Scientists have discovered 50 graves in an ancient necropolis just a few meters from a busy railway station in the center of Paris, providing a rare look at life in Lutetia, the city that predated Paris by over 2,000 years.
Despite numerous road construction projects over the years and the 1970s construction of the Port-Royal station on the historic Left Bank, the underground necropolis was somehow never discovered.
One of the skeletons unearthed in an ancient necropolis found meters from a busy Paris train station.
However, the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) of France has been excavating for around 200 square meters as a result of plans for a new railway station exit. According to a news release from the research center, the excavation turned up burials that date to the second century and are thought to be a part of the Saint Jacques necropolis.
At a press briefing, INRAP anthropologist Camille Colonna stated that there were "strong suspicions" the site was near to the southern necropolis of Lutetia.
Previously, in the 1800s, a portion of the Saint Jacques necropolis, the greatest burial site in the Gallo-Roman town of Lutetia, was unearthed.
However, the numerous skeletons, burial offerings, and other relics were left in the tombs, and only items deemed valuable were removed.
After then, the necropolis was covered up and once more forgotten by time.
One part that had never been dug was found by the INRAP crew.
"No one has seen it since antiquity," claimed Dominique Garcia, president of INRAP.
Colonna added that the team was "very happy" to have discovered a skeleton with a coin in its mouth that helped date the burial to the second century A.D.
50 tombs have been discovered as a result of the dig, which started in March. All of the sites were used for burial rather than cremation, which was also typical at the time.
Hades' Ferryman
The men, women, and kids are thought to be Parisii, a Gallic people who resided in Lutetia at the time that the town on the Seine River's banks was governed by the Roman Empire.
The wooden coffins the bones were placed in can now only be recognized by their nails.
During the current dig, around half of the bones were discovered buried with offerings, including porcelain jugs, goblets, dishes, and glassware.
It was customary practice at the time to place a coin in the coffin or even in the mouth of the deceased; this practice was known as "Charon's obol." The coin was used as a bribe by Charon, the ferryman of Hades in Greek mythology, to ferry the souls of the deceased across the Styx River.
Inside the graves, the archaeologists also discovered shoe remnants. They were recognized based on fragments of tiny nails that had likely been utilized in the soles. According to INRAP, some of the deceased appeared to have had shoes placed on their feet in the grave, while others appeared to have had shoes placed on either side of the body.
The shoes, according to Colonna, were "either laid at the feet of the dead or next to them, like an offering."
Along with the burials, jewelry, belts, and hairpins were also found, and in a hole where it was believed that animals had been sacrificed to the gods, the full skeletons of a pig and another small animal were found.
This time, as opposed to the excavation in the 1800s, the crew intends to take everything out of the necropolis for analysis.
"This will allow us to understand the life of the Parisii through their funeral rites, as well as their health by studying their DNA," Colonna stated.
According to Garcia, the early history of Paris is "generally not well known," and the recently discovered burials provide "a window into the world of Paris during antiquity."
