Roman neighbourhood ruins unearthed in France

LYON - Experts have uncovered ruins of a Roman neighbourhood in of Lyon, which was founded in 43 BC during the Roman Empire.

Lyon was born with the name Lugdunum, after the Gaulish word ‘dunum’, which meant ‘hill fort’ and was conquered by Julius Caesar between 58 and 53 BC.

Enter Jules Ramona, an archaeologist with Swiss-based archaeological specialists Archeodunum and his colleagues made the discovery.

“At the top edge there is a path which steps down to a road wide enough for two-lane chariot travel, that is to say about 10 to 12 meters,” DigitalJournal.com quoted Ramona as saying.

“Then there’s another path and towards the bottom there are the remains of houses and shops in what used to be a busy part of the city. The buildings were often two stories high, with living quarters upstairs from the shops,” he added.

The team found an ornamental water pool that has a concrete lining.

Ramona realized that the city had been burnt down.

“We know there was a fire because of the colour of some of the stone in the walls. Stone that was exposed to severe heat took on a reddish colour, which is still to be seen.

That means that we can see which parts of the neighbourhood existed before the fire and which were built, or rebuilt, afterwards,” he said.

The builders needed clay to rebuild with, and they obtained it from craters, which they dug behind the main street.

“The craters were then filled in with unusable remains from the original buildings such as smaller stones and fragments of mortar. Some of this debris can be seen embedded in the walls of the craters,” Ramona said. (ANI)