While the Archeology Days take place this weekend, the City and Inrap have renewed their partnership.
In the shade of the large trees that protect the garden of the Natural History Museum, Halil and his two children work delicately with clay. Guided in their actions by one of the local experts, they try to reproduce the Candélaire, this menhir stele unearthed in Saint-Bénézet and which has become one of the major pieces of the museum. Next door, while a guide brought a small group for a guided tour, another guide showed the evolution of the Gard scrubland during the Iron Age. “This is the theme of the Archaeological Days for this 2026 edition“she said.
Like every year, the Natural History Museum of Nîmes and the Musée de la Romanité take part in the operation. Several guided tours are offered until Sunday evening, in addition to workshops and activities. An unmissable event here, since as Dominique Garcia, president of the National Institute of Archaeological Research since 2014, said the day before in town hall, “Nîmes has participated in building archéology in France“.
A knowledge engine for the city
His presence, in this city that he himself once excavated, notably to reveal the mosaic of Pentheus, before the construction of the Jean-Jaurès car park in 2007, had the objective of renewing, for three years, the partnership between Inrap and the municipality. “Our common ambition is to make archeology a driver of knowledge, transmission and influence for the city“, he said.
Le maire, Vincent Bouget, a confirmé : “for more than 40 years, archaeologists and the Institute have supported the city’s urban projects. More than 400 diagnostics and 140 preventive excavations have profoundly renewed archaeological knowledge of the territory and revealed an exceptionally rich heritage, from Prehistory to the contemporary era.“.
New discoveries at the arenas
Latest example to date: Inrap archaeologists are taking advantage of the repair of the arches of the arenas, a program which runs until 2032 to carry out surveys and even carry out excavations. “This is how, by dismantling damaged blocks, we found dovetails, used at the time to hold the slabs, which allowed us to determine that there was a first amphitheater, under the amphitheater we know today“details one of the archaeologists based in Nîmes. The discovery was debated at length between specialists during a conference organized in the city… thanks to the convention. “If we manage to enrich our knowledge in this way, it is also because Nîmes dares to bring its city to life, its development. Without work, there would be no diagnosis, a mandatory step before launching a project and necessarily carried out by Inrap, and even fewer excavations.“décrit, pedagogue, Dominique Garcia.
Inrap also has high hopes for an ambitious project which is to be launched in September: the urban heating network which will be implemented “on archaeologically sensitive areas“.
Soon a digital Atlas of Nîmoise excavations
September will also see the launch of the Digital Atlas which will make accessible data from 50 of the most beautiful excavations carried out in recent decades in the heart of Nîmes “and which will tell the history of the city, in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, address by address“. This work is part of the management plan for the Maison Carrée after its UNESCO registration. It was also made easier by the fact that the Midi-Mediterranean interregional directorate was headquartered in Nîmes. A true capital of archaeology.
