Dozens of Roman baby graves discovered in Nîmes

Dozens of early Christian baby and fetal graves have been discovered near the remains of the Roman rampart of Nîmes, an archaeologist from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) announced last month.

Credit: Pascal Guyot/AFP

"About sixty graves have been found, including some fifty perinatal (less than six months old) and fetal graves at the foot of the Roman rampart in what was a public funeral area from the beginning of our era, from the first to the second century," Richard Pellé, the campaign's excavation manager, told the press. "It's really very impressive in such a small area."

The bones of the children "thin as cigarette paper" were found in stone coffers or amphorae. The remains have yet to be analyzed and dated.

"At a time when infant mortality was very high, it can be seen that parents took great care of their children's graves even if the child had no legal status, no existence before the age of three in Roman society," he adds.

Credit: Pascal Guyot/AFP

Credit: Pascal Guyot/AFP

Four dog graves and seven adult graves were also found on the same site. Among them, one grave near the road to Sauve (Gard), which contained the remains of a woman, had "a very special and rare position: her hand resting on her cheek, her legs to one side; she was wearing jewellery, including two rings and a bracelet and footwear", the archaeologist noted, suggesting that the woman buried in a public area was probably passing through the ancient city of Nîmes.

The Roman enclosure of the city of Nîmes has been listed as a Historic Monument since 1989. Since 2014, Richard Pellé and his team have conducted six excavation campaigns that have enriched our knowledge of the history of Nîmes.

In 2019, for this final campaign, archaeologists concentrated their investigations near the lower tower, next to the road to Sauve.

Richard Pellé also stressed the "exceptional and magnificent aspect of the Roman rampart of Nîmes", due to its size (six kilometres), its "ostentatious" aspect and the originality of its massive towers. "It is one of the largest ramparts in the Mediterranean world, it must be preserved and enhanced, and this includes private landowners who have a piece of it on their property," he added.

Source: AFP [trsl. TANN, September 08, 2019]