20 skeletons from a medieval mass were found in a Dutch dike

In 2020, construction workers in the Netherlands made a gruesome discovery. While working in the town of Vianen, they came across an enigmatic mass burial. Were the 82 skeletons victims of war, a plague, or something more sinister? Now archaeologists have an answer, but it’s not what they expected: the mass grave contained the remains of British soldiers.

Discovering the mysterious mass grave of Vianen

Workers were excavating Vianen’s historic moat when they made the surprising discovery. They were excavating a filled-in section that would be rejoined to the rest of the town’s canal, and while working outside the grounds of Batestein Castle they came across the skeletons. This castle was built in the 1370s by Gijsbrecht van Beusichem, when Vianen was largely an autonomous city-state.

Battestein Castle. ( Public domain )

Batestein Castle, which was abandoned in the 18th century after a fire caused by fireworks, was also home to important aristocratic families. According to the Daily Mail, “the Hof or Bosch gate and some parts of the wall connecting them” are all that remains of what was once one of the most impressive castles in the Netherlands.

• A rare and ancient Dutch castle has been discovered in the Netherlands
• 800-year-old Russian mass grave illustrates extreme Mongolian violence
• 5,000-year-old masked figurine found in mass grave in Siberia

Initially nine skeletons were recovered, but further investigations revealed several more. In total 82 skeletons were recovered, mostly male. All of them are believed to have died between the ages of 15 and 30. Following the discovery, Tellereport quoted a local representative, councillor Christa Hendriksen, as saying that she was “surprised by the find”. This find is highly unusual due to the position of the bones. Tellereport quotes the councillor as saying that “some of the skeletons are stacked up”.

Some of the skeletons were found stacked on top of each other. ( RTV Utrecht )

No textiles or objects such as jewellery were found in the mass grave, which is also unusual. Many nails were unearthed, which probably indicate that the bones had been placed in a wooden box that disintegrated in the ground long ago.

Initial hypotheses

The identity of the remains proved to be a mystery due to the lack of archaeological evidence found in the tomb. Archaeologists initially looked to the castle’s history for help in solving this mystery. The castle dates back to the 14th century, when Europe was regularly ravaged by the bubonic plague, or “Black Death,” so they wondered if the dead could have been victims of the plague. It was common for plague victims to be buried in hastily dug graves.

The second possibility the researchers considered was related to the Dutch War of Independence. In 1566 the Dutch rebelled against the Spanish, whom they viewed as foreign oppressors. The Daily Mail reports that “In 1567, the surrounding town and castle were invaded by the Spanish army.” So the archaeologists considered the possibility that the skeletons could have been related to that war. For more than 80 years, the Netherlands was intermittently the scene of intense fighting and lengthy sieges.

However, the fact that no objects were found next to the deceased, not even buttons, and that the deceased were not buried in the consecrated ground of a church, suggests that the Vianen mass grave could be connected to something sinister. Were the skeletons the result of a massacre, possibly during the brutal and lawless Middle Ages?

One of the skeletons found in the mass grave in Vianen, the Netherlands. ( From Steekproef )

Unexpected results

Further research was needed before scientists could date the remains and discover how they ended up in a mass grave in Vianen. The investigation was led by a forensic anthropologist named April Pijpelink and proves that initial assumptions about the skeletons are wrong.

Many of the people found in the mass grave were British soldiers, who experts believe died of disease while in an 18th-century field hospital. Archaeologist Hans Veenstra told the BBC that it was enough to take samples from just six of the individuals because it was a mass grave, suggesting that all those found inside died under similar circumstances.

Forensic analysis showed that all but four of the skeletons were male, and many of the soldiers came from England. The BBC reports that isotope analysis of the remains showed that “one came from southern England, possibly Cornwall, another from southern Cornwall and a third from an English urban environment.” Two more may have been from the Netherlands, but possibly of English descent, while the other was from Germany. Pijpelink said: “At first we thought these men [sic] had died from wounds in battle. But during my research it became clear that around 85% of them were suffering from one or more infections, while basically all their traumatic wounds had healed.”

Remains found in a mass grave in Vianen, Netherlands. ( RTV Utrecht )

Telling the story of the ‘common man’

Why were British soldiers at Vianen in the first place? “Most likely these young men came to fight the French,” Pijpelink said. The men were likely part of a coalition fighting the French during the Revolutionary Wars of 1793-1795. They are believed to have been buried in a mass grave after succumbing to bacterial infections due to poor hygiene at a field hospital, known to have been located at the same location. Analysis of the remains revealed that pneumococcal bacteria was involved in many of the deaths.

Veenstra reflected on the significance of this discovery because it tells the story of ordinary people from the past. He said: “History is full of writings about the elite, people with power, money and status. But you don’t often hear about the ordinary man […] That’s what makes this interesting. They lived in very poor conditions, they all had a poor upbringing with a lot of malnutrition and hard work. They had already damaged their backs doing forced labour.”

“These young people remain anonymous, but they fill a void in a forgotten part of history,” Veenstra concluded.

Cover image: Remains found in a mass grave in Vianen, the Netherlands. Source: Anne-Floor van Pelt

By Ed Whelan