Roquepertuse

It is located near the city of Velaux, north of Marseille 16 miles west of Aix-en-Provence, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southern France.

[1] The site was first recorded in the Bouches-du-Rhône civil statistics in 1824 when a partially buried statue of a cross-legged warrior was discovered in the garden of the parish priest.

[3] The accidental discovery of the first sculptures in the 19th century[4] triggered the first excavation of the site by Count Henry de Gérin-Ricard [fr].

A series of excavations then took place over the next ten years, from 1917 to 1927, and brought to light structures identified as a sanctuary attributed to the Celto-Ligures, initially dated to just before the Roman conquest.

The latest findings from various multidisciplinary studies[clarification needed] suggest that it was an agglomeration of about 0.5 hectares with a sanctuary to the north, as well as a bulwark for protection.