Nearly 300 preventive archaeological operations have been carried out by the Beauvais Archaeological Department since it was set up at the initiative of Jean-Marc Fémolant in 1992. The wealth of information accumulated is abundant in both urban and rural contexts. But the town was already rich in archaeological discoveries, mainly since the 19th century. This period also saw the birth of the first institutional framework, with the creation of local learned societies. The beginnings of Beauvais archaeology go back even further, to the 17th century. The discoveries made at this time appear to be quite varied. The most numerous were antique decorated architectural blocks and antique lapidary inscriptions. These remains were found in the castrum, often in the foundations of the curtain walls, and some outside the town, towards Mont-Capron. It was here, in 1636, that the famous remains of a vast temple were found during the construction of a fortification to face the Spanish troops. Apart from the reliability of the plan published at the beginning of the 19th century, based on an original drawn up from memory by a canon, it is the very authenticity of this discovery that seems to be called into question.