Gallo-Roman necropolis discovered during Paris metro excavations

During renovation work on the Paris metro in the 14th arrondissement, a large Gallo-Roman necropolis was uncovered near the Port-Royal RER station, at the intersection of avenue de l'Observatoire and Denfert-Rochereau. The site, entrusted to archaeologists from the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INrap), has yielded about forty tombs. Camille Colonna, the archaeological site manager, noted that the team was almost certain to find something, as the location lies at the edge of the southern necropolis of Lutetia, the Roman city that preceded modern Paris. Among the finds is a skeleton with a coin in its mouth dated to 125 AD, currently under analysis. This discovery follows another recent find in La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz, Brittany, where INrap uncovered a sanctuary dedicated to Mars, a bathhouse, and a necropolis dating from the early Roman occupation to the 4th–5th century AD. That site yielded a statue of Mars, weapons including swords and spearheads, ceramics, glassware, architectural elements, and a small necropolis of forty tombs. The tombs contained grave goods such as glass and ceramic vessels, studded shoe soles, silver ornaments (bracelets, pins, belt buckles), glass beads, and in the richest tomb—likely a male burial—a dagger and horse harness fittings including an iron bit and bronze decorations.