Napoleon can't catch a break, it seems. Last week, the little general's lackluster English-language skills were lampooned when a rare letter sold at auction for more than $400,000. This week, a team of Belgian archaeologists have dug up a reminder of the famous military leader's downfall and unearthed the remains of a soldier thought to have died nearly 200 years ago in the infamous Battle of Waterloo.
"You can almost see him dying," Belgian archeologist Dominique Bosquet told Agence France Presse when describing the surprising skeletal discovery. Scientists believe the bones belong to a soldier who died on June 12, 1815.
The well-preserved body even had the musket bullet that likely ended the soldier's life still lodged between his ribs, the Vancouver Sun notes.
Though the soldier's uniform had deteriorated in a makeshift grave, 15 inches underground, scientists have a "spoon, a coin, a leather strap and a piece of wood carved with the initials C.B." to study in hopes of identifying the skeleton, AFP reports.
According to the Vancouver Sun, archaeologists discovered the in-tact remains on a patch of land bound for demolition and renovation, where bulldozers were tearing up restaurants, stores and parking lots stand near the Belgian battle site.