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Showing posts with label Battle of Waterloo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battle of Waterloo. Show all posts

Monday, 15 June 2015

Waterloo Uncovered - excavations in and around Hougoumont Farm



Waterloo Uncovered is a ground-breaking archaeology project to explore the battlefield of Waterloo. The brainchild of two soldiers from the Coldstream Guards, a regiment that played a vital role in the battle, the project will be led by Dr Tony Pollard, who heads the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at Glasgow University, and will include both professional archaeologists from across Europe and wounded veterans from recent campaigns.

Aims
  • To transform our understanding of the Battle through archaeology. We will make all findings publicly available.
  • To provide a unique opportunity for veterans to participate in an important dig and support those that are injured in their recovery.

Outcomes
  • The project’s findings will be published in academic journals for peer review both sides of the channel and there will be open access to the data through the Waterloo Uncovered website. The reports will increase our understanding of the battle that transformed Europe.
  • It is hoped that the artefacts discovered will help to bring the human story of Waterloo to life, and deliver a significant educational dividend for future generations. Archaeology may provide answers to questions long posed by historians of the period.
  • And the team’s work to identify and mark grave sites on the field will enable us to appreciate the scale of human loss suffered by the armies who fought there, and enable visitors to show their respect for those casualties. No graves or human remains will be unduly disturbed or treated with anything other than the utmost respect. As soldiers ourselves this is of the utmost importance to us.
  • The veterans involved in the project , who are the living link to the soldiers who fought and died at Waterloo, will develop new vocational skills by participating on an important dig. The work will also accelerate their rehabilitation following injury.
 Meet the Team






 








Diarmaid Walshe
Nightingale (Defence Archaeology Group) Advisor

Tom Mollo
Communications Advisor

Peter Ginn
Team film maker and photographer

Alasdair White
Historian and Project Hougoumont member

Stuart Eve
Data management and augmented reality expert

Gaille MacKinnon
Forensic Anthropology

Marc Van Meirvenne
Head of Dept. of Soil Management at Ghent University

Philippe De Smedt
The team of the Dept. of Soil Management at Ghent University


Follow these links to see what they have found so far and to find our more about the project:






  

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Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Guess who is off to Waterloo this summer?

"Archaeologists to excavate Napoleonic farmhouse defended by Coldstream Guards in Battle of Waterloo"

Hougoumont farmhouse
The Defence Archaeology Group led by Diarmaid Walshe will be excavating with Prof Tony Pollard's Glasgow University team at the site of Hougoumont  - a key location during the Battle of Waterloo.

James Gramam
Hougoumont is a cluster of 12 buildings situated in woodland directly below the main position selected by the Iron Duke to break up the advance of the French infantry.  As the battle reached a critical moment, with 14,000 French soldiers on the brink of breaking into the compound and securing victory, Corporal James Graham, a 24-year-old guardsman, closed the large gates of the farm while under fire.  

According to Mark Evans, “Every guardsman from day one in training is told about Waterloo and Hougoumont and what that means to be a Coldstream Guard.”


Mark Evans is a former Coldstream Guards officer, who narrowly escaped death while fighting in Afghanistan, and is a member of the DAG team (as I will be, though my excavation skills are rusty!).


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