History of Provence

The historic French province of Provence, located in the southeast corner of France between the Alps, the Mediterranean, the Rhone River and the upper reaches of the Durance River, was inhabited by Ligures since Neolithic times; by the Celtic since about 900 BC, and by Greek colonists since about 600 BC. It was conquered by Rome at the end of the 2nd century BC. From 879 until 1486, it was a semi-independent state ruled by the Counts of Provence. In 1481, the title passed to the Louis XI of France. and in 1486 Provence was legally incorporated into France. Provence has been a part of France for over 400 years, but the people of Provence, particularly in the interior, have kept a cultural identity that persists to this day.

The coast of Provence has some of the earliest sites of human habitation known in Europe. Primitive stone tools were found in the Grotte du Vallonnet, near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, between Monaco and Menton, dating to between 1 million and 1.050 million years BC. The excavations at Terra Amata in Nice found signs of an encampment on a prehistoric beach, with traces of some of the earliest fireplaces found in Europe, dating to about four hundred thousand BC. Tools dating to the Middle Paleolithic (300,000 BC) and Upper Paleolithic (30,000-10,000 BC) were discovered in the Observatory Cave, in the Jardin Exotique of Monaco. Tools found in the Grotte du Lazaret near Nice date to between 130,000 and 170,000 BC.

The inhabitants of Provence during the paleolithic age lived in caves or in huts made of branches or covered with animal skins. Evidence found at the Grotte du Vallonnet shows they were more scavengers than hunters, using their tools to scrape meat from carcasses of bison, deer, rhinoceros, horses and other game killed by saber-toothed tigers, tigers, panthers and other predators. They endured the arrival and departure of two ice ages, which caused dramatic changes to the climate, vegetation and even the sea level.

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