Riou Et Les Calanques Today
Ramblings of a Solitary Stroller
East of Eden
The Archipelago of Riou
Plane - Grand Conclu - Petit Conclu - Riou - Jarre - Jarron - Les Moyades -Les Impériaux
Plane - Grand Conclu - Petit Conclu - Riou - Jarre - Jarron - Les Moyades -Les Impériaux
8000 YEARS BP |
2500 YEARS BP |
2100 YEARS BP |
500 YEARS BP |
150 YEARS BP |
60 YEARS BP |
This web site is to document a discovery of an archaelogical site on the Island of Riou in 1962 by my father , Dr. Georges Albert.
He came to Marseille to do his military duty and fell in love with the region. He joined a hillclimbing club and started roaming the hills taking pictures around 1929.
He soon became a passionate "grimpeur", and as a member of the Club Alpin Français worked on doing descriptions of the hill climbs. The maps of the area were not adequate, so he became a surveyor and realized the 2 maps of the Massif de Marseilleveyre, and of the Massif de Puget. They are the base of the 2 books he wrote during the war , describing the hill climbs of the region called Les Calanques. The descriptions were supported by photographies. So many, that the book was too onerous to print and remained unpublished until today. You will find it under the "Escalades" section, and you will find the maps of the area in the "Cartes" section of the front page.
In Provence water is scarce. My father, who at the age of 10 had mapped with the gardener his family property near Lyon and recorded the 2 springs there, had noticed that the name of the cove on the island of Riou suggested the presence of a spring. "Fontagne", similar word , fontaine in French, fons,fontis in latin, obviously the word roots pointed to water.
The island is subjected to violent storms beginning in August, and the Puits des Chèvres on the other end of the island fills up with 2 feet of water. Simple hole in a clay depression, typical of the karstic limestone, surrounded by rocks put there, we thought, by the goat keepers who rented the island during the last five centuries. In the 15th century, in 1442 to be exact, Marseille built a house and a cistern for the watch guards, and that construction is located to the north of the peak called Pic Occidental at the end of the vallon de l'Aiglon. It collects the rain water which runs down the rocky face .
He came to Marseille to do his military duty and fell in love with the region. He joined a hillclimbing club and started roaming the hills taking pictures around 1929.
He soon became a passionate "grimpeur", and as a member of the Club Alpin Français worked on doing descriptions of the hill climbs. The maps of the area were not adequate, so he became a surveyor and realized the 2 maps of the Massif de Marseilleveyre, and of the Massif de Puget. They are the base of the 2 books he wrote during the war , describing the hill climbs of the region called Les Calanques. The descriptions were supported by photographies. So many, that the book was too onerous to print and remained unpublished until today. You will find it under the "Escalades" section, and you will find the maps of the area in the "Cartes" section of the front page.
In Provence water is scarce. My father, who at the age of 10 had mapped with the gardener his family property near Lyon and recorded the 2 springs there, had noticed that the name of the cove on the island of Riou suggested the presence of a spring. "Fontagne", similar word , fontaine in French, fons,fontis in latin, obviously the word roots pointed to water.
The island is subjected to violent storms beginning in August, and the Puits des Chèvres on the other end of the island fills up with 2 feet of water. Simple hole in a clay depression, typical of the karstic limestone, surrounded by rocks put there, we thought, by the goat keepers who rented the island during the last five centuries. In the 15th century, in 1442 to be exact, Marseille built a house and a cistern for the watch guards, and that construction is located to the north of the peak called Pic Occidental at the end of the vallon de l'Aiglon. It collects the rain water which runs down the rocky face .
During the summer of 1962 my father was restoring the above cistern on the island of Riou , when a storm filled it with 3 feet of water. As he could not carry on with his work, he decided to go check on a hole he had started to dig in the cove of Fontagne, near a wall made of dry stones. Water had also collected in that hole during the rainstorm, so he dug it up and restored it too. He found some potsherds and showed them to Fernand Benoit, who had been the top archaeologist in Marseille since the war. Benoit told him the bits were massaliote pottery from 600 BC. By then he was surveying the area, and recorded the steps of his digging.So he crossed out the name he had chosen Fontaine des Romains and wrote Fontaine des Grecs
The discovery happened as I was leaving for the USA to indulge in my passion for automobile racing.
I never was really involved, but for the occasional find of the collar of a massaliote amphora , which I retrieved while snorkelling in the cove of Fontagne.
When my father passed away in 1991 , I hung his maps in the living room, and stored away a box of artifacts in the cellar, and all his notebooks in a plastic container. The islands were bought by the Conservatoire du Littoral and quickly were made off-limit to the public. I was content enough to watch my island and to take pictures of oustanding sunsets and storms.
I never was really involved, but for the occasional find of the collar of a massaliote amphora , which I retrieved while snorkelling in the cove of Fontagne.
When my father passed away in 1991 , I hung his maps in the living room, and stored away a box of artifacts in the cellar, and all his notebooks in a plastic container. The islands were bought by the Conservatoire du Littoral and quickly were made off-limit to the public. I was content enough to watch my island and to take pictures of oustanding sunsets and storms.
and one of my favorites with the sun setting on the ninth of september behind the lighthouse of Planier which is a true island of the Bay of Marseille
We were still very much involved in racing in F1 and Offshore, when 5 years after losing my father I also lost my husband Peter Weismann.
My life went on for a while, mainly in Offshore thanks to my dear friend from my Ferrari years,
Dott. Ingegnere Carlo Chiti, who also passed away.
My sons Christopher and Patrick took over my business. My passions had run their courses.
One day, I received a fax from my mother asking if she could give the map of Riou to the guard of the Conservatoire du Littoral who wanted to scan it. I said okay on one condition, to be taken to the island, for my memories were fading and I could not make much sense of the 50 pages and drawings my dad had written to relate his work during 4 years. Little did I know that it would spin me towards archaeology .
True to his word , Alain Mante took me to the island in 2003. Impressed by my father's maps , he wanted to set-up an exhibit, and looking for support he came to my home with Mr. Drocourt, architect of the Atelier du Patrimoine, and Lucien- François Gantes , municipal archaeologist of the town of Marseille.
I took out the potsherds, cleaned them a little, set them up on the terrace.
On arrival, LF Gantes took one look at them and said "It is what we have: Dressel 7/11 from -50 to +50."
From the bottom of my ignorance I had to ask what was a dressel 7/11 and I was told that during 100 years there was on the island a tuna fishing industry using that particular type of amphorae.
When I protested that Benoit himself had pronounced the sherds to be greek/massaliote from the 6th century BC, Gantes replied that Benoit did not care for the Romans, and preferred that everything be Greek!
Later while discussing the skeleton, I explained that Mr Charles of the Anthropology Museum of Paris had identified him as a Macedonian about 35 years of age, about 400 to 600 years old, Gantes told me impatiently: "These are post-war theories. One cannot deduce the race by the shape of a skull..
In one afternoon he had trashed the conclusions of his distinguished colleagues!!
It did not bother me, but it was throwing a rock in my pond: Having found in my father's notebooks the story of the discovery of the Fons, I was thinking about having it published. There were some erroneous stories going around, and I wanted to put an end to them since I had the document. I was also intrigued by the fact that Gantes picking up a handle declared it to be from Betique, another to be Dressel 2/4. Things had changed since 1962 and the potsherds could be identified.. I asked LF Gantes if he would help me identify them, and he kindly accepted.
I started off by putting 77 pages on the floor one per tesson (artifact) , numbered them, drew them, in an attempt to get familiar with them. When I went to the Atelier du Patrimoine in Marseille, LFG showed me a drawer full of bits , similar to mine, but from the other cove, and then proceeded to give me a quick course and some drawing tricks. He suggested I'd buy the book "Amphores..comment les identifier" written by Martine Sciallano,diver and conservateur of the Museum of Istres.
Not wanting to tire my new contact I had not taken all of the artifacts. I gathered another bunch and went to Istres. Frederic Marty, young ceramic expert was put to the test, then Martine Sciallano joined us and they identified some handles as coming from Tarraconaise and Lusitania, one bit being a mortar, another a roof tile rather "recent". The Museum, small but stuffed with amphorae is a jewel. The building dates from the XVIIth century. Lots of books to buy, Ms Sciallano being very active in presenting exhibits. I picked "20000 Pots sous les Mers" because it was set-up like Jules Verne's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea with Gustave Doré's illustrations. It had nothing to do with the Greeks or the Romans, but was about an exposition of glazed pottery from Mediterranean wrecks.
By the end of 2004, I was beginning to have a serious collection of books, including les Etudes Massaliètes, and I was discovering my home town past.
After the war, Fernand Benoit was the big boss of archaeology. The Germans had done him a favor by blowing up the old town in Marseille: Scared by the slash-your-throat look of the place, they kicked everybody out and blew up the middle-age section choosing to leave one building standing in a show of culture (?!) or maybe explosive precision. Unfortunately for Benoit, he could not leisurely have a go at finding the greek settlement. Reconstruction had to happen. But he did find the theater, the roman docks, a huge ionic capital re-employed in the docks, maybe a relic of the temples mentionned by Strabon?
While my father came from Lyon, my maternal family was from the agora of Marseille and like many marseillais had a cabanon in a small fishing village of Les Goudes, where the road around the bay runs into the superb white rocky hills called Le Massif des Calanques.
