Archaelogists discover skeleton from Battle of Waterloo — with musket ball still lodged in its ribs
The only complete skeleton from the Battle of Waterloo found in the last 200 years was discovered under a parking lot, and that's not even the most interesting thing about it.
The skeleton belongs to a Hanoverian man with a hunchback, the archaeologists announced. The find is truly unique, though, because the musket ball that killed the man was still stuck in the skeleton's ribs. The skeleton was first discovered in 2012, but archaeologists have just now revealed the details and significance of the find.
One historian, Gareth Glover, believes he knows exactly who the skeleton belongs to: Friedrich Brandt, a 23-year-old private in the King's German Legion of George III. Brandt was killed by a musket ball, The Independent reports. The skeleton was found with a piece of wood with the initials "F. C. B.," lending credence to Glover's suggestion. Only three German soldiers bore those initials, and one was on a different battlefield than where the skeleton was discovered.
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The find is also unique because the skeleton is still intact — Glover told The Independent that most Napoleonic-era soldiers' remains were ground into fertilizer in the 1830s and 1840s.
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Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.
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