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 he
prehistory of North Catalonia is summarised by the Tautavel
Man, or his skull, discovered in 1971 in the municipality of
Talteüll. This discovery proved 450 000 years of human
existence in the territory. Closer to our time, about 5000 years
before our era and well before the political organisation of
countries, the Neolithic Period enabled an increase in the places
of habitation, among Rivesaltes, Palau del Vidre and El Soler.
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| Vase,
1000 years before J.C, Cornellà de Conflent |
The
first human communities identified were those of the Ligures,
Iberes and Celts and their co-existence preceded the arrival
of the Romans in the year 118 BC. These were the first inhabitants
to establish a cohesion that encouraged the settlement of men
on the plains, notably on the site of Ruscino (Roussillon).
This settlement was the precursor to the modern capital Perpignan,
situated on the east of Ruscino, a short distance from the sea.
This period also saw the birth of other new habitats and structures,
in particular Caucoliberis (Collioure) and Illiberis (Elne).
The slow decline of the Roman civilisation, beginning in the
first century AD, preceded the conquering waves of the Visigoths
in the 5th Century BC. Opposing the Franks, the Visigoths arrived
at a time that saw the deliberate creation of a zone that extended
from Bas-Rhône to Tolede, today situated in Castille,
Spain. The region of North Catalonia was at that time integrated
with the Visigoth region of Septimanie, and the sea was the
major line of communication, enabling relations between the
peoples. Exchanges with the Phoenicians, Etruscans and Greeks
were common. The year 711 AD saw the slow demise of this period
with the arrival of the Arabs, lasting until 752 AD in the south
of the Pyrénées. The region of Septimanie fell
rapidly and their territory passed to the King of the Franks,
Pépin le Bref in 759 AD. In this context, the conquests
and cultural mixing, the Catalan race was already apparent in
the first organisations at the birth of Europe.
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