Skeletons From Napoleonic Battlefield Shed Light On Soldiers' Health
Kristina Killgrove , Contributor
The Battle of Aspern, which took place in Austria during the Napoleonic Wars, claimed the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, many of whom were buried directly on the battlefield to prevent the spread of epidemic disease. New research on their skeletons is revealing information not only about the horrors of war but also about their childhood health.
Writing in this month's International Journal of Paleopathology, archaeologists Leslie Quade and Michaela Binder of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna detail their analysis of the bones of 30 soldiers who died in the May 1809 battle, in which about 77,000 French soldiers led by Napoleon were up against nearly 90,000 Austrian soldiers. Napoleon's army was forced to retreat, and historical reports suggest that about 7,000 soldiers were buried where they fell, some in mass graves and some individually.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2018/04/13/skeletons-from-napoleonic-battlefield-shed-light-on-soldiers-health/#684309c8227e
