Settlements and territory in southern France between the Iron Age and the late-republican period (seventh to first century BC) : the Vidourle valley

From the Cevennes to the Mediterranean, across limestone hills and coastal lagoons, the valley of the Vidourle takes in all the features of the lower Languedoc geo-system. This 800 sq km catchment area has been settled for millennia and so is an excellent field of study for spatiotemporal analysis of population by means of surface surveys and programmed or rescue excavation. These have contributed to the rich database of 205 settlements between the Iron Age and the Late-Republican period (7 th-1 st centuries BC): archaeological sites (oppida, dwellings , burial sites) that have been mapped with a geographical information system using ArcGIS software. Detailed mapping helps us to analyse the spatiotemporal dynamics of the population within the geographic entity formed by the valley. Analysis has revealed contrasts in the rate of occupancy of its sectors from the coast to the Cevennes foothills, ranging from scattered dwelling places to population clusters within the oppida.*