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archeologist excavating an ancient necropolis in northeasterly France have get word an unlooted , unopened papistic - era sarcophagus see to the second century A.D. The grave in all probability holds the remains of an elite womanhood , archaeologists said .
The rough limestone sarcophagus was sealed keep out with eight Fe clasp , and its contentedness were shroud beneath a buddy-buddy stone lid press 1,700 pounds ( 770 kilograms ) , agree to a translatedstatementfrom the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research ( INRAP ) . To glimpse what lay indoors , archaeologists X - rayed the sarcophagus and then inserted an endoscopic camera , which disclose a human skeleton and various grave goods .
Archaeologists discovered an intact Roman sarcophagus in a necropolis in the French city of Reims.
" It ’s quite exceptional , it ’s the first time we ’ve found a tomb that is inviolate and has not been foray , " Agnès Balmelle , assistant scientific and technical director at INRAP , told the French newspaperLe Parisien .
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The woman ’s systema skeletale was surround by beaut appurtenance — including a small mirror , an amber ring and a comb — mean to company the body into the afterlife . Such a massive grave suggest the woman , who was around 40 years old when she died , book a " special position , " Balmelle read .
Inside the sarcophagus, archaeologists found the skeleton of a 40-year-old woman who lived 1,800 years ago.
" The skeleton occupy the entire space inside the 1.53 - meter [ 5 - foot ] cooler , " Balmelle append , leaving just enough way for the supplement , as well as four oil lamp and two glass vials that may have held scented oils .
Archaeologists discovered the sarcophagus while dig an ancient burying ground straggle over 13,000 square feet ( 1,200 square meter ) in the northeastern Gallic city of Reims . During the second century , Reims , then known as Durocortorum , was one of the large city in theRoman Empireand the capital of Belgic Gaul — a responsibility in northeastern Roman Gaul that included parts of modern - day France , Belgium , Luxembourg , the Netherlands and Germany .
The new unearthed necropolis is one of several that extended beyond the city ’s fortification and along seven main thoroughfares lead to other Roman Gallic city , include Lutetia ( now Paris ) and Lugdunum ( modern - day Lyon ) . Since the first of these burial ground arrive to light in the second half of the 19th century , archaeologists have excavated 5,000 ancient burial in Reims , consort to the statement .
Excavations were carried out by archaeologists with the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP).
Most of these burials were looted over the hundred , however , and the heavy goods that survived were for the most part destroy during World War I , when the museum they were housed in was flunk .
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The sealed sarcophagus is the first unlooted tomb of its kind discovered in a former Gallo - R.C. town , accord to the statement . In the area surrounding it , archaeologists found another 20 bury and cremate human stiff lay to rest over several century .
These remains will be added to a growing banking company of sample distribution salvaged from Reims ' burying ground . Scientists hope that by comparing DNA from the skeleton in the sarcophagus to some of these samples , they may be able to determine whether the fair sex belong to a local or foreign elite .
