The see in Paris

The City of Paris municipal ossuary, commonly called the “catacombs”, is famous for its bone galleries. But these ancient stone quarries contain another remarkable treasure: traces of an era about 45 million years ago, when a tropical sea covered Paris! The exhibition shows the visitor this obscure geological heritage and explains the underground formation of Paris. Geological samples of the ground studied in the Catacombs were used as international references to define a period in the Earth’s history, 49 to 40 million years before our time. This geological stage is called Lutetian, referring to Lutetia, the Roman name for Paris. The rocks visible along the paths of the Catacombs tell the story of the Lutetian Sea, which covered the land where Paris is currently located, and the geological events that accompanied the birth of the Pyrenees and the Alps. The geological events were recorded in the rocks when they were deposited on the bottom of the Lutetian Sea until they were dug up in the underground quarries of the Middle Ages. The exposition intends to highlight this little-known geological heritage and explain the formation of the underground of Paris. The Catacombs are the only place in Paris where the recent history of the Earth can be told in situ.

COMMISSIONERS:
Sylvie Robin, head curator of the Carnavalet Museum
Rose-Marie Mousseaux, curator at the Carnavalet Museum
Jean-Pierre Gély, director of research and associated researcher at the Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

hashtag: #meraparis