MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands' War Mapping Project expected to begin this month at Mount Tumbledown

The Project brings together team members from Oxford University, Glasgow University, the Falkland Islands Museum & National Trust, and Waterloo charity.

Waterloo Uncovered, the groundbreaking charity that combines archaeology with veteran care and recovery, will be visiting the Falkland Islands this month to begin the first intensive archaeological survey of its battlefields.

The Falklands War Mapping Project brings together team members from Oxford University, Glasgow University, the Falkland Islands Museum and National Trust, and the Waterloo Uncovered charity.

What makes this trip and exploration in the Falklands especially poignant is that the team of expert archaeologists will be accompanied by two veterans who fought there. In effect two Scot Guards who took part in the Mount Tumbledown battle, (which anticipated the surrender of Argentine forces) will also be part of the team.

Using their personal experiences, these veterans will help to provide valuable, firsthand insight to inform our understanding of the events that took place. Most importantly, it is hoped that the project will help them process their own personal experiences, and form a key stepping stone in their ongoing journey to recovery.

Run in collaboration with the University of Oxford, University of Glasgow and the Falkland Islands Museum & National Trust, this project will assess the character, location and condition of individual artifacts and structural features related to the conflict through foot and drone survey and recording of finds and features through the capture of GPS data, photogrammetry, and drawing.

Although Waterloo Uncovered has been taking veterans to the site of the Battle of Waterloo since 2015, this is the first time that it will be taking veterans back to the site of the battlefield on which they fought. Supporting the veteran's mental health and wellbeing will be paramount, and experienced members of the charity's Wellbeing and Support team will be accompanying them throughout.

This is a brand new venture for Waterloo Uncovered; one that gives the charity a chance to support even more veterans as they recover from the traumas of war, whilst carrying out important recording of at-risk archaeology.

An advance team of the project was expected to arrive Wednesday, but because of unfavorable weather conditions, the air bridge from Brize Norte was forced to remain overnight in Dakar.