Paris has indeed a lot more to offer than meets the eye. On the ground floor of the Monoprix supermarket, lies a door marked “staff only”.
What is behind this door through a passageway down a spiraling metal staircase into the basement, down to another stairs flight, is something that will remind you of Paris’ history—A mass grave, with lefts of medieval skeletons, 316 in total.
Unearthed in January, archaeologists believe that the discovery is part of the cemetery of a medieval hospital that used to stand nearby.
For archaeologist, the discovery is a good thing.
“Each dig is an event, but a cemetery is even better, because you have a real population at hand,” said Boris Bove, a historian and professor at the University of Paris 8.
Isabelle Abadie, an anthropologist and archeologist, together with the team spent over two months in digging the remains.
The team led by Abadie came from France’s National Institute for Preventive Archeological Research.
“There are babies, there are young women, there are teenagers, there are adults, men, women, elderly people,” Abadie said as released by The New York Times.
The skeletal remains are now kept at Inrap warehouse in La Courneuve, a suburb on the northern outskirts of Paris.
Paris, more than its surface grandeur, is still full of undiscovered treasures, be it archaeological, some grand others much more grisly. The long-buried remains are reminders.
H/T: The New York Times; and Photo