Around 1952, a friend of ours from Les Goudes, Gaston Cristianini was fishing with the help of a new invention: air bottles. He found a spot full of amphorae near the islands of the Grand and Petit Conclu or Congloué. He was diving deep , and was victim of the bends. The French Navy had a caisson in Toulon but from what I am told, some time passed before he was taken there, and he remained paralyzed from the waist down. His discovery was taken over by Cousteau and Benoit. The Calypso was anchored over the wreck. It was the beginning of underwater archaeology, the commercialization of the aqualung, and the making of Cousteau Superstar.
Benoit was now overwhelmed with artifacts from the sea time-capsules . He was having to rethink many things, and as his student Jean Courtin explained his style, he went at it with a shovel, and not with a brush like they do today. So he made big mistakes: he did not fathom that the wood they found in the wreck was not the deck of the roman ship , but the bottom of another wreck which had settled down on top of the other one, some 100 years later, mixing up the artifacts, and sending Benoit to the wrong conclusion that the land dated ceramics were mistakenly dated. So what! He was inventing methods, conceiving new ideas about trade. He does not need as a feather in his cap to be called the inventor of the Conclu wreck.
Gaston Cristianini is the man who found it. Without him all this would still be at the bottom of the sea covered with barnacles. Unsung hero of underwater archaeology, Gaston after his accident went back to scuba diving. He would shuffle across the square throwing his legs around in order to walk to the harbor and reach his boat "Joie de vivre" .. A smile from ear to ear, in his wet suit, this is how I remember him.
Towards the end of 2004, I told Alain that I was done with my artifacts , and that I had just about decided to set-up a website rather than try to find a publisher. He asked me if I was interested in identifying their collection. His staff visits the islands regularly to tag the endangered species of birds, and they find bits and pieces. They collect them to eventually pass them onto Gantes. I said yes before I looked at them..!
I was also taking a course " Introduction to Archaeology" in a local college near my home in California. Dr. Breece , who had worked at Lascaux, did not talk much about the Greeks. I wanted to eventually be able to participate in a dig, so I did enjoy his course about prospecting, about the archaïc indian societies who left kjoekken-moddings near my home by the Back Bay of Newport Beach. An artifact found there by my kids turned out to be a scrapper. We had an outing with archaeologists friends on the trails of Shoshone Indians once, found some quartz, some metate.
My father whose ancestors came from Limousin and Haute Vienne had taken us to Les Eyzies, on a trip back from the 24 hours of Le Mans. Mocking his sister who was deeply involved in the genealogy of the Albert family, he told us that Cromagnon was our real ancestor. And of course with Lascaux, Chauvet and Cosquer, the paleolithics are the stars in France. Not so much in the US, especially with Cosquer. I must admit that when I heard there were drawings of penguins, the thought crossed my mind that it was an histoire Marseillaise! (The Marseillais are always accused of exaggerating their accounts to make them more interesting to the audience). And of course Cosquer did not reveal his findings for 5 years which made it look suspicious for the wrong reasons. The polemic that surrounded the anouncement, the difficulties of entering the cave seem to have left a bad taste to every body. I will come back to this later.
So here I was, really concerned about finding as much as possible about the Massaliotes, and I was forced to learn about other cultures. But in my horizon was looming a person which the French call "incontournable", meaning you can't get around him and you find him everywhere. He had done digs on the island just after the time my father ended his work there, he had written papers about the sea level, he was the master of Cosquer.
My life went on for a while, mainly in Offshore thanks to my dear friend from my Ferrari years,
Dott. Ingegnere Carlo Chiti, who also passed away.
My sons Christopher and Patrick took over my business. My passions had run their courses.
One day, I received a fax from my mother asking if she could give the map of Riou to the guard of the Conservatoire du Littoral who wanted to scan it. I said okay on one condition, to be taken to the island, for my memories were fading and I could not make much sense of the 50 pages and drawings my dad had written to relate his work during 4 years. Little did I know that it would spin me towards archaeology .
True to his word , Alain Mante took me to the island in 2003. Impressed by my father's maps , he wanted to set-up an exhibit, and looking for support he came to my home with Mr. Drocourt, architect of the Atelier du Patrimoine, and Lucien- François Gantes , municipal archaeologist of the town of Marseille.
I took out the potsherds, cleaned them a little, set them up on the terrace.
On arrival, LF Gantes took one look at them and said "It is what we have: Dressel 7/11 from -50 to +50."
From the bottom of my ignorance I had to ask what was a dressel 7/11 and I was told that during 100 years there was on the island a tuna fishing industry using that particular type of amphorae.
When I protested that Benoit himself had pronounced the sherds to be greek/massaliote from the 6th century BC, Gantes replied that Benoit did not care for the Romans, and preferred that everything be Greek!
Later while discussing the skeleton, I explained that Mr Charles of the Anthropology Museum of Paris had identified him as a Macedonian about 35 years of age, about 400 to 600 years old, Gantes told me impatiently: "These are post-war theories. One cannot deduce the race by the shape of a skull..
In one afternoon he had trashed the conclusions of his distinguished colleagues!!
It did not bother me, but it was throwing a rock in my pond: Having found in my father's notebooks the story of the discovery of the Fons, I was thinking about having it published. There were some erroneous stories going around, and I wanted to put an end to them since I had the document. I was also intrigued by the fact that Gantes picking up a handle declared it to be from Betique, another to be Dressel 2/4. Things had changed since 1962 and the potsherds could be identified.. I asked LF Gantes if he would help me identify them, and he kindly accepted.
I started off by putting 77 pages on the floor one per tesson (artifact) , numbered them, drew them, in an attempt to get familiar with them. When I went to the Atelier du Patrimoine in Marseille, LFG showed me a drawer full of bits , similar to mine, but from the other cove, and then proceeded to give me a quick course and some drawing tricks. He suggested I'd buy the book "Amphores..comment les identifier" written by Martine Sciallano,diver and conservateur of the Museum of Istres.
Not wanting to tire my new contact I had not taken all of the artifacts. I gathered another bunch and went to Istres. Frederic Marty, young ceramic expert was put to the test, then Martine Sciallano joined us and they identified some handles as coming from Tarraconaise and Lusitania, one bit being a mortar, another a roof tile rather "recent". The Museum, small but stuffed with amphorae is a jewel. The building dates from the XVIIth century. Lots of books to buy, Ms Sciallano being very active in presenting exhibits. I picked "20000 Pots sous les Mers" because it was set-up like Jules Verne's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea with Gustave Doré's illustrations. It had nothing to do with the Greeks or the Romans, but was about an exposition of glazed pottery from Mediterranean wrecks.
By the end of 2004, I was beginning to have a serious collection of books, including les Etudes Massaliètes, and I was discovering my home town past.
After the war, Fernand Benoit was the big boss of archaeology. The Germans had done him a favor by blowing up the old town in Marseille: Scared by the slash-your-throat look of the place, they kicked everybody out and blew up the middle-age section choosing to leave one building standing in a show of culture (?!) or maybe explosive precision. Unfortunately for Benoit, he could not leisurely have a go at finding the greek settlement. Reconstruction had to happen. But he did find the theater, the roman docks, a huge ionic capital re-employed in the docks, maybe a relic of the temples mentionned by Strabon?
While my father came from Lyon, my maternal family was from the agora of Marseille and like many marseillais had a cabanon in a small fishing village of Les Goudes, where the road around the bay runs into the superb white rocky hills called Le Massif des Calanques.
Around 1952, a friend of ours from Les Goudes, Gaston Cristianini was fishing with the help of a new invention: air bottles. He found a spot full of amphorae near the islands of the Grand and Petit Conclu or Congloué. He was diving deep , and was victim of the bends. The French Navy had a caisson in Toulon but from what I am told, some time passed before he was taken there, and he remained paralyzed from the waist down. His discovery was taken over by Cousteau and Benoit. The Calypso was anchored over the wreck. It was the beginning of underwater archaeology, the commercialization of the aqualung, and the making of Cousteau Superstar.
Benoit was now overwhelmed with artifacts from the sea time-capsules . He was having to rethink many things, and as his student Jean Courtin explained his style, he went at it with a shovel, and not with a brush like they do today. So he made big mistakes: he did not fathom that the wood they found in the wreck was not the deck of the roman ship , but the bottom of another wreck which had settled down on top of the other one, some 100 years later, mixing up the artifacts, and sending Benoit to the wrong conclusion that the land dated ceramics were mistakenly dated. So what! He was inventing methods, conceiving new ideas about trade. He does not need as a feather in his cap to be called the inventor of the Conclu wreck.
Gaston Cristianini is the man who found it. Without him all this would still be at the bottom of the sea covered with barnacles. Unsung hero of underwater archaeology, Gaston after his accident went back to scuba diving. He would shuffle across the square throwing his legs around in order to walk to the harbor and reach his boat "Joie de vivre" .. A smile from ear to ear, in his wet suit, this is how I remember him.
Towards the end of 2004, I told Alain that I was done with my artifacts , and that I had just about decided to set-up a website rather than try to find a publisher. He asked me if I was interested in identifying their collection. His staff visits the islands regularly to tag the endangered species of birds, and they find bits and pieces. They collect them to eventually pass them onto Gantes. I said yes before I looked at them..!
I was also taking a course " Introduction to Archaeology" in a local college near my home in California. Dr. Breece , who had worked at Lascaux, did not talk much about the Greeks. I wanted to eventually be able to participate in a dig, so I did enjoy his course about prospecting, about the archaïc indian societies who left kjoekken-moddings near my home by the Back Bay of Newport Beach. An artifact found there by my kids turned out to be a scrapper. We had an outing with archaeologists friends on the trails of Shoshone Indians once, found some quartz, some metate.
