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<< Text Pages >> Grotte de la Source - Passage Grave in France in Provence:Bouches-du-Rhône (13)

Submitted by thecaptain on Tuesday, 07 June 2005  Page Views: 6489

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Grotte de la Source Alternative Name: Hypogee De La Source
Country: France Département: Provence:Bouches-du-Rhône (13) Type: Passage Grave
Nearest Town: Arles  Nearest Village: Fontvieille
Latitude: 43.710500N  Longitude: 4.683700E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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Hypogeum of the Arles Fontvielle group, southwest of the village of Fontvielle on the D17, just to the south of the road in the land beside a restaurant.

The monument is on private property, not readily accessible to public. About 15 Meters long, within a circular barrow. Neolithic to Chalcolithic.


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Nearby Images from Flickr
2024-04-04 (25) Arles. Abbaye de Montmajour. Clotre (XIIe sicle) & Tour Pons de l'Orme (XIVe sicle)
2024-04-04 (19) Arles. Abbaye de Montmajour. Clotre (XIIe sicle)
2024-04-04 (15) Arles. Abbaye de Montmajour (Xe-XVIIIe sicles)
2024-04-04 (13) Arles. Abbaye de Montmajour (X-XVIIIe sicles)
The Abbaye de Montmajour 2
Rencontre Arles: 50 years trough the eyes of LIBERATION

The above images may not be of the site on this page, but were taken nearby. They are loaded from Flickr so please click on them for image credits.


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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 162m SSE 153° Hypogée de Bonnias Passage Grave
 633m WSW 258° Hypogee du Castelet* Passage Grave
 639m SW 228° Dolmen de Saint-Contignarde Passage Grave
 640m SW 228° Menhir de Saint-Contignarde Standing Stone (Menhir)
 1.3km SW 215° Epée de Roland Menhir Standing Stone (Menhir)
 1.3km SSW 210° La Grotte des Fées de Cordes* Passage Grave
 1.5km SSW 212° Arnaud Hypogee Long Barrow
 1.6km ESE 109° Mas Cadenet dolmen Passage Grave
 2.6km ESE 117° Dolmen du Mas d'Agard Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 3.1km ESE 105° Barbegal Mill and Aquaduct* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
 4.1km ESE 103° Dolmen de la Mérindole Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 9.1km NNE 14° Menhir Mourgue Standing Stone (Menhir)
 9.6km ENE 68° La grotte de Costapera Cave or Rock Shelter
 9.8km ENE 67° Les Baux* Ancient Village or Settlement
 13.0km SE 128° Mas deu Moulin Artificial Mound
 13.0km SE 128° Baume de Trou Cave or Rock Shelter
 13.9km ENE 59° Glanum* Ancient Village or Settlement
 14.1km NE 54° Grotte Baldouin Cave or Rock Shelter
 14.2km NE 54° Grotte Romanin 1 Cave or Rock Shelter
 14.2km NE 54° Grotte Romanin 2 Cave or Rock Shelter
 14.2km NE 54° Grotte des Chats Cave or Rock Shelter
 15.7km E 90° Oppidum des Caisses* Ancient Village or Settlement
 21.1km E 91° Roucas de l'Eure Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 22.1km ENE 75° Tombe Meynier Cave or Rock Shelter
 23.4km NE 36° Les Tours Cave or Rock Shelter
View more nearby sites and additional images

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The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles - Hutton

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"Grotte de la Source" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Cosmology, Architecture and Illumination in Late Prehistoric Europe by Andy B on Sunday, 15 March 2015
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Cosmology, Architecture and Illumination in Late Prehistoric Europe: implications of the Arles-Fontvieille monuments for European megalithic studies and archaeoastronomy by Morgan Saletta et al

In what follows I will discuss the orientation and archaeoastronomy of the Arles-Fontvieille monuments within the larger European perspective. I will also examine how archaeoastronomical data can best be interpreted within archaeological and anthropological perspectives on megalithic monuments and cosmologies in the European Neolithic. This discussion intervenes in and contributes to ongoing debates within archaeology concerning the origins, evolution and diffusion of megalithic monuments generally and the origins of the Arles-Fontvieille monuments specifically. Following a brief discussion of my archaeoastronomical research in the larger context of Michael Hoskin’s (e.g. 2001) statistical surveys, I will examine the frequently posited relationship between feasting and megalithic monuments in light of ethnographic surveys that establish a close link between astronomical time-reckoning and ritual feasting.

