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The Archaeological Crypt of the Île de la Cité, beneath the forecourt of Notre-Dame Cathedral, is a unique space. This remarkable archaeological site, located in the centre of Paris, brings visitors face to face with remains from the city’s past and its many transformations over the years. Nowhere, then, could be more fitting for the exhibition In the Seine: found objects from prehistory to the present day. This display presents a wide variety of objects recovered from the banks and bed of the Parisian Seine. Whether lost, intentionally deposited, or moved by the currents, these artefacts paint a picture of life alongside the river over thousands of years.
A place by the water
Human activity by the Seine stretches back long before the first brick of Paris was laid. In the Palaeolithic period, between 85,000 and 25,000 years ago, the river was far wider than it is today, and dotted with sandbanks that could be used to cross the waterway. The climate was cold and windy, and the surrounding landscape was dominated by tall grasses and inhabited by woolly rhinoceroses, bison, horses, and reindeer. It was in such an environment that a group of Neanderthals paused on the banks of the Seine at Clichy-la-Garenne (now in the north-western suburbs of Paris) to knap flint tools, butcher animals, and process plant fibres. Evidence of these activities was discovered by archaeologists in 2020, offering a glimpse of a brief moment of daily activity tens of thousands of years ago.
Several millennia later, in the Mesolithic period, the weather was mild and temperate, closer to that of today, but the riverbanks were covered with dense, deep forests, which were home to wild boar, deer, and foxes. At a site in the 15th arrondissement, the remains of a camp belonging to some of the last European hunter-gatherers were found on the Left Bank of the Seine. In their workshops here, the ancient people produced flint arrowheads for hunting, worked hides for leather and clothing, butchered animals, and made bone points, hooks, and harpoons.
A city emerges
Moving forward in time, the river played an important role in the development of the city that would become Paris. When the Romans conquered Gaul in the 1st century BC and began developing new road and river networks across the provinces, crossing the Seine became a priority, in order to connect Lutetia – the Gallo-Roman town that was a precursor to Paris – to other locations. In the 1st century AD, they constructed the city’s first port on Île de la Cité, incorporating Lutetia into the trade routes that stretched across the Empire. Fishing played a central role in the early city’s diet, and fish bones identified through sieving of sediments from the Seine have identified a variety of species being eaten. These included not just freshwater fish but several marine species, including herring and flounder, as well as, more rarely, Spanish mackerel, demonstrating the availability of Mediterranean products including preserved fish in the Gallo-Roman town.
In the 4th century AD, the commercial harbour became a military port and the residence of the Praefectus Classis Anderetianorum, the command of the regional fleet responsible for monitoring the Seine. Use of the river for navigation and trade evolved, but remained important in later periods, as did the need to cross the Seine. Signs of many of the city’s historic bridges have been found by divers, including one of the original 16th-century mascarons (mask-shaped decoration) from the Pont Neuf, which ended up at the bottom of the Seine during historic renovations of this famous crossing.
The area near the river has been home, as well, to many craftworks and industries since antiquity, and the names given to various streets in the medieval period reflect the activities of the artisans who worked there. Among others, Rue de la Ferronnerie (Ironworks Street), Rue de la Verrerie (Glassworks Street), and Rue de la Mégisserie (Tannery Street) can still be found today. Other objects discovered in the river provide insights into different elements of life, ranging from miniature toys and inkwells to passes for tolls at the entrance to the city, attendance tokens for religious groups, and badges of trade guilds. Weapons and munitions from the First and Second World Wars are a testament to more violent periods of the city’s recent history.
Spirit of the river
The river has long played an important role in people’s spiritual lives, too. More than a hundred swords, spears, and battleaxes dating from the Bronze Age to the early medieval period have been found on the riverbed of the Seine. These are believed to be ritual deposits connected to battle: offerings by either the victor or the vanquished to the water, which was considered part of the religious geography of the area.
The ritual importance of the river is also demonstrated by the cult of Sequana, the goddess of the Seine. At the source of the river, near Dijon, a sanctuary dedicated to Sequana was established around the 1st century AD. More than 1,500 votive offerings have been found here, including a number of remarkable stone sculptures. Depicting the heads of men, women, and children; full-length figures; swaddled babies; pieces of anatomy; and animals, these offerings represent appeals to the goddess for help and healing.
Even after the rise of Christianity, elements of this ‘pagan’ tradition appear to have continued. Pilgrim badges dating from the 12th to 17th centuries, brought back from visits to holy places, seem to have been deposited frequently in the Seine as a kind of ritual offering. Several statuettes have also been found of a type known as chevaliers (‘knights’). These distinctive 14th- to 16th-century lead-alloy figures are believed to have been thrown into the Seine around Notre-Dame by knights or soldiers as gifts to the Virgin on their departure for or return from battle. The proximity of these offerings to Paris’ cathedral suggests an intriguing intersection of Christian and earlier apotropaic rituals centred around the river.
The objects currently on display in the Crypt demonstrate the importance of the Seine through every era of Paris’ history. Whether people were travelling along it, crossing over it, building homes and industries around it, obtaining food and other resources, or seeking spiritual succour, the river represents an integral part of the city’s archaeological and historic landscape.
DETAILS:
Dans la Seine
Address: Crypte Archéologique de l’Île de la Cité, 7 place Jean Paul II, 75004 Paris
Open: until 4 January 2026
Website: www.crypte.paris.fr/expositions/dans-la-seine
