Excavation
The antiquity of the Pont Ambroix had never been disputed and it had been visited by Mérimée, who included it in the first edition of his Historical Monuments of France in 1840. The hill behind, the Colline de Devès was not investigated until the in 1960s. In 1964 Marc Fenouillet did a surface inspection of the vineyard at the base of the hill and found Roman era remains. In November 1967, the first archaeological test digging was made on the hill itself by Jean-luc Fiches and traces of the oppidum were found, a larger volunteer dig was made the following July. In 1974, a path had been cleared around the ramparts and the oppidum was recognised and classified as an historic monument. A regular pattern of annual digs had been established.The paved road was discovered in 1975. Between 1980 and 1985 work established that the lower site adjacent to the bridge was a staging post on the Via Domitia. In 1984 the hill was donated to authorities in Lunel but the lower site remains in private ownership. There was a pause in the excavations between 1986 and 1992 and now the focus was on the lower site and the contours of the river. In 2009 Lunel started constructing a visitor welcoming centre and museum, work was interrupted in May 2011 by an accidental fire that set the vegetation alight. Four Canadairs were called in to help the sapeur-pompiers extinguish the fire, they made two passes. The fire revealed more features in the oppidum. The museum designed by Michel Goroneskoul opened on 25 June 2011.
Read more about this topic: Ambrussum