germanicseidr: Tollense Valley Battle I wrote