Rare Roman sculptures found at Chartres sanctuary
Archaeologists have unearthed a rare cache of ancient Roman sculptures in Chartres, a town south-west of Paris in France. ARTnews reported the discovery on 1 October 2026. It is the kind of find that stops a dig in its tracks. Work paused for recording and lifting.
The sculptures were found at a vast ancient sanctuary in the town, Heritage Daily reported on 29 September 2026. A sanctuary here means a religious complex, with courtyards, buildings and water, not a single shrine. The scale points to a place that drew people from across the surrounding settlement.
Numerous fragments of statues and sculpted reliefs came from around and inside a large central basin at the site. Reliefs are figures and scenes carved to stand out from a flat stone background. The fragments lay spread across the basin floor and its edges. Each piece must be cleaned, photographed and logged before any joining work begins.
France's Inrap, the national institute that carries out rescue archaeology ahead of building work, has documented the Chartres excavations over several years. It published an account titled 'Quand Chartres ressemblait à Herculanum', which translates as 'When Chartres looked like Herculaneum' Inrap. Herculaneum was a Roman town in Italy buried by the eruption of Vesuvius. The comparison is about preservation.
That Inrap account was published on 23 October 2021. It gives background to the longer excavation, not the latest sculpture announcement. Older accounts help explain the basin. The new reports carry the news of the finds.
That earlier account described the exhumation of a white marble basin with a star-shaped vat installed at its centre. White marble is a prized carving and building stone, cut and polished to a bright finish. A vat in this context is a small tank for holding water. The description matches the central basin now associated with the sculpture finds.
No full list of figures, gods or emperors has been published in the reports cited here. No prices, estimates or museum plans were included either. For now the verified core is tight: a sanctuary, a basin, and stone pieces coming out of soil and water together.
