Several graves were discovered this week under the cobblestones of the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine). The bones that could date back to the Middle Ages will be analyzed.
It was work to revegetate the squares of the town hall and the Rennes opera house that led to this incredible discovery. While digging trenches to plant trees in the center, construction workers discovered human bones.
It didn’t drag! The excavations carried out by the@Inrap on the town hall square in #Rennes, as a prelude to the planting of 18 trees in the ground, have already uncovered 4 medieval burials, as well as the remains of the retaining walls of the old Hôtel de Brissac (16th century) pic.twitter.com/U7cUMhaFQc
— Laurent Riéra (@LaurentRiera) January 15, 2022
Archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) then intervened before determining that the bones belonged to three or four bodies. A larger excavation site could be carried out in the coming days.
Graves found in the 19th century
This archaeological and heritage discovery is however not so surprising in the center of Rennes.
Indeed in this part of the city, inhabited since the Middle Ages, graves had already been found in the 19th century. Under the current convention center, a former Jacobin convent, many bones and objects had also been unearthed.