Haunting Traces Of WWI Soldiers Found In Medieval French Tunnels

Archaeologists have stumble upon nigh 2,000 inscriptions leave by soldiers fighting in France during the Great War . The exquisitely preserved markings were found in a tunnel that once allow shelter for villagers during the Middle Ages .

The internet site , known as the Naours Caves , was once an hush-hush city stop three klick deserving of tunnels and hundreds of chambers dug out over the course of action of centuries . During the Middle Ages , villager would hold up and hide in the tunnels as invade armies marauded the surface . By the 18th century , the entrance was blocked off and bury until a local priest rediscovered the site in 1887 and unfold it up as a tourist attraction .

Now , thanks to the work of Gilles Prilaux , an archaeologist at France ’s National Archaeology Institute , we now cognize that soldiers of the Great War sought out the cave , entrust their names and other inscriptions behind . As the APreports , “ he began a three - year subject field of the tunnel last July , specify to concentre on the site ’s medieval yesteryear — only to stumble upon this more late slice of account . ”

Dji Drone

With the supporter of photographer Jeff Gusky , Prilaux was able to document 1,821 individual names , include 731 Australians , 339 British , 55 Americans , and a number of French and Canadians . hundred are still yet to be identify .

The land site , located near the Somme and at a staging region for the soldiers , shows how they bided their time as they prepared for the front — and how the soldier were able to leave alone traces of their existence in the side of potential expiry .

Much morehere .

Amazon Arzopa