Waterloo dig led by Scots professor reveals significant discovery of remains

The team is being led by Scots archaeologist and battlefield expert Professor Tony Pollard, of the University of Glasgow who revealed that a skeleton had been discovered in a trench close to what would have been a field hospital.

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Professor Pollard, one of the project’s Archaeological Directors and Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow, said: ‘I've been a battlefield archaeologist for 20 years and have never seen anything like it. We won't get any closer to the harsh reality of Waterloo than this.”

Organised by veteran support charity Waterloo Uncovered, the team has returned to the Waterloo battlefield to conduct its first archaeological excavation since 2019.

Author Ken Follet paid a visit to the site

Over the past week its team of world-class archaeologists, students and veterans, some of them Scots, have unearthed fascinating discoveries, including the incredibly rare skeleton, that tell us about the horrors that the soldiers of 1815 battle had to endure.

“I have been involved with this project since 2015 and it is got bigger and bigger,” said Prof Pollard. “We were doing really well up until 2019 when we had our last field season, and then covid hit. We had to take two years out but are back with a vengeance this year.

“We were previously on the verge of a major discovery as we had found three amputated legs at Mont-Saint-Jean farm which was the site of Wellington’s field hospital hospital during the battle and is now home to the Waterloo Brasserie and Microbrewery."

Skull and arms were among the remains discovered

He added: "We carefully excavated limbs which were taken away to labs and we then discovered that one of them had a French musket ball lodged in it. We had really discovered hospital waste and it has been estimated 500 limbs were amputated on the day of the battle.

“We also know from First World War side project that 20 or so surgeons who were on the field at Waterloo had some or all of their training at Glasgow University. It is incredible to think that graduates from the same institution as me might have been at the hospital.”

A flattened musket ball held by one of the team members

This year the team has been excavating at two sites. They have revisited Mont-Saint-Jean farm, the site of an excavation which very much fell into the category of ‘unfinished business,’ and they have also moved onto pastures new at Plancenoit, to investigate the site of some of the bloodiest fighting of the battle.

This week, parts of at least three horses, one of which looks nearly complete, have been discovered at Mont-Saint-Jean. More human bones have been discovered, including the skull and arm of one individual.

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Professor Pollard added: “The remains of the horses have damage to their limbs and it looks as though some of them may have been put down, shot in the pit because of the way they are lying.

“We have also got the deposit of tin ammunition boxes which lay beneath three amputated limbs. They would have been from the ammunition pouches that soldiers carried and when they went surgery they would have been stripped of all of their kit and clothing. It looks like debris from the hospital just dumped into the pit, but strikingly in the same pit or ditch there is a human skeleton.”

Professor Tony Pollard returned to the site of Waterloo for this year's dig

He said the discovery of the skeleton means they now have a complex feature that represents the clearance of the battlefield with a human body, not so much buried but placed in the pit along with limbs, horses and ammunition.

“We are looking at possibly 20,000 bodies scattered across the battlefield. They didn’t have the same sensitivities that we have. We have this idea of the sanctity of the grave and the hallowed ground of the battlefield, which largely grows out of the First World War," Prof Pollard added. "In the early 19th century that just didn’t exist. The idea was to get these people out of the way and the land turned back to agriculture as soon as possible and we know that local people were hired to dispose of the dead, some weren’t even put in the ground, so a discovery like this of the skeleton is extremely rare.”

Waterloo Uncovered team at the site of the 2022 search. Photo credit: Chris Van Houts.

He said disturbing as the finds are he said it is important for people to see he says there has always been a romance about Waterloo.

“You had the brightly coloured uniforms, the dashing cavalry, the lances and sabres, but in reality this was bloodier battle than most and to see this as archaeologists and have the privilege to engage with the remains really drives home what the reality of that battle,” he added.

“I used to say to my students that archaeology is the closest you will get to a time machine and in some respects this has become a real time machine in the way that the past and the present meet.”

The skeleton will be examined to unlock details on where the body was from, their diet, however it would difficult to be able to identify the remains, but Professor Pollard said the team will give the remains a burial.

The Waterloo Uncovered project involves veterans and serving military personnel, many of whom have experienced physical or mental injuries as a result of their service, and they form an integral part of the team.

Former Royal Engineer Jamie Cuthbertson, from Glasgow, joined the team for his first excavation. He was badly injured in 1986 during explosives training with recruits when 100 detonators went off. It left him without his sight and he had a 14 month recovery period.

Jamie Cuthbertson, right, with fellow team members

Just before the lockdown in 2020, the 61-year-old became involved in the Waterloo Uncovered with online programmes as the planned visit to the site that year was postponed.

“I’ve never done any archaeology, but it was very tempting and I was accepted for the programme in 2020, but instead of the dig that year Waterloo Uncovered put together a 12-week virtual programme,” said Mr Cuthbertson.

“It was great to finally come here. The tactics of the battle in many ways pivoted on a six pence and could have gone one way or another, but being on the ground and putting it all into context. Being blind and having someone point you in a particular direction on site, really puts the whole thing into perspective, said Mr Cuthbertson. “It really gives a picture of the battle and how it unfolded.”