Photo: Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed/Anadolu Agency/Getty

PARIS, FRANCE - APRIL 21: Archeologists unearth 50 graves in an ancient necropolis during excavations, which began in March just meters away from the busy Port-Royal train station in Paris, France on April 21, 2023. The ancient site offers a rare glimpse of life in the modern-day French capital’s predecessor, Lutetia, nearly 2,000 years ago. The “Saint Jacques” necropolis, the largest burial site in the Galloâ"Roman town of Lutetia, was previously partially excavated in the 1800s. The skeletons were buried in wooden coffins, which were now only identifiable by their nails. (Photo by Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Scientists have uncovered 50 graves in an ancient necropolis near a busy train station in Paris, France. It is believed to they belong to Lutetia, the French capital’s predecessor.

The location of the graves, situated near the Port-Royal train station in Paris, was never discovered during multiple road constructions over the years, nor during the station’s construction in the 1970s.

The burials were found to be part of the Saint Jacques necropolis dating back to the 2nd century, according to CBS News.

Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed/Anadolu Agency/Getty

PARIS, FRANCE - APRIL 21: A view of an excavation site where archeologists unearth 50 graves in an ancient necropolis just meters away from the busy Port-Royal train station in Paris, France on April 21, 2023. The ancient site offers a rare glimpse of life in the modern-day French capital’s predecessor, Lutetia, nearly 2,000 years ago. The “Saint Jacques” necropolis, the largest burial site in the Galloâ"Roman town of Lutetia, was previously partially excavated in the 1800s. The skeletons were buried in wooden coffins, which were now only identifiable by their nails. (Photo by Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The excavation, which began in March, uncovered skeletons buried in wooden coffins; of which only the nails and some small traces of wood remained.

Some of the remains were buried alongside offerings, such as dishes, glassware, coins, shoes, jewelry — and even an entire skeleton of a pig and a smaller animal, both thought to be a sacrifice to the gods.

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“Drawing on their funeral rites, we can reach a kind of general vision of the people who lived in Paris in the second century,” Dominique Garcia, president of France’s National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), told theFrench broadcasterEurope 1.

source: people.com