Latara

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Remnants of the foundations of the ancient settlement of Latara on the grounds of the Musée archéologique Henri-Prades

Latara (also Lattara ) is an ancient port city about five kilometers southeast of Montpellier . The area of ​​the former lagoon city roughly corresponds to that of today's Lattes .

Ancient sources

Latara was mentioned both by Pliny the Elder in his Historia naturalis (Volume IX, 9 and Volume IX, 29-32) and by the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela in his De Chorographia (II, 80). In addition, there are two inscriptions (from Saint-Sauveur and from Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone (Herault)) that mention Latara.

history

The settlement was built around the 6th century BC. Dated to the 2nd century AD and shows an Etruscan , Greek and Roman phase. The long-forgotten site was only brought to the light of the public again in 1963 when two students found ceramics.

archeology

The area has been intensively researched since 1983. For this purpose, the French state bought an area of ​​around 9 hectares and set up a research and training center for archeology here . Attached is the Musée archéologique Henry-Prades , which shows not only the finds from Latara but also those from the entire region.

During three excursions by the Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology at the Technical University of Braunschweig in 1987, 1991 and 1992, large parts of the site were surveyed using geoelectrical and geomagnetic methods.

Results of chemical analyzes of organic compounds on a limestone wine press from around 425–400 BC Chr. Represent the earliest archaeological evidence of wine culture in France. This supports the thesis that the import of Etruscan wine by ship to Latara was the decisive factor for the development of independent Celtic wine cultivation in southern France.

literature

  • J. Arnal, R. Majurel and H. Prades: Le port de Lattara. Institut International d'Études Ligures, Bordighera-Montpellier, 1974.
  • T. Janin and M. Py (eds.): Lattara (Lattes, Hérault) - nouveaux acquis, nouvelles questions sur une ville portuaire protohistorique et romaine. Gallia, 2008.
  • M. Py: Les Gaulois du Midi, de la fin de l'Âge du Bronze à la conquête romaine. Collection La mémoire du temps, Hachette, Paris 1993.
  • Geophysical work as well as messages from meteorology and astrophysics (GAMMA) No. 49 (70 p., 1989) and GAMMA 53, 55 p., 1995

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patrick E. McGovern et al .: Beginning of viniculture in France . In: National Academy of Sciences (Ed.): PNAS . tape 110 , no. 25 , June 18, 2013, p. 10147 ( online on PNAS website ).

Coordinates: 43 ° 34 '  N , 3 ° 54'  E