The reconstruction site of the north tower and the spire of the Saint-Denis basilica has reserved a nice surprise for archaeologists. Excavations prior to the start of the works revealed a cemetery whose oldest burials date back to the 5th century. “Our explorations conducted since last June were theoretically supposed to end in October, but given the magnitude of the discoveries we made, we were able to continue our research until the end of May,” says Ivan Lafarge, head of excavation operations. .
The daughter-in-law of Clovis, the Merovingian queen Arégonde, is buried near the presumed tomb of the saint in a first church, dedicated to Saint Genevieve, in 580. “It is the oldest burial identified thanks to its sigillary ring. But it is possible that previous kings were also buried there without it being possible to determine their rank, “says anthropologist Cyrille Leforestier, also an archaeologist at Inrap. Among the 70 monarchs buried alongside Arégonde are, in addition to Dagobert (602-639), Pépin le Bref (715-754), Hugues Capet (939-996), Saint Louis (1214-1270), François Ier (1494- 1547), Henri IV (1575-1642), Louis XIV (1638-1715) and all his descendants. To which are added nearly a hundred senior state servants under the Ancien Régime.
No wonder that many questions remain unanswered. These burials dated from the 5th to the 14th century have been abused by time. At least one of them was clearly looted. During the expansion of the religious building, sarcophagi were also moved. Others were damaged, in particular by the wooden piles driven into the ground to support the scaffolding used, from 1135, to enlarge the basilica wanted by Abbot Suger. The furniture found is all the more modest (it only has a few belt buckles, pins and a metal knife) since from the 6th century, this cemetery mainly received the remains of monks. “A Benedictine monastery was set up there very early on,” explains Ivan Larfarge.
DNA samples were taken to determine the relatives of the dead, but also to understand if the deceased had been sick. “A program, led by the Regional Archaeological Service, the Max Planck Institute in Germany and Harvard University in the United States, aims to study the scale of the so-called Justinian plague epidemic on a global scale (which raged around the Mediterranean between the 6th and 7th centuries, editor’s note)”, evokes Nicolas Girault, who prescribed this campaign of excavations on behalf of the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs.
