# Inrap: in Champigny-sur-Marne, a 6,500-year-old cemetery with 11 burials and a 9.7-tonne stele

- Published: 2026-11-07 19:57 UTC
- Section: Science › Research
- Tags: Champigny-sur-Marne, Neolithic cemetery, anthropomorphic stele, Inrap, Middle Neolithic, menhir, Marne river terrace, primitive cement, preventive archaeology
- URL: https://realtech.media/news/rt-8f27838b45449e0670f902c4_inrap_in_champigny/

**French archaeologists excavated a Middle Neolithic cemetery before housing construction. Among the finds is an anthropomorphic menhir stele more than three metres long.**

![Inrap: in Champigny-sur-Marne, a 6,500-year-old cemetery with 11 burials and a 9.7-tonne stele](https://realtech.media/media/2026/11/0a268b816b5dd65e.jpg)
*blik*

Archaeologists in Champigny-sur-Marne, France, have uncovered a cemetery about 6,500 years old with 11 burials and dozens of stone blocks, blik reports, citing the National Institute for Preventive Archaeology (Inrap) [1]. The most notable find is an anthropomorphic menhir stele more than three metres long and weighing about 9.7 tonnes [1].

The excavation took place before construction of a residential complex on Verdun Street. The burials and structures date to the Middle Neolithic, roughly 4750–4300 BC [1]. The cemetery lay on the upper part of a terrace formed by the Marne river [1].

## The stone stele

The statue lay in the original pit where it once stood upright [1]. It has a human shape and a belt carved into the surface. According to the archaeologists, the makers first worked the surface by striking it with tools, then cut hollows and grooves that form the characteristic elements of the figure [1]. Small round hollows are arranged in an arc; researchers suggest they may have been deliberately enlarged on natural irregularities of the rock. Traces of black and white colouring survive in places and may be remains of paint.

It is not yet known why the monument fell. Archaeologists cannot determine whether this happened naturally or whether people toppled the stone. Nearby they found two smaller sandstone blocks: one shaped as a small stele, the other possibly marking the boundary of the cemetery [1].

## Graves and the building mix

Eight graves were found on an area of about 60 square metres, and three more lay to the north, close to the stone. A preliminary survey had revealed only two burials, both of women laid on their backs and oriented east to west. Full excavation opened nine more graves. Most of the dead were placed in an extended position in large burial pits [1]. Post holes near several skulls may indicate wooden markers above the graves. Grave goods included flint blades, arrowheads and an axe of local sandstone; two graves also held worked bone objects.

In the south-east part of the site the team found a structure that at first resembled a burial mound, with a dome of brown silt covering about 30 square metres. It contained a system of pits, enclosing ditches, stone blocks and wooden posts, and a small stele broken in two stood above it. No human remains were inside; archaeologists suggest it may have served as a landmark visible from afar, or had another purpose [1].

The builders mixed carbonate-rich sand and silt with gravel and water, producing a material that after drying resembled primitive cement. It was used near graves, in pits for stone monuments and in this structure. Similar materials are known at other Neolithic sites in Western Europe, but mostly from dwellings rather than burial complexes [1].

One adult was placed upright in a narrow round shaft resembling a well. Water seeping through the carbonate-rich soil led to calcite forming around the bones, and the lower legs and feet ended up covered by a hard mineral crust [1].

## Sources

1. [blik](https://blik.ua/nauka/50269-arkheologi-znaishli-pid-parizhem-6500-richne-kladovishe-iogo-okhoronyav-kam-yanii-veleten-vagoyu-maizhe-10-tonn)

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Source: RealTech, realtech.media — https://realtech.media/news/rt-8f27838b45449e0670f902c4_inrap_in_champigny/