Last Updated on June 2, 2026 by Staff
Beneath the square outside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris archaeologists are finding a hidden world buried for nearly 2,000 years. While tourists wait in line to visit the restored cathedral a team below ground is digging into the layers of Paris.
The excavation started after the 2019 fire that destroyed Notre Dame’s spire and led to its restoration completed in 2024. The city now plans to redesign the square with trees and cooling shade. Archaeologists must explore what lies beneath before construction can proceed safely.
This is a chance to see a live excavation site revealing Roman, medieval and even earlier traces of Parisian life.
Layers Below
Archaeologists working 4 meters underground have found a remarkable timeline of the city. Each layer of soil represents an era of Parisian history stacked on top of the other.
At the levels the team found evidence of Roman Paris, known as Lutetia dating back to the 4th and 5th centuries. Above that are Merovingian and Carolingian remains from the Middle Ages, including grain pits and settlement traces from the 6th to 10th centuries.
Closer to the surface are structures from the time when Notre Dame was first built in 1163. At that time the area was crowded with homes and narrow streets surrounding the growing Notre Dame Cathedral.
The site is like an “archive” where 20 centuries of history are compressed into just a few meters of earth.
Rare Discoveries
The dig has already produced hundreds of artifacts, many of them well preserved. Among the notable finds are Roman coins, including one bearing the face of Emperor Constantine and intact medieval pottery fragments.
Many of the preserved items come from ancient waste pits and latrines. Soft organic material helped protect ceramics allowing entire vessels to survive centuries underground.
Some pottery shards have reddish markings painted on their inner surfaces. These inscriptions remain undeciphered. Have puzzled researchers.
Experts say such discoveries help them understand life in early Paris from trade and food storage to artistic expression and communication in Paris.
Roman Paris Life
The Roman layers are particularly valuable to archaeologists. During this period Paris was a settlement known as Lutetia, located mainly on the Left Bank of the Seine.
As the Roman Empire declined, residents gradually moved to the Île de la Cité, where Notre Dame now stands. Evidence from the dig suggests that materials from Roman buildings were reused in later constructions in Paris.
One striking example is a doorstep that was repurposed and laid upside down as part of a medieval road in Paris. Such reuse shows how ancient Parisians adapted structures for new needs, blending past and present in everyday life in Paris.
Coins recovered from the site are helping researchers accurately date layers of the excavation offering a clearer timeline of urban development in Paris.
Future City Plans
The excavation is part of a plan to transform the Notre Dame forecourt into a greener and cooler public space. By 2028 the area is expected to feature around 160 trees and a water system designed to reduce heat during hot Paris summers.
An underground parking structure will be converted into a visitor center overlooking the Seine making the site both a historical landmark and a modern urban space.
For archaeologists however the exciting possibility is yet to come. The team hopes to dig deeper, possibly uncovering traces of the Gauls, the earliest known inhabitants of the region.
As one archaeologist explained, each layer removed brings them closer to the origins of the city itself—revealing not ruins but the continuous story of Paris built upon itself over thousands of years, in Paris.