Southern France: An Oxford Archaeological Guide

Oxford University Press has published a series of archaeological guidebooks. Seven volumes have appeared: Greece, the Holy Land, Rome, Scotland, Southern France, Spain, and England. The series is edited by Barry Cunliffe, who is professor of European archaeology at Oxford University and one of the most famous British archaeologists. As a young man he took part in the excavations of Fishbourne Palace in southern England. The official guidebook about this site is written by him. He is also the author of the official guidebook about the Roman baths in Bath.

Henry Cleere was director of the Council for British Archaeology for 18 years. Since 1992, he has been a consultant for the International Council on Monuments and Sites located in Paris.

His archaeological guidebook for southern France covers 104 sites in five different regions and from six different historical periods. The five regions covered (in whole or partially) are Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrénées, Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence-Côte d’Azur, and Rhône-Alpes. The six historical periods are Palaeolithic time, Neolithic time, Bronze Age, Iron Age, the Greek colonial period, and the Gallo-Roman period.

The book begins with a historical introduction covering a number of relevant topics such as natural resources, communication, war and death (27 pages). The main section of the book with the 104 sites is divided into five chapters corresponding to the five regions. Within each chapter, the sites are listed in alphabetical order.

The book concludes with a chronological survey, a glossary, a list of museums and an annotated bibliography. There are two indexes. The first one covers the sites, the other one is a general index covering persons, topics, etc.

The book is illustrated with a number of black and white photographs and a number of drawings, partly maps of some cities, partly maps of some archaeological zones.

Scattered around the book there are 31 separate sidebars covering different topics that are relevant for archaeology and history in southern France, such as Roman baths, theatres, amphitheatres, and roads.

The description of individual sites varies a good deal. Barbégal, where you can see a rare example of Roman industry, gets only two pages. On the other hand, Orange gets four, Pont du Gard five and Vaison-la-Romaine seven.

In my opinion, the contents of this book are correct and relevant. I had it with me on a trip to southern France during which I had the opportunity to check its facts down to the smallest detail, and my general conclusion is that Henry Cleere has written an excellent guidebook; useful and reliable.

I like the annotated bibliography. Sometimes this is better than a long list of titles with no comments at all. Henry Cleere refers to maps and guidebooks from the French company Michelin. The so-called “Green” series for separate regions of France is available in several languages: French, German and English.

In addititon, he refers to the excellent series “Guides archéologiques de la France,” published by the French Ministry of Culture and often written by the archaeologist who was in charge of the excavations in question.

He fails to mention that most volumes in this series are sold out, but I know from personal experience that some copies still are available at some of the archaeological museums in France.

This is a good book, but in my opinion it is too compact. With 211 pages it is considerably shorter than other volumes in the same series. The volume about Spain has 328 pages, the volume about Rome has 464 pages, and the volume about England has no less than 493 pages. Why did Henry Cleere not write another 50 or 100 pages? Is it because he was too lazy? Or because he was not allowed to?

Sometimes his text is so compressed that he fails to provide the hard facts. Let me mention two examples:

(1) On pages 86-87 he writes about Maison Carrée in Nîmes, but he fails to give us the dimensions of this building. It is 15 meters wide, 26 meters long and 17 meters high. He also fails to give us the text of the Latin inscription that was once placed above the entrance. This text tells us that this building was a temple built in honour of Gajus and Lucius, adoptive sons of Augustus, who both died before him.

(2) On page 162 he writes about the monumental arch in Les Antiques near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, but again he fails to give us the dimensions of this building. It is 15.5 meters wide, 5.5 meters deep and 8.6 meters high. He does not mention or comment on the reliefs on the front or the back of this arch.

I noticed only two mistakes in this book, both of them are in the list of museums and both concern Arles (pages 197-200).

 

(A) He mentions Musée d'Art Chrétien in Rue Balze. But this museum has been closed for quite some time. Today it serves as the entrance to the subterranean gallery that was built under the town's forum.

(B) He fails to mention the new archaeological museum: Musée de l'Arles Antique, located in the western part of town, next to the Roman circus. This museum includes several collections that used to be in different museums in the town. Now they are all united under one roof. This beautiful museum, the pride of the town, opened in 1995. Why is it not listed in a book that was published in 2001? On this point, it seems, Henry Cleere is not quite up to date!

However, my overall impression is good, and therefore I can end this review with a recommendation: this book is worth reading before, during and after a trip to southern France.

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Henry Cleere,

Southern France:

An Oxford Archaeological Guide,

Oxford Paperbacks, 2001, 211 pages

 

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For more information about this topic see my blog:

 

The Roman Remains of Southern France

 

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