GLASGOW, SCOTLAND—An intact mortar shell has been discovered at Scotland’s Culloden Battlefield by a team of researchers led by Derek Alexander of the National Trust for Scotland and Tony Pollard of the University of Glasgow, according to a Scottish Field report. Fought on April 16, 1746, the battle marked the English government’s defeat of Jacobite forces, who supported the return of the exiled Stuart king to the English throne after the Glorious Revolution in 1688. The undetonated shell is thought to have been fired by government troops from a Coehorn mortar and then to have landed on boggy ground, where its fuse was extinguished. “Along with the other projectiles recovered, this discovery helps us better understand the formation of troops and concentration of fire during this brief, but brutal battle,” Alexander said. “The mortars may have been aiming at the Jacobite artillery, so the place where the shell landed may mark the heart of the Culloden battlefield,” he added. The shell was X-rayed and cleaned to render it safe for display. For more on battlefield archaeology in Scotland, go to "Bannockburn Booty."
