Remains of people with coins in their teeth and a pig skeleton found by archaeologists in Paris (photo)

In the center of Paris, archaeologists have found graves dating back 2000 years. This happened during the expansion of the Paris railway station near Notre Dame Cathedral.

According to El Pais, a 2000-year-old necropolis was found with the remains of at least 50 men, women, and children, some of the bodies had coins in their mouths. A whole skeleton of a pig was also found. Among the graves were ancient cups, jugs, and other utensils, pieces of glass. Other graves contained clothes, jewelry, pins, and belts.

Dominique Garcia, president of the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), told El Pais that such a find is very rare for Paris.

Read also: A 6000-year-old settlement full of ancient artifacts discovered in France (photo)

The scientists explained that in the second century, "the living kept their distance from the dead, burying their loved ones in elaborate tombs called necropolises built in honor of those who had passed away and keeping them separated from the cities of the living."

Dominic Garcia said: "Based on their funerary rites, we can achieve a kind of shared vision of the people who lived in Paris in the second century."

Researchers believe that in the second century, people put things in the grave that would "help the deceased person survive in the afterlife."

As for the remains of people who had coins in their mouths, scientists say that this practice was common in ancient times - the dead were supposed to give this money to the carrier of the underworld, Charon.

As for the pit that contained the skeleton of a whole pig, it is still unclear what it could have been used for.

Earlier, archaeologists established the true size of the largest settlement of the Maya tribe.

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