Homeowner's horror after discovering mass burial ground while renovating basement

The homeowner of a house in a southern suburb of Paris, France, was renovating their home when they found a skeleton - with a team of archaeologists later unearthing 38 more graves

A French homeowner was left horrified after finding a mass burial ground while their basement was being renovated.

As the home located near Paris was taken apart, the resident unearthed a skeleton, which was the first discovery that lead to finding an entire cemetery with dozens of bodies. The oldest of the skeletons was dated back to the third Century AD, approximately 1,700 years ago, which was when the Romans ruled France.

There were another 10 plaster sarcophagi which dated to the early Merovingian period of Frankish rule - which was from 476 to 750 AD. The last of the skeletons was from the 10th Century, which suggests the burial site was used for seven centuries. On first inspection, the archaeologists' belief that a seventh-century chapel had stood in the area lead them to assume it was an early medieval graveyard.

According to a statement from the French archaeology company Archaeodunum, they didn't expect to find graves older than the early Medieval period. After the homeowner discovered the grave in winter 2023, the team from Archaeodunum were called in to carry out the works on behalf of the regional authorities. Since last winter, they unearthed another 38 graves.

The house was believed to have been built on the site of the medieval Notre-Dame-des-Champs chapel - which was built on an older pagan temple, reports say. Before this discovery, early medieval graves had been found nearby. However, noone had found any trave of the chapel or temple.

The investigation revealed that the Roman remains were buried in wooden enclosures. Meanwhile, the 10 skeletons from the Merovingian period were laid to rest in sarcophagi made from plaster. They had been arranged side-to-side, laid out like a fan.