Mysterious Centuries-Old Mass Graves Containing 200 Skeletons Discovered Under Paris Supermarket

The Guardian reports that eight mass graves containing the skeletal remains of 200 bodies were recently discovered under a supermarket in Paris. The discovery, at a Monoprix near the center of Paris, occurred as archaeologists surveyed the store’s basement in advance of a construction project. The archaeologists were on site because store managers knew the supermarket was located at the site of Hôpital de la Trinité, a hospital built in 1202, and the discovery of human remains was a possibility. However, it was believed that most of the remains in the hospital cemetery were removed when the hospital building was demolished in 1817–those bones were sent to the famed Catacombs of Paris. The catastrophe that led to the mass deaths is currently unknown, as is the date of the burials, though archaeologists are using DNA testing and carbon dating to find answers.

via The Guardian