Introduction
By Southern Gaul, we mean Gallia Narbonensis (or Narbonensian Gaul) corresponding to today's Languedoc and Provence. In terms of functions, the cult sites or sacred places seem to fall into four major types with interweaving features:
Type one is characterised by hoards of metal and ceramic artefacts. Extent as from the end of the Bronze Age, these objects may be linked to naturalist cult practices. The degree of sacredness is difficult to define: in some cases a single object may have been preserved, in others several hoards have succeeded each other. Such practices were frequent during the Iron Age. Some sacralised water sites, such as Glanum (Saint-Rémy-de Provence) were endowed with significant developments.
Type two (the most common) corresponds to the appearance, in the early Iron Age, of anepigraphic stelae[1]. 400 instances have been recorded on some forty sites. It is broadly thought that these stelae were intended as offerings, whilst observing that such stelae were re-used in the building of fortifications or defensive works, to wit Glanum. Was their sacred nature preserved? The facts that some of the slabs were broken suggests otherwise. Conversely these stelae were never used for the purpose of private buildings. Hence, historians have inferred that the stelae were ritually inserted in the walls marking the boundaries of a new settlement.
Type three concerns sites where porticoes[2] were erected or re-erected. Contrary to a long-held contention, their origin is indigenous, not Mediterranean. They mark the integration of the sacred into urban development.
Type four: settlements that grew around or hard by a nemeton[3]. Such a space would be incorporated within the settlement as it was in Nîmes, Glanum and Roquepertuse.
