Slope Dry Stone RetainingWalls (DSRWs) are vernacular structures made of rubble stones assembled without mortar. DSRWs are present worldwide and may have been built hundreds and even thousands years ago. They have always played a key role in economic sectors like agriculture, transportation and at present tourism. However, the lack of scientific knowledge associated with the lack of specific standards makes their required maintenance operation difficult to achieve. Lately, in France, continuous

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... efforts have been made to understand the static behaviour of DSRWs; however their seismic behaviour has not been addressed. Then, this work aims at providing some clues regarding the seismic behaviour of DSRWs, in an attempt to outline some design rules or guidance. For this purpose, a pseudo-static analytical approach, based on the Eurocode 8 recommendations, has been developed. Thanks to small-scale experiments and numerical simulations, the pseudo-static and dynamic behaviour of dry-joint retaining structures have been investigated and the main aspects have been analytically implemented. Then, the analytical method has been validated both on small-scale pseudo-static tests and full-scale static tests drawn from the literature. Moreover, fully dynamic simulations, using a mixed discrete-continuum approach, have been conducted in order to quantify the extra-resistance of a DSRWdesigned by means of the pseudo-static approach which is known to be conservative and even over-conservative. It allowed the recommendations derived from the pseudo-static approach to be adjusted. These time-increment dynamic simulations can also be envisioned as an operational tool for special case studies for the most critical seismic situations. Subsequently, some recommendations are given, thanks to the analytical method. Firstly, the inclination of stone's bed can give considerable extra-resistance to a DSRW, especially when subjected to high seismic input. Secondly, it has been found that for DSRWs constructed in the very low seismic risk [...]