500-year-old burials revealed in french city of Rouen during construction work

Human skeletons have been discovered in the heart of the northern french city of Rouen (Seine-Maritime), near the ruins of Saint-Sauveur Church, during work carried out to restore the town square, or Place du Vieux-Marché.

Credit: ©SL/76actu

This is the third archaeological excavation currently underway after those of the Saint-Éloi Church - by the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) - and of the Saint-Gervais square.

This unexpected discovery arouses great interest among the archaeologists involved. At least two skeletons in very good condition are visible. The shape of a third is easily perceptible. Around it, several bones are also visible, still intermixed with stones and earth.

Credit: ©SL/76actu

According to the archaeologists from Inrap, the skeletons found are those of former parishioners buried in the Saint-Sauveur cemetery between the 15th and 18th centuries.

"The remains of the bodies were found in a small area that had not been excavated during the construction of the underground car park and church in the early 1970s", says Mark Guillon, an Inrap researcher. "At the time, we had found many skeletons, but we didn't know if there were any other burials left."

Credit: ©SL/76actu

"Once the Revolution was over, between 1784 and 1792, the city slowly encroached on the Saint-Sauveur cemetery and the graves were covered with the paving stones," continues Guillon.

The remains of about twenty women, men and children, have been exhumed to date. "We are only digging 30 centimetres from the surface, but we estimate that there are 2,000 graves under our feet, a couple of metres deep," adds Guillon.

The current excavations are expected to last another a month.

Source: Actu [September 14, 2018]