Archaeologists are taking another look at the spring where the Seine begins, which might change how scholars interpret one of France's most important ancient religious places.
In Burgundy, a four-year dig has returned attention to the Gallo-Roman sanctuary of Source-Seine, where people once came to appeal to the goddess Sequana for healing.
What happened?
For the first time in more than 60 years, the sanctuary at the Seine's source is the focus of a major research effort by the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research. Running from 2026 to 2029, the project centers on the Burgundy spring, long recognized as the starting point of the River Seine.
According to Heritage Daily, the sanctuary honored Sequana, a deity linked to healing waters. During the Roman era, pilgrims visited to pray and then left gifts in thanks for cures or other favorable outcomes.
Past excavations recovered more than 1,000 votive items in bronze, wood, and stone, including figures of humans and animals, as well as offerings shaped like body parts and internal organs. Even so, researchers have said the site has never been studied as fully as it deserves.
"This is a nationally significant sanctuary, but much of our knowledge is based on investigations carried out nearly a century ago," the team said in a statement.
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Why does the Source-Seine archaeological site matter?
Artifacts found there have already become a key reference point for studying Gallo-Roman religious life in France, and the new research could help answer longstanding questions about how the sanctuary operated and evolved over time.
Erosion, frost, and simple age have taken a heavy toll on the site, and the remains recorded in the early 20th century have deteriorated significantly.
A sacred spring pipe that once extended nearly 15 meters has mostly disappeared, while an important basin connected to the spring has now been described as "a pile of unmortared stones."
What's being done?
To reexamine the sanctuary with newer methods, researchers are pairing archival work with geophysical surveys and fresh excavation. They are looking for buried structures that may still survive underground and studying how the environment around the sacred springs developed over time.
So far, the work has identified ancient walls, staircases, thresholds, and water pipes left behind after excavations carried out between the 1920s and 1950s. Those features are now being digitally mapped, giving archaeologists a much more precise record than earlier generations could produce.
The project may also help shape future conservation plans for a site that now combines archaeological remains with a 19th-century park, created after Baron Haussmann had the city of Paris purchase the land in 1864.
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