Emily Chan
A homeowner near Paris, France, was in the middle of a basement renovation project when they unexpectedly found a skeleton. The discovery led to the excavation of an ancient cemetery containing nearly 40 burials, with some of them dating back to Roman times.
The oldest grave is from the third century A.D. during the Late Roman period, while the most recent grave is from around the 10th century, indicating that the site was used for about 700 years.
There were also 10 plaster sarcophagi dating back to the early Merovingian period of Frankish rule, which spanned from 476 to 750.
At first, the site was believed to be an early medieval graveyard since a 7th-century chapel had once stood in the area. But that theory was debunked when burials from an earlier era were unearthed. The homeowner came across the first grave this past winter.
The French archaeology company Archaeodunum is carrying out the excavations. The archaeologists have now uncovered a total of 38 graves in a four-room area taking up 560 square feet.
The house is located in the Montconseil district of Corbeil-Essonnes, a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris. The commune is thought to have been built at the same site as the medieval Notre-Dame-des-Champs chapel, which was built on top of an even older pagan temple honoring a spring.
Before this, earlier medieval graves had been found nearby, but no signs of the chapel or temple were ever discovered. Now, it is the first time the chapel’s cemetery has been studied. Most of the graves at the basement site were organized in parallel rows.
The bodies from the Roman period had been buried on their backs in wooden enclosures that have rotted away over time. Meanwhile, the 10 deceased individuals in the Merovingian graves were buried in plaster sarcophagi, arranged next to each other in a fan shape.
One of the sarcophagi was initially covered by a stone block, which has broken into numerous pieces. It appeared that a rosette and two crosses were carved into the rock’s surface.
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