A team of French archaeologists were hard at work on Thursday as they excavated an ancient Roman neighbourhood discovered on a site awaiting construction in Sainte-Colombe, near the southeastern city of Lyon in France.
“Little Pompeii“, as it has been dubbed, is situated on the banks of the Rhone river near the city of Vienne, famous for its Roman theatre and temple.
Digs began in April and were extended to December with the French Ministry of Culture calling the site of nearly 7,000 square metres an “exceptional find”.
Leading archaeologist Benjamin Clement said one of the most remarkable features was how well the remains were preserved.
“The two successive fires allowed the entirety of the remains, the architecture, the furniture to be fossilized, solidified… And for us, this is extraordinary because we can get a very precise analysis of every area, of every house because everything was abandoned inside,” he said.
Among the vestiges preserved by the flames, Clement and his team of 20 archaeologists found homes dating back to the 1st century AD as well as an almost complete mosaic showing the muse and patron of comedy, Thalia being kidnapped by the god of the satyrs, Pan.
A very large public building with a fountain representing a statue of Hercules was also found and could correspond to a schola, a rhetorical or philosophical school.
The vestiges will all be measured, photographed and drawn, with some progressively removed from the Sainte-Colombe site and sent to the Gallo-Roman museum in Vienne where they will be restored.
The rest of the remains will have to be destroyed by the archaeologists as apartments and garages will soon take their place.