My father whose ancestors came from Limousin and Haute Vienne had taken us to Les Eyzies, on a trip back from the 24 hours of Le Mans. Mocking his sister who was deeply involved in the genealogy of the Albert family, he told us that Cromagnon was our real ancestor. And of course with Lascaux, Chauvet and Cosquer, the paleolithics are the stars in France. Not so much in the US, especially with Cosquer. I must admit that when I heard there were drawings of penguins, the thought crossed my mind that it was an histoire Marseillaise! (The Marseillais are always accused of exaggerating their accounts to make them more interesting to the audience). And of course Cosquer did not reveal his findings for 5 years which made it look suspicious for the wrong reasons. The polemic that surrounded the anouncement, the difficulties of entering the cave seem to have left a bad taste to every body. I will come back to this later.
So here I was, really concerned about finding as much as possible about the Massaliotes, and I was forced to learn about other cultures. But in my horizon was looming a person which the French call "incontournable", meaning you can't get around him and you find him everywhere. He had done digs on the island just after the time my father ended his work there, he had written papers about the sea level, he was the master of Cosquer.
Jean Courtin was THE expert in neolithics, way up on the totem pole of the south of France archaeology. I had to meet him!
LF Gantes told me that he was retired and a recluse in his farm in Haute Provence .
In class at OCC in Los Angeles, I requested a video about Cosquer, and for the first time saw Jean Courtin, sitting at the back of the boat, shoulder to shoulder with Henri Cosquer, the two of them in wet suits, two burly guys, with a beard, in front of the cliff which towers 160 feet over the entrance of the cave . In that video Jean Clottes was the narrator, watching the "dig" on a TV screen.
Dr. Breece mentionned Jean Clottes was in California giving a lecture on Chauvet. I went there, and asked for Courtin's adress. I carefully composed a letter as I was ready to head back to France for the summer.
Meanwhile, Alain's tessons were starting to be a problem: They were pretty much all glazed , and when I suggested taking them to LF Gantes , he bowed out saying he was out of his league and I needed to go to Aix en Provence to the library at the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences Humaines! And had I read the book which had just come out "Les Iles Côte à côte" ? Strabon, a greek geographer ( born in 63 BC in Turkey) mentions the Stoechaedes Islands , but there are quite a few groups of islands which could fit the name. The book deals with all the french archipelagoes along the coast of Southern France, the archipel de Riou included, and thought to be the small Stoechaedes. The big ones being in front of Hyères and Olbia the Massalia military outpost.
The island of Maïre is very likely the Immadras Positio, a positio normally being a cape or a place to anchor , but as I discovered this year, when you arrive from Italy, Maïre is not detached from the mainland and looks very prominent. This view from a remaining farossium of Cape Sicié near Toulon. The foreground is the site of another Massalia military outpost Taureis, now Le Brusc and the islands of Les Embiez.
LF Gantes told me that he was retired and a recluse in his farm in Haute Provence .
In class at OCC in Los Angeles, I requested a video about Cosquer, and for the first time saw Jean Courtin, sitting at the back of the boat, shoulder to shoulder with Henri Cosquer, the two of them in wet suits, two burly guys, with a beard, in front of the cliff which towers 160 feet over the entrance of the cave . In that video Jean Clottes was the narrator, watching the "dig" on a TV screen.
Dr. Breece mentionned Jean Clottes was in California giving a lecture on Chauvet. I went there, and asked for Courtin's adress. I carefully composed a letter as I was ready to head back to France for the summer.
Meanwhile, Alain's tessons were starting to be a problem: They were pretty much all glazed , and when I suggested taking them to LF Gantes , he bowed out saying he was out of his league and I needed to go to Aix en Provence to the library at the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences Humaines! And had I read the book which had just come out "Les Iles Côte à côte" ? Strabon, a greek geographer ( born in 63 BC in Turkey) mentions the Stoechaedes Islands , but there are quite a few groups of islands which could fit the name. The book deals with all the french archipelagoes along the coast of Southern France, the archipel de Riou included, and thought to be the small Stoechaedes. The big ones being in front of Hyères and Olbia the Massalia military outpost.
The island of Maïre is very likely the Immadras Positio, a positio normally being a cape or a place to anchor , but as I discovered this year, when you arrive from Italy, Maïre is not detached from the mainland and looks very prominent. This view from a remaining farossium of Cape Sicié near Toulon. The foreground is the site of another Massalia military outpost Taureis, now Le Brusc and the islands of Les Embiez.
I bought the book, read it, I also read 20,000 Pots sous les Mers trying to identify some of the tessons found near the watch tower of Riou. Taking a walk around my home I saw a piece of clay with a green glaze similar to what I had been looking at , and when I looked up I saw a wall made of dry stones. Clambering to it, I found what look like the base of a guard tower, and when I emerged through the pine trees covering it, I could see Riou! I was so excited one would think I had just met Harrison Ford in Jurassic Park. Same pottery, same towers, round, 4m in diameter, I had just read in Bouillon-Landais that windmills, watch towers were build that way until the 16th century. Could it be a watch tower from 1300 on?
18 th century pitchers (Port d'Alon left), (Riou right)
Some of the tessons from Riou looked like petals of a daisy. It looked like a 13th century bowl on 20000 Pots. I made an appointment to see Jean-Christophe Treglia at the MMSH, and took off to Aix en Provence. While walking through the lobbies in search of the library, I realized the names near each door were the authors of the articles I had just read in Les Iles Côte à Côte. Seeing the potsherds, J-C Treglia took me to meet Lucy Vallauri of the LAMM: She turned out to be one of the authors of 20,000 Pots and of many other books of the many exhibits she had realized, and of emergency digs.
No, my piece was not 13th century, it was 16th century pisan import, with A Stecca decoration, but another one was 14th century rosé pisan, and my green emerald pots? local 18th century. I was so impressed I had to buy some of her books, and I ended up carrying home one about white and blue tiles used to decorate fireplaces!
Reading it I recognized I actually owned 2 of them, from 1750 , made in the Montpellier area. These 2 tiles framed in steel had been in my great grand-mother kitchen before being relegated in our cabanon in Les Goudes, until I picked them up for my own kitchen.
That year when I arrived in Port d'Alon there was a 3-page letter from the recluse Jean Courtin giving me all sorts of exciting details about his work, the bulletin he had published years ago about the dating of what he had found on the island, recommendations on where to find the pot which made Riou the most ancient neolithic site in Southern Provence.
No, my piece was not 13th century, it was 16th century pisan import, with A Stecca decoration, but another one was 14th century rosé pisan, and my green emerald pots? local 18th century. I was so impressed I had to buy some of her books, and I ended up carrying home one about white and blue tiles used to decorate fireplaces!
Reading it I recognized I actually owned 2 of them, from 1750 , made in the Montpellier area. These 2 tiles framed in steel had been in my great grand-mother kitchen before being relegated in our cabanon in Les Goudes, until I picked them up for my own kitchen.
That year when I arrived in Port d'Alon there was a 3-page letter from the recluse Jean Courtin giving me all sorts of exciting details about his work, the bulletin he had published years ago about the dating of what he had found on the island, recommendations on where to find the pot which made Riou the most ancient neolithic site in Southern Provence.
Ornementation of this pot is made with the shell of the cardium, which has given its name to the Cardial Culture( Palais Longchamps - Musée d'Histoire Naturelle)
Grinding stones found in La Sabliere
Culture( Palais Longchamps - Musée d'Histoire Naturelle)
Culture( Palais Longchamps - Musée d'Histoire Naturelle)
Looking to volunteer for a dig I went to meet some PHD students near the Cap Couronne where one can see the remnants of a quarry used by the Greeks of Massalia to build their ramparts.
The young woman played docent around the neolithic site dug by Escalon de Fonton, and suggested that I leave them to their fine dig and go visit the Musée de Chateauneuf Les Martigues.
The Museum is in a castle which belonged to the Seytres before the revolution, has an extensive geological collection, but also some artifacts right out of 20,000 Pots under the sea, where I found the metallic luster from Valenza I had discussed with JC Treglia the week before. Near by, is a neolithic dig done by Jean Courtin, l'Abri des Pigeons.
Back to Les Goudes I could not see Mante to tell him where I was at with his artefacts.
I went to the Pastré Musée de la Faience in the hope of finding some common pitchers next to their beautiful collection of XVIIth century provencal ceramics. I had forgotten the first room where I now was finding a treasure: Cardial pots, Massaliete amphorae, roman amphorae, pitchers, plates made locally by the workshops of l'Atelier de l'Huveaune..
The Museum is in a castle which belonged to the Seytres before the revolution, has an extensive geological collection, but also some artifacts right out of 20,000 Pots under the sea, where I found the metallic luster from Valenza I had discussed with JC Treglia the week before. Near by, is a neolithic dig done by Jean Courtin, l'Abri des Pigeons.
Back to Les Goudes I could not see Mante to tell him where I was at with his artefacts.
I went to the Pastré Musée de la Faience in the hope of finding some common pitchers next to their beautiful collection of XVIIth century provencal ceramics. I had forgotten the first room where I now was finding a treasure: Cardial pots, Massaliete amphorae, roman amphorae, pitchers, plates made locally by the workshops of l'Atelier de l'Huveaune..
