16th-century gallows and dozens of skeletons discovered in France

A mass grave of human bones still in the rocky ground.

Archaeologists in France have discovered the remains of a 16th-century gallows where bodies of the condemned were displayed after they were hanged. The corpses of the men — and a few women — were then buried in mass graves nearby.

During an excavation just outside the city of Grenoble in 2024, archaeologists with the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) found a square brick structure and 10 burial pits dating to the 16th century, INRAP announced on Friday (Dec. 12).