Bones on the Battlefield

This film was produced by History Hit (www.historyhit.com/).
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Waterloo Uncovered is the groundbreaking charity combining archaeology on the battlefield of Waterloo with veteran care and recovery. Find out more:
www.waterloouncovered.com/
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To make sure you're keeping up with the project, follow our social media channels:
Facebook: / waterloouncovered
Twitter: / digwaterloo
Instagram: / waterloo_uncovered

[@treybratcher389]

This makes me miss Time Team so much Phil Harding still digs at Waterloo ❤❤❤

[@Sweetyhide]

3:21 Phil!

[@macfilms9904]

To quote Wellington: "Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won." What we see in the archeology is the one constant in war: the terrible cost

[@treybratcher389]

I Love Phil Harding❤️❤️❤️

[@fabianwylie8707]

Literally men walking into the slaughter. House !, Waterloo was horrific. Thanks for posting up and keep up the good work 👍

[@MGMan-ce7sf]

Once again, History History Hit proves that it is the gold standard of narrative historical documentaries on the internet.

[@donnatoye7915]

This reminds me of the battle of Gettysburg lost alot of people to.

[@RedcoatsReturn]

Great history uncovered! 👍👍 The carnage at Waterloo becomes very clear through the excavation work. I think there were 50,000 British, Prussian and French soldiers dead and uncounted thousands horses were killed in the battle 😞 Wellington wrote…. “Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.” 😔

[@OlivierVanhamme]

And this all happened in a matter of hours in a small area.

[@emilioalcazar4170]

Really good investigation,the enigma of the bones of the thousands casualties continues..

[@TreasureHuntingNana]

I feel sad for the horses

[@poetryjones7946]

I’ve been following this project since it’s beginning. Very inspiring. 🙏🏼

[@jeanhawken4482]

Amazing skills used

[@firecowboy3613]

Has there any updates on this?

[@cambo123451]

Fantastic job folks.🙂

[@shaunnewman8375]

There are records of large amounts of human bones from Waterloo being disinterred and shipped to England, some through my home city of Hull, to be crushed and used as fertilizer.

[@gregedmand9939]

​​@@inzane1260 Recovery of bones from battlefields was a common practice throughout history. Napoleonic battlefields were common places to collect teeth for dentures because soldiers had to have good teeth to join an army. It was very important for a man to be able to bite a paper cartridge to load his weapon. Bones were also collected for use in making bone china and yes burned bone ash has always been used as fertilizer. Death was such a common part of life that humans have often sought to make practical use of it where possible. Just the sanitary necessity of removing the remains, meant respectful burial was not often possible. Most bodies from Waterloo were burned in pyres on the battlefield, the ashes spread on immediate farm lands.

[@JelMain]

Then there's the story of Waterloo Teeth, and my ancestor, Claudius Ash, one of the medics in St Jean. The French reaction to the desecration of their dead gave rise to fighting talk, "Tire-dents!", "Tooth-puller", let's settle this outside.

[@myparceltape1169]

Young teeth, not yet rotted by sugar! Give me!

[@Rusty_Gold85]

The Scots Grey charge is embellished pretty well to a painting done 10 years later the battle by a lady who wasnt there .They first had to move through the Scots 9Th Brigade Men . Momentum was only gained once the cavalry crossed the sunken way over down and up again , broke through the other hedge and started down the front slope. This is where the bulk of Donzelot’s and Margognet’s divisions were attacked.Which was walking in wet sodden boggy mud with high crops

[@danrooc]

Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler) likely the best Victorian wafare painter. She was born 31 years after Waterloo.

[@robnewman6101]

The Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

[@davewilson9738]

Its quite disturbing to a 21st century mind to consider that the fallen soldiers bones may have been repatriated to make an English garden grow.

[@gregmonks]

It's the 21st century mind I find most disturbing. 😐

[@davewilson9738]

@@gregmonks not all minds! However I am aware of the increasing number of morons in society getting elected to power to suit their puppet masters!

[@jamesfletcher279]

My house was built by a veteran of the battle of Waterloo

[@edwardbutt691]

Do you mind sharing his name ?

[@conradnelson5283]

Simply amazing they haven’t found more skeletons. Great video.