So close to what can be found on Riou, I felt I was finally getting somewhere. Forever a student, I was really enjoying myself . I was meeting passionate people, I was getting a grasp of the history of the island which was becoming more personal and so alive. My only regret was not to be able to discuss it with my father. When I was reading about his disappointment about the cistern filling up with brackish water, I found myself wishing I could tell him that the tessons were serving to put fish in salt, so a little more a little less.. and also that these guys were going to the other end of the island looking for water, and that right across la Grande Candelle, his domain of the 50s, there was a miraculous cave full of paintings, and from there, at the time of the Cromagnons one could go to Riou on foot.
Everything in its own time.. 25 years ago I could not have envisioned doing a web site to publish his work. Marvel of technology.. in 3 years I have come from ignorance to confusion. I have had to struggle with digital photography, archaeology, learning websites, reading tens of books.
At least I can correct my mistakes as I go along.
I hear my father say :" It is not necessary to hope to start working, nor to succeed to persevere"! Tough program, but all I need is to look out of my window to find the most extraordinary boost there is
Everything in its own time.. 25 years ago I could not have envisioned doing a web site to publish his work. Marvel of technology.. in 3 years I have come from ignorance to confusion. I have had to struggle with digital photography, archaeology, learning websites, reading tens of books.
At least I can correct my mistakes as I go along.
I hear my father say :" It is not necessary to hope to start working, nor to succeed to persevere"! Tough program, but all I need is to look out of my window to find the most extraordinary boost there is
(Cliché M.Weismann) Riou sunrise
Navire de Pierre Ancré dans le Mistral (Jean Courtin)
Stone Ship anchored in the Mistral
Navire de Pierre Ancré dans le Mistral (Jean Courtin)
Stone Ship anchored in the Mistral
When I was in Dearborn working for Ford, this post card of Riou was facing me above my desk.
My island in the sun was the only thing I missed while I was discovering America.
Riou is beautiful, but not very generous.
It is an island in the sun, but there is a shadowy side imposed by man .
It seems quite close, but it has a tough side . It is full of extremes, without being very big.
There is a beautiful beach of blond sand, but also some breathtaking cliffs,
sweet-smelling lilies and bare , sun baked, dazzling white urgonian sandstone.
30000 years ago when it was attached to the continent, it was just another hill,
but now as an island she is unique and lovely.
My island in the sun was the only thing I missed while I was discovering America.
Riou is beautiful, but not very generous.
It is an island in the sun, but there is a shadowy side imposed by man .
It seems quite close, but it has a tough side . It is full of extremes, without being very big.
There is a beautiful beach of blond sand, but also some breathtaking cliffs,
sweet-smelling lilies and bare , sun baked, dazzling white urgonian sandstone.
30000 years ago when it was attached to the continent, it was just another hill,
but now as an island she is unique and lovely.
This is the fabulous cove of the island: La plage du Vallon de l'Aiglon
8000 years BP On Riou, The Campers of la Sablière
Alain Mante never passes an opportunity to talk with people who have had something to do with Riou. He also is curious to find out who constructed the various dry-stone walls on the island and when. He was interested in my father's map, because it names different points. The region is quite poor, and difficult to reach, but it is not very far from the first city built in France 2600 years ago by the greeks from Phokaia , now Foça in Turkey. There was a lot of trade going on by boat, right through the Roman times, a lot of pirating all the way trough the Middle Ages until the 19th century, a lot of exploiting the meager ressources right through the 19th century.
Because of their strategic positions the islands have been used as look-outs from the time of the Greeks. But during the last Ice age, when the sea level was 120 meters down from where it is today, the area was part of the continent, the trees were pines and silver birch, the fauna was horses, bisons, deer and penguins. This is when the entrance of the Cosquer Cave was in the open air and the Cromagons were hunting nearby, traveling on foot between Cosquer and Riou which must have look like La Grande Candelle looks today with its feet in the waters of the Calanque of Morgiou.
In the 19th century when Napoleon III started the modernisation of french cities, the sand of the Calanques area was exploited to the rock. On Riou 2 hollows were scrapped bare, and in doing so, the workmen came across some skeletons. They were rather tall and had some big white teeth, so they were labelled British and probably were tossed into the sea, the British having been a pain in the neck in the area , pirating, occupying towns, seizing cargo, etc.. One of Bonaparte's first job had been to kick them out of Toulon when he was still a young general. On Riou, la Calanque des Anglais is on the South side of the island, next to the Cape of Smugglers.
E. Fournier who was one of the first scientists in the area around 1860, came across some more bones, which he identified as Cromagnon. To the East close to a lime kiln, maybe used by the builders of the massive ramp which allowed them to take the sand all the way to the barges, there is the site where Dr Capitan found what he thought were Egyptian flints, under roman, greek and neolithic artifacts. Jean Courtin found some grinding stones and some storage jars and a ceramic pot decorated with a cardium shell. Snails, patella nearby, established the site as the oldest one in Southern Provence.
Because of their strategic positions the islands have been used as look-outs from the time of the Greeks. But during the last Ice age, when the sea level was 120 meters down from where it is today, the area was part of the continent, the trees were pines and silver birch, the fauna was horses, bisons, deer and penguins. This is when the entrance of the Cosquer Cave was in the open air and the Cromagons were hunting nearby, traveling on foot between Cosquer and Riou which must have look like La Grande Candelle looks today with its feet in the waters of the Calanque of Morgiou.
In the 19th century when Napoleon III started the modernisation of french cities, the sand of the Calanques area was exploited to the rock. On Riou 2 hollows were scrapped bare, and in doing so, the workmen came across some skeletons. They were rather tall and had some big white teeth, so they were labelled British and probably were tossed into the sea, the British having been a pain in the neck in the area , pirating, occupying towns, seizing cargo, etc.. One of Bonaparte's first job had been to kick them out of Toulon when he was still a young general. On Riou, la Calanque des Anglais is on the South side of the island, next to the Cape of Smugglers.
E. Fournier who was one of the first scientists in the area around 1860, came across some more bones, which he identified as Cromagnon. To the East close to a lime kiln, maybe used by the builders of the massive ramp which allowed them to take the sand all the way to the barges, there is the site where Dr Capitan found what he thought were Egyptian flints, under roman, greek and neolithic artifacts. Jean Courtin found some grinding stones and some storage jars and a ceramic pot decorated with a cardium shell. Snails, patella nearby, established the site as the oldest one in Southern Provence.
5000 years ago, men and women were breaking this jar and cooking over this campfire !
What is amazing to me, is that if you find 5 bits they all seem to belong to a different pot. Obviously the hunters-gatherers who came to live on the sandy hollow stayed for a while, cultivating lentils, garbanzo beans.
All which follows is a small sample of what has been communicated by Jean Courtin.
What is amazing to me, is that if you find 5 bits they all seem to belong to a different pot. Obviously the hunters-gatherers who came to live on the sandy hollow stayed for a while, cultivating lentils, garbanzo beans.
All which follows is a small sample of what has been communicated by Jean Courtin.
Even with a small piece , one is amazed to find out that size is always important, and the reinforcements can be ingenious and artistic at the same time.
Decoration of the reinforcing coil, which helps making it adhere to the pot.
2 bits of flint collected by Jacques Collina-Girard, MMSH geologist and diver
Top left fossilized eggshell found by Alain Mante.. to each, his own area of expertise!
When I first met LF Gantes, Alain gave him the heel of a stone ax made of polished green stone he had found in a rabbit hole. LF Gantes remarked pleasantly: "Where would the archaeologist be without the rabbits". I never thougth of taking a picture then , so I am borrowing pictures from Jean Courtin
Top left fossilized eggshell found by Alain Mante.. to each, his own area of expertise!
When I first met LF Gantes, Alain gave him the heel of a stone ax made of polished green stone he had found in a rabbit hole. LF Gantes remarked pleasantly: "Where would the archaeologist be without the rabbits". I never thougth of taking a picture then , so I am borrowing pictures from Jean Courtin
2012: We have had an update due to prospections of the sites by a group of archaeologists under the direction of Ingrid Senepart, disciple of Jean Courtin .
In the Small Sabliere , we found a piece of a pot and 2 small handles she recognized as cardial . The intense color of the clay brings to mind the island clay, which has a high content of hematite
In the Small Sabliere , we found a piece of a pot and 2 small handles she recognized as cardial . The intense color of the clay brings to mind the island clay, which has a high content of hematite
The remnants of a dinner were not near the pot, but on the other valley. Only one patella ferruginea was found transported further down, by the rainfall which uncovered the artefacts
The ferruginea is extinct in the south of France, but can be found much bigger than this in Algeria, and I am told in Portugal
The ferruginea is extinct in the south of France, but can be found much bigger than this in Algeria, and I am told in Portugal
2500 Years ago a boat like this one
did drop this amphora collar in that very spot
The collar is authentic. The boat : a replica of Odysseus' boat (older by about 1000 years) came this year (2009) from Foça in 57 days, and should go back to Istambul via the Danube.
This type of amphora was made by the inhabitants of Massalia between -500 and -200. This one was found in the cove of Fontagne pictured above, but some bits can be found all the way to the Puits des Chèvres , the water hole on the other side of the island.
This type of amphora was made by the inhabitants of Massalia between -500 and -200. This one was found in the cove of Fontagne pictured above, but some bits can be found all the way to the Puits des Chèvres , the water hole on the other side of the island.
