Rock-cut tombs are a widespread type of funerary architecture in the Mediterranean during the Neolithic period. These tombs, carved into the rock, have different dimensions and morphologies. They appeared as early as the 5th millennium BC, in southern Italy, Malta and Sardinia, before developing throughout the western Mediterranean during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Their appearance was for a long time seen as the result of a crossMediterranean diffusion but is now accepted as an indigenous and local phenomenon (Whitehouse 1972; Cazzella 2000; Guilaine et al. 2015). This article proposes to outline the various theories on this issue as well as to submit a different proposal for the emergence of prehistoric rock-cut tombs, through the prism of the human knowledge involved in the creation of these structures. Research on carving techniques, know-how and the chaîne opératoire of rock-cut tombs, are rarely addressed, even though these are crucial elements in their creation. These elements can however be approached with the help of an adequate methodology that integrate analysis of the carving macro-lithic tools discovered in the rock-cut tombs, study of tools marks present on the rock-cut tombs walls, experimental and comparative approaches (Porqueddu 2018). To this end, the case of the Arles-Fontvieille necropolis in the South of France, in which the funerary monuments display innovative architectural solutions for the period and the region, will be developed.