Oppidum de la Cloche, Archaeological site in Les Pennes-Mirabeau, France.

The Oppidum de la Cloche is a second Iron Age hilltop settlement on an advanced butte at the northern end of the Massif de la Nerthe, straddling the communes of Le Rove and Les Pennes-Mirabeau. Its dry-stone walls of irregular light-grey stones, now ruined and broken-topped, enclose two quarters reached by separate accesses: a small northern quarter by the ventilation tower and a larger summit quarter along the south-west crest. Excavated deposits have yielded human skulls and a seated warrior statue.

This fortified settlement was established in the 3rd century BC and was destroyed during Julius Caesar's siege of Massalia in 49 BC, serving as a crucial defensive position controlling the trade routes between the Étang de Berre and Marseille.

The summit area explored in the 1990s suggests a space used for worship. Among the finds shown at the Musée d'histoire de Marseille are human skulls that had been fixed above a door lintel, a practice of displaying defeated enemies' remains rather than a burial custom.

Two routes reach the site: one steep path by the ventilation tower to the small northern quarter, the other along the south-west ridge past an open glacis to the large summit quarter. The ground is uneven and the walls are ruined, so wear sturdy shoes. The summit gives a 360-degree view.

Among the remarkable discoveries is a fragment of a 3rd-century BC statue depicting a seated warrior with an engraved ring, which is now displayed at the Marseille History Museum and represents exceptional ancient artistic craftsmanship.