"Military Camp in Wagram 1809" Topic

"In 2017–2018, the Novetus GmbH company, seated in Vienna, carried out a pre-development archaeological rescue excavation to the order of the ASFiNAG company on the planned route of the expressway S8. Since the road is intended to lead through the battlefield at Wagram (Fig. 1), it was decided that the research shall also involve a metal detector survey of the topsoil layer, inclusive of an accurate localisation of metal finds of historical significance. The survey was conducted between the municipalities of Deutsch-Wagram and Parbasdorf. It has yielded a collection of about 9000 finds detected in the topsoil layer. The majority of them – such as ammunition and components of uniforms – are associated with Napoleonic Wars, more precisely with the Battle of Wagram in 1809. In the next phase, the topsoil layer was removed, thanks to which more than 500 pits as well as 25 individual and
group graves, evidently dating back to 1809, were found. A thorough study of historical maps and written sources has proved that this area encompassed not only the battlefield but also a temporary camp of the Austrian troops. Archaeological excavations detected here more than 500 sunken features, which were arranged in two parallel lines running about 280 metres from one another (Figs. 2–5).

The width of these lines varied around 30 metres. The majority of detected features were square or rectangular in plan; round or oval features were much less frequent. The dimensions of individual features varied between 1,4 and 2 metres in width and 1,7 and 3,5 metres in length. From historical maps and written sources we can infer that the southern line was formed by the positions of the IR 47 Vogelsang troops and the northern line consisted of positions of the IR 35 Argenteau troops (Fig. 6)……"

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That second link works, as well as getting one access to some other interesting papers.

Jim

"which were arranged in two parallel lines running about 280 meters from one another"
Holy crap, does that mean there was trench warfare in the Napoleonic wars? Just like the crappy movie!

@JMcCarroll,

The trenches referred to in the article are the archaeologists' excavation trenches!

Thank God! Almost lost it.