Archaeologists from the French National Institute for Preventative Archaeological Research (Inrap) have unearthed a Gallo-Roman domus in the city of Reims, and a set of three finely crafted bronze statuettes and a rare Megalography fresco inside.

The domus dates to the 2nd century C.E., when the city of Reims was the Gallo-Roman city of Durocortorum, the second largest city in Roman Gaul. Durocortorum was granted imperial status after Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul in the 1st century C.E. and boomed to a population of more than 50,000. The city was organized in typical Roman fashion, divided into blocks in a grid system with the forum at its centre. The domus containing the bronze statuettes and fresco stood more than half a mile from the forum, close to the Vesle River which would have made the area damp and less desirable.

Detail of the statuette of Mars before cleaning. Photo: © Simon Loiseau, Inrap.

The statuettes were found in a layer of debris believed to be the result of a fire in the home.

One statuette, a seven-inch representation of the Roman god of war Mars includes a shield showing his son the founder of Rome, Romulus, along with his twin brother Remus and the female wolf who kept the boys alive in infancy. His eyes have been enhanced with silver inlays and his chest bears a Medusa head on a breastplate. The statue stands on a circular base ornamented with silver and copper floral decoration.

The statuette of Mars unearthed in Reims. Photo: © Renaud Bernadet.

A second, unidentified deity statuette stands at 12 inches. It features a helmet with a sphinx detail, and on the reverse of the statuette is a remaining space for wings that have since been lost. Another relic takes the form of a club wrapped in a snake, one typically wielded by the hero Hercules.

Hercules’s club after cleaning. Photo: © Renaud Bernadet

The figures were linked with a fresco in the home. Megalography frescoes are depictions of human (or holy) figures painted in life-size or larger. The remaining fragments of the fresco bear the names “Achilles” and “Deidamia,” referring to a mythological tale. In the story, Achilles was sent by his mother to the court of the king of the island of Skyros disguised as a woman in order to avoid his prophesized death during the Trojan War. While there, Achilles charmed the princess Deidamia and the pair had two sons.

Fragments of painted plaster with inscription of the mythological figure of Achilles. Photo: © Jean-Jacques Bigot, Inrap.

This tale was popular in Rome, and its presence in the fresco of this domus in Roman-Gaul demonstrates how different parts of the Roman Empire shared in popular narrative traditions. However, its presence in frescos is rare and only four representations of the scene are known across the Roman world, with three of the four found in Italy.

Archaeologists also know that it wasn’t just the details within the domus, which once would have had two pillars as part of its façade, that made it special. The quality of these archaeological finds suggest that the home was owned by a wealthy family with strong links to the Empire’s capital, and yet its non-central location within Durocortorum puts that hypothesis into question.

Statuettes being cleaned and reassembled by curator-restorer Renaud Bernadet. Photo: © Joël Peyrou, Inrap.

The excavations came during work by real estate developer Demathieu Bard Immobilier to build a property on Reims’s rue de la Magdeleine. Reims has been an exciting city for excavation since the mid-19th century, and just last year Inrap discovered an unopened 2nd century C.E. limestone sarcophagus still held closed by lead staples in the city’s necropolis.