{"id":15337,"date":"2022-03-17T09:26:24","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T13:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=15337"},"modified":"2022-03-17T09:26:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T13:26:24","slug":"archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists Find Ancient Sarcophagus Under Notre Dame Cathedral"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists have found an ancient lead sarcophagus under Notre Dame cathedral and fragments of a rood screen. These two discoveries offer new insight into the history of the building, which is currently under reconstruction after a devastating fire in 2019.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame, which dates back to the 12th century, contracted the excavation works inside the cathedral as a preventive measure before installing scaffolding needed to restore a 100-meter high wooden roof ridge. According to the Culture Ministry, the excavation site is under a stony layer that dates from the 18th century. Still, some lower levels go back as far as the 14th, and some even the early 13th century.<\/p>\n

Christophe Besnier from France\u2019s National Archaeological Institute said, \u201cWe were able to send a small camera inside which showed cloth remains, organic matter such as hair and plant remains.\u201d The fact that these plants are still there indicates that the contents have been very well preserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archaeologists believe the lead sarcophagus belonged to a high dignitary and said it could date back to the 14th century, which would be a spectacular find if confirmed. The excavation also revealed a pit immediately below the cathedral floor, which was likely to have been made around 1230, when Notre Dame,<\/a> one of the oldest examples of French Gothic, was under construction.<\/p>\n

\"notre<\/a>
Courtesy: Julien De Rosa\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As well as the tombs, archaeologists found elements of painted sculptures just beneath the current floor level of the cathedral, identified as parts of the original 13th-century rood screen, an architectural element separating the altar area from the nave. Other features of the structure, destroyed in the early 18th century, were unearthed during Notre Dame\u2019s mid-1800s restoration and are already on display in the Louvre museum.<\/p>\n

The Notre Dame fire shocked France, with tearful Parisians and stunned tourists watching in disbelief as the blaze sent the cathedral\u2019s spire crashing down. After the fire, there was debate over\u00a0how it should be rebuilt. Former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe suggested a modern approach and\u00a0launched a competition\u00a0to redesign the spire, although others wanted it to remain traditional.<\/p>\n

However, President Macron decided the entire cathedral would be\u00a0rebuilt exactly as it was, including the spire, which was initially made of wood and\u00a0fell to the flames\u00a0in the first few hours of the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will rebuild Notre Dame because that\u2019s what the French people are expecting,\u201d a visibly emotional\u00a0Macron told reporters\u00a0at the fire site in 2019. \u201cBecause that\u2019s what our history is worthy of. Because that\u2019s our deep destiny.\u201d Many works of art and religious relics were moved to safety early in the fire, but others suffered smoke damage. Notre Dame is a historic cathedral that holds a special place in the heart of France. People travel from around the globe to marvel at her beauty. The fire may have devastated part of it, but the cathedral will be rebuilt to its original splendor. When she\u2019s finally rebuilt, France will sing with joy. The Notre Dame cathedral is on track to reopen to the public in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists have found an ancient lead sarcophagus under Notre Dame cathedral and fragments of a rood screen. These two discoveries offer new insight into the history of the building, which is currently under reconstruction after a devastating fire in 2019. Notre Dame, which dates back to the 12th century, contracted the excavation works inside the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":15343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nArchaeologists Find Ancient Sarcophagus Under Notre Dame Cathedral<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Archaeologists believe the lead sarcophagus belonged to a high dignitary and said it could date back to the 14th century.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Archaeologists Find Ancient Sarcophagus Under Notre Dame Cathedral\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Archaeologists believe the lead sarcophagus belonged to a high dignitary and said it could date back to the 14th century.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-17T13:26:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2022\/03\/NotreDame2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"966\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"569\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren McKeithen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Archaeologists Find Ancient Sarcophagus Under Notre Dame Cathedral","description":"Archaeologists believe the lead sarcophagus belonged to a high dignitary and said it could date back to the 14th century.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Archaeologists Find Ancient Sarcophagus Under Notre Dame Cathedral","og_description":"Archaeologists believe the lead sarcophagus belonged to a high dignitary and said it could date back to the 14th century.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2022-03-17T13:26:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":966,"height":569,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2022\/03\/NotreDame2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Lauren McKeithen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral","name":"Archaeologists Find Ancient Sarcophagus Under Notre Dame Cathedral","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2022\/03\/NotreDame2.png","datePublished":"2022-03-17T13:26:24+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-17T13:26:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/67183b7ec4ffc995620174c78f9cc68a"},"description":"Archaeologists believe the lead sarcophagus belonged to a high dignitary and said it could date back to the 14th century.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2022\/03\/NotreDame2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2022\/03\/NotreDame2.png","width":966,"height":569,"caption":"Courtesy: Julien De Rosa\/Getty Images"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2022\/03\/archaeologists-find-ancient-sarcophagus-under-notre-dame-cathedral#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Archaeologists Find Ancient Sarcophagus Under Notre Dame Cathedral"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/67183b7ec4ffc995620174c78f9cc68a","name":"lmckeithen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/113\/113fb9cc9b1ebdaacbc1f17d658ad52ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/113\/113fb9cc9b1ebdaacbc1f17d658ad52ex96.jpg","caption":"lmckeithen"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/lmckeithen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15346,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15337\/revisions\/15346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}