In this discussion I suggest that assumptions about ‘calendrically’ and astronomically significant events need to be re-evaluated, if not rejected, in favour of a more complex relationship between monuments, astronomy, and temporality that is more consistent with anthropological thinking. In this context I will also briefly discuss possible links between megalithic monuments and seasonal movements of people in the landscape. I will then argue that the multiple lines of evidence suggesting a cosmologically symbolic link between houses of the living and houses of the dead in late prehistoric Europe converge with archaeoastronomical data to suggest that the orientation of chambered megalithic monuments evolved from functional and cosmological practices associated with domestic architecture. This will be followed by a discussion of links between megalithic monuments, landscape, liminality, and rites of passage.

Lastly, I will argue that the fundamental similarity between the seasonal illumination events at the Arles-Fontvieille hypogées with the illumination events at monuments such as New Grange and Maeshowe is a crucial piece of evidence, convergent with other archaeological evidence, suggesting cosmological principals spread by contact and diffusion between major centers of megalithism in the Middle to Late Neolithic. This last point may have implications for the ongoing questions concerning the chronology of the Arles-Fontvieille monuments.

Rapport de Projet collectif de recherche 2014, LAMPEA, Service Régional de l’Archéologie PACA, dir. Xavier Margarit

Full paper at
https://www.academia.edu/11192556/Cosmology_Architecture_and_Illumination_in_Late_Prehistoric_Europe_implications_of_the_Arles-Fontvieille_monuments_for_European_megalithic_studies_and_archaeoastronomy
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The archaeoastronomy of the megalithic monuments of Arles–Fontvieille by Andy B on Thursday, 05 June 2014
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Morgan Saletta writes: Some years ago I began studying these sites to investigate whether their east/west alignment might serve a functional purpose - to allow a ray of sunlight to penetrate them on an around the Spring and Autumn equinox. My hypothesis - that despite being subterranean monument, their position on a slight slope would still allow light to penetrate to the back of the monument has proved correct. I first visited the Grotte de la Source and the Hypogées d'Arnaud-Castellet in 1997 to photograph the equinox sun entering the sites. The following year also visited the Grotte de Bounias at the time of the equinox and the Grotte de la Corde later in the year (and unfortunately as a hobby enthusiast I amateurishly failed to bring a compass and measure the orientation - I and others, including Michael Hoskin, presumed it to be the same as the others, which turns out, importantly, not to be the case).

In 2011 as part of my doctoral research, I returned to the field with a home-made solar time-lapse photograghy set up and recorded showing the light entering the Grotte de la Source on Sept. 16, 2011 and Sept. 23, 2011 (the equinox).

http://www.morgansaletta.com/the-megaliths-of-arles.html

The archaeoastronomy of the megalithic monuments of Arles–Fontvieille:the equinox, the Pleiades and Orion - Morgan Saletta
University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia

The megalithic monuments of Arles–Fontvieille appear to have been deliberately constructed such that a ray of the setting sun on and around the equinox penetrates the sub-terranean chamber producing a spectacular light-and-shadow hierophany. Moreover, at one of the sites there is evidence in the form of rock art that observations were also being made of heliacal rising and settings, possibly of both the Pleiades and Orion. The equinox hierophany has been documented at three of the four intact monuments of the group. This phenomenon was probably exploited for sacred ritualistic purposes related to seasonal change and timekeeping by the agricultural people who built the monuments. This evidence has significant importance for understanding these monuments in the context of European megalithism and the wider Euro-pean Neolithic as well as for understanding their cosmological role within the society that built them.

https://www.academia.edu/2028013/The_archaeoastronomy_of_the_megalithic_monuments_of_Arles-Fontvieille_the_equinox_the_Pleiades_and_Orion
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The Equinox at the Grotte de la Source - film of sunlight penetrating the monument by Andy B on Thursday, 05 June 2014
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A ray of sunlight penetrates the megalithic monument of the Grotte de la Source, between Arles and Fontvieille in the south of France. The monument was built in the Neolithic period probably between 3,500 and 3,000 BC (but perhaps later- the chronology of the area is still fluid) and is one of a cluster of similar monuments including the Grotte de Corde, one of Europe's major megalithic monuments (which has a seasonal alignment to the solstice).



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