“Chelles is a bit like an archeology supermarket!
If the metaphor chosen by Audrey Bellido to describe the site for which she was responsible is deliberately imaged, it testifies to the scale of the excavation site carried out by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research
(
Inrap) in Chelles (Seine- et-Marne).
With four of her archaeologist colleagues, the Inrap site manager unearthed around 2,600 objects on this land located in the city center.
It is here that an access shaft must be dug as part of the construction site for line 16 of the Grand Paris Express, which is due to arrive in Chelles in 2028.
Read also Between Chelles and Champs-sur-Marne, line 16 will be completed in 2028
“There are archaeological levels that accumulate over a period of 10,000 years ranging from the Mesolithic period
(Editor's note: period of prehistory that precedes the Neolithic)
until the beginning of the 19th century via Antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times.
The originality of this site is that we find vestiges of all these eras in different strata, in a concentrated way on an area of 600 square meters ”, explains the archaeologist of Inrap.
Neolithic flint tools and amphora
Among the objects discovered: flint tools from the Mesolithic period, ceramics dating from the Neolithic period, the Bronze Age, Antiquity and the Middle Ages, an amphora base that could date back to the Neolithic period or the almost complete skeleton of a donkey buried in the 19th century.
Vestiges which testify to a very old presence in what is today the second city of Seine-et-Marne, already known for its Merovingian past.
“The village is located in an ancient arm of the Marne, which is now dry, where Mesolithic hunter-gatherers gathered.
Then there is a continuous presence since the Neolithic.
In the 19th century, archaeologists carried out excavations during the digging of ballast quarries, it was at this time that this donkey had to be thrown into a hole dug voluntarily ”, explains Alain Berthier, one of the archaeologists who worked for three weeks on this excavation site.
“This site was a dream!
"
“These discoveries of flint from the Paleolithic to the 19th century nearly got Chelles to give its name to a period of prehistory, which could have been called
the Chellean
but which was ultimately named
the Acheulean
after similar discoveries had been made. in Saint-Acheul, a district of the city of Amiens (Somme), ”says Audrey Bellido.
An archaeological wealth already confirmed by preventive excavations carried out by Inrap on the site of the future new Grand Paris Express station in Chelles, boulevard Chilpéric.
Nearly 30,000 objects were found there, over a period of ten months of excavations spanning from 2017 to December 2020.
Game bones, fish vertebrae, furniture for grinding wheat, flint or bone tools (punches, needles and their eyes), ax ends and in particular three burials, two of which date from the Age of bronze were unearthed there. Discoveries which have enabled archaeologists to update their knowledge of this period. “This site was a dream! It will stall us in a relatively unknown period ”, assures Paul Brunet, archaeologist specializing in the late Neolithic era, who directed the excavation site.
In both cases, at the end of the discovery in the field, the objects and remains are cleaned and then studied by specialists from Inrap such as ceramologists, lithicians who analyze the flints or even archaeozoologists who study the bone remains of 'animals.
The archaeologists then backfilled the holes and excavations.
The earth then covers the unearthed past for a few weeks to make way for the supermetro site.
The works make it possible to rediscover the past of Ile-de-France
While the work on the future stations and lines of the Grand Paris Express is intended to bring out useful public transport facilities for the years to come, they also make it possible to rediscover the past of the areas served. “In all, six archaeological excavations have been carried out on the sites of the Société du Grand Paris, some of which are still in progress, such as in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne) . Other projects have been completed like the two in Chelles, or near the Ecole polytechnique in Palaiseau (Essonne) as well as in Vitry-sur-Seine ”, lists Marie-Christiane Casala, interregional director of Inrap Center- Ile-de-France.A necropolis of 80 burials ranging from Antiquity to the Middle Ages was thus discovered in Vitry in 2016 on the site of the future station of line 15 south of the GPE.
Each time, the procedure is the same. “In certain defined areas, the regional service of archeology (SRA), which is a service of the General Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac), examines development and construction projects from a certain area and decides , or not, to launch investigations. If this is the case, it assigns Inrap or a local authority service to make a diagnosis. Surveys are carried out over approximately 10% of the area to determine if there are remains, at what depth and in what condition they are found. A report is then sent to the SRA which decides whether preventive excavations should be carried out or not, ”explains Marie-Christiane Casala.
Most of the time, it is Inrap that intervenes.
Depending on the geographic area of the excavation site, these are entrusted to archaeologists from one of Inrap's three archaeological research centers in Ile-de-France based in Pantin, La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Croissy -Beaubourg (Seine-et-Marne).
“The developer remains the owner and takes over the site once the land is vacated.
To excavate is to destroy but, before, one collects the maximum of objects and one registers all that one finds.
The heritage is safeguarded and the memory is preserved through this work of study and archiving.
The excavations on several sites of the Grand Paris Express contribute to this source of archaeological information like other major development projects ”, explains Marie-Christiane Casala.
To visit this Sunday
There are many archaeological sites to be discovered throughout Ile-de-France as part of the European Archeology Days organized by Inrap this Saturday and Sunday.
To see in particular, the visit of the site of archaeological excavations in progress of the construction site of the future line 15 of the Grand Paris Express in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), the guided tour of the site in the course of excavation of the necropolis of Mastraits in Noisy -le-Grand (Seine-Saint-Denis), or even anthropology workshops on funeral rites and study of human remains at the Hôtel national des Invalides in Paris.
If the visits are free, online reservation is required.
More information and full program on journees-archeologie.fr