notable for its museum, staging post on the Via Domitia, bridge Pont Ambroix over the Vidourle and the oppidum (fortified village). Its history of settlement spanned 400 years. The whole site is still being excavated. A lower settlement prone to flooding was a staging post for travellers on the Via Domitia and provided stabling and accommodation and the ...
Founded: 300 BC |
Location:
Villetelle, France
Camp de César
Two kilometers north of Laudun-l"Ardoise, Camp de César is an 18-hectare archaeological site among the most important in the region. On a limestone terrace located 200 meters above the Rhone valley the Gallo-Roman Oppidum presents vestiges of five successive periods of occupation from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages. Located in a belvedere, it offers a remarkable point of view. Many remains have been uncovered durin ...
Founded: 5th century BC |
Location:
Laudun-l'Ardoise, France
Corseul Roman Ruins
Corseul was called Fanum Martis ('Temple of Mars') in Latin and was the capital of the Gallo-Roman province of Coriosolites. It was founded in 10 BC. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, like many other cities, Fanum Martis was renamed for its people, the Curiosolitae. This name change occurred as the Roman Empire weakened and paralleled a revival of the ancient Gallic gods in local religious sculptures and dedicatory ...
Founded: 10 BC |
Location:
Corseul, France
Gisacum
In the 2nd century AD, the city-sanctuary of Gisacum extended near Saint-Aubin, which was gradually abandoned until disappearing in 5th century. In the 1801 archaeological excavations uncovered this important Gallo-Roman site; but in reality at the time the town covered an area of 250 ha. The interpretation centre has a permanent exhibition tracing the history of Gisacum, and the archaeological garden offers an original d ...
Founded: 0 - 100 AD |
Location:
Le Vieil-Évreux, France
Lillebonne Roman Amphitheatre
Lillebonne is located on the north banks of the Seine River. From the first to the third centuries AD the town, then called Juliobona by the Romans – a homage to Julius Cesar, was a very prosperous port. The relatively well preserved Roman amphitheatre (capable of holding 3,000 persons) and baths are all that remains from these times. Many Roman and Gallic relics, notably a bronze statue of a woman and two fine mosaics, ...
Founded: 0 - 200 AD |
Location:
Lillebonne, France
Fréjus Roman Aqueduct
The aqueduct of Fréjus was built in the middle of the first century after the ramparts were in place. It functioned for 450 years until the 5th century. It is 42 km long, with a difference in altitude between the highest spring of Neïssoun and the castellum aquae in the city of 481 m. The aqueduct runs mostly in a covered conduit for 36.4 km and for 1.8 km on bridges and 500 m on walls. Large parts of the aqueduct are s ...
Founded: c. 50 AD |
Location:
Fréjus, France
Nemetacum
Arras was founded on the hill of Baudimont by the Celtic tribe of the Atrebates, who named it Nemetacum or Nemetocena in reference to a nemeton (sacred grove) that probably existed there. It was later renamed Atrebatum by the Romans, under whom it became an important garrison town. The archaeological site Nemetacum in Arras is one of the rare sanctuaries devoted to the oriental god Attis in France.
Founded: 15 BC |
Location:
Arras, France
Kergavat Dolmen
The Dolmen de Kergavat has a large chamber and huge single capstone. It is located right beside the busy D.781 road.
Founded: |
Location:
Plouharnel, France
Rondossec Dolmens
There is a group of three is a simple passage tombs in Rondossec. The southern dolmen is a smallest, partly collapsed. The central wedge-shaped dolmen has a 6-metre chamber with engravings. The northern dolmen has an 11-metre long passage and a small side-chamber. Gold necklace, vases and stone axes were buried in the dolmen.
Founded: |
Location:
Plouharnel, France
Mane Braz
Mane Braz is a Megalithic tomb located 2 km southeast of Erdeven. The site comprises four side chambers and two small dolmens. It is built into a hill and appears to be the remains of a tumulus.
Founded: 5000 - 3000 BC |
Location:
Erdeven, France
Loupian Roman villa
Excavations on a three-hectare site south of the Loupian village have revealed remains of a Roman farm villa with extensive 2nd-century Gallo-Roman mosaics. The site was occupied for more than 600 years. Originally a modest farmstead built a few kilometres south of the Via Domitia, on the hillside overlooking the Bassin de Thau, it rapidly prospered and grew. During the early Empire, in the 1st and 2nd centuries, the vil ...
Founded: 0-100 AD |
Location:
Loupian, France
Toulouse Roman Amphitheatre
The amphitheatre of Toulouse-Purpan is constructed on a filled structure, unlike those in Arles, Nîmes, and the Colosseum in Rome, where a hollow structure composed of vaults and pillars supports the tiers. The cavea (the rows of seats intended to receive the public) is fifteen meters wide. This area is separated from the arena by a wall and bound at the outside by a high wall covered in brick. The cavea is divided into ...
Founded: 40 AD |
Location:
Toulouse, France
Briga
Briga was a medium sized Roman town that was discovered during the digging of a local road shortly after the French Revolution. From the first century AD onwards, the Romans developed a substantial sanctuary complex on the site of what was a Celtic shrine, as well as the other features one finds at Roman towns, such a theatre, bathhouses and a forum.
Founded: 0 - 200 AD |
Location:
Eu, France
Caixa de Rotllan
The Caixa de Rotllan (meaning 'Roland"s Tomb' in Catalan language) is a dolmen dating back to the Neolithic period, during the second half of 3rd millennium BC. A legend holds that Roland lived in Vallespir and that, after his death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, his horse Veillantif carried Roland"s corpse back to Vallespir and buried him under this dolmen. Dolmens are actually tombs, but they were ...
Founded: 2500 BC |
Location:
Arles-sur-Tech, France