Archaeologists Are Mystified by These 2,000-Year-Old Bodies Found Seated Upright and Facing West in France
Researchers previously discovered 13 sets of human remains buried in a similar manner at the same grave site in Dijon
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In 2024, archaeologists in France discovered an unusual grave site that contained 13 sets of human remains. All of the individuals appeared to have been buried sitting upright and facing west—a highly unusual and puzzling position.
Now, the researchers say they’ve identified at least five additional seated burials in a previously unexplored area of the same site. The latest discoveries raise more questions about the culture these individuals belonged to more than 2,000 years ago.
According to a March 18 statement from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), the team unearthed the skeletons while conducting excavations during ongoing renovations of the Josephine Baker primary school complex in Dijon, located in France’s east-central Burgundy region.
Just like the remains found in 2024, the newly discovered individuals were interred upright in a seated position, with their faces turned west and their hands resting in their laps. At least three appear to have been buried in a line parallel to the initially identified graves, about 66 feet away.
The INRAP researchers have also completed their preliminary investigation of the 13 previously unearthed skeletons. The individuals were all men between the ages of 40 and 60 who stood roughly 5-feet-4 to 6-feet tall. The men had strong teeth and seemed to be in relatively good health at the time of their deaths. Their bones, especially in their legs, show signs of intense physical activity.
Five or six of the individuals bear “unhealed marks of violence,” which suggests they were killed intentionally, according to the statement. Some have cuts on their upper arm bones, and one appears to have been hit on the skull with a sharp object, possibly a sword.
Experts theorize that the seated burials are linked to the Gauls, a group of Celtic tribes that occupied parts of modern-day France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland during the Iron Age. So far, archaeologists have found just one grave good buried alongside the remains: a black stone armband that dates to between 300 and 200 B.C.E., consistent with the period when the Gauls inhabited the region.
Did you know? The Gauls and Julius Caesar
- Julius Caesar conquered Gaul during the Gallic Wars of 58 to 50 B.C.E. According to the Greek biographer and author Plutarch, Caesar “slew one million [Gauls] in hand-to-hand fighting and took as many more prisoners.”
- The popular Asterix comic book series spotlights a fictional village of Gauls who hold out against Roman occupation with the help of a magical potion of strength.
“Given the number and quality of these discoveries, we can say there was a significant Gallic settlement in Dijon,” Regis Labeaune, a researcher at INRAP, tells Agence France Presse (AFP).
Similar seated burials have been found in France, as well as in Switzerland and the United Kingdom. But they’re relatively rare overall, with just 75 known examples around the world, per AFP. Most are located at the edge of settlements, far from cemeteries but close to aristocratic houses or places of worship. The individuals are all adult men whose bodies seem to have been carefully arranged in a specific way after death.
Reporting on the initial finds in 2025, Current World Archaeology magazine wrote, “The orderly and strikingly similar arrangement of the burials, the care taken to position the bodies, their proximity to religious areas or aristocratic residences, the probable demographic selection, and the very limited number of these burials seem rather to speak of a specific social status for these individuals.”
Perhaps the individuals buried in this manner were all members of powerful families, warriors, ancestors or individuals “linked to the political or religious sphere,” per the statement.
However, until the researchers can uncover more evidence, they find themselves largely stumped on the purpose and meaning of this burial style.
“We do not have a preferred hypothesis,” INRAP’s Annamaria Latron tells AFP. “Being an archaeologist can be a very frustrating profession.”/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/headshot/SarahKuta.png)