They were collecting dust in an attic, but a lecture led to their incredible discovery. In Belgium, the remains of four soldiers from the Battle of Waterloo have been found in an attic, report RTBF and RTL info
And this story is almost random. In November, the head of the Liège State Archives held a conference in Waterloo on “the exploitation by the sugar industry of the bones of fallen soldiers in 1815”, explains the RTBF.
At the end of his speech, an old man approaches him and says, “Mr. Wilkin, I have bones of those Prussians in my attic.”
A rather surprising sentence, but Bernard Wilikin is convinced by the photos that “this old man” shows him, that he wishes to remain anonymous.
“Unearthed during construction in 1982”
A few days later, the Head of Works of the Liège State Archives visited the attic in question and discovered four incomplete skeletons.
“We will be able to learn a lot about the living conditions and possible health problems of the soldiers. We already know that one of them had a genetic malformation, ”he explains to RTL Info. The ultimate goal is, through DNA analysis, to try to find possible descendants of these four soldiers.
How did those bones end up in that attic? “Communal workers had dug them up during work in 1982. They had been kept in successive attics,” says Bernard Wilkin.
It is not an isolated case
The Battle of Waterloo took place in June 1815 and pitted the French Empire against the Kingdom of Prussia and Great Britain in particular. It ended with the decisive defeat of the French army and the death of more than 13,000 soldiers on both sides.
The man who kept the remains of the soldiers in his attic would like to “bury them with dignity” once the search is over.
Another similar discovery was made in the area: the bones of six British soldiers were dug up by an amateur armed with a metal detector in the 1980s and recently found in another attic, says RTBF.
Source: BFM TV
