As part of a collective research project dedicated to studying Caen Castle, the timber roofs of several of its buildings were analysed and dendrochronologically dated. Studying the wooden frame of the Saint-Georges church roof, which had previously been hidden behind a wooden panel or was difficult to access, provided a better understanding of the construction methods used for the nave and choir. The nave’s timber frame has been dated to 1438–1439d and its unusual design is now better understood. Accessing the higher parts of the building made it possible to study the masonry of the triumphal arch, revealing several stages in the building process during the Middle Ages that had previously been unknown. This also enabled the date of the church itself to be revised, challenging the previously held understanding of the building.
In 2007 an archaeological survey was carried out in the centre of Vénissieux, a suburban town of the Lyon metropolitan area and a medieval fortified village existing at least since the 10th c. Vast medieval silage areas extend outside the 14th c. enclosure. About thirty meters east of the enclosure ditch, in a contemporary excavated silo, dated by the ceramics, were found four shapeless iron fragments. Through X-radiography, they were identified as parts of a dagger sheath bearing an exceptional decoration of fleur-de-lis motif. The site was not excavated. Fifteen years later, its restoration and technological study, made possible using tomography, finally reveal these stamped motifs on copper alloy shields, fixed on the obverse of the sheath. In Vénissieux, such a decoration, the emblem adopted by the kings of France, is more intriguing on a 14th-century weapon at a time when the village, previously under authority of the Holy Roman Empire, is integrated to the Kingdom of France.
