Pech Maho

Pech Maho oppidum is located in the town of Sigean, Aude, France. The last season of excavations on the archaeological site since 2004 has identified most of the walls and the habitats of a pre-Roman oppidum, particularly highlighting the latter stages of occupation of this site before its definitive abandonment. Pech Maho was a fortified trading post occupied from the sixth century BC to the third century BC. There are observed three successive occupations, apparently discontinuous, presumably by a people called Elisycs (???????? ??-Greek) installed at the limit of Iberian and Ligurian. The site seems to be a commercial crossroads between the trading nations of the Mediterranean (Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks) and the indigenous people. The almost total destruction of the oppidum occurred at the end of the third century BC and may be linked with the Second Punic War who opposed Rome and Carthage. This war resulted in the control by Rome of eastern Spain and western Languedoc. The catapult bullets found in the levels of destruction of the oppidum would be probative evidence. The excavations have also revealed traces of funerary rituals and animal sacrifices mixing cremation of human remains. These celebrations were probably held in honor of fallen heroes by the people who returned shortly after the destruction of the oppidum. Then the site would have received a few visits during the following decades before being completely forgotten. This period coincides with the establishment in the region of the Romans, who made Narbonne their prefecture since they will dominate Gallia Narbonensis. Less