SPECTACULAR FINDS IN BRUSSELS OF ANCIENTS

The Brussels regional government has approved a request to prolong archaeological works currently taking place on the site of the former Parking 58 in the city center, now the planned location for a new administrative center for Brussels-City municipality. The works are at the moment a gigantic hole in the ground (photo) where once there was a parking garage famous for the view from its top floor. When the multi-story car park was razed, a routine architectural inspection uncovered some interesting artifacts, and construction was halted for further investigation, as the law allows.

The dig has now turned up evidence of a settlement on the banks of the Senne, the river on which Brussels grew up, with objects first thought to date to the 10th century, but which may in fact be up to three centuries older.

The finds made so far, in the center of the site to a depth of some 7.5m, have been described as “spectacular” and “of crucial importance for the history of Brussels”. Among them: a stone quay on what was the bank of the Seine dating to the Middle Ages, wooden structures even older, and tools and materials such s leather shoes and wooden combs relating to various crafts practiced back to possibly the seventh century, suggesting life was taking place on the site of what is now the city center as many as 1400 years ago.

As well as the typical finds of archaeological sites, such as tools and pottery, the extended investigation will allow microscopic examination of the soil in each level of the ground, giving a deeper insight into the conditions of life as the centuries passed.