Roquepertuse, located in Provence, in the Etang de Berre region of Mediterranean France, is the ruins of an Iron Age and Celtic community and Celtic shrine founded about 600 BC, with early evidence of barley beer making and later wine production. The site is located within five km of an inlet to the Mediterranean, and some 40 km north northwest of Roman Massalia (Marseilles). While Roquepertuse is best known for its Iron Age Celtic shrine with its heroes gallery of skulls and janus-like sculpture, recent research has concentrated on the archaeobotanical remains representing the production of alcoholic beverages.
Beer Production at Roquepertuse
The earliest substantial occupation at the site begins about 450-400 BC, with the erection of two rounded wood and clay domestic structures. Within and near these structures were identified associated hearths and an oven, and evidence of making barley beer. A substantial deposit of carbonized plant material, dominated by six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare) was found on the floor of one of the houses, near a hearth and an oven.
The best-preserved samples of barley recovered from the deposit indicate that more than 90% of the grains were sprouted: accidental sprouting is likely to account for about about 15%. Sprouting is an essential step in the malting process of making beer. Both of these structures were burned at the end of the 5th century BC.
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Hill Fort and Cult Sanctuary
Around 300 BC, a substantial Iron Age hill fort was in place, with a fortification wall protecting an area of some 1300 square meters. The fortification wall was enhanced during the third century BC, and a cultic shrine was constructed, dominated by a decorative portico with niches. Real and sculpted human heads were exhibited in these niches: the portico apparently constituted something of a cultic gallery of heroes.
The cult sanctuary at Roquepertuse was a stone-built polygonal-shaped structure on a raised platform, which was accessed by means of a massive staircase and a wooden gate. A two-faced sculpture hung at the entrance: this is believed to be a representation of a two-headed deity, precursor of the Roman god Janus, and thus the gate is a significant place for this sculpture to have been hung. A frieze of four sculpted horse-heads decorated the interior. Within its walls were stone pillars and thresholds inscribed with horses, snakes, birds and fantastic beings. Also within the shrine were two nearly life-sized statues of armored warriors seated with their legs crossed. Sculptures of severed heads were also found.
The cult sanctuary was attacked in the second half of the third century BC, and destroyed by fire.
Winemaking at Roquepertuse
Later that century (ca 225-175 BC), Roquepertuse had changed into a small rural farmstead, used for wine production. Evidence of wine production includes grape pips, a cellar filled with storage jars, clay vats for treading grapes, substantial storage (beyond what the household would need) and a plantation pit near the household. Archaeobotanical deposits containing grape pits and wheat were found within a storage vessel and in the plantation pit. This occupation, too, was burned and destroyed by the beginning of the second century BC.
Archaeology at Roquepertuse
Roquepertuse was first mentioned in academic literature in 1824, when one of the cross-legged warriors is mentioned in Christophe de Villeneuve-Bargemon's Statistique des Bouches du Rhone. Excavations began in 1919, and were conducted again in the 1920s and 1960s. The latest excavations focus less on the Celtic shrine and more on the early and late residences and their evidence for alcoholic beverage production.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Iron Age, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Aldhouse-Green M. 2004. An Archaeology of Images: Iconology and Cosmology in Iron Age and Roman Europe. London: Taylor & Francis Routledge.
Boissinot P. 1998. La réinterprétation du sanctuaire de Roquepertuse. Archeologia 351:42-45.
Boissinot P. 2005. Roquepertuse : un lieu pour les ancêtres dans une bourgade ordinaire? L' Archéologue, Archéologie nouvelle 79:14-19.
Bouby L, Boissinot P, and Marinval P. 2011. Never Mind the Bottle: Archaeobotanical evidence of Beer-brewing in Mediterranean France and the consumption of alcoholic beverages during the 5th century BC. Human Ecology 39(3):351-360.
McCartney M. 2006. Finding Fear in the Iron Age Of Southern France. Journal of Conflict Archaeology 2(1):99-118.
