[Opening shot of the place D’Youville in Montréal on a sunny day. The title “Treasures beneath the city” appears on screen.]

[Shot of Hendrik Van Gijseghem, project manager in archaeology and history at Pointe-à-Callière.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:
I’m standing on place D’Youville where in 1832, St. Anne’s Market was built over the course of the Little River. In 1844 the Parliament of the Province of Canada came and sat here until 1849 when it was burned down. 

[A 19^th-century lithograph of the smoking ruins of the Montréal Parliament appears on screen.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:
It’s on this site of national importance that Pointe-à-Callière undertook, between 2010 and 2017, major archaeological excavations.   

[A series of pictures of the archaeological dig appear on screen.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:
Welcome to place D’Youville! 

[Shot of the artefacts from the Parliament archaeological site. The title “Witnesses of the past” appears on screen.]

[Shot of Hendrik Van Gijseghem at the place D’Youville.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:
So we’ve done a lot of research on this site. 350, 000 artefacts. About 50 to 60% of the site was excavated. But we left some areas, including the large area behind me, untouched. And we’re going to leave it like that for future generations of archaeologists who maybe will have different methods, different techniques, different questions. And so we’re preserving that area for those future archaeologists, kind of like we wish that past archaeologists had done the same for us.  

[A photograph of an aerial view of the Parliament archaeological site appears on screen. A small section in the back is highlighted and pointed at by several arrows.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:
One of the specific features of this archaeological site is that it allows us to reconstruct entire objects. 

[Shot of Hendrik Van Gijseghem opening the door to the parliament artefacts collections. He shows the space where fragments are put back together to form objects. Close up shot of reconstructed objects.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:
At the time of the market, things were broken or discarded for any number of reasons and ended up in the basements, basically at the level of the little river. At the time of Parliament, obviously, the building was evacuated in a rush, everything was left behind, burned, and ended up in the same place. So that means that both for the market and the Parliament, reconstructible objects were left behind. 

[Shot of François Gignac fitting together pieces and fragments.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:
So that allows us to count and compare actual numbers of entire objects and identify those objects better than if we had only little fragments, which is often the case in the archaeological record. Here, we’re privileged with having hundreds and thousands of objects that can be reconstructed. 

[Close up shots of reconstructed artefacts.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:
And that requires a tremendous program of restoration. Restoration basically means sorting through fragments, seeing what looks alike, and trying to reconstruct those objects and put them back together.  

[Shot of François Gignac carefully removing a reconstructed plate from a shelf. He shows the fragments that constitute the piece.]

Hendrik Van Gijseghem:
And that has been a very important activity after the excavations have stopped in order to better understand that time period and better understand the activities that took place in the market as well as in the Parliament. 

[The logo of “A parliament under your feet” appears on screen, under the title “outdoor exhibition.” There are two bubbles saying “free!” and “guides on-site.” The address “Place D’Youville, between St-Pierre and McGill streets” is at the bottom of the screen, next to the mention, “Until November 1^st.”]

[The logo of the Pointe-à-Callière museum appears on screen. Underneath it is the mention, “This project was made possible thanks to financial support from Tourisme Montréal’s Fonds de maintien des actifs stratégiques, with the financial participation of the Government of Quebec.” At the bottom of the screen are the logos of Tourisme Montréal, the City of Montréal and the Government of Quebec.]

The video shows the process of archeological artifact reconstitution in fast forward. The archeologist François Gignac is reconstructing a pottery flask from fragments found on the parliament of Montreal archeological site. He is sitting at a large table. Large trays full of pottery fragments are placed around him. He is reconstructing the pot from the fragments in the trays. A closeup shot of his hands working is shown in the upper right corner of the video.

A receding aerial shot over old Montreal on a sunny day. A title appears on the screen: “Montreal ‘capital,’ an exceptional archaeological site.”

The camera descends on the archaeological site of the Montreal Parliament. A central track is flanked by two deep trenches on either side. Archaeologists wearing yellow safety jackets and helmets circulate around the site.]

[Shot of a section of the site, seen from above. The camera pulls back and up, showing an overall view of the archaeological site.]

Close-up of an archaeologist scraping the ground with a trowel. His movements are delicate and precise. 

Close-up of the parliament building’s foundations. They are made of large grey stones and supported by braces.

Shot of an archaeologist wearing a safety jacket and helmet, taking notes. The archaeologist is sitting in the excavation site between two stanchions. 

Close-up of coloured pottery chips in the ground. 

Close-up of a reconstituted artifact. The artifact is made of blue and white porcelain. The front side features an illustration of figures in togas around an angel. Above the illustration are the words “Princess Royal of England.” 

Scrolling sequence shot on the left showing the length of the excavation site, seen from above.

Close-up of a postal stamp found at the excavation site. The stamp bears the words “Canada” and “Assembly”.

Fading shot on a handwritten letter, stamped “Canada Assembly.”

Quick shot of the Montreal parliament excavation site. The camera stops on a group of archaeologists wearing helmets standing in the centre of the site. The camera gradually moves upwards to show the entire excavation site.

Aerial rotating shot of the excavation site.

Presentation of a 3D plan of the Montreal Parliament. The 3D model rotates to show all its facets. The camera moves back and forth over the details of the parliament.

Fade to the front of the 3D model, which scrolls to the left.

Aerial shot of the Parliament archaeological site. The camera pulls back and away from Parliament to show the entire Old Montreal District.

Fade to white screen. The Pointe-à-Callière museum logo appears in the centre of the screen. The words “Montréal Archaeology and History Complex” appear below the museum name, along with the website and logo of the City of Montréeal. 

The “Imagine 360, immersive, interactive, innovative” logo appears on the screen against a black background.