Several archaeological digs have been conducted, both inside and outside of Maison Le Ber-Le Moyne.
The first dig took place in 1998 and produced major discoveries. Further searches were carried out between 2009 and 2014.
Archaeologists’ log: www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/lachine/archeologie (in French only)
Based on discoveries made during the 1998 archaeological digs, it is estimated that First Nation people occupied this site as much as 2,500 years ago. Yet in 1642, when the religious mission of Ville Marie was founded on Montréal Island, it seems that the French found no trace of the native settlement earlier described by Jacques Cartier.
A few years later, in 1667, the Sulpician priests who ran the mission granted the southern part of the island to Cavelier de La Salle, who called his fiefdom Côte-Saint-Sulpice.
