AP exclusive: Under Notre Dame cathedral, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By THOMAS ADAMSON and JEFFREY SCHAEFFER
Updated 8:34 AM CDT, June 2, 2026
Leer en español

PARIS (AP) — Wilting in the summer sun, a line of tourists waits to climb Notre Dame cathedral and meet its gargoyles.

Four meters (13 feet) beneath them, a team of archaeologists is digging the other way — straight down and back in time, to Roman Paris 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 works.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/notre-dame-dig-treasures-paris-archaeology-roman-dae41f792c1402faf32a87c154cc9a77

[70sEraVet]

1. Great article!!

Can't wait to hear about DEEPER discoveries -- and that previously unknown written language!

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Hard to recognize any characters in the image -- maybe closer to Roman script than to Greek or Slavonic ?

https://assets.apnews.com/f6/b0/9a2f7b5ddd535276814cdae144ee/56d0d865d9a046b9914edde09535a980

Carolignian miniscule might be a good guess for the script, but doesn't necessarily provide any clue about the language, since many languages were written in the same script.

[multigraincracker]

3. The treasure you dig isn't the gold and silver you find.

It’s the story it tells. Priceless

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. Quasimodo predicted all this.