2100 Years ago the Tuna Fishermen
who were feeding the Roman Legions
were drawing Water from the Water Hole in Fontagne
Near the golden beach of Riou is the site of a fishing industry that lasted at least 100 years around the beginning of the first millenium. The 20th century destruction of the cabins erected on the site have helped to hide the artefacts among the roof tiles and bricks. But one can still find some tuna vertebrae of an epoch when amphorae were wide-collared in order to be filled with fish and salt.
La Provincia of the Romans was experiencing an economic boom due to the settling of veterans along the paved roads leading to the riches of Spain and the north. The Romans loved and needed a lot of fish and the accompanying sauce made of marinated innards. Broken bits of amphorae are all around the cove. At least one of them was used in the construction of the cabins 18 centuries later. It belongs to a Dressel 20 which was an oil amphora made in Spain.
I have related how I heard the name of Dressel for the first time.
This german archaeologist studying amphorae in Rome made a list of 45 different styles and give them some numbers.For example, a Dressel 1A is an italian amphora to transport wine from -200 -100 , the variation Dr1B follows in the years -100 à -25.
As I was still looking for fieldwork I came across ArchaeoSpain offering 2 weeks of digging on the Testaccio in Rome
In "Amphores comment les identifier" I had read that Dressel had worked on a hill made out entirely of broken amphorae, called Testaccio in the heart of Rome. Some 25 millions amphorae were piled up there! Forget the museums.. I would most certainly find there the 45 types he identified even in pieces.
I had been puzzled by the different view points on the use of amphorae. Some would call them disposable containers, other recyclable. It was obvious that for people coming across an amphora, it was a great storage vessel. but it was also apparent that for 400 years, the Romans destroyed tons of these containers arriving in their port. I had to see this!
This is how in October 2005 I joined 7 Americans and about 10 PHD students from the University of Barcelona and their Professor Remesal. We were in the heart of Rome, near the Tevere, and a marble pyramid, and there it was, a hill ,120 feet high,made only of ceramic potsherds with its belt of bars and discos. Unfortunately we could not look for the 45 Dressels. Our Spaniards were only interested in finding writings on oil amphorae called the Dressel 20! Every year they dig holes through layers of artefacts. There are mainly amphorae from Betique, namely Andalousy, a few from Tunisia, even less from Greece and the middle east.
These amphorae were bringing taxes from the Empire as olive oil, which was the commodity of the day. But as they were discarded the oil was becoming rancid , so lime was thrown on it. Before even seeing the information, one needs to soak them in an acid solution, then brush off the chalky precipitation.
One of the students, fluent in french told me the Dressel 20 are found everywhere in Germany, in Scotland, etc. probably pushing the numbers towards 50 millions!
Already that hill is incredible. And the work it represents, even spread over 400 years is mind boggling.
Clay needed to be collected along the shores of the Guadalquivir, the water, the wood to burn in the kilns, make the wheels, thousands of amphorae had to be turned, then fired, then stored.
The olive trees had to be tended, the olives picked, pressed. The amphorae filled, taken to the boats. I have estimated a boat loaded with a thousand amphorae would have to leave every 3 days during 400 years from Betique, probably from Cadiz, follow the Spanish coast, the Balearic islands, shoot between Corsica and Sardenia onto Roma, just to build this hill of the Testaccio. And on each amphora, the weight of the oil, the verification , the dating, the name of the merchant.
This time it was not the Spaniards working, but a couple of Romans hired to dig a hole 2X6 meters by 4.
Professor Remesal, looking like Don Quixote told me, "Here, we the Spaniards are at home, we are in Betique ! The French would love to dig here, but they can't! " Long live the E.U.
You just have to bend to pick a piece!
Professor Remesal was looking for "Hadrian's wall", a wall of amphorae unbroken between the old part of the hill, and the added ramp. We were piling up the bits in plastic boxes, soaking them in acid water, then transferring them to a container filled with water, and there 4 american slaves would brush all day long and clamored with delight when finding some epigrafia which would be put in a special box
Beta is the name of the merchant, under it the black roman numeral give the weight of oil
At the bottom of our hole we never found the wall of amphorae you can see on the picture from the previous year. We found only the dating of the customs of the time of Commode, 189 A.D., 60 years too late. I did enjoy finding the small pink covers which would close the amphora
I liked finding the Bizacena, and the Tripoli, the Orientales so refined compared to the Dressel 20. We were collecting the "forma" besides epigrafia. The boxes were piling up and the Spaniards began reconstructing the puzzles by finding the collar, the handles, the epigrafia from a same amphora.
One would copy it on a transparent velum ; one would fill pages of details about the reconstructed amphora. They only have the right to take their data home.
I took home a flu, as it was raining every other day, and an indigestion of Dressel 20! They are everywhere: not a museum which does not sport one! You find them even on Riou!
As LF Gantes had claimed the main style of amphora on the island is Dressel 7/11 . This is also a Betique production soon adopted and copied by the Massaliotes for transporting fish. The wine jars are of italian red clay , the fine dishes a mixture of Campanian dishes, and local copies. The jars covered the hills around the cove, but proper surveying is needed to try to spot the vats required to macerate the fish in salt. An area of 300m2 has been occupied for 200 years recently. The modern cistern gathering water from a tile roof could have been a roman vat. As my father discovered the fishermen had to go to the other cove to get some water. They paved the area around the water hole, made it bigger. From what I have seen they were also going to the other side of the island to fetch some water . Were they tending goats too? There is some indication that on shore along the path going towards the oppidum men spent some time in the hills in the many caves. Goats, it seems, have been around since the Greeks arrived.
When my father pulled up the first potsherds he thought them roman because they were of red clay. He was doing a small map of the area and he titled it Fontaine des Romains. After talking to Benoit, he crossed Romains and wrote Grecs. If we accept LF Gantes timetable of -50 to +50 technically it should be roman.
I should have said it is massaliote, or massaliète. I am not sure why there is a new adjective. But the Greeks being who they were, could colonize a spot and remain greeks for 600 years. They were speaking greek in Massalia, and the wealthy Romans would eventually send their kids to the university there. The government was typically greek, the gods were Apollo and Artemis , their pottery was a copy of ionian amphorae and kylixes, they even sent money to Delphi and had a small temple built there, just like any other greek island or city-state
Massalia was an ally of Rome during the Punic wars, but being conservative they later picked Pompée's side and Caesar won. So he besieged the town with the help of Arles, which furnished boats in record time (6 months), and won for itself the right to be roman town with all the privileges attached. It is said that Caesar did not sack Massilia (for the Romans) because it had been an ally in the past. There is an interesting legend .. as he ordered his troop to cut down trees for the siege in a centenial forest nearby, the soldiers impressed by the stately trees, and the sacred ambiance were reluctant to offend the gods, so Caesar himself seizing an ax, knocked down a tree and said that the wrath of the Gods could fall upon him alone. This was in -49 , and as he went on to conquer Gaul, Massilia was bypassed because of its location but also because the Romans would build new towns as in Acquae Sextius =Aix en Provence, where there were hot springs and a new harbor in Frejus settled by the veterans of the VIII legion.
How long did it take the Massaliotes to start speaking latin? There was around 1900 a migration of Genoese coral fishermen, followed by people from the south of Italy. In Les Goudes one of the most colorful persons is undoubtedly Irène Reggio. 88 years old , she still can converse in Italian whenever she gets a chance, so I believe the Tuna fishermen of Riou still considered themselves greek. And since the amphora collar I retrieved in Fontagne is dated by LF Gantes -500 I think the name is appropriate. The water holes on the island , Well of the Goats where I found an etruscan bit, or Fountain of the Greeks look so much like a water hole I saw in Delos that I am totally convinced to stay with the name.
1 meter above the bottom of the cistern. Left, a trench a that level revealed a paving of flats stones where 2 bottoms of amphorae were stuck in the clay
The other water hole on Riou, le Puits des Chèvres
500 Years Ago,
The Guards Of Riou Watch Tower
Were Catching Falcons
For The King Of France
Peregrine falcon - (Photo Jean-Patrick Durand CEEP)
These birds are said to reach 180 mph to catch a prey! The watch guards would catch them in the nest, and they were offered for hunting to Louis XIII, Louis XIV by the local officials
These birds are said to reach 180 mph to catch a prey! The watch guards would catch them in the nest, and they were offered for hunting to Louis XIII, Louis XIV by the local officials
Watch Tower or Farotium ?
In the Roman times, Maïre was known as Immadras Positio by Strabon, because when you approach Massalia coming from Italy the island looks like a cape. It was thought that there was a pharos on the island. The most famous pharos is the one of Alexandria, one of the seventh wonders of the world.
A farossium is a fire lit on top of a height to communicate with another watch post. Alexandria sported a 3 story- building.
LF Gantès and his colleagues have found bricks identical to some found in Greek Massalia at the base of one of the peaks, occupied now by a construction dating from the 2nd World war. The clay is clear with the caracterictic mica inclusions used by the Massaliètes for about 700 years
Later...
In 1264 the town paid watch-men on the island of Maïre and Riou, in 1295 the accounting reports paying watchmen on Riou and in 1302 the men stationed on Riou communicated with Marsilhoveyra using a farossium or farotium
In the 13 century there were outposts along the southern shore of France from L'Espiguette in the Rhone delta all the way to La Turbie which is a monument to the glory of Augustus in the hills of Monaco, and Robert le Sage, Count of Provence sent one of his men, Robert de Millet, to make a study of the defenses of the coast in 1326. Where there were fortified towns they forced the outside houses to be destroyed , repairs to be made to the walls, and towers erected in several locations. The towers were round, with 1 meter thick wall , about 4 m in diameter . when possible there was a cistern, a room built above, and a roof platform to light the farotium. One of them built in 1352 on Cap de Cessiech was hit by lightning and rebuilt in 1589. The room is missing and the cistern because the guards were friars and they built a chapel near it. The ladder was all important, and we shall see that it was an expense for Riou also.
