For the Journées européennes de l'archéologie, the Pôle archéologique is exceptionally opening the doors to its reserves.
The team, made up of archaeologists, an archaeogeographer, and a conservator-restorer, will guide you through four tours, each lasting about an hour, to explain how every vestige, from excavation to storage shelves, helps us understand the history of Paris. A buried treasure just steps from the porte de la Chapelle. La Ville de Paris preserves all the vestiges uncovered by municipal archaeologists since the 1950s. Hundreds of thousands of pottery fragments, animal bones, metal, glass, or terracotta artifacts, stone elements, and organic remains are housed in these reserves, where they can be studied by researchers or loaned to museums. Excavating, preserving, passing on knowledge. Once remains are uncovered during digs, specialists take over in the laboratory. These experts in the past study and interpret different kinds of clues: ceramic fragments, animal bones, human remains, small metal artifacts, and seeds. 2026 is an especially rich year for Parisian archaeologists: simultaneous excavations are taking place on the parvis of Notre-Dame and in the courtyard of Hôtel-Dieu. The archaeologists will be there to tell you about these extraordinary sites and the vestiges they have yielded. Tour times and registration details to come. Full program for the Journées européennes de l'archéologie 2026 in Paris
Source: paris.fr — photo: Pascal Saussereau/ DHAAP/ Ville de Paris