Renovations of a Monoprix retail store in Paris recently turned up a ghastly discovery: more than 200 skeletal remains buried in mass graves.
The store sits on the site of a medieval hospital, but the discovery of so many bodies is still a surprise to archaeologists, who don't know how the bodies got there or how these people died.
The store's management recently approved a project to renovate their basement, expanding it for more storage. Before that, though, they contacted archaeologists because of the site's history as the medieval hospital. It was initially thought that the bodies buried on the grounds of the hospital were disinterred and moved to the Paris catacombs in the early 1800s, so this discovery of so many bodies came as a surprise to everyone.
"We had expected to find a few human remains as we knew it was a former hospital cemetery, but nothing like as many as we have found," says Solène Bonleu of France's Institute of Preventative Archeological Research. " We've come across hospital cemeteries before, notably in Marseilles and Troyes, but it's the first discovery of its kind in Paris."
So far, archaeologists have found a total of eight mass graves, but there could be more. The carefully dug graves contained orderly remains, and it's possible that there are other graves with more bodies beneath those already uncovered.
So many bodies in mass graves suggests an event that created a lot of deaths, but as of now, those deaths are mysterious. The bubonic plague hit France hard throughout a course of several hundred years and it's likely these are victims of that illness that killed many throughout Europe. Carbon dating and DNA tests, however, will tell us for sure what this large group of people died of.
"The fact that so many people were buried together, that the grave is this large, tends to show us that there was a major mortality crisis," says archaeologist Isabelle Abadie. "The crisis may have resulted from an epidemic, famine, or extreme fever."
Once archaeologists have examined the bodies, Parisian officials plan to rebury them.
Meanwhile, it's business as usual at the store. Monoprix, which is similar to retail chain Target in the U.S., offers everything from food to cosmetics to clothing, but it's the supermarket part of the store that sits just above the basement and mass graves.
However, shoppers here aren't deterred and still purchase their bread, wine and cheese as if death isn't literally beneath their feet.
Viva la France!
Photo: Denis Gliksman, Inrap