The first mention of Farossium in loco de Masselhaveyra is in 1302. It is the watch tower which faces Riou on top of the massif de Marseilleveyre at 432m . The British destroyed it in 1814 . They had taken the place of the Saracenes .
There were 2 guards who got communications from the 3 men on Riou , passed it on to the 2 at theTurris de Gardia above Marseille , who then relaid messages to the town. We know some of the names :
Pons de Servieres, Pierre Alfant paid 4 florins 2 gros for the month of March 1408
Louis Negrel, his son and Pierre Vailhe replace the 2 guards killed in May 1527 or taken as slaves, and are paid 5 florins per month.
View of Riou from the summit of Marseilleveyre more than 3 kms away
Glorious view of the hill of Notre Dame de la Garde which hides the old town of Massalia , so this spot is not the place from where you see Marseille (Marsilhoveyre in dialect), but rather the place where the old Marseille was at the time the Greeks arrived. Massalia Veterem the oppidum of the "Ligures "
This look out was temporarily closed in 1696, and the town paid 140 pounds to François Puget the son of Pierre Puget the famous sculptor, for the wood needed for the farot for 2 prior years.
It was closed definitely by the British in 1814.
In the 1900s the Club Alpin transformed the ruins by adding a second story, and made them into a refuge just as they did with another look-out at the Cap Gros.
The location of the farot is probably where a cross was erected first in 1900, to be thrown down by a storm, and rebuilt.
It was closed definitely by the British in 1814.
In the 1900s the Club Alpin transformed the ruins by adding a second story, and made them into a refuge just as they did with another look-out at the Cap Gros.
The location of the farot is probably where a cross was erected first in 1900, to be thrown down by a storm, and rebuilt.
Farotium site? Behind the ruin the islands of Riou and Plane
Only flames and smoke could actually be seen at such distances, but they must have taken quite a toll on the rare vegetation.
Only flames and smoke could actually be seen at such distances, but they must have taken quite a toll on the rare vegetation.
Forefront left the ruins of MarseilleVeyre look-out. In the background the red arrow points to the Refuge du Cap Gros, another look-out station already in ruins on 1904 maps.
In 1859, an archivist of Marseille, Bouillon-Landais, compiled a small document from the archives he was checking and he tells us most that we know about the island. That it started as a farot in 1295, and stopped operating in 1695.
It seems that there was before a chain of manned outposts along the shores, but after the roman empire collapsed, the whole place was up for grab, and it was not until Louis XI that there even was an attempt to organize the country . Even when they were the brothers of the king of France or maybe because of that, the counts of Provence were caught in a political maëlstrom which involved Sicily, Naples, Rome, Savoy, Aragon , sometime allies, sometimes foes. This was the excuse for attacking and pirating and enslaving by everybody and anybody!
On the recommendation of Jean Courtin, I met this year with one of his colleagues Henri Ribot who lives not too far from Port d'Alon, in the quaint harbor of Sanary. I was treated to an oustanding history lecture on our first meeting. I must admit that history and in particular the Middle Ages has never been my strong point, so I am hoping to have more information coming soon. He directed me to go to Cap Sicié where there is a tower still standing.
Until now the source about Riou was Bouillon-Landais , who published a drawing by Ferdinand Famin of the ruin in 1858
It seems that there was before a chain of manned outposts along the shores, but after the roman empire collapsed, the whole place was up for grab, and it was not until Louis XI that there even was an attempt to organize the country . Even when they were the brothers of the king of France or maybe because of that, the counts of Provence were caught in a political maëlstrom which involved Sicily, Naples, Rome, Savoy, Aragon , sometime allies, sometimes foes. This was the excuse for attacking and pirating and enslaving by everybody and anybody!
On the recommendation of Jean Courtin, I met this year with one of his colleagues Henri Ribot who lives not too far from Port d'Alon, in the quaint harbor of Sanary. I was treated to an oustanding history lecture on our first meeting. I must admit that history and in particular the Middle Ages has never been my strong point, so I am hoping to have more information coming soon. He directed me to go to Cap Sicié where there is a tower still standing.
Until now the source about Riou was Bouillon-Landais , who published a drawing by Ferdinand Famin of the ruin in 1858
Knowing that the diameter of the tower is 4m my father deducted that in 1858 the ruin was still 6 meters high or 18 feet.
The V on the right is still pretty much the same as today, it is the door to the room where the guards originally would sleep. There is a half-circle opening made of bricks which are now scattered on the ground or below the tower, but the slit in the wall which today is still there is missing on the drawing. This depends on the location of the painter or photographer.
B-L finds the construction carefully constructed with a lot of care.
Today Philippe Rigaud (Des Iles Côte à Côte) finds it irregular and the mortar of mediocre quality.
I have a 100 year old house in Les Goudes where the mortar has become dust, so I think this wall standing since 1300 was well built. Degradation has been stopped , as it has been at the fort of Morgiou by someone who sealed the ruin.
B-L sees a cistern in the north , dug in the rock, with a stone vault covered with pouzzolane concrete.
PR sees it to the west, filled with stones.
I see it to the west, which makes me think that BL did not have a compass for he also places to the East, the 1442 cabin which is full north. He is 90° out. As it is stuffed with rocks and tiles it is difficult to see pouzzolane or a cistern even less to see it dug in the rock. In my opinion there is NO rock there and the vault was built to support the 1m tower wall which otherwise would have been built over a void.
Chaumelin, a journalist who wrote about the island in the daily newspaper in 1858 , believes it is an oven!!
The V on the right is still pretty much the same as today, it is the door to the room where the guards originally would sleep. There is a half-circle opening made of bricks which are now scattered on the ground or below the tower, but the slit in the wall which today is still there is missing on the drawing. This depends on the location of the painter or photographer.
B-L finds the construction carefully constructed with a lot of care.
Today Philippe Rigaud (Des Iles Côte à Côte) finds it irregular and the mortar of mediocre quality.
I have a 100 year old house in Les Goudes where the mortar has become dust, so I think this wall standing since 1300 was well built. Degradation has been stopped , as it has been at the fort of Morgiou by someone who sealed the ruin.
B-L sees a cistern in the north , dug in the rock, with a stone vault covered with pouzzolane concrete.
PR sees it to the west, filled with stones.
I see it to the west, which makes me think that BL did not have a compass for he also places to the East, the 1442 cabin which is full north. He is 90° out. As it is stuffed with rocks and tiles it is difficult to see pouzzolane or a cistern even less to see it dug in the rock. In my opinion there is NO rock there and the vault was built to support the 1m tower wall which otherwise would have been built over a void.
Chaumelin, a journalist who wrote about the island in the daily newspaper in 1858 , believes it is an oven!!
The archives differ also about the houses. I believe it was referring to constructions for all the Vigies. It mentions " houses with cisterns" being built, 4x4x3
BL sees one ruin.
PR sees 3. A rocky bar with a flat area where some haphazard blocks does not constitute a cabin. more an outdoor eating area if one judges by the artifacts.
Somehow this construction ordered in 1442 gets a frame in 1451 18 falquetas 4 traversas and 100 nails (C agus).
In 1480 new repair 1 florin 7 gros for 12 planks of good wood and 100 nails.
Among the other expenses there is a boat in 1522, then in 1528.
There is a ladder "to get to the top" in 1484. There is a tree or mast in 1384 delivered to the island by Antoine Raymond for 10 gros in 1475, again in 1480 there is one taken to the Vigie by 4 men for 8 gros.
"Les gardes faisaient du feu tous les jours" The guards were lighting a fire everyday
Apparently if they did not light a fire they could not prove they were at their post , and risked a fine up to one month salary! But it must have been tough on the vegetation, unless they used it also for cooking.
BL sees one ruin.
PR sees 3. A rocky bar with a flat area where some haphazard blocks does not constitute a cabin. more an outdoor eating area if one judges by the artifacts.
Somehow this construction ordered in 1442 gets a frame in 1451 18 falquetas 4 traversas and 100 nails (C agus).
In 1480 new repair 1 florin 7 gros for 12 planks of good wood and 100 nails.
Among the other expenses there is a boat in 1522, then in 1528.
There is a ladder "to get to the top" in 1484. There is a tree or mast in 1384 delivered to the island by Antoine Raymond for 10 gros in 1475, again in 1480 there is one taken to the Vigie by 4 men for 8 gros.
"Les gardes faisaient du feu tous les jours" The guards were lighting a fire everyday
Apparently if they did not light a fire they could not prove they were at their post , and risked a fine up to one month salary! But it must have been tough on the vegetation, unless they used it also for cooking.
"Les gardes faisaient du feu tous les jours" The guards were lighting a fire everyday
And to do so the used a ladder to climb on the top to light that fire. Reconstruction virtuelle based on the tower of Portissol. In 1400 they were built like the windmills , preferably with a cistern underneath, a room for the guards and a terrace to light the fire.
And to do so the used a ladder to climb on the top to light that fire. Reconstruction virtuelle based on the tower of Portissol. In 1400 they were built like the windmills , preferably with a cistern underneath, a room for the guards and a terrace to light the fire.
