On the busy Boulevard Sebastopol in Paris is the supermarket Monoprix. It used to be the site of a medieval hospital. Today, archaeologists are working at the site; they’ve already unearthed at least 200 bodies. Experts believe they are “victims of a sudden and devastating disease or catastrophe.”
The discovery came about when the store decided to convert part of its cellar for extra storage space. “We had expected to find a few human remains as we knew it was a former hospital cemetery, but nothing like as many as we have found. We’ve come across hospital cemeteries before, notably in Marseilles and Troyes, but it’s the first discovery of its kind in Paris,” said Solène Bonleu of France’s Institute of Preventative Archeological Research (Inrap).
