In a rare and exceptional discovery, the well-preserved skeletons of some 50 people dating to the Neolithic period have been found during a preventive archaeology excavation in the small town of Saint-Memmie, around 150 kilometres east of Paris. These people lived nearly 5,000 years ago and are believed to be mainly farmers. Artefacts such as beads of necklaces, canines of animals used as pendants, and pieces of flint were also found nearby.
     This discovery is part of a Neolithic hypogea, a collective burial in an underground monument. In Champagne-Ardenne, 160 hypogeus have been discovered but only five could be properly studied. Typical of tombs from the Neolithic, they are either not preserved or very poorly preserved.
     According to Inrap, this hypogea dates from the end of the Neolithic, around 3,500 to 3,000 BCE. It takes the form of a human-made cellar or cave, and is particularly represented in the chalky Champagne region between Epernay and the marshes of Saint Gond.
     In this example, a sloping corridor of 3.8 metres leads to an antechamber 1.4 meters wide by 1 metre in length, which allows access through a narrow passage to the burial chamber. This chamber is characteristic of the hypogea of the Marne, however the entrance to the monument puzzles archaeologists: was part of the monument elevated, accessible from the ground level of the time, or was the entire tomb underground?
     Part of research ahead of the construction of a supermarket in the area, the excavations began in July and are expected to continue until the end of November 2019.

Edited from France Info (15 November 2019)