The Vigie de Marseilleveyre is not easy to find, hence the need for a farossium
It is difficult to follow Bouillon Landais about the cistern. It is vaulted but it looks more like a support of the wall of the tower at a place where there is a void in the rock. It would have been very difficult to seal it well enough to retain water.
In 1442 because there were 3 guards an additional cabin is built north of the tower and a cistern not very far the Pic Occidental Cistern. The vault is gone , made out of bricks similar to the ones which made up the window in the tower. One can see the ledges built to direct the water running down the face of the rock to the cistern
In 1442 because there were 3 guards an additional cabin is built north of the tower and a cistern not very far the Pic Occidental Cistern. The vault is gone , made out of bricks similar to the ones which made up the window in the tower. One can see the ledges built to direct the water running down the face of the rock to the cistern
THE GUARDS OF THE VIGIE OF RIOU
Dominique Stornel, Monnet Gilhan, Louis André paid 5 gold florins each for the month of 1408
Hélion Castel, Petit-Jean Baissanet, Antoine Beaume are stuck on the island during the siege of Marseille by the Connétable de Bourbon during 40 days from the 19th of August 1524. The others posts are empty. They are paid 4 1/2 florins.
These men are the probable victims of the attack of May 1527
Johan Painblanc, Baptistin Armelli, Honorat in 1577 receive 24 florins for taking falcons chicks from the nest.
Nicolas et Louis Tarrus, father and son are the last guards during July, August and September 1695 for a pay of 45 livres.
Bouillon Landais realized that related in a sort of footnote he was reading the story of the murder or kidnapping of the 3 men on Riou and the 2 on MarseilleVeyre. In 1527 the guards were attacked, and when a boat was sent to the island to investigate, the boat was "lost" with its occupants. The blame was put on the Turks . They were the allies of François I earlier, but it is now thought that they used the time of alliance to spy and make maps of the coast. We should also note that 3 years earlier it was the Aragonese who were attacking Marseille . The Arabs settled in Spain had pushed all the way north to Poitiers in the 8th century. Charlemagne battled them losing his nephew Roland in the Pyrenées pass of Roncevaux. Their incursions on rapid vessels called "fustes" went on . They would bring the sails down and sneak in, kidnapping isolated individuals, giving them back against a ransom or taking them as slaves
Hélion Castel, Petit-Jean Baissanet, Antoine Beaume are stuck on the island during the siege of Marseille by the Connétable de Bourbon during 40 days from the 19th of August 1524. The others posts are empty. They are paid 4 1/2 florins.
These men are the probable victims of the attack of May 1527
Johan Painblanc, Baptistin Armelli, Honorat in 1577 receive 24 florins for taking falcons chicks from the nest.
Nicolas et Louis Tarrus, father and son are the last guards during July, August and September 1695 for a pay of 45 livres.
Bouillon Landais realized that related in a sort of footnote he was reading the story of the murder or kidnapping of the 3 men on Riou and the 2 on MarseilleVeyre. In 1527 the guards were attacked, and when a boat was sent to the island to investigate, the boat was "lost" with its occupants. The blame was put on the Turks . They were the allies of François I earlier, but it is now thought that they used the time of alliance to spy and make maps of the coast. We should also note that 3 years earlier it was the Aragonese who were attacking Marseille . The Arabs settled in Spain had pushed all the way north to Poitiers in the 8th century. Charlemagne battled them losing his nephew Roland in the Pyrenées pass of Roncevaux. Their incursions on rapid vessels called "fustes" went on . They would bring the sails down and sneak in, kidnapping isolated individuals, giving them back against a ransom or taking them as slaves
From the watch tower of Riou , guards could not see if the Saracenes were in Fontagne
In 2018 I went to another island Jarre, in the archipelago of Riou, an island famous for being a quarantine island which saw the ship "Le Grand St Antoine"being burned after bringing the plague of 1720 to Marseille.
I met Philippe Rigaud and he handed me a contract dated 1564 which was detailing the construction of the watch tower on Riou .. Between Firmin's drawing and the dimensions given in the contract I was able to reconstruct the tower, which was built somewhat different becauseof the location on top of the island.
I met Philippe Rigaud and he handed me a contract dated 1564 which was detailing the construction of the watch tower on Riou .. Between Firmin's drawing and the dimensions given in the contract I was able to reconstruct the tower, which was built somewhat different becauseof the location on top of the island.
The fort of Notre Dame de la Garde in 1754 painted by Joseph Vernet - top of the hill on the right
A sail on top of a mast is the way to signal from the fortof the Guardia on the oldest painting of Marseille in the 14th century
This is the oldest of the three , one can see the bay of Marseille, and the town itself from it. There was one additional person in town who received the signals.
The latin name of Hill of La Guardia would indicate that there must have been a watchpost there when there was one on Maïre, again one does not see Massalia from Maïre. Later a chapel was built and eventually in the 19th century the basilica mimicking the marble stripes of the Florentine churches, with the gold plated Madona, la Bonne Mère , guardian of the town and in particular of sailors .
In 1408 the guards Antoine Capel, Antoine Blancard were paid 4 florins for the month of March.
The last "guetteur" or watchman of a tradition which spanned some 2000 years amazingly enough (to me), was my grand-father Charles Robert. He spent the first world war in the Marine Nationale, first on a destroyer, then as a hydroplane pilot. Only survivor of his team he was sent 2 years as an instructor to Arzew in Algeria. When he came back , he went to work for his father in law who owned a pharmacy and a drugstore in the heart of the old town.
In 1831, Captain Sanière and Mr. Camoin were "signalists" for a small company called Le Loyd Marseillais. When the owner died , in 1845 they created their own company La Vigie du Commerce , and took over the shack on the Fort de Notre Dame. Sanière and Camoin were relatives of Marguerite , Charles' young wife. This job suited him better than the drugstore, and he bought them out.
The latin name of Hill of La Guardia would indicate that there must have been a watchpost there when there was one on Maïre, again one does not see Massalia from Maïre. Later a chapel was built and eventually in the 19th century the basilica mimicking the marble stripes of the Florentine churches, with the gold plated Madona, la Bonne Mère , guardian of the town and in particular of sailors .
In 1408 the guards Antoine Capel, Antoine Blancard were paid 4 florins for the month of March.
The last "guetteur" or watchman of a tradition which spanned some 2000 years amazingly enough (to me), was my grand-father Charles Robert. He spent the first world war in the Marine Nationale, first on a destroyer, then as a hydroplane pilot. Only survivor of his team he was sent 2 years as an instructor to Arzew in Algeria. When he came back , he went to work for his father in law who owned a pharmacy and a drugstore in the heart of the old town.
In 1831, Captain Sanière and Mr. Camoin were "signalists" for a small company called Le Loyd Marseillais. When the owner died , in 1845 they created their own company La Vigie du Commerce , and took over the shack on the Fort de Notre Dame. Sanière and Camoin were relatives of Marguerite , Charles' young wife. This job suited him better than the drugstore, and he bought them out.
Vigie on the left of the Fort in 1845 - with the mast for signaling ships arriving in the bay- ACM1925
La Vigie du Commerce was located 2 rue de la Republique and in the building top right of the picture, behind the drawn bridge. He would called the Messageries Maritimes or the Cie Paquet after sighting their ships arriving in the Bay , which gave them time to prepare for unloading merchandises. According to his daughter, his clientele also included the hotels and nights-clubs, and the people who made a living carrying stuff from the ships to the docks.
Radio and the ship pilots' house on the island of Frioul knocked down the little company.
At his death in 1962 the lease was not renewed .
The view from the location of the Vigie is almost as oustanding as the following pictures taken from the crown of the gold-leafed statue of Notre Dame de la Garde. However , in Massaliote times , one can see the difficulty in spotting any kind of signal unless there is a fire.
Radio and the ship pilots' house on the island of Frioul knocked down the little company.
At his death in 1962 the lease was not renewed .
The view from the location of the Vigie is almost as oustanding as the following pictures taken from the crown of the gold-leafed statue of Notre Dame de la Garde. However , in Massaliote times , one can see the difficulty in spotting any kind of signal unless there is a fire.
View from the crown of Notre Dame de la Garde of the massif de MarseilleVeyre with Maïre to the right
Cliché Luc Vanrell (Extreme Photography)
Cliché Luc Vanrell (Extreme Photography)
View between the spikes of the crown of Notre Dame de la Garde of Massalia, the old town being the triangular promontory behind the rectangular Old Harbor.
Cliché Luc Vanrell (Extreme Photography)
Cliché Luc Vanrell (Extreme Photography)
A FEW ARTEFACTS
This beautiful specimen of a 16th century pisan bowl is the type the guards on Riou were using as dinnerware at the watch tower site (Drassm depot du Fort St Jean)
The green pitchers of the Citerne du Pic Occidental
These pictures are a help to understand what the artifacts once looked like !
150 Years Ago,
Exploitation Of The Sablières And Destruction Of The Etruscan And Neolithic Sites
In " Promenades artistiques" de Marius Chaumelin which were published in a daily newspaper in 1850 , he gives some precious informations about the state of the island. There were wild goats and the foreman for the exploitation of the Sablière who lived in a cabin which was "not there 3 years before", was mad because the goats were devouring his vegetable garden. So he organized a kill by inviting some poachers and dogs. 8 goats jumped from the pass and ended alive in the sea where a fisherman picked them up. Then there remained a multitude of rabbits which could be pulled out of their holes by the ears, and grey lizards under every leaf!
