The mass execution of French soldiers in Valencia during the Spanish War of Independence (1808-1814)

Conference

Published on

05 October 2014

Updated on

19 June 2017

Colloquia

The Archaeology of Violence

International colloquium organized by Inrap and the Museum of Louvre-Lens.
October 2, 3 and 4, 2104 at La Scène du Louvre-Lens

The archaeology of violence: wartime violence, mass violence
by Marcos Miquel-Feucht, University of Valencia

During an archaeological intervention while a building in Valencia, Spain was undergoing demolition in 1996, we found 177 Napoleonic-era bodies of French soldiers executed by civilians. Studies in situ, signalling the presence of a mass grave, showed many signs of violence. Bodies had their hands folded in the back and the tops of skeletons were lying between the legs of other soldiers, placed over the genital or anal area. In the laboratory we identified wounds attesting to the population’s cruelty and hostility to the Napoleonic army’s soldiers during the Spanish War of Independence (1808-1814).

Authors: M. J. Miquel-Feucht; L. Quiles-Ginau

Marcos Miquel-Feucht who has a degree in forensic science, is professor of human anatomy and embryology at the University of Valencia Medical School, a forensic anthropology specialist at the University of Madrid and professor and researcher at the forensics department of the University of Valencia.

Bibliography

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J. Baxarias; J. Herrerin, "The Handbook Atlas of Paleopathology". Generalitat de Catalunya. 2008.
« Les ombres de l'Empire. Approches anthropologiques, archéologiques et historiques de la Grande Armée ». CERMA . Cahiers d'etudes et de recherches du musée de l'Armée. Numéro hors-série nº 5. 2009.

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