appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Associated Press

Wilting in the summer sun, tourists wait to climb Notre-Dame Cathedral and meet its gargoyles.
Four metres (13 feet) beneath them, a team of archaeologists is digging the other way – straight down and back in time, to Roman Paris nearly 2,000 years ago.
In 2019, fire brought Notre-Dame’s spire crashing down as the world watched. The cathedral was rebuilt and reopened in late 2024, and now Paris wants to soften the hot, bare square in front of it with trees and shade.
But in a city this old, the soil cannot be turned until what lies beneath it is excavated, in case it is damaged during the works.
So a slice of Notre-Dame’s forecourt has become an excavation site – an open pit ringed by barriers and crossed by a wooden walkway, a few steps from the queue.
French media have dubbed it the “dig of the century”.
“It’s a rare opportunity for us to work on something that’s tangibly going to make a difference to the history of Paris,” says Lucie Altenburg, a conservator with the Paris archaeology unit.

‘It makes Notre-Dame feel alive again’
Among the hundreds of objects already found are a 4th century coin stamped with the face of the Emperor Constantine, and shards of medieval pottery painted on the inside with marks no expert has yet deciphered.
“It makes Notre-Dame feel alive again,” says Emily Carter, 34, a tourist from Manchester waiting with her two children. “You come to see the cathedral, then realise there’s another city under your feet. That’s almost more moving.”
The first traces appear 50cm (20 inches) down; four metres lower, the team is still pulling up the past. Some days, they fill 15 crates – from ground that has lain untouched for decades.
This is the bargain in every old city: the past is not in a museum down the street – it is under the street.
Cities rise. Each age builds on the rubble of the last, and the ground climbs with it; in Rome, it has risen about nine metres since the empire fell in the fifth century.

When Athens built its metro for the 2004 Olympics, it set off the largest excavation in Greek history and turned up tens of thousands of objects, now displayed in the stations themselves. Paris is no different.
Twenty centuries, four metres of earth
It all comes from the island in the Seine, the Ile de la Cite, where Paris began. Centuries later, Notre-Dame rose on the same ground.
At the cathedral’s birth in 1163, the entire square was packed with medieval houses, split by a single street, says Camille Colonna, the archaeologist leading the dig.
Digging down, her team has reached their cellars – and, therefore, also the time in history they represent.
Below them lie Merovingian and Carolingian grain pits, from the sixth to the 10th centuries; below those, darker and deeper still, a dense Roman quarter from the fourth and fifth centuries. Twenty centuries are stacked in four metres of earth.
“Here you can see the layers – medieval Paris, Roman Paris, maybe even before that,” says Yasmine Benali, 22, an archaeology student watching from behind the barriers. “It makes the city feel less like a postcard and more like something still being discovered.”
‘Astonishing’ finds
The richest finds here come from the foulest place: the deep pits beneath the medieval houses, old latrines that doubled as rubbish dumps.
Out of them, the team keeps lifting whole jugs and cups – thrown away centuries ago, yet still intact – among the broken plates and animal bones.

It is “rare to find complete ceramics”, says Valentine Breloux, an archaeologist with the unit.
Here, the soft waste cushioned them, and centuries later, they miraculously came up whole.
Then other objects came that confounded experts. As conservators cleaned what looked like ordinary medieval pottery, they found faint reddish writing painted on the inside – the same mysterious markings on shard after shard.
What they mean has yet to be deciphered. Of everything she has cleaned from Notre-Dame, Breloux says, these are the most “astonishing”.

The coins came up as black discs, eaten by rust. But under an X-ray, a face returned: it was Constantine, the Roman emperor who ruled in the early 300s.
Such objects also “can be invaluable in giving us the date of the [underground] layer”, Altenburg says.
The Roman finds are the ones the archaeologists value most – the deepest, oldest and least understood. In Roman times, the town was called Lutetia, and its centre lay across the river.
As the Roman Empire collapsed, people retreated to the Ile de la Cite, where Notre-Dame would later rise, and fortified the island with stone walls taken from earlier buildings.

Colonna’s team found some proof: a Roman doorstep found in the dig, taken from a much bigger building, carried over, turned upside down, and laid in a road as paving.
Every find leaves the pit and travels north to the city’s archaeology centre – what Colonna calls “a huge archaeological store”, a treasure house of Paris.
Going further back in time
For archaeologists, the cathedral dig is a rare treat. In France, like elsewhere, they work only where building work is about to begin – a bit like how industrial quarry workers end up unearthing dinosaur remains.
“This only happens because the city of Paris decided it wanted to beautify the area,” Altenburg says.
The new square should be mostly finished by 2028: a kind of woodland clearing, with 160 new trees and a thin film of water sliding over the stone to cool it in summer – part of how Paris is bracing for ever-hotter summers driven by global warming.
The tourists who now wait in the bare sun beneath the gargoyles will, in a few summers, queue in the shade.
The old underground car park will reopen as a visitor centre looking onto the Seine.

Until then, the Notre-Dame team wants to go deeper still – past the Romans, towards whoever came before them, the Gauls who gave the city its first name.
“The hope is that we are able to go back in time even further than we’ve ever been before,” Altenburg says.


