It was one of the bloodiest battles of the Napoleonic Wars: Waterloo. Now researchers have made an amazing discovery.
The battle of Waterloo was the last fateful struggle with Napoleon for Europe. The French defeat, fought by an alliance of Britain and Prussia, prevented Napoleon’s resurgence and finally sent him into exile. More than 53,000 dead remained on the battlefield, which is centered around the eponymous Belgian municipality of Waterloo.
But only a few remains of these tens of thousands of victims have been found to date. The more surprising is the discovery that researcher have done now. The bones of ten soldiers, including four Prussians, were found in two houses in the Belgian village of Plancenoit. The site was heavily contested during the battle.
A skull was part of the living room furniture
As the “Mail Online” reported, two of the skeletons were suspected to have been found during construction work in 1982 prussian Soldiers found in the attic of one of the houses. Instead of reporting the find, the owner kept the bones and even gave a skull to his neighbor as a gift.
They only gave up the skull on condition that they got it back. According to the report, the head probably belonged to living room furniture the lady.
Other remains of six British fallen were found shortly thereafter in a house in the same village. All the bones together make up the largest human remains found since the battle over 200 years ago.
The bones show the marks of a brutal battle
Various cuts and fractures on the bones show that the soldiers died a violent death. A tooth digs into the jaw of one of the Prussian soldiers – probably hit by one bayonet.
One of historianwho are leading the investigation, reports the “Mail Online” what happened to another Prussian soldier: His skull was hit in the face with a saber.
A terrible suspicion: were the corpses processed into fertilizer?
For a long time, researchers were unclear about what happened to the many corpses the Battle of Waterloo happened. Before the bones were found, only the remains of two bodies had been found.
In 2022, a research team led by historians Dr. Bernard Wilkin and Robert Schäfer new insights. Accordingly, a large part of the body is fertilizer been used in agriculture. A regular trade for the coveted good had arisen.
The same research team were the decisive in presenting the results Hints given to the remains of the soldiers in the Belgian village. Forensic investigations are still ongoing. (os)
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