Battlefield archaeology helps veterans with physical and mental recovery
A new report by the charity Waterloo Uncovered reveals how archaeological work on the battlefield of Waterloo is helping Veterans and Serving Military Personnel with recovery from some of the mental and physical impacts of their service. Published to mark the 5th anniversary of the charity, and coinciding this week with the 205th anniversary of the battle (June 18, 1815), the report - Peace from War - highlights the results of a nine-month pilot Veterans and Military Personnel Support Programme run in conjunction with the excavation on the Belgian battlefield, where Napoleon's domination of Europe was finally ended. Fifty British and Dutch veterans and serving personnel took part in the dig last July, alongside a team of archaeologists led by Professor Tony Pollard, Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow. The excavations examined key areas of the battlefield: Hougoumont Farm, scene of a famous episode where British Guardsmen foiled a French attack by forcing closed the gates. The dig found evidence of the destruction wrought on the buildings, as well as personal items such as uniform buttons from the Coldstream Guards and Scots Guards defenders. Mont-Saint-Jean Farm, the location of Wellington's Field Hospital during the battle, has given up grim evidence of the struggle to save lives, in the form of amputated limbs from the wounded bearing the marks of the surgeon's saw. In all, more than 800 finds were made.
