A mega necropolis containing 50 tombs has been discovered next to Port-Royal station in Paris. The excavation of a skeleton with a coin in its mouth has allowed archaeologists to date the site to around the 2nd century CE.
Along with the skeletons of men, women, and children, the researchers found nails that had survived their coffins and wooden shoes. The dead had also been buried with jewelry, hairpins and belts.
The coins found with some bodies were likely intended as a bribe to Hades’ ferryman, Charon, who would secure safe passage across the River Styx to the underworld, a practice known at the time as “the obol of Charon”.
The entire skeleton of a pig and other animal remains indicate that the site may also have been used to make sacrifices to the gods.
The ancient cemetery is believed to be “Saint Jacques”, which was first dug up by looters in the 1800s. They took anything that was obviously valuable but left most of the artifacts behind and eventually l he exact location of the site has been lost to time, even going unnoticed when the station was built in the 1970s.
Prior to the construction of a new station exit, however, special excavation began in March. The French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) succeeded in moving the necropolis and unearthing new sections that had remained intact since antiquity.
The necropolis was part of the ancient Gallo-Roman city of Lutèce on the banks of the Seine, ancestor of today’s Paris. It was inhabited by a Gallic tribe known as the Parisii but was under the rule of the Roman Empire.
Everything has now been removed from the site for laboratory analysis, and it is hoped that the finds will provide rare insight into a period of history which, according to INRAP President Dominique Garcia, “is generally misunderstood. known”.
“This will allow us to understand the life of the Parisii through their funeral rites, as well as their health by studying their DNA,” said Camille Colonna, an anthropologist at INRAP, according to a report by France 24.
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