A Preface to Paris: New Clues to the Roman Legacy

On a Left Bank hillside, which carries the name of Sainte-Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, French archaeologists have found remnants of a road and several houses dating back some 2,000 years to when Rome ruled Gaul.

In one sense, it was not a surprise. Other Roman vestiges have been uncovered, notably those of a theater that could seat 15,000 and Roman thermal baths found beneath the 15th-century Abbey of Cluny.

Yet the area of the new find, half a mile to the south, was so heavily built up in the early 20th century that it is hard to imagine space for excavation.