These dead, buried in the heart of Paris, have not been seen since ancient times: during the works, a Gallo-Roman necropolis was excavated with numerous burials and offerings, a discovery that will help to explain the life of the ” Parisii”.
About fifty skeletons have been buried there since the 2nd century, on the left bank of the French capital, a few meters from the entrance to the Port-Royal station of the RER B, a railway line.
The pit had escaped several road works, including the construction of the RER B in the 1970s, to the creation of a new exit for users and the regulation of a preventive archaeological dig.
“There was a strong suspicion because we are very close to the southern necropolis of Lutèce”, the name of Paris in the Gallo-Roman period, explained Camille Colonna, director of archaeological research and anthropologist at the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP ), during a press visit to the website.
This so-called Saint-Jacques necropolis, the largest of the Gallo-Roman city, was known because it had been partially excavated in the 19th century. But too quickly, the methods of the time only took an interest in treasures, dropping the skeletons and any other data that made it possible to understand the context.
Since then everything has been covered up and this information is lost. Fortunately, one island of the necropolis that was never excavated has been preserved. “No one had seen it since ancient times,” enthuses Dominique Garcia, President of INRAP.
“We were very lucky: during the survey we found a first skeleton with a coin in its mouth, which allowed us to date the burial to the 2nd century AD,” says Camille Colonna.
Excavations begin in March. About fifty graves are dug, all for burial – and not for cremation, as was also the practice.
“Passerby from Hell”
The deceased were placed in wooden coffins, which themselves were poorly preserved, but the archaeologists were able to restore them thanks to the nails that were still there. There lie men, women and children lying on their backs. According to Dominique Garcia, they are most likely Parisii, the Gaulish people who settled in Lutèce under Roman rule.
Just over half of the burials are accompanied by burial objects: ceramic vessels (jars, chalices, vases…) or glass. More rarely, a coin was placed in the coffin or in the mouth of the deceased, “a practice common in antiquity, which probably represents the obol of the underworld ferryman, Charon,” specifies the INRAP.
“Again and again we find shoes that live off small nails that form the sole. They lie either at the feet of the deceased or next to him like an offering,” describes Camille Colonna.
Articles of clothing (jewellery, hairpins, belts) were also found. And a single pit with the skeleton of a whole pig, those of another small animal, with two ceramic containers: probably a ‘sacrificial pit’.
Until the next time the dig site is closed, all these clues – this time without exception – will be recorded and sent to the laboratory.
“This will allow us to understand the life of the Parisii through their burial rites, as well as the health of the people through the study of their DNA,” said the anthropologist.
These excavations open “a real window on the burial world of Paris in antiquity,” while the ancient history of the capital “is generally poorly known,” stresses Dominique Garcia. “What we find in the graves, we also find in the habitat, and that will teach us more about the supply points of the Parisians of that time,” he says happily.