Homeowner unearths skeleton in cellar — and finds 1,700-year-old cemetery in France

A basement renovation in France spiraled into a much larger — and more historic — project after a homeowner stumbled on an ancient skeleton.

The homeowner in Corbeil-Essonnes, a suburb on the outskirts of Paris, wasn’t the first neighbor to find old human remains , according to a Sept. 19 news release from Archeodunum, a European archaeology company. Experts had long assumed the area was built on a medieval church cemetery, yet no one had excavated it.

So when the owner found a skeleton in their cellar last year, officials saw an opportunity for a formal investigation — and the results were surprising.

Archaeologists excavated the four-room basement last winter and found a 1,700-year-old cemetery with dozens of graves. Photos show a few of these burials.

The oldest graves were significantly older than experts expected and dated to the third century or late Roman era, archaeologists said. These skeletons were laid on their backs and buried in long-gone wooden structures.

Archaeologists also found 10 plaster sarcophagi dating from the Merovingian era , a period from 476 to 750, according to Britannica. A photo shows three of these sarcophagi arranged in a row. One sarcophagus had an engraved stone block on top of it.

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The most recent burials dated to the 10th century, indicating the cemetery was used for about 800 years, archaeologists said.

In total, the basement held 38 graves, all relatively well-preserved. A photo shows the arrangement of the cemetery.

The ancient remains were taken to a laboratory for further analysis into their personal histories.

Google Translate was used to translate the news release from Archeodunum.

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