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'Horáčková L, Benešová, 1997: Findings of War-Time Injuries from the Battle of Austerlitz. Anthropologie (Brno) 35, 3: 283-289'. |
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| Abstract | | During archaeological rescue research carried out in 1994 in the Ji?íkovice village area (near Slavkov na Morav?-Austerlitz), a common grave pit has been found with skeletal remains of people killed during the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805. According to anthropological criteria, 18 of the discovered skeletons showed masculine signs, two skeletons were female, and two belonged to subadult individuals. The age of the men ranged between 20-40 years, one of the women was 20-25 year-old, the other was 30-40, and the estimated age ofsubadult individuals is about 1 7 years of life. Body height of the men ranged between 166.8 cm and 178,6 cm. In the foramen vertebrale of the first thoracic vertebra of one of the adult individuals, a bullet of 16 mm in diameter was wedged. Further finds included a fragment of the right femur of an adult man bearing traces of a serious unhealed splintered fracture on its distal end. Due to the localisation and character of both injuries, the two cases were definitely fatal ones. The therapeutic interventions of the time are represented by war-time amputations of long bones of lower limbs. One of them was the amputation of the distal part of the right femur of an adult man. The victim must have died soon after the intervention, as the incision did not bear any traces ofhealing. Further finds include two amputations of tibiae of adult men. In both cases they were peripheral stumps of limbs thrown into the grave pit. Due to quick retreat of defeated allied armies, it is highly probable that the mentioned surgical interventions were performed also by French physicians under the leadership of J. D. Larrey, the chief surgeon of Napoleon's army. | | | | Keywords | | Battle of Austerlitz 1805 - Common grave pit - War-time injuries - Amputation | | |
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