Since the end of January, teams from the Archeology Center of the city of Orléans have been carrying out a series of preventive excavations on the site of the former Porte-Madeleine hospital, before the rehabilitation of the premises. Eight months of “trenches” and discoveries…
Neighborhoods , Miscellaneous
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In September, the site, in its entirety, will be completed. ” The excavations began on January 31, in an area delimited by the boulevards, the streets Porte-Madeleine, Stanislas-Julien and Croix-de-Bois, details Julien Courtois, responsible for the operation within the Archeology Center of the city of Orléans (in photo above). For this first four-month stage, we are digging trenches where the networks of future facilities and buildings will be buried. The objective is to study and identify all the remains that are threatened with destruction by the work to come. »
As a reminder, these preventive excavations, programmed by the developer (Semdo), follow on from the detailed diagnosis and conclusions drawn up at the end of 2016. Since the start of the campaign, the eight archaeologists have already made beautiful “discoveries” on and under the ground. ” Ditches from the Roman era allow us to deduce the presence of plots and fields bordering a necropolis grouping, to date, twelve burials of men, women and children, says Julien Courtois. Flints could also constitute the proof of a prehistoric occupation. Finally, we discovered the remains of a modern period habitat, built following the construction of the last city wall, at the beginning of the 16th century. »
The trenches, dug with mechanical shovels, of varying depths cross the site from west to east, in two sectors – one located south of the general hospital and the Hôtel-Dieu, the other south of the former maternity ward – representing almost 600 linear meters of opening! The samples of archaeological furniture (ceramics, bones, miscellaneous objects) will be studied in the premises of the Archeology Center after the excavations. This first phase will be followed, from June, by new investigations to the west of the site, in place of the future underground car park (on the site of the hospital’s former maternity ward). The work planned until September will cover an area of 1,300 m2… More great “surprises” in perspective!
Follow the news of the site on archeologie.orleans-metropole.fr
To note : as part of the European Archeology Days, one-hour public visits will be scheduled on Saturday June 18, without registration, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 2:30 p.m. from Orleans.
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