From The Guardian, June:
Mystery of Waterloo’s dead soldiers to be re-examined by academics
Modern techniques to test traditional explanation that most bones from 1815 battle were ground into powder for fertiliser
It was an epic battle that has been commemorated in words, poetry and even a legendary Abba song, but 207 years to the day after troops clashed at Waterloo, a gruesome question remains: what happened to the dead?
While tens of thousands of men and horses died at the site in modern-day Belgium, few remains have been found, with amputated legs and a skeleton unearthed beneath a car park south of Brussels among the handful of discoveries.
The long-held explanation is grisly: according to reports made soon after the conflict, the bones were collected, pulverised and turned into fertiliser for agricultural use.
“It is certainly a singular fact that Great Britain should have sent out multitudes of soldiers to fight the battles of this country upon the continent of Europe, and should then import the bones as an article of commerce to fatten her soil!” the London Observer reported in November 1822.
Now a battlefield expert has said while the theory is credible, fresh fieldwork is needed to investigate such claims....
....MUCH MORE