[@guaporeturns9472]

Thousands were dug up and ground into fertilizer

[@spider46531]

It would be so interesting to see if any of the bones have viable DNA. See if they can find any family of this soldier

[@SDD3204]

When I visited the battle site about 46 years ago we were told by guides that the battle site had been scoured and the bodies piled I to the huge memorial mound?

[@gregedmand9939]

Having seen the tragic end of horses, put down after breaking their legs on a racetrack, this is exactly how these equine remains show they would collapse. Forensic examination will likely also find butcher marks on the bones. Food was in especially short supply after this battle due to mud and road congestion. Meat was a prize commodity and it's very unlikely that fresh horse meat would be discarded.

[@fivizzano]

the fact that blood and guts were exposed would have made decomposition FAR faster and thus the need to dispose of corpses

[@brada2354]

Crocodile tears is a good watch too.

[@antoniodelrio1292]

The skeleton of the soldier is roughly a foot below the grade (grass line/ground level). Would ground level the day of the battle be the same as today or higher? Has this battlefield been cultivated/plowed much in the years since?

[@davidpowell5437]

Much of the area was "landscaped" in the years after the battle, with much soil being scraped up to form the hill supporting the monument. When Wellington revisited he famously said "My God! They have destroyed my battlefield." Meaning that future visitors would be unable to understand his tactics because the terrain to which they related no longer existed.

[@danrooc]

That ground turns muddy during raining seasons and almost any object is gradually 'swallowed'. WW1 artifacts and human remains (one century younger) are frequently discovered at similar depths in Flanders' battlefields. A hasty burial may also be considered. The skeleton seems to have been found pretty close to the farm building where agricultural activities might have been less intensive, if any, since the place was also dedicated to a brewery and tourism.

[@jonathanscott7372]

I would guess a great deal was scraped away when they built the memorial mound. Wellington complained, I think in the 1820's, "They ruined my battlefield." As I understand from other sources, the scraped the ridge away and it is much shallower now than at the time of the battle. Obviously the battle was just not on the ridge, so this is just a possible partial explanation.

[@danrooc]

I also thought scraping the ridge took a heavy toll on battlefield vestiges. I'm no expert, but I think Wellingon adjusted his lines beyond that ridge after the first stage of the battle. This in turn lured Ney's cavalry charge. So, the British infantry squares were also formed just beyond the ridge and all the ground around might have seen quite lot of action.

[@Grumpylove]

We know that, at least part of the battlefield, is not as it was, that happened quite soon after the battle, because a lot of the ground was dug up to form the, very imposing monument. Wellington, at some point in his life, returned to the site and was not happy about the monument, ruining his battlefield. Question is, knowing the practices of the day, is the mound just dirt?

[@philipcallicoat3147]

A place of the curse of the testimony of man's blood lust.💔🥺 "War is organized murder!" ( H. Patch,a survivor of the battle of the Somme.)☠️

[@gregmonks]

The movies never depict the horses being shot and killed.

[@Kaptain13Gonzo]

What was "shocking" is first described at 10:00 in the video. The preceding material is a rehash of what we know already.

[@A14b19]

Could they be under the mound!

[@leifandersen2756]

Why it shocking to find horses and humans near each other? .The battlefield was a mess of dead horses and humans .The way of getting rid of them before the bodies started to rot was important .The stench would have been unbearable for the living !It was a bloody battle . It is interesting to know what really happened based on the finds . I have always been interested in history from a Schoolboy and I am still interested in old age . I have watch a lot of Time Team broadcasts .

[@myparceltape1169]

Only the second body RECORDED.

[@davidmills817]

Horses could have been eaten. Also if it was a pit, the skeleton could be the top most of several.

[@compfox]

Not thousands of them. There was no way to conserve the meat.

[@angloedu5499]

The most horrible would be the grape shot finds.

[@youarewhatyouare]

I recognise that skeleton you've shown its my mother in law its her alright that's her telling me I'm not good enough for her daughter

[@PaulCowcher]

10

[@jerryumfress9030]

"Fertilizer" that's about all the human being is

[@michaelwhite8031]

To the Georgians life was cheep.

