Le Rhône à Arles. Données archéologiques et sédimentologiques

Abstract

The topographical situation of Arles on a small rocky hill between the plain of Beaucaire and the Rhône delta of Camargue shows outstanding evidence of the hydrologic variations of the river during Protohistory and Antiquity. An approach of the topographical, archaeological and sedimentologic facts now available, leads us to suppose the existence of periods of sudden rises of the river with occasional floods and which overall make a permanent occupation unfavourable in the lower lands (from the 5th century BC to the early 1st century AD and then from the 4th to the 6th century AD). The intensity of the overflowing reduces during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the right moment for craft and trade expansion, particularly on the western bank, much exposed owing to its low altimetry.