Old Image from France Showing Mass Burial Viral as One From Dharmasthala
No such visual evidence of the Dharmasthala excavations has been released by the SIT or reported in the news.
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Amid an ongoing investigation in Karnataka’s Dharmasthala village, where a former sanitation worker alleged the large-scale burial of numerous women and minors, many reportedly showing signs of sexual violence and assault, an image showing multiple human skeletons being excavated has gone viral on social media.
The claim: Those sharing such posts claimed it was captured at one of the excavation locations in Dharmasthala.
The users further noted that the late journalist Gauri Lankesh wrote about this case in 2001, which resulted in her murder in 2017.
(Archives of similar claims can be viewed here and here.)
Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false.
We were able to trace this photo back to reports from 2021 which showed an excavation of soldiers from the 15th century involved in a battle in France.
As per reports, the excavation took place between 2011 to 2013 at the Jacobins convent in Rennes.
How did we find out?: At first, we aimed to find the origin of the image as the investigating bodies or news reports had not revealed any such visuals.
Origin of the photo: We conducted a Yandex reverse image search and came across an article by New Scientist magazine which revealed that the visual posted were taken at a site excavated in Rennes, France.
It noted that anthropologist Rozenn Colleter from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) and others determined that the skeletons were those of soldiers who participated in the 1491 siege of Rennes.
These remains were discovered in a cemetery near the Jacobin Convent in Rennes.
We ran a relevant keyword search on Google and came across an article by Le Monde from May 2021.
It included the viral image and stated, 'View of the tomb of soldiers of the royal army, buried in the Jacobin convent, in Rennes." The image was attributed to INRAP.
Here is the viral image as included in Le Monde's report.
(Source: Le Monde)
The article stated that the skeletons dated back to the late 15th century and were believed to be the remains of warriors who died in the battle, which was part of the conflict between the Duchy of Brittany and the French monarchy.
It further said that the archaeologists used advanced forensic and archaeological techniques to solve this mystery.
An article by INRAP written by Colleter noted that the excavation of the Jacobin Convent in Rennes took place from 2011 to 2013.
Colleter mentioned that it took over 18 months and more than 30 archaeologists working on the site under the direction of Gaëtan Le Cloirec to complete the task.
Here is preview of the article.
(Source: INRAP/Screenshot)
About the Dharmasthala case: As per a report The News Minute from 4 August, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) discovered pieces of a skeleton and remnants of a saree near location 11, adjacent to the Nethravathi river.
The report also noted that SIT was set to excavate at site 11, one of the 13 burial sites pointed out by the 50-year-old complainant, he proposed that a nearby location also be investigated, where the remnants were found.
These findings of the SIT make it clear that the viral image showing several skeletons is not linked to this case.
Involvement of Gauri Lankesh: Several posts noted that Lankesh had reported on the alleged mass burial in Dharmasthala. However, we did not find any work by Lankesh on this matter.
Conclusion: An old and unrelated image from a French excavation site has been falsely linked to the ongoing Dharmasthala mass burial case.
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