| Summary: | The first archaeological excavations at Versailles took place in 1990, following a February storm. Further excavations were undertaken in the park as part of studies prior to the replanting of the groves. They brought to light a number of structures no longer visible : ponds, aqueducts, stonework, pipes, the foundations for trellises, etc., which illustrated and added to the treatises of garden design theorists, and to the decorative elements that adorned ponds and fountains, including rocaille and marble edging. Archaeological work carried out in the château’s courtyard in 2001 uncovered vestiges of the first iterations of the castle, and from 2006 continued in the gardens of the Grand and Petit Trianons. In twenty-five years, eighteen sites have been excavated in these two estates as well as in Marly. Most of the work involved the parks with the result that Versailles and its surroundings became the root of garden archaeology, a special branch of the discipline, and extended it into the modern era.
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