[@owenmccullagh3462]

It’s nice to know that as a soldier who must fight into death for the uncaring civvies who are too squeamish to fight for themselves lest they might actually die - that they think back then and today maybe just maybe the uncaring civvies should have been thrown in front of the death and guns and then maybe they might appericate what real sacralise actually is instead of playing soldiers in their safe houses.

[@almadeckard8360]

Wow! You could repatriate this man to his home country with a DNA test. Also, with DNA, you might find a family sir name.

[@catherineskis]

I was a Medic in the Air Force. I always thought that a "Howitzer" was a brand of a cannon so to hear that one was present on Napoleon's battlefield was quite surprising as prior to this statement, I was sure that time travel was impossible. I asked my boyfriend, retired Army, who said that Howitzer refers to a cannon that is in a certain position. You should say, "Cannon ball shot from the Howitzer position". Like when a woman gives birth in the dorsal lithotomy position.

[@grumpyparrotphotography]

Hi, historically speaking, "howitzers" in various forms have been around for a couple of hundred years. A howitzer is a type of cannon that can fire a projectile at a high angle. Howitzers were generally used to drop exploding shells either behind fortifications or amongst groups of formed soldiers. This was called "indirect fire". Cannon balls were fired more typically from a field "gun", which fired on a more or less flat trajectory and was used for "direct fire". Cannon balls are a type of solid shot, they don't explode and do their damage by striking the target at a high rate of speed. ... Mortars were also used for indirect fire, but mortars fired on a fixed trajectory, unlike howitzers, who's trajectory could be adjusted. Hope that clarifies things a bit?

[@catherineskis]

@@grumpyparrotphotography Now see, that's what he said. I thought that "Howitzer" was akin to "F16" or, "B52".

[@grumpyparrotphotography]

@@catherineskis Right, ... howitzer was a term that described a specific class of cannon. Nowadays, what we call howitzers are almost always "gun-howitzers", a hybrid cannon that can provide both direct and indirect fire, but they're commonly referred to still as howitzers.

[@catherineskis]

@@grumpyparrotphotography Sir, thank you. How can I have missed this? My father was an E9 in the Marine Corps, I was active duty while he was still active duty! How can I have missed this?

[@grumpyparrotphotography]

@@catherineskis Hi. I shouldn't be too hard on yourself. Unless you have an historical interest in the development of land-based field and siege artillery, it would be an easy thing to overlook, especially the way the term howitzer is used today. In a modern context, your assumptions aren't unreasonable.

[@gerrytyrrell1507]

A third of Wellingtons army was irish.....Dublin

[@Davey-Boyd]

Yep. Fighting for the King.

[@gerrytyrrell1507]

@@Davey-Boyd eeeeehhhh fighting for catholic emancipation, the king was 2nd Davey boy.

[@edwardbutt691]

A quarter actually. Even so, that was a lot of men.

[@tankgirl2074]

Interesting archaeology. Sadly, too much sensationalism and dumbing down of information.

[@hoWa3920]

Does anyone in GB that there where actually more "German" soldiers than brits?

[@duncanburbridge3742]

if he is the recent leader of the uk what does that say about the pathetic political profession, obviously corrupt ,same can be said for canada,us, and eu,

[@RAWGRIP54]

Napoleon, the Kaiser, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Mao, Xi, Putin, ete. The world can produce horrible human.

[@foolonthehill731]

Is this dig funded by the taxpayer? Just curious.

[@markgoddard2560]

Could it not be that all the dead were gathered up into that mound upon which stands the celebratory monument to man’s inhumanity to man in this carnage? And is it possible to produce a programme on archeology that does not include the Time Team Tony Robinson constant referral to “time running out…” and “halfway though our time window” or the constant connective talk rather factual description? Why do tv stars find it so necessary to add artificial suspense and urgency to something as timeless as archeology? “5-4-3-2-1-…Diggers! Step away from your digging!” The BBC used to produce wonderful programming 50 years ago. Now it’s all reduced to school room diversity issues and opinions rather than fact.

[@nicktrueman224]

Yes you would think a simple program will do. No drama needed no annoying catch phrases. Also there so many napoleonic battle sights that could probably yield far more.