18th-century human bones found near Quebec City hospital cemetery

Archaeologists in Quebec City say they have uncovered the bones of nearly two dozen people close to the Quebec General Hospital Cemetery.

Evidence gathered suggests the bones are the remains of British soldiers who fought either the Battle of the Plains of Abraham or the Battle of Sainte-Foy, and were buried there after being treated at the nearby hospital.

Workers spotted the bones on St-Anselme Street at the corner of Prince-Édouard Street while doing construction on May 22, with an archaeologist on site.

"It was pretty clear that these were human bones and not mammal bones," said Olivier Lalonde, a project manager of Gaia — the archaeology co-operative that is in charge of the excavation beside the cemetery.

Once the remains were found, construction work was suspended, and a bioarchaeologist confirmed that the discoveries were human bones.

Human remains have been discovered near that dig site before — once in 1941 and again in 2010, according to Quebec City archaeologist Caroline Parent.

"We knew that in the area near the general hospital there was still this potential," she said.

Since the findings, teams have been working "non-stop" to inspect what Lalonde says is a "mass grave."

"It's work that takes a lot of precaution and patience," Lalonde said. "We're not using shovels and pickaxes here. Only small tools."

After about five weeks of digging, Parent says archaeologists found complete and partial skeletons of about 23 people, including a one-year-old baby, from the 18th century.

"We see that there were perimortem fractures — meaning close to the moment of death — which suggest a violent event that would have caused severe injuries but that would not have necessarily caused death," Parent said.

Some of the bones found show traces of amputation and were sawed, which suggests medical treatment at the nearby hospital, she added.

Lalonde said he couldn't confirm the number of bones left at the site, but he doesn't expect to unearth many more.

"Sadly, part of the mass burial was disturbed by other infrastructure so we don't have the full scope of it," he said. "[But] we also have the bottom of the grave so we know we're not going to find a ton more."

Once the excavation is completed, Lalonde said the archaeological team will spend the next year in the lab, examining the findings using isotopic analysis.

"There's also something a bit touching about all of that, especially if it's associated with a tragic event to some extent," he said, noting that his team is happy to be leading the project.

"There is a level of respect that we rarely have to take into consideration when we're doing archaeology because, here, it's as human as it gets."