Discovery May Change Narrative on Origins of Paris

A construction project at a Paris hospital has unexpectedly revived a centuries-old argument over where the city began. Archaeologists shoring up the Hotel Dieu on the Ile de la Cite uncovered a 72-foot-long stone-and-wood wall and a Gallic spearhead, finds that experts say look like late Iron Age fortifications described in Julius Caesar's account of the Gallic Wars, the New York Times reports. France's Culture Ministry called the discovery a "major breakthrough," per CBS News.

Initial carbon dating places the structure between 200 BC and 10 BC, with burn marks, charred seeds, and a destroyed wooden building hinting at a fire that may match Caesar's description of the Gauls torching Lutetia before fleeing Roman troops. The discovery is selling some scholars who once favored a different site in suburban Nanterre on the idea that ancient Lutetia really did sit on the island at Paris' center, per the Times.