FONTVIEILLE
Bouches-du-Rhône, France.
Situated 9 km NE of Arles. In antiquity the area E of
Arles was covered with marshes in which a few tall
rocks formed islands. One of these is La Castelet, 2 km
SW of Fontvieille; it was occupied from the Bronze Age
on. The Phokaians of Marseille, moving toward the
Durance, made it a trading post which was very prosperous in the 6th and 5th c. B.C., as shown by the great
variety of pottery found on the site: Etruscan (bucchero nero), Ionian (with painted bands and a black
glaze), Aeolian (gray with incised bands), gray Phokaian, Attic (black- or red-figured) and micaceous Massaliot sherds. The indigenous glazed vases were inspired
by Greek models. A long period of decline ended with
the Roman conquest, and Le Castelet was abandoned.
Its latest pottery is Campanian A. All the material is
synchronous with that of the Greek finds of Marseille
and Arles. Deserted in the Gallo-Roman period, La Castelet was not occupied again until the Middle Ages when
the Benedictines settled on the nearby island of Montmajour. At Fontvieille the quarries of Las Taillades
provided stone for the amphitheater at Arles; two Roman
reliefs have been found there, the Altar of the Shell and
an apotropaic composition. In the surrounding area the
indigenous sanctuary of the Arcoule spring, at La Paradou (6 km E) has disappeared, as has the aqueduct of
the Roman mill of Barbegal (4 km 5). The remains of
a rutted road at the Mas du Prêcheur, 3 km N, mark
the Via Aurelia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gallia (1954) 430; (1960) 305; (1967)
403; (1969) 423.
H. MORESTIN
