The team of archaeologists from the Archaeology and Archaeometry Laboratory (CNRS-Universities of Lyon I and II) has discovered more than a thousand medieval coins and gold objects. This is the story of yet another treasure unearthed during excavations carried out at Cluny Abbey.
The Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Cluny welcomes and works closely with Anne Baud, Senior Lecturer atthe University of Lyon 2, and her team from the Archaeology and Archaeometry Laboratory (AR AR) UMR 5138 of the CNRS.
On November 14, 2017, a press conference was held to announce the discovery of more than 2,000 medieval coins and gold objects. Some of the coins, gold dinars from the early 12th century, come from Spain and Morocco, raising new questions that laboratory analyses will attempt to answer.
This is not the only treasure found during excavations: a sarcophagus and, incidentally, a grenade were also hidden beneath the feet of the monument's 130,000 annual visitors, engineering students, and staff at the Arts et Métiers Campus Arts et Métiers Cluny.
This research program, which has been running since 1992, has been subsidized by the state via theDRAC ( Regional Directorate for Cultural Affairs). The aim of these "programmed" excavations is to reclaim the grounds of Cluny Abbey. The last excavation campaign (2006-2013) was crowned with a major discovery: the aristocratic residence of the Carolingian Villa, which confirms that Cluny Abbey was founded on an inhabited site. Since 2014, Anne Baud's team has been seeking to understand the development of Cluny Abbey in the 11th century. What makes this site unique is that no one, not even J.K. Conant, had ever excavated this land before. Perhaps this is why this treasure had not been discovered earlier.
Finally, in 2010, the Centre des Monuments Nationaux,the Institut Image, and the company on-situ received assistance from Anne Baud and Christian Sapin to enhance the visitor experience with a 3D reconstruction of the Maior Ecclesia for tourists visiting the abbey, as well as a device using augmented reality. These devices were then deployed at other sites belonging to the European Federation of Cluniac Sites.
