WWI 'Pompeii' Discovered in France

It's being called a French Pompeii, with a different sort of disaster twist to it.

Archaeologists have found remains of a number of German soldiers in a perfectly preserved shelter from World War I, near Carspach, a small Alsatian town in France. The shelter is a tunnel, which collapsed after being pummeled by a shell that landed on top of it on March 18, 1918. The 300-foot-long tunnel was 18 feet below the surface.

It all happened so fast that the men had no time to react, the evidence shows. Skeletal remains show men lying on a bed, sitting upright on a bench, and in otherwise "normal" positions. The skeletons were so well preserved because hardly any "destructive" elements like air, light or water has gotten in in the nearly 100 years since.

The French team of archaeologists found 34 bodies in all but recovered only 13 because the others, buried in very deep mud, were deemed too prone to falling apart. Also among the skeletons found was that of a goat, suggesting that the men were using the animal for fresh milk.

In addition to the usual suspects of uniforms, boots, and helmets, the dig has uncovered many personal effects, among them books, cigarette cases, glasses, pipes, wallets, and wine bottles. Also discovered were some newspaper pages that were still readable.

The names of the entombed men are known. Their names can be found on a memorial in nearby Illfurth, Germany. The bodies have been transferred to the German War Graves Commission and will be buried at Illfurth unless claimed by descendants.