A new book “Bones of Contention: The Industrial Exploitation of Human Bones in the Modern Age” argues that in the19th century human bones became a sought-after raw commodity. Scientists had just discovered its usefulness of human bones for agriculture as a source of phosphates for fertilizers and for the sugar industry, the use of bone char for beet sugar processing.

The high demand for these ingredients had one major unexpected consequence: the plundering of cemeteries and battlefields …in Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Algeria and the United States. When countries out of bones in Europe, they turned to their colonies. The French plundered cemeteries in Algeria and shipped the bones to sugar factories in Marseilles. The British imported mummies and bones from Egypt on an industrial scale…

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Excerpts from Science, Why Europe’s Battlefield Bones Are Missing?, Science, Apr.5, 2024