Marsiglia, da Pirenne all’archeologia urbana: la riscoperta de la Major

The city of Marseille was one of the founding examples of the Pirenne’s theory, as expressed in the famous volume Mahomet and Charlemagne, of 1937. After the end of the Second World War, this city has seen an important succession of excavation campaigns, often linked to moments of profound urban renewal, including those that have concerned the area of the cathedral that, from 420 to today, dominates unchallenged the area of the port, today in constant dialogue with the Mucem (Museum of Mediterranean Civilization), having continuously observed (and itself witnessed) the phases of expansion and contraction of the city. The aim of this con- tribution, which is based on published documentation, is to try to intertwine the data from the excavations of the Cathedral area with the other urban excavations near the port, for a reading that takes into account what was told, almost a century ago, by the Belgian historian, in a volume that is still of great historiographical importance nowadays.