 My name is Melinda Desri. I'm a French archaeologist. My principal studies deal with medieval castles in the center of France. Today, I will talk about the castle of Gia. First, I will shortly present the castle in its octial two-stick landscape. Second, I will show you the recent discoveries made by the archaeologists and how these discoveries changed the understanding of the site. And finally, I will briefly speak about challenges concerning presentation of the scientific results to a wider public. The medieval castle of Gia is a well-conserved monument located nearby the Loire River in the western part of France. But unfortunately, it is not included in the Loire Valley UNESCO Label perimeter, such as other famous castles like Chambord or Chenonceau. It's possibly because Gia was not built during the first French Renaissance, but at the end of the 15th century, just before the French royalty returned with Italian artists after the Italian wars. Moreover, its walls are made of bricks, a material which is rarely used in the later Renaissance castles of the Loire Valley, which are most of time built of yellow to white limestone. Because of its location, very close to famous castle of the Renaissance and because of its early time of construction at the end of the 15th century, the castle of Gia occupies a special place in this historical landscape. Until recent archaeological and historical increase, the context of edification of the castle in the late Middle Ages and its earlier medieval origins were unknown and dealt more with imagination than with scientific knowledge. Rescue excavations started in 2011 when the museum inside the castle was going to be restored. At the western part of the hillside was found a continuity of the castle of the 15th century. It was composed of several rooms. Here you can see the aerial view of the excavation. And here we have the detail of the chimney and of the floor made of permanent. In this part, we found the largest room of the castle. It had a representative function. The space was used for rich reception dinners for drinking and feast and so on. At the same time we did the rescue archaeology, we also analyzed the process of the building construction of the actual castle by using dendrochronology. It allowed us to understand that the castle was built from west to east in a very short time. It took only 11 to 12 years to be constructed. This short time might be explained by the fact that the materials were provided from the natural resources that was owned by royalty or that the royalty could easily find in surroundings. These materials are the clay for the bricks, of course, but also also the wood and expensive resource, which involved a very strict management of the nature. We suppose that the construction of the castle of Jain required around 900 logs of oak trees. These trees were cut from the forest, lying only few kilometers around Jain. However, some trees required special resources management. This may be the case for example of this huge beam decorated with a little bear, having one meter of diameter, which could have been specially searched and selected. Also, limestones used for the limitation of windows and doors have been chosen and carried by the Loire River from the territory of central France. So we can ask the following question. Why such a royal residence in this location? Jain is located exactly at the limits between the Orléans du Chez and the Burgundies du Chez areas. At the end of the 15th century, several lords from Burgundy and Orléans did not recognize the authority of Louis XI, the King of France. The castle was built after the end of the quarrel, after the death of Jean-Charles de Téméraire, the Duke of Burgundy. It was constricted by Anne de France and Pierre de Bourbon, who took the head of the kingdom during the sickness of Louis XI. Building a royal castle in this place, in this political complex, signified that French royalty kept an eye on this ancient Burgundy territories. So the place of Jain reached the kingdom of France at the end of the 15th century with the construction of the castle of Jain. But what was the place before? From the archaeological point of view, we can see that Anne de France intentionally didn't care about constriction made in preceding periods. She almost totally erased previous building. However, she didn't totally erase the first stages of the indoor floors of a locked tower that we found under the destroyed wings of the castle of Anne de France. This locked tower could certainly have been owned by Burgundy lords and might have looked like this one. Its indoor floors contain, for example, several fireplaces and storage pits. Micromorphology's analysis made on fireplaces told us about the activities done inside the building during the 10th century. It allowed us to conclude that not one, but several types of activity took place in the same fireplaces. And each activity has been performed during different duration periods. These activities were, for example, activities of cooking, represented, of course, by the fights of animal bones, but also extents. Metallurgical activity were mostly represented by slag and other forging macroscopic residue. Forging activities probably concerned, for example, fixing iron house shoes or fixing other zinc and copper objects. These clues along with other clues concerning food habits indicate the high status of inhabitants able to use and control also metal resources. Nearby this tower, a contemporary settlement composed of three different houses was excavated inside the actual castle. The micro-analysis of floors told us about the lifestyle inside these houses made of clay and wood. The activities within this area were also dedicated to cooking and in less extension to crafting the bones. The floor analysis gave us also some clues about the environment of these buildings. The animal husbandry was identified by their copper lights, goats, sheep, and also young pigs. Different seeds were identified and analyzed, like strawberries, grapes, and so on. That let us know about the farming landscape around. Here you can see paper seed, which were found in one piece. That kind of finding is quite exceptional in the Western European context of Middle Ages, because the paper came at that historical period from India. And this plant was as precious as money. It was rarely eaten, but in the case of Jien, we could assume it was eaten because it was found near waste of food. The presence of paper, as well as the presence of food, composed mainly of wild animal species, like bear, deer, wild boar, peacock, or birds, allowed us to conclude to the high status of inhabitants living in these houses. We suppose that people who lived there belonged to the same social group that those living in the tower, even if housing, are not the same. Now that we have in mind information about the forgotten medieval landscape of Jien, the historical one with the significant construction of the Royal Castle at the end of the 15th century and the previous Burgundy Castle of the beginning of the 10th century, we can ask the next question. How could we transfer in simple and not simplified way this knowledge to a wider public? Unfortunately, we have to underline that often archaeological reserves are not presented to visitors, which is the case for many historical places. In France, we can observe that even if research is done, it is barely spread to a wider audience than to scientists, then to themselves, especially when a study has been done on edifications of building. Here, for example, we can see another old part of the castle of Jien. Also, the tower has been constructed in five different stages. Visitor does not have this information available because of the new restoration. It is like we would consider that what is still standing does not need to be shown and explained. We can say the same thing for the archaeological excavation made beside the castle, which is now totally covered by tree plantations. It is true that sometimes a few medieval artefacts here coming from the excavation of Jien are presented in the exhibition. However, collection presented are often reduced to poor set of artefacts, such as broken medieval pottery or rusting nails. It is not enough, and it does not really help to promote the richness of the medieval civilization. Another thing is that the collection of the museum located inside the castle of Jien is totally disconnected from the history of the site. It is collection of hunting over the age. However, the modern 3D restitution helps us to imagine what was the site behind historical cliché and how it has evolved. You have seen one of these theoretical scenes of Jien during this presentation. Virtualization of scenes based on scientific knowledge were recently proposed, for example, for the visit of some castles in the Loire Valley, like the castle of Jien. However, this visit experience must be extended to archaeological excavation themselves by using, for example, immersive headsets to help people to understand what they can't see anymore and to open their eyes to what they would never have suspected at all. It helps people to reconnect themselves to lost historical landscapes and lost environments. Nowadays, the challenge is that we archaeologists have to do these proposals to take a risk, even if sometimes, information are not complete. The archaeologists and researchers have to continue to ask and claim for an extended refund of their knowledge and to take part in this action to propose to people the hidden past of castle sites. Thank you for your attention.