Roman remains found at Tour & Taxis

The discovery of second or third century artefacts on a construction site at Tour & Taxsi has halted the works. Archaeologists have been called in to investigate the remains, which date back to the Roman period in Belgium.

The remains were found a few days ago on the site of the Herman Teirlinck building, a future office space for Flemish civil servants.

A wooden pail was found six metres beneath the ground where, they think, a small tributary to the Senne must have once ran. The pail was well preserved due to the anaerobic environment out of the ground water.

In the second or third centuries AD, what today is Brussels was part of the Roman Empire, though very few artefacts remain from this time. Apart from a few isolated finds such as coins, construction materials and ceramics, from this period in the region, only a few villae (farms) are known of, namely in Anderlecht, Jette and Laeken.

“This is an exceptional find for the history of the Brussels region,” said archaeologist Sylviane Modrie in Brusselnieuws.be. “Thanks to this discovery, a new part of the Roman history of the region can be written. "