A team of archaeologists has discovered an undetonated mortar shell from the 1746 Culloden battlefield in Scotland. The find comes as part of an excavation led by both the National Trust for Scotland and the University of Glasgow and provides an excellent insight into the final Jacobite rising through the preservation of this 18th-century shell. The provenance of the shell being from the government Coehorn mortar, that did not explode after landing in the boggy ground of the battlefield, has allowed archaeologists to use this as an important piece of evidence to help heart of the Culloden battlefield as well as provide site-specific data to help historians understand where artillery was positioned before this pivotal and brutal battle occurred in the Great Britain. This remarkable discovery offers tangible evidence of military tactics, significantly refining our collective historical mapping of this tragic, defining conflict.
