Археологичид Сена-Норд сувгийн бүтээн байгуулалтын өмнөх судалгаагаар 546 шарилын хадгалагдаж буй түүхэн оршуулгын газрыг нээжээ.
Францын Уаза департаментын Бероэн-лэ-Нуаён бүсэд сувгийн бүтээн байгуулалт эхлэхээс өмнө хийсэн урьдчилсан малтлагаар эртний оршуулгын газар илэрсэн байна. Éveha хувийн компанийн археологич Элоди Вермут болон түүний баг 2026 оны нэгдүгээр сараас есдүгээр сар хүртэл малтлага хийж, 2800 ам метр талбайгаас 546 булшийг илрүүлжээ. Энэхүү оршуулгын газар нь дундад зууны үеийн жижиг барилгыг тойрон таван давхар хүртэл гүнзгийрүүлэн оршуулсан өвөрмөц бүтэцтэй болохыг тогтоов.
Урьдчилсан судалгаагаар тус оршуулгын газрыг 11-14-р зууны хооронд ашиглаж байсан гэж үзэж байна. Барилгын төв хэсэгт байрлах жижиг сүм эсвэл мөргөлийн газрыг тойрон үе дамжин оршуулга хийсэн нь тухайн үеийн хүмүүс ариун газрын ойролцоо нойрсохыг эрхэмлэдэг байсныг илтгэж байна. Одоогоор малтлага хийсэн талбай нь нийт оршуулгын газрын зөвхөн нэг хэсэг нь бөгөөд судалгааны ажил үргэлжилж байна.
Эртний ясжилтууд дээрх өөрчлөлтүүд нь тухайн үед дэлгэрч байсан уяман өвчний шинж тэмдэг байж болзошгүй гэсэн таамаглалыг мэргэжилтнүүд дэвшүүлж байна. Гэсэн хэдий ч булшнаас олдсон хүмүүсийн дунд эрэгтэй, эмэгтэй, хүүхдүүд бүгд байсан нь энэ нь зөвхөн өвчтөнүүдэд зориулагдсан бус, тухайн орон нутгийн иргэдийн нийтлэг оршуулгын газар байсан байх магадлалтайг харуулж байгаа юм.
Судлаачид оршуулгын газрын түүхэн он цагийг нарийвчлан тогтоохын тулд нүүрстөрөгчийн он цаг тогтоох арга болон ясжилтын шинжилгээг хийхээр төлөвлөж байна. Цаашид 2029 он гэхэд энэхүү олдворын талаарх эцсийн тайланг гаргаж, тухайн үеийн хүн амын эрүүл мэндийн байдал болон оршуулгын газрын зориулалтын талаарх таамаглалыг баталгаажуулах юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
In a field near Noyon, in northern France, archaeologists have uncovered a medieval cemetery where the dead were buried on top of one another, up to five layers deep. So far they have counted at least 546 graves, around the remains of a small building, and they have exposed only part of the cemetery.
The site, at Beaurains-lès-Noyon in the Oise department, lies on the route of the Seine-Nord Europe canal. Before the canal could be dug through the field, archaeologists had to find out what lay beneath it.
“546 graves, knowing that we have only uncovered part of them, is a large number for a rural site,” Élodie Wermuth, an archaeologist with the private firm Éveha, which led the excavation, told France 3 Hauts-de-France.
Lesions on some of the oldest skeletons point to a disease once dreaded across medieval Europe.
Archaeologists Had to Dig First
The canal will run 107 kilometers (66 miles) between Compiègne and Aubencheul-au-Bac. It will link the Seine basin to the large-capacity waterways of northern Europe, and its project authority is targeting an opening in 2032.
In France, construction that threatens buried remains can trigger what the Ministry of Culture calls preventive archaeology. Authorities can require test trenches, and then a full excavation, before the machines move in. At Beaurains-lès-Noyon, test trenches dug in 2024 revealed human skeletons in the canal’s path.
Éveha’s team began excavating in late January 2026 and worked until early September. Many graves lay just beneath the topsoil. By June, the firm had already announced more than 300 burials around a central building. As the team worked down through deeper burial levels, the count kept climbing, to 546 by the end of the dig.
Why the Graves Are Stacked
The excavated part of the cemetery covers about 2,800 square meters (30,000 square feet). Preliminary estimates place its use between the 11th and 14th centuries, about three centuries of burials.
At its center stood a small building, later stripped of its stones, with the graves arranged around it. Wermuth linked the layout to a common medieval wish: to be buried as close as possible to that building, likely a chapel or church. With limited space near its walls, new graves were dug on top of old ones, generation after generation, until they reached five levels.
Who used the cemetery is harder to say. Medieval settlement is known at nearby Bas-Beaurains, but the village directly tied to this burial ground has not been securely identified. Wermuth noted that the area must have mattered, since Noyon already had a cathedral by the 11th century.
Noyon was no backwater. Charlemagne was crowned king there in 768, and Hugh Capet, founder of the dynasty that ruled France for centuries, was crowned there in 987.
A Leper House or a Village?
The first explanation came from the bones. Pathological lesions on some of the oldest skeletons led the team to consider that the cemetery might be linked to a leper house, an institution where people with leprosy were isolated and cared for. Leprosy is a bacterial disease that can damage nerves, skin and bone. Leper houses are known historically both in Noyon and in Bas-Beaurains.
The reporting so far does not establish a confirmed diagnosis of leprosy in any of the excavated individuals. And no hospital building has been found within the excavated area. But much of the cemetery remains unexcavated, and buildings beyond it could still change the picture.
The people in the graves pointed somewhere else. The team found men, women and children, in proportions that suggest families, the pattern expected of an ordinary parish cemetery serving a local community.
The deepest graves added a twist. Some of them held people with severe health problems that Wermuth said would have restricted their ability to move.
Both explanations remain open. The cemetery could have served a parish that also buried its sick, or it could have begun as a burial ground tied to a leper house and later become a village cemetery. Radiocarbon dating should sharpen the timeline, and study of the skeletons may identify the conditions these people lived with.
Leper houses were common in medieval France. In 1226, King Louis VIII left money in his will to about 2,000 of them across his kingdom. Many communities buried their sick nearby, and some of those cemeteries are only now coming to light, in the path of modern construction.
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