Breeden, Aurelien. "A Grisly Find Under a Supermarket Illuminates France’s Medieval History." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 May 2015. Web. 13 May 2015.
The article, “A Grisly Find Under a Supermarket Illuminates France’s Medieval History” by Aurelien Breeden describes the discovery of a mass grave beneath a French Monoprix. This January, during a renovation of the supermarket, construction workers discovered a mass grave containing 316 medieval skeletons. Archaeologists have concluded that it was the cemetery of a medieval hospital called the Hopital de la Trinite. From examining the bodies and their placement, the scientists of France’s National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research were able to deduce that since there are no traces of trauma on the bones, the deaths were not a result of violence. The anthropologists predict that the deaths of the medieval citizens was probably the result of a plague because the Black Death was ravaging Europe at the same time that the hospital was running. The scientists also stated that this was the first medieval hospital to ever be excavated in Paris, so their examinations of the skeletons can give historians a look into the lives of the peasants of the fourteenth century. Breeden then goes on to describe other modern reconstructions of buildings and houses that have led to the excavations of ancient buildings and roads.
This article is important to society because it reveals to us that the history of Paris is buried underneath the modern city. The reader learns that in most of Europe, precious artifacts and the clues to the lives of people who lived centuries before us are only six feet below us. This article can alert French citizens to the importance of artifacts of antiquity they discover under their property. That they should alert the authorities or the scientists because the bodies or cellars they unearth can lead to a monumental historical breakthrough. This article can also possibly spark interest in these excavations and can lead to the funding of the scientists and their work in using long-buried artifacts, buildings, and bodies to discover the hidden history of Paris.
Breeden’s article was well-written and informative. The author did an excellent job of alerting the reader to the hidden treasures beneath Paris because of her brief description of the hospital and even shorter descriptions of other recent discoveries. However, there wasn’t an abundance of information relating to the Hospital de la Trinite. The article could have been improved if Breeden had detailed the process the anthropologists are using to examine the skeletons and what they are concluding from their experiments. In general, the article created more questions than answers.
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