London ( CNN ) Archaeologists have started excavating about 3,000 skeletons from the Bedlam burial ground in London , used from 1569 to at least 1738 . Also known as Bethlem and the New Churchyard , more than 20,000 Londoners are believed to have been buried there . The ground was used by `` a varied cross-section of society throughout the years since the burial ground was open , '' Nick Elsden , project manager from MOLA ( Museum of London Archaeology ) told CNN . And they include those who could not afford a church burial or chose to perish there for religious or political reasons . The ground also contained the overflow of bodies when other cemeteries became full . Bedlam , now a synonym for chaos , took its name from the Hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem in London which nursed the mentally ill . Among the deceased are victims of the English Civil War , the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London in the following year . The site was found at an entrance of the city 's new Liverpool Street Crossrail station -- part of a £14.8 billion ( $ 22 billion ) project that will expand London 's railway network . A team of 60 archaeologists will work six days a week on the project , expected to finish in September this year . Hundreds of skeletons found under Paris supermarket . Elsden said the excavation reveals a great deal about how Londoners lived from the 16th to the 18th century . `` A large sample of the population from that period will enable us to look at the lifestyle , looking at Roman London and what the Romans were doing in the suburb area , outside the city walls . '' He said the skeletons will be cleaned and closely examined by experts who will assess their remains to determine their diseases , ages and sexes . `` Specialists will look at the DNA of the disease that killed the person rather than their own DNA , '' he added . Roman skulls unearthed deep beneath London . The findings are timely as well -- this year marks the 350th anniversary of the Great Plague in London . `` 1665 was the very last recorded episode of plague . There were 400 years of regular plague , and suddenly it stops , '' Jay Carver , Crossrail 's lead archaeologist , said . `` And what we want to be able to find out , from sampling the graves of that date , is why that is . And what it is about the bacteria that causes bubonic plague that suddenly changed at that point . '' Londoners also assisted in the research by helping to search parish records to identify people who were buried in Bedlam . `` And that was a huge exercise which could n't have possibly been done by our own team , '' Carver said . Skeletons found holding hands after 700 years . The result is a database of more than 5,300 names and backgrounds of those buried at Bedlam , including political activists John Lilburne and Robert Lockyer -- part of a movement known as the Levellers -- as well as Ambrose Nicholas , the Lord Mayor of London in 1575 . A Roman road that runs underneath the site has already produced artefacts such as horseshoes and cremation urns . Carver describes the Bedlam dig as a personal career highlight . `` [ It 's a ] great use of an engineering scheme , but at the same time addresses the historical importance of each these sites . '' London rail excavation unearths suspected 'plague pit '
chaos has occurred at the Bedlam burial ground in 1971 . Taking its name from a hospital for the mentally ill , chaos is now a synonym for chaos .