Shocking find of archaeologists in Brno: people lived over a mass grave for years
The mass grave of soldiers from the Battle of the Three Emperors was hiding under an old apartment building in Staňková Street near the Lužánky Park in Brno. Archaeologists accidentally came across a find of a part of twelve human skeletons during the reconstruction of the cellars. During more than a year of research on skeletal remains, the researchers found that he was a young man between the ages of twenty and thirty with an average height of 167 centimeters.
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The skeletons were discovered by archaeologists from the cellar of the house in Staňková Street in Brno.
| Photo: Photo: Michal Přichystal, with the consent of the Institute of Archaeological Conservation in Brno
“Based on the results of the analysis and the context of the finding, we hypothesized that they may be soldiers, fought in the Battle of Austerlitz, and probably died in a temporary field hospital in Brno,” said Kateřina Vymazalová of the Institute of Anatomy of the Faculty of Medicine at Masaryk University. She recently published the results of her team’s research.
In a detailed analysis, the researchers found out that a soldier, for example, had one of them amputated by the doctor’s left leg in the thigh area. Another suffered a fragmentary fracture of the humerus, apparently a gunshot wound. According to the scientists, the detected degenerative changes in the spine and bones were the result of a huge physical strain, which they were probably exposed to during armament during long marches in heavy military footwear.
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Using radiocarbon methods, skeleton researchers dated to the early 19th century, the Napoleonic Wars in Central Europe. The timing also confirmed the tartar analysis. In it, scientists found traces of sulfur and nitrogen, which are among the components of gunpowder. “It is therefore a sacrifice that these are the battles of the three emperors, which took place in nearby Slavkov u Brna on December 2, 1805,” the researchers said.
In the mass grave, experts from the Brno Institute of Archaeological Conservation found only human bones. “Otherwise, there was nothing at all. This is in line with historical records showing how soldiers were buried. They were usually buried without substances, “said archaeologist Jiří Kala. Its arrangement also proves that it was a mass burial ground for soldiers who died of their injuries.
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