Recognized on a European scale, it is has been the object of programmed excavations and every year from June to July groups of 50 or so people have worked on exhumation of the Gallo-Roman remains. To explain the discoveries and the history of the city, a heritage interpretation and animation center CIAP , or simply the Chronographe , has been constructed.
The first Gallo-Roman ruins in Saint-Lupien were excavated in the 19th century but it was especially during the construction of a subdivision in the s that the City became aware of the size of the site and acquired the ground to protect it. In , an archaeological service is created. During the Roman conquest, independent tribes shared the Gallic territory. North of the Loire, the Namnetes founded the city of Condevicnum, future city of Nantes.
In 56 BC, the Venetians, a people of the Armorican region, resisted. In order to defeat them, Caesar allied with Pictons, whose capital is Limonum Poitiers , which provides him with wood, soldiers and ships. The Venetes are then defeated. It is possible that in the form of a reward, the Pictons could expand their territory to the Loire. It does not seem like much today, but it was an important agglomeration.
It was cited by geographers of the time, Strabo and Ptolemy. In , remains of monumental docks were discovered. This is an exceptional case in France, which indicates the wealth of the ancient city of Ratiatum. Digital reconstruction of the facilities of the Gallo-Roman port. These terraced wharves advanced into the river, connected by bank walls. Composed of oak beams and micaschist fragments, their state of preservation is exceptional.
On the front, a series of posts at regular intervals are fixed by mortise and tenon on a sandpit a large horizontal beam. These woods have inscriptions: Roman numerals that served as benchmarks for the assembly. Dating from dendrochronology, using growth rings of trees, it is established that these poles come from oaks felled in the winter of AD.