What’s under Notre-Dame? Archaeologists discover artefacts stretching back 1,700 years

How Chinamania, Japonisme shaped James McNeill Whistler’s art, now on view at Tate Britain

How Asian artists at the 2026 Venice Biennale are making their voices heard

When London’s museums started losing visitors, they decided to get creative

European travel

Camille Colonna, the archaeologist leading the dig, stands in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral during excavations in Paris in 2026. Beneath Notre-Dame, archaeologists are uncovering millennia of Parisian history. Photo: AP

Lucie Altenburg, a conservator with the Paris archaeology unit, shows a drawer containing archaeological finds from under Notre-Dame Cathedral. Photo: AP

Altenburg examines a coin under a microscope after it was discovered during excavations. Photo: AP

Archaeologist Valentine Breloux holds ceramic fragments discovered during excavations. It is “rare to find complete ceramics”, Breloux says. Photo: AP

A fragment bearing an inscription is photographed among items discovered during excavations. Photo: AP

A fragment of a Roman column is photographed among other items uncovered during archaeological excavations outside Notre-Dame Cathedral. The Roman finds are the ones the archaeologists value most. Photo: AP

Altenburg shows a coin discovered during excavations. Photo: AP

‘It’s a Trojan horse’: how the Obama Presidential Centre is dividing Chicago

The Obama Presidential Centre, in Chicago’s South Side, towers over the surrounding area. Photo: TNS

Visitors photograph statues of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama at the Obama Presidential Centre in Chicago, Illinois. Photo: AP

Visitors tour a replica of former president Barack Obama’s Oval Office at the Obama Presidential Centre. Photo: AP

Workers finish installing words from President Obama’s speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches on the exterior of the Obama Presidential Centre. Photo: TNS

Former first lady Michelle Obama’s dresses are displayed at the Obama Presidential Centre in Chicago. Photo: AP

The grounds of the Obama Presidential Centre include a new public library. Photo: AP

What to do in Furano, a summer haven on Japan’s Hokkaido island flying under the radar

Tourists stroll through lavender fields at Tomita Farm, one of the most colourful spots in Furano. The city in central Hokkaido comes into its own during summer, when it offers visitors the chance to enjoy its natural beauty and delicious local produce in temperate weather conditions. Photo: Kyodo News via Getty Images

A kitchen area in one of the units at Fenix West in Furano, Hokkaido. Photo: Fenix West

Cantaloupes are sold by the slice at Tomita Melon House, next to Tomita Farm. Photo: Lisa Cam

Shirogane Blue Pond is beautiful, but there is not an awful lot to do there. Photo: Austin Cam

Hokkaido’s richest soft-serve ice cream is available at Furano Cheese Factory. Photo: Lisa Cam

A bottle of wine for sale at Furano Winery. Photo: Lisa Cam

Chinese porcelain appears in Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks (1864). Photo: Getty Images

A panel from the Peacock Room at the James McNeill Whistler exhibition at Tate Britain, London, in 2026. Photo: Tate/Larina Fernandes

The Artist in His Studio (1865-66), by James McNeill Whistler, shows the painter surrounded by works from his collection: three Japanese scrolls hang on the wall and Chinese porcelain adorns shelves on the left. Photo: Tate Britain

(From left) Symphony in White, No 2: The Little White Girl (1864), by James McNeill Whistler, features the artist’s muse and lover Joanna “Jo” Hiffernan holding a Japanese uchiwa fan, while Chinese porcelain appears in Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks (1864). Photos: Getty Images 

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge (circa 1872-1875) is redolent of a Hiroshige print. Photo: Getty Images

Best things to do in Wuxi, China’s lakeside city of gardens and sweet cuisine

Tourists stroll around a historical district in Wuxi. The city on the shores of Lake Taihu in China’s Jiangsu province is known for its canals, temples, peaceful gardens and decadent cuisine that reflects its wealthy industrial past. Photo: Shutterstock

Wuxi may not be as famous as neighbouring cities Shanghai and Suzhou, but it boasts plenty of beautiful scenery and a rich history. Photo: Shutterstock

Salt-and-pepper pork ribs at Hongxiu Restaurant in Wuxi. Photo: Xiong Yang

The Donglin Academy was founded in the early 12th century during the Northern Song dynasty and rebuilt during the Ming dynasty. Photo: Xiong Yang

Sweet Wuxi-style pork ribs at Sanfeng Restaurant, which opened almost 100 years ago. Photo: Xiong Yang

Colourful cable cars take passengers from near Huishan Ancient Town up Huaishan Mountain for panoramic views of Wuxi. Photo: Xiong Yang

Freshly steamed xiaolongbao at Xiao Lai Xi. Photo: Xiong Yang

A chef makes meihuagao, or plum blossom cake, which, when finished, is shaped like its namesake flower and has a soft, glutinous centre. Photo: Xiong Yang

Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

Roman artefacts, medieval houses, old latrines – history is being uncovered as the front of Notre-Dame Cathedral gets a revamp


Roman artefacts, medieval houses, old latrines – history is being uncovered as the front of Notre-Dame Cathedral gets a revamp.


Paris

Tourism

Archaeology and palaeontology

History

What’s under Notre-Dame? Archaeologists discover artefacts stretching back 1,700 years

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Roman artefacts, medieval houses, old latrines – history is being uncovered as the front of Notre-Dame Cathedral gets a revamp

Roman artefacts, medieval houses, old latrines – history is being uncovered as the front of Notre-Dame Cathedral gets a revamp