Archaeological sites
Several hundred archaeological sites explored by specialists can be found in the Montréal area. Learn more about the artefacts and vestiges of our collective history discovered over the years.
More than 230 listed archaeological sites can be found on the territory of the island of Montréal. Like major urban centers around the world, the City of Montréal recognizes the importance of preserving its heritage.
During the construction and redevelopment work that dot Montréal’s public spaces, the City ensures the protection and enhancement of its heritage by planning studies and archaeological interventions in advance. This allows it to enrich its knowledge and, sometimes, to reveal its archaeological heritage through the development projects.
La Reserve houses the archaeological collections of the City of Montréal
Montréal’s archaeological wealth is made up of more than 200 collections of objects from archaeological sites from prehistoric and historical periods. These vestiges of the past bear witness to various occupations ranging, among others, from prehistoric stone quarries to agricultural, military, commercial or industrial complexes, including domestic occupations.
La Reserve is a space fitted out according to museum conservation standards and notably contains a reference collection, accessible to researchers. It includes more than 7,500 objects, the oldest of which date back more than 4,000 years.
Of great museological, documentary and scientific value, the City’s collections are the subject of a growing number of loans by various organizations and researchers from here and elsewhere in the world. Many museums such as the Pointe à Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex, the MEM and the Maison Nivard-De-Saint-Dizier have drawn on these treasures to feed their exhibitions and reveal these witnesses to the past to a wider audience.
Archaeological discoveries gallery
Pointe à Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex
Pointe à Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex is located on the founding site of the city, in Old Montréal. It highlights in situ various vestiges of the first occupations at Pointe-à-Callière. An important 19th century canalization work for the Saint-Pierre river is also part of the archaeological route of the Museum.
Fortification of Champ-de-Mars
An important segment of the fortifications of Montréal, erected in 1717 according to the plans of the chief engineer of the king in New France, Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry, has been the subject of a program of archaeological excavations and in situ enhancement in the Champ-de-Mars site, near City Hall.
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