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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Kim Willsher

‘Bodies were dropped down quarry shafts’: secrets of millions buried in Paris catacombs come to light

Researchers study the bones of Parisians in Les Catacombes.
Researchers examine the bones of Parisians in Les Catacombes. Photograph: Philippe Charlier/LAAB/UVSQ

Deep beneath the streets of Paris, the dead are having their last word. They are recounting 1,000 years of death in the city: how many are ­buried in the labyrinth of tunnels that make up Les Catacombes, what killed them and how the diseases that may have led to their demise have ­developed over the centuries.

In the first ever scientific study of the site, a team of archeologists, anthropologists, biologists and ­doctors is examining some of the skeletons of an estimated 5-6 ­million people whose bones were literally dumped down quarry shafts at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th.

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