Archaeologists from the company Antéa Archéologie brought to light during the summer the first remains of an early Christian church ever discovered in Alsace.
Experts have carried out excavations in an area today occupied by a campsite in Kembs (Haut-Rhin), reports France 3 Grand Est.
During Gallo-Roman Antiquity, an agglomeration called Cambete was located here.
In addition to traces of a church, scientists have found the remains of several buildings and a Merovingian tomb.
The area of 7,700 m² explored by archaeologists has revealed a whole Gallo-Roman funerary sector containing the skeletons of adults and children from all social backgrounds.
"We diagnosed 230 graves but we were able to excavate only 156 because of the time allotted to us", detailed site manager Axelle Murer.
Mysteries to be cleared up
These findings have delighted specialists but they have also generated many questions.
Future analyzes should, for example, help date the various remains or even better understand the evolution over time of burials and constructions.
The site was in fact inhabited from the end of the Roman Empire to the early Middle Ages.
Our Archeology file
“We have sites with mixed worship practices.
Between pagans, Christians, Gallo-Romans or Germans, we end up gradually unraveling this skein but it is not yet very clear ”, commented Axelle Murer.
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