Tourists wilt in the summer sun as they queue to climb Notre Dame Cathedral, aiming to encounter its gargoyles. Meanwhile, meters below, archaeologists dig downward and backward in time to uncover Roman Paris from 2,000 years ago. In 2019, a fire caused Notre Dame’s spire to collapse before the world’s eyes. Reconstructed, the cathedral reopened in late 2024. Paris plans to humanize the bare plaza with trees and shade. However, in such an ancient city, excavation must precede any digging to prevent damage during construction.
A section of Notre Dame’s square has turned into a dig site. It’s an open pit, surrounded by barriers and crossed by a wooden walkway, close to the tourist line. The French media calls it “the excavation of the century.” Lucie Altenburg, curator of Paris’s archaeology unit, noted it’s a rare chance to make a tangible impact on the city’s history.
Hundreds of objects have been uncovered. Discoveries include a fourth-century coin bearing Emperor Constantine’s image and fragments of medieval pottery, painted with cryptic marks yet to be deciphered. Emily Carter, a tourist from Manchester with her children, stood in line, expressing that discovering another city beneath their feet was more moving than the cathedral itself.
Initial archaeological traces appear at a shallow depth. Four meters below, the team brings the past to light, sometimes gathering 15 boxes of soil untouched for decades. This illustrates the reality of ancient cities, where history isn’t in a museum but beneath the streets. Each epoch builds upon the remains of the previous one, raising the ground level. In Rome, ground levels have risen by nine meters since the empire’s fall in the 5th century AD.
When Athens built its metro for the 2004 Olympics, Greece’s largest excavation unearthed tens of thousands of objects, now displayed in stations. Paris’s story isn’t different. The city’s origins trace back to the Seine’s Île de la Cité. Centuries later, Notre Dame rose on the same ground. When the cathedral was erected in 1163, the square was crowded with medieval houses, outlined by a single street, said Camille Colonna, the excavation’s lead archaeologist.
As they dig deeper, the team reached the city’s historical basements, shedding light on grain silos from the Merovingian and Carolingian times. Below, lies a dense Roman neighborhood dating back to the 4th and 5th centuries. Twenty centuries of history layer four meters of earth, equating to two and a half Napoleons stacked vertically.
Yasmine Benali, a 22-year-old archaeology student, observed the excavation, remarking it makes the city feel more alive than a postcard. Significant finds emerge from former latrines, which doubled as dumpsters. The team digs up intact pottery amid broken plates and animal bones, remarkably preserved by soft waste.
Valentine Breloux, another archaeologist, mentioned it is rare to find complete ceramics. Such soft waste cushioned them, allowing discovery centuries later. Additionally, unexpected finds puzzled experts. Cleaning ordinary medieval ceramics revealed faint red script inside each, forming a mystery yet to be solved.
The coins retrieved appeared corroded but, under X-ray, revealed the visage of Constantine, assisting in dating the underground strata. Roman findings are particularly prized, being the oldest and most enigmatic. When the Roman Empire collapsed, the population retreated to the Île de la Cité, fortifying it with stones from previous structures. A Roman threshold discovered during the dig exemplifies this reuse as paving material.
Each finding leaves the site and heads north to the city’s archaeology center, described by Colonna as an enormous archaeological storehouse. The dig at Notre Dame is a rare gift for archaeologists. In France, as elsewhere, digs occur mainly before potential construction, akin to quarry workers who inadvertently unearth dinosaur remains.
Altenburg explained the excavation proceeded because Paris plans to beautify the area. By 2028, the plaza will feature 160 new trees and a thin water sheet cooling it during summers, a step in the city’s plan to confront hotter seasons due to global warming. Tourists will soon queue in the shade instead of intense sun. The underground parking will reopen as a visitor center overlooking the Seine.
The Notre Dame team hopes to unearth remains predating the Romans, of the Gauls who gave the city its first name. Altenburg expressed optimism about revealing deeper history than ever before.
Nicolas Garriga in Paris contributed to this report.
Note: This article was translated from English by an AP editor using AI assistance.
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