7th july
#WU23
Bindu's find of the day | Day 4
Bindu works for our sponsor, Annington Homes, and accompanied us on our excavation this year to see the work her company supports in action!
Gary, one of our long time metal detectorists, took Bindu down to the quarry trench to try out some metal detecting - check out what they found in our daily video.
Meet the team
Oleksii is a 37-year-old Ukrainian veteran from Dnipro in Eastern Ukraine. After joining the Ukrainian army in 2016, Oleksii served as a member of a military intelligence unit, on active duty for 2 ½ years. In 2019, Oleksii was forced to leave the army after developing cancer, and was not allowed to rejoin after the most recent Russian invasion of Ukraine due to his ill health, despite attempting to.
He arrived in Brussels just 2 months ago, following his wife and their young son who had settled some time earlier. Before the war in Ukraine, Oleksii worked as a metal detail machinist, and after serving specialised in plastics die manufacture.
“It’s a support for me," Oleksii said about his time on excavation with the Waterloo Uncovered team, "They are foreign people but this is like an army brotherhood. Military servicemen are one big family.”
day Four in pictures
As the week drew to a close, we unearthed one of our most exciting finds so far! A polished flint Neolithic axe was found on the surface not far from our quarry trench, where it had likely been ploughed up during farming of the land.
Elsewhere, veterans and serving personnel got the chance to work with our Finds Officer, Audrey, to learn the basics of finds cleaning, handling and recording. They also took a break from digging to do some mindful drawing, taking inspiration from the surroundings of Hougoumont farm.
Today also saw a battlefield tour with a difference! Thanks to the Belgian Air Force, we were able to give some of our biggest supporters including the British Ambassador to Belgium Martin Shearman a helicopter tour of the battlefield, led by Professor Tony Pollard.
We wouldn't be able to support veterans like those on this years dig, or continue our groundbreaking archaeology work, without the generosity of our supporters and donors.
Please consider making a donation today as we help even more veterans find peace from war.