Students Stumble Upon a Message in a Bottle Written by a French Archaeologist 200 Years Ago

A team of student archaeologists volunteering in the French town of Eu has made a remarkable discovery: a 200-year-old message, rolled up in a bottle and tied with string, written by an archaeologist who once worked in the area.

The missive does not contain words of wisdom about the site. Instead, it’s a simple note marking the writer’s presence, like a name carved into a child’s desk at school.

“P.J. Féret, a native of Dieppe, a member of various intellectual societies, carried out excavations here in January 1825,” reads the note, per a translation by Artnet’s Richard Whiddington. “He continues his investigations in this vast area known as the City of Limes or Caesar’s Camp.”

The site is located near Dieppe, a port town in Normandy, and it was once home to an ancient Gaulish village. During recent excavations, the students found a salt bottle inside a clay pot, per a post on the town of Eu’s Facebook page. The bottle was resting beside two coins.

“It was an absolutely magic moment,” excavation leader Guillaume Blondel, who works as an archaeologist for the town, tells BBC News’ Hugh Schofield. “We knew there had been excavations here in the past, but to find this message from 200 years ago—it was a total surprise.”

The archaeological site, which sits on a cliff, is in danger due to erosion, and the student volunteers are trying to learn as much as they can about the area before it’s too late. So far, they’ve discovered several pieces of 2,000-year-old pottery and other artifacts from the same period.

While the bottle isn’t the oldest item at the site, they see Féret’s brief note as “a very moving and particular testimony,” Blondel tells Artnet.

Discovering an intact note in a glass container dating to the 19th century doesn’t happen every day. In fact, if authenticated, it could be the oldest message in a bottle ever found, as CBS News’ Cara Tabachnick reports.

According to Guinness World Records, the oldest message in a bottle on record was found by Kym and Tonya Illman on Wedge Island, Australia, in 2018. Written by a German ship captain in 1886, it was 131 years old at the time of its discovery. (When the Illmans saw the date—June 12, 1886—they thought it was “too far-fetched” to be accurate, as Kym Illman told BBC News’ Helier Cheung a few months later.)

Now, the newly discovered bottle with Féret’s note joins the ranks of rare forgotten time capsules, linking generations of curious minds hoping to connect across the centuries.

“Sometimes you see these time capsules left behind by carpenters when they build houses. But it’s very rare in archaeology,” Blondel tells BBC News’ Schofield. “Most archaeologists prefer to think that there won’t be anyone coming after them because they’ve done all the work!”

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.