Surprise Archaelogical Find in Paris: Mass Grave under Supermarket

March 4, 2015 2:24 PM

The mass grave underneath a supermarket: Extraordinary burial pit containing 200 bodies found by accident in Paris Archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) were called in to take a look and have spent days tirelessly uncovering the bones.

A couple more articles on the same topic:

Mass Grave With 200 Skeletons Found Under Supermarket In Central Paris

More than 200 skeletons found under Paris supermarket, thought to be hundreds of years old

posted by Michele in California (20 comments total)

This explains the ghosts on Aisle 3.
posted by I-baLL at 2:26 PM on March 4, 2015 [7 favorites]

You son of a bitch, you moved the cemetery but you left the bodies, didn't you?!
posted by khaibit at 2:40 PM on March 4, 2015 [15 favorites]

I'm willing to believe that in Paris, or indeed any major European city, any given place you stand is located directly above human skeletons.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:43 PM on March 4, 2015 [5 favorites]

Sous les pavés, la plague !
posted by theodolite at 2:54 PM on March 4, 2015 [12 favorites]

My French is really terribly rusty. Can I pretty please get an English translation?
posted by Michele in California at 3:04 PM on March 4, 2015

Under the paving, the plague!
posted by Kitteh at 3:05 PM on March 4, 2015 [5 favorites]

Oh god there's skeletons stashed away all under Paris. You can even tour them. I guess this site is particularly interesting because it's an undisturbed mass burial from one specific time. Stacked like cordwood, at that.
posted by Nelson at 3:10 PM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

OIM NOT DEAD!
posted by jfuller at 3:21 PM on March 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

Sous les pavés, la plague !

I cannot favorite this enough.
posted by gimonca at 3:25 PM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Special on soup bones in the meat department!
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:34 PM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Reading between the sensationalism of the Daily Fail article, it seams the surprise wasn't that there would be skeletons, it was that there was so many of them.

There's at least two large cemetery excavations happening, or about to happen, in London right now.
posted by Helga-woo at 3:58 PM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

My surprise is the French working tirelessly.

[not slagging them - I am insanely jealous of their approach to life)
posted by srboisvert at 4:42 PM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Further to a technical reasons, Catacombs of Paris are temporarily closed to the public."

The Légion étrangère is deployed. Clearly, something is going on down there. Are they fast or are they slow? That's all I want to know.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 4:53 PM on March 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

So this is what happens to those annoying customers.
posted by annieb at 5:13 PM on March 4, 2015

This is blowing my mind a bit because my wife and I would shop here a few times a month until we moved back to the US in January!

For the record, this Monoprix is located just above the Réaumur-Sébastopol metro stop in the 2nd arrondissement.

In addition to having once been the location of the 13rd century hospital in the article, it was also home to a central office for 19th century retailing magnate, Félix Potin, whose name still adorns the facade of the building and hints at how a generic supermarket might reside in such a beautiful building.

You can see a photo here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Félix_Potin#mediaviewer/File:Rue_Reaumur_51-2.JPG

And, for anyone curious about life in Paris, Monoprix is maybe the closest thing to a generic US grocery store in Paris, even if it falls pretty short of American expectations. But there's usually one in every major neighborhood and they can prove handy when you can't find something in your local marché.
posted by mokolabs at 5:14 PM on March 4, 2015 [3 favorites]

[overexplaining: "sous les pavés, la plage" (under the paving, the beach) was a May 68 slogan]
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 5:29 PM on March 4, 2015 [4 favorites]

My impression is that pretty much all of Paris is built on skeletons, right?
posted by beagle at 5:33 PM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Incredibly complicated cleanup under aisle 5!"
posted by uosuaq at 5:45 PM on March 4, 2015 [4 favorites]

Over 90% certain I've been to this Monoprix. Still have the "weird European candy" I bought there to give as gifts. This was about 8 years ago. I really should just throw it away.
posted by univac at 10:44 PM on March 4, 2015

"You know you are an archaeologist when you think 200 isnt a totally unreasonable amount of bodies under a supermarket."
posted by jjwiseman at 1:32 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]