Chaumelin goes hill climbing in the southern part and gets rescued by one of 4 or 5 workers employed in the sand pit. The 15th of August being the feast of the Virgin, the man had come to the top of the island to put a crown of wild flowers on a cross near the watch tower, which he shows to Chaumelin and calls "The Tower of the Saracene, more ancient than Christ" .
Marseille was being modernized just like Paris was, by opening big streets following Haussman's gameplan. Originally it was to knockdown the cut-throat streets where the people could raise barricades and revolt as they had done every 10 years or so since the revolution. In Marseille it was what is now la Rue de la République, which went from la Canebière directly to the new harbor of la Joliette. Rows of appartment buildings went up. The stone needed were cut from the Cap Couronne which was the site of the Greek quarry. The sandstone is pink, contains lots of shells.
And the sand.. from Riou . 2 hollows were scraped to the rock. the ramp is still there; looking like the wall of a vanished fortified city . The village which vanished is a neolithic settlement.
Maïre, MarseilleVeyre gave also, but not that much
Chaumelin goes hill climbing in the southern part and gets rescued by one of 4 or 5 workers employed in the sand pit. The 15th of August being the feast of the Virgin, the man had come to the top of the island to put a crown of wild flowers on a cross near the watch tower, which he shows to Chaumelin and calls "The Tower of the Saracene, more ancient than Christ" .
Marseille was being modernized just like Paris was, by opening big streets following Haussman's gameplan. Originally it was to knockdown the cut-throat streets where the people could raise barricades and revolt as they had done every 10 years or so since the revolution. In Marseille it was what is now la Rue de la République, which went from la Canebière directly to the new harbor of la Joliette. Rows of appartment buildings went up. The stone needed were cut from the Cap Couronne which was the site of the Greek quarry. The sandstone is pink, contains lots of shells.
And the sand.. from Riou . 2 hollows were scraped to the rock. the ramp is still there; looking like the wall of a vanished fortified city . The village which vanished is a neolithic settlement.
Maïre, MarseilleVeyre gave also, but not that much
The Grande Sablière and the loading dock seen from Marseilleveyre
The guards of the CEEP, Alain et Tim frame Jacques Collina-Girard du CNRS and give a scale of the site
The Small Sablière without its sand
This construction is a ramp to load sand onto the barges
Industry has ravaged the area of the Calanques since 1825 . In the small village of Les Goudes painted in 1900, there was a lime factory, a sulfur factory, a lead factory, and a customs building on the left. Also the 4 bars which still exist.
Le Port des Goudes by Alphonse Moutte
There were also a lead factory, a chemical factory in Callelongue, another lead factory at Samena. The rubbish from the furnaces have been piled every where, and used for the road, the parking.
The building is a gun post built in 1812 by order of Napoleon on a site called la Batterie des Croisettes mentioned on 1694 maps when Vauban developped the defenses for King Louis XIV
The building is a gun post built in 1812 by order of Napoleon on a site called la Batterie des Croisettes mentioned on 1694 maps when Vauban developped the defenses for King Louis XIV
Détail du tableau d'Olive (mort en 1936) "Maïre" Musée Ziem, Martigues
The Army which was the owner of the island looked into establishing a watchpost on the island at the end of the 19th century but eventually did nothing and leased the spot where the workmen of the Sablière had built their shack first to a Mr. Bourelly in 1886, the in 1896 to Mr. Tronc with the right to hunt and fish on the whole island. With a couple of friends he built a house, stairs, and hired a guard. Pipo Meïni was that guard. He built a small building on the other end of the island from where he could fish. He had a winch in Fontagne to pull his little boat up on the pebbles when the weather was too rough.
His sister joined him with his grand niece, and they lived 10 years on the island. Alphonsine Meïni went on to marry Jacques Agrifoglio and their descendants still live in Les Goudes.
The Navy inherited the island from the army, and renewed the lease to the widow Tronc, until some time after the first world war. My father's notes say until 1927.
The Navy inherited the island from the army, and renewed the lease to the widow Tronc, until some time after the first world war. My father's notes say until 1927.
Pipo's house in 1932 . The gutter still took the rain water into the cistern (Cliche Dr.Albert)
60 Years Ago Our Island In The Sun
Near Les Goudes
In 1965 I had thid postcard pinned on my office wall in Dearborn, Mi
I have been told how lucky I was to have spent so much time on Riou when I was a kid. Nonsense! A trip to Riou was rare after the war. But it was an enchanted place probably for that reason. The luck was to have a quintessential *cabanon in Les Goudes and to spend summers there. My grandfather loved fishing and he bought his place in 1923 (it was built in 1908 in the ruins of a lime factory). Every sunday he fell out of bed around 5:00 AM to indulge in a ritual with his pals which would go on until noon. The local artist "immortalized" him with the oars while in the background other people play at the other typical Marseillais past-time, the bowling game of La Pétanque. Of course by doing so he not only had a subject for his painting but also a buyer!
However, people seldom play that bowling game in the morning, while fishing is an early morning occupation, so it is a posed painting!
The luck was to be there after the war when the region had not been "discovered" and was still difficult to access, and Les Goudes was what Lucien Blanchard describes as "populo".
*Cabanon: at the beginning of the 20th century, a fishing or vacation shack in the region of Marseille, without water, light or any amenities.
However, people seldom play that bowling game in the morning, while fishing is an early morning occupation, so it is a posed painting!
The luck was to be there after the war when the region had not been "discovered" and was still difficult to access, and Les Goudes was what Lucien Blanchard describes as "populo".
*Cabanon: at the beginning of the 20th century, a fishing or vacation shack in the region of Marseille, without water, light or any amenities.
La Rue du Louvre by the painter Rosello around 1950
Le père André with the urchin harpoon, le père Robert with the oars, le père Rimbaud with the net
Le père André with the urchin harpoon, le père Robert with the oars, le père Rimbaud with the net
Les Goudes:
A poem, a stink , a grating noise, a quality of light, the end of the road and its tramps, rusting steel, no one has described it better than John Steinbeck in Cannery Row.
I discovered him in 1960 and when I got to Monterey in 1966 it was still the american counterpart of Les Goudes, with still some empty lots, and rusty canneries. Peter Revson could not understand my delight at being there. Luckily my English was still poor enough , I did not have to explain to the nephew of the Revlon boss why Steinbeck is for me the best american writer .
In Les Goudes there are no canneries, the fish is not that plentiful. But the Romans had something of the sort on the islands with the tuna.
What we had was smuggling and tramps..
Chaumelin, mentionned before, was not only a journalist, he was also a custom employee. There was a custom building in Morgiou, Sormiou, Les Goudes, there is a custom path which follows the shoreline. In many places around a big city like Marseille on the major roads leading in and out of the city there were check points called octroi where one had to pay taxes on any product taken to the market. There was one at the entrance of la Madrague de Montredon on the road coming from Les Goudes which was also used by the Germans to prevent people from going there. But a determined hiker could find a hundred paths to avoid these places, so Les Calanques are like a trait selected for by natural selection to develop smuggling.
At the end of of the first empire, the British were encouraging this, and Chaumelin said that they actually went up to the Vigie of Marseilleveyre and destroyed it in 1814. They blocaded the south of France from 1804 until 1814 and smuggling spread. By their own account they were pirating oil, wheat, cattle and sheep.
After the II world war it was cigarettes under the control of the corsican mafia , but also all kind of foodstuff which would be thrown overboard from the ships passing by.
My father mentions that Pipo's house when in ruin in the 50s was used by poachers and smugglers, so it was torned down.
But someone build this cabin a bit further, and a man appeared (after 18 months spent in jail for deserting in Algeria) and moved in, who called himself the guard of the island, who could greet visitors naked, who "allowed" local fishermen to go hunting rabbits, as long as they gave him rabbits, fish, or gave his friends a ride to the party. He must have been reminded of what his duties were supposed to be, so he turned on his "friends" and helped the police get them. In July 1971 this building was blown up. The local fishermen had learned to use dynamite during the war!. In 1973 the maritime prefect (friend of his father) must have thought a poacher can make a good ranger and he did sign him in as a guard! So the man came to ask my father for the keys of his cabanon in Fontagne, the other cove (the GEAR lease was over by then and our small building had reverted to the Navy).
My mother and the guards of CEEP Alain, Yannick and Eric are getting ready to check on the puffins on the other side of the island during the night. Are missing Arnaud and Tim already gone to set up some concrete nesting holes.
Today, la Calanque de l'Aiglon in a pristine moment
Today, The Vallon de l'Aiglon
But up-close and personal my enchanted site looks like this
But up-close and personal my enchanted site looks like this
The roof of the vivarium is gone which was the landing area, the water is beautiful as ever
The extraordinary red clay layer is still there through the fossils of the urgonien limestone
but the stairs leading to the vivarium and the dock are almost gone
but the stairs leading to the vivarium and the dock are almost gone
Under the tamarisks, the stairs going down to the beach. The witch fingers planted by the Navy to hold the sand at the end of the 19th century have been pulled out because they are not indigenous to the island!
I miss their scent released by the sun, mixed to the perfume of the sand lilies and the tamarisks . The top of the beach was green year round , and now we have pebbles and the flowers of the dead instead.
I miss their scent released by the sun, mixed to the perfume of the sand lilies and the tamarisks . The top of the beach was green year round , and now we have pebbles and the flowers of the dead instead.