And this all happened in a matter of hours in a small area.

​​@@inzane1260 Recovery of bones from battlefields was a common practice throughout history. Napoleonic battlefields were common places to collect teeth for dentures because soldiers had to have good teeth to join an army. It was very important for a man to be able to bite a paper cartridge to load his weapon. Bones were also collected for use in making bone china and yes burned bone ash has always been used as fertilizer. Death was such a common part of life that humans have often sought to make practical use of it where possible. Just the sanitary necessity of removing the remains, meant respectful burial was not often possible. Most bodies from Waterloo were burned in pyres on the battlefield, the ashes spread on immediate farm lands.

Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler) likely the best Victorian wafare painter. She was born 31 years after Waterloo.

Young teeth, not yet rotted by sugar! Give me!

It's the 21st century mind I find most disturbing. 😐

@@gregmonks not all minds! However I am aware of the increasing number of morons in society getting elected to power to suit their puppet masters!

Thousands were dug up and ground into fertilizer

Do you mind sharing his name ?

Much of the area was "landscaped" in the years after the battle, with much soil being scraped up to form the hill supporting the monument. When Wellington revisited he famously said "My God! They have destroyed my battlefield." Meaning that future visitors would be unable to understand his tactics because the terrain to which they related no longer existed.

That ground turns muddy during raining seasons and almost any object is gradually 'swallowed'. WW1 artifacts and human remains (one century younger) are frequently discovered at similar depths in Flanders' battlefields. A hasty burial may also be considered. The skeleton seems to have been found pretty close to the farm building where agricultural activities might have been less intensive, if any, since the place was also dedicated to a brewery and tourism.

I also thought scraping the ridge took a heavy toll on battlefield vestiges. I'm no expert, but I think Wellingon adjusted his lines beyond that ridge after the first stage of the battle. This in turn lured Ney's cavalry charge. So, the British infantry squares were also formed just beyond the ridge and all the ground around might have seen quite lot of action.

Not thousands of them. There was no way to conserve the meat.

Hi, historically speaking, "howitzers" in various forms have been around for a couple of hundred years. A howitzer is a type of cannon that can fire a projectile at a high angle. Howitzers were generally used to drop exploding shells either behind fortifications or amongst groups of formed soldiers. This was called "indirect fire". Cannon balls were fired more typically from a field "gun", which fired on a more or less flat trajectory and was used for "direct fire". Cannon balls are a type of solid shot, they don't explode and do their damage by striking the target at a high rate of speed. ... Mortars were also used for indirect fire, but mortars fired on a fixed trajectory, unlike howitzers, who's trajectory could be adjusted. Hope that clarifies things a bit?

@@grumpyparrotphotography Now see, that's what he said. I thought that "Howitzer" was akin to "F16" or, "B52".

@@catherineskis Right, ... howitzer was a term that described a specific class of cannon. Nowadays, what we call howitzers are almost always "gun-howitzers", a hybrid cannon that can provide both direct and indirect fire, but they're commonly referred to still as howitzers.

@@grumpyparrotphotography Sir, thank you. How can I have missed this? My father was an E9 in the Marine Corps, I was active duty while he was still active duty! How can I have missed this?

@@catherineskis Hi. I shouldn't be too hard on yourself. Unless you have an historical interest in the development of land-based field and siege artillery, it would be an easy thing to overlook, especially the way the term howitzer is used today. In a modern context, your assumptions aren't unreasonable.

Yep. Fighting for the King.

@@Davey-Boyd eeeeehhhh fighting for catholic emancipation, the king was 2nd Davey boy.

A quarter actually. Even so, that was a lot of men.

Yes you would think a simple program will do. No drama needed no annoying catch phrases. Also there so many napoleonic battle sights that could probably yield far more.