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First Napoleonic mass grave uncovered in Vilnius
Times of India ^ | APRIL 09, 2002 | Unknown

Posted on 04/10/2002 12:31:59 PM PDT by Korth

VILNIUS: Researchers are rushing to remove hundreds of skeletons from a mass grave of Napoleonic soldiers discovered on a Vilnius construction site in a find that promises to offer fresh insights into the disastrous 1812 campaign to Moscow.

The remains of an estimated 1,000 soldiers of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Army were buried here as they retreated from the ill-fated campaign to Moscow, dumped in a ditch they had built when advancing on the Russian Empire.

It is the largest mass grave of Napoleonic soldiers ever found, according to Olivier Dutour, an anthropological biologist at the University of Marseille's school of medicine, who heads a five-man team from France's National Center for Scientific Research.

The remains may help anthropologists and historians learn more about the physical condition of soldiers of the Grand Army as it retreated from Moscow in 1812.

"Thanks to methods from molecular biology, we can test whether typhus, which existed in the period, was widespread in the region" and contributed to the large numbers of deaths of soldiers, he told AFP.

"What we can learn from this find is the age of the soldiers in the Grand Army and their state of health on the march back from Moscow," said Rimantas Jankuaskas, chair of the anthropology department at Vilnius University, who is leading the excavation work.

The Russians pursued a scorched-earth policy, even setting light to Moscow, leaving Napoleon's troops to freeze in the unusually harsh winter reducing the Grand Army to just one-fifth of the 700,000 men from 20 nations that it initially contained.

So far the grave site is testimony to the severe cold which claimed many lives.

"Looking at the skeletons, we can say that the bodies were buried frozen," said Dutour.

He points to a skeletal finger, the only bones recovered from one man, bent in an "abnormal" curled position.

"This man died from exposure at a temperature of around minus 30 degrees centigrade (minus 22 Fahrenheit) in a crouched position," said Dutour.

The grave was found last October as preparations were made to begin building a residential complex on land that has been used for military purposes by Czarist Russian, Polish, Nazi and Soviet troops since the end of 19th century.

Work had to quickly be suspended because of the winter, and was resumed only in mid-March after the snow melted.

Investigators originally believed the remains may have been those of Polish soldiers killed by the Soviets, but based on buttons and other articles of clothing identified them as belonging to the Grand Army.

Work is pursuing at a rapid pace because the construction company only gave researchers one month, or until April 11, to complete their work.

The scientists don't have adequate time to record in detail the position of each of the skeletons found.

"We've been forced to focus on just several individuals," said Michel Signolis, the deputy director of the French team.

The team was dispatched to Vilnius with such haste that they did not even receive a formal budget for the trip, and are sleeping at the site in an old camper made available to them by a French citizen who lives in Lithuania.

"We must keep watch over and protect our treasures from the curious" who can easily gain access to the open site, said Signolis.

The remains are being removed to Vilnius University's Anthropology Institute while a decision is taken on their final burial.

The city is "in contact with French officials to determine a dignified burial site for these soldiers," Vilnius Mayor Arturas Zuokas told AFP.

More experts from the French defense ministry were expected in Vilnius to help the Lithuanians examine the remains and review information on trenches where others soldiers may have been buried.

According to historians, the remains of some 40,000 soldiers were either buried or burned when the Grand Army fled from Vilnius in 1812.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Russia
KEYWORDS: archeology; army; france; historylist; lithuania; napoleon; russia; soldiers
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To: Korth
Perhaps the mass graves pinned on Slobo were left over from the Muslim conquest.
21 posted on 04/10/2002 3:52:34 PM PDT by montag813
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To: Eternal_Bear
And Marlon Brando was the worst Napoleon of all time. Horribly miscast, the moody Brando half-slept and mumbled his way through the movie with none of the inner vitality Napoleon must have had.

Leni

22 posted on 04/10/2002 3:54:11 PM PDT by MinuteGal
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To: Lejes Rimul
Bonaparte was one of the greatest men who ever lived. The Old Guard dies, but never surrenders. :)

Napoleon was a megalomaniacal tyrant, the product of a bloody, mindless revolution, a twisted sister to our own. Compare and contrast Napoleon and George Washington as the respective progenitors to see how poorly the "Emperor" stacks up.

France is a detestable land with a history of cowardice unmatched on this globe.

23 posted on 04/10/2002 3:56:41 PM PDT by montag813
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To: Korth
The remains of an estimated 1,000 soldiers of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Army

More Neanderthals?

24 posted on 04/10/2002 4:05:59 PM PDT by Age of Reason
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To: montag813
"...France is a detestable land with a history of cowardice unmatched on this globe....'

George Washington, along with all our Founding Fathers, would disagree with you. But you don't really care about the opinions of Washington or any other Founding Father, the history of the Republic of the United States of America, the history of Western Civilization or any of that other dead white male European jazz--do you?

25 posted on 04/10/2002 4:07:59 PM PDT by LaBelleDameSansMerci
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To: MinuteGal
That was a woman's picture--a "day care center" woman's picture. Brando must have needed child support money to accept that part.
26 posted on 04/10/2002 4:12:03 PM PDT by LaBelleDameSansMerci
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To: montag813; LaBelleDameSansMerci
Were it not for France, America might still be a colony.
27 posted on 04/10/2002 4:13:21 PM PDT by Age of Reason
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To: Age of Reason
Were it not for the French, men across the globe might be praying prostrate before an all powerful, inscrutible Allah--like Alexander in his overripe days succumbing to Persian decadence--forehead down, bottom up. Unfortunately, all too many men would rather crawl than fight. (This is the real reason women weep and wail.....)
28 posted on 04/10/2002 4:28:47 PM PDT by LaBelleDameSansMerci
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To: eastsider
The French consider the battle of Moscow a victory,

Logic like that goes a long ways towards explaining why they think Jerry Lewis is so funny.

29 posted on 04/10/2002 4:32:10 PM PDT by sneakypete
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To: LaBelleDameSansMerci
What an interesting grammatical angle--portraying the Russiansas the subjects of the sentence--- asserting that the Russians, who were the invaded party (the subject), were pursuing a scorched earth policy by denying the invading army their food and urban infrastructure.

How else would it be portrayed? That's the way it happened. The Russians did the same thing when the Germans invaded in WW-2.

30 posted on 04/10/2002 4:38:11 PM PDT by sneakypete
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To: LaBelleDameSansMerci
A nation that produces Roland, William of Normandy, du Guesclin, Villars, Turenne and Ney (not to mention Captain D'Artagnan who was a true historical hero) cannot be considered too cowardly. Remember France had the guts to declare war on Nazi Germany 2 years and 3 months before America did. What does that say?
31 posted on 04/10/2002 4:41:09 PM PDT by Eternal_Bear
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To: sneakypete
Borodino or as the French call it "La Bataille de le Moskova" was indeed a French victory. 40,000 Russians and 30,000 French fell. Kutusov's army retreated and abandoned Moscow.
32 posted on 04/10/2002 4:44:49 PM PDT by Eternal_Bear
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To: LaBelleDameSansMerci
George Washington, along with all our Founding Fathers, would disagree with you. But you don't really care about the opinions of Washington or any other Founding Father, the history of the Republic of the United States of America, the history of Western Civilization or any of that other dead white male European jazz--do you?

Au contaire, mam'zell, but have you ever heard of the XYZ Affair? Of "Citizen" Genet France's First Minister to the United States, a man with all the malicious cunning of a monkey? Of Talleyrand and The Directory's not-so vague threats against President Washington and the Congress? Of the French supported/established/funded "Jacobin Clubs" in America?

Oh, no, mam'zell, the truth is that more than a few Founding Fathers had, or quickly developed, a very leary eye towards the apres revolutionaire French.

(sigh) Except of course Thomas Jefferson but that, as they say,is another story.

33 posted on 04/10/2002 4:57:24 PM PDT by yankeedame
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To: Eternal_Bear
A nation that produces Roland, William of Normandy, du Guesclin, Villars, Turenne and Ney (not to mention Captain D'Artagnan who was a true historical hero) cannot be considered too cowardly. Remember France had the guts to declare war on Nazi Germany 2 years and 3 months before America did. What does that say?

It says that even a blind squirrel can find an acorn every now and then.

34 posted on 04/10/2002 5:00:40 PM PDT by yankeedame
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To: yankeedame
Except of course Thomas Jefferson but that, as they say,is another story.
Sure is. It's called the Louisiana Purchase.
35 posted on 04/10/2002 5:01:30 PM PDT by eastsider
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To: angelo
I heard on Sean Hannity (or maybe Medved) this afternoon that French mothers began teaching their sons never to fight right after World War I. The lesson, of course, sunk in.
36 posted on 04/10/2002 5:06:25 PM PDT by Tribune7
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To: montag813
France is a detestable land with a history of cowardice unmatched on this globe.

Not true. During the great arab conquests, the moslems were only defeated 3 times--one of those times by the Franks in 732, led by Charles Martel after the arabs pushed into central france as far as tours. The battle of tours marked the furthest penetration into the west, and for centuries afterwards the moslem word for westerners was "franks" in tribute to the enemy they could not defeat.

Besides, even though the french have become a shadow of their former selves, I still hold a special place in my heart for France because it is the first nation founded upon Christianty--born in 496, and known thereafter as the "eldest daughter" of the church.

Also, many of my favorite saints are French. =)

37 posted on 04/10/2002 6:08:47 PM PDT by JMJ333
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To: Eternal_Bear
William of Normandy was Norman, not "French". The Northmen conquored "Normandy" while the natives argued about cheese, wine, and "Germans".
38 posted on 04/10/2002 6:23:36 PM PDT by SevenDaysInMay
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To: eastsider
The French consider the battle of Moscow a victory

It actually was a victory. Napolean took Moscow and waited for Tsar Alexander to agree to peace terms. Alexander (in St Petersburg, I believe) upon hearing that Napolean was awaiting his surrender, issued the famous challenge, "I will make peace in Paris." He did.

39 posted on 04/10/2002 6:35:33 PM PDT by Skooz
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To: Eternal_Bear
Borodino, while indeed a French victory, proved that Napoleon was losing his brilliance as a commander. A series of headlong charges, resulting in a ferocious and unspeakably bloody affair, showed that he was willing to fight a war of attrition rather than the brilliant manuevre characterized by Austerlitz and Arcola.

The old boy's best days were behind him. The Russians were determined to wear the Grand Armee down with brutal assaults, and Napoleon obliged. The younger Napoleon would have at least TRIED a flanking movement or a diversion.

BTW, This is a pretty cool site if you are interested in Napoleon.

40 posted on 04/10/2002 6:46:50 PM PDT by Skooz
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