Napoleon's birthday: in Waterloo, archaeologists make discoveries

Laura van Lerberghe (in Belgium), edited by Solène Leroux 12:19 p.m., August 15, 2022

He would have been 253 years old.

August 15 also marks Napoleon's birthday in Ajaccio, Corsica.

The opportunity to come back to one of these memorable defeats, that of Waterloo in 1815. Archaeologists, veterans and students have studied the battlefield in Belgium.

Excavations and especially extremely rare discoveries have been made.

In recent days, on the former Napoleonic battlefield, archaeologists have discovered a pit near the Mont-Saint-Jean farm, which was a British army hospital in 1815.

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Human skeleton found whole

Now private property, this land belongs to the family of Edward Martin.

"What is extraordinary here, on the site of the Mont-Saint-Jean farm, is that we found an entire human skeleton, which is exceptionally rare," he says.

"This is the second whole human skeleton found on the plains of Waterloo, [which are now on] the plains of Mont-Saint-Jean."

Three horse skeletons and human bones were also found, as were amputated remains collected in a pit.

A way to understand how the fighters were treated at the time, and if they were part of the French army or that of the allies against Napoleon.

"To know the identity of the skeleton, we will have to wait for DNA studies. So today, we cannot say it, but logically, it will in any case be an ally", speculates Edward Martin.

A way to fix the story?

Two centuries later, science is making great progress.

It is a historic moment and reveals concrete traces of the Battle of Waterloo for Wolf Wolput, a Belgian veteran who participated in this research.

"We are Belgians, and it's part of our history," he says.

"So here we are, not reinventing history, but maybe correcting a story, [as] it is being told now."

Historians estimate that more than 20,000 soldiers were killed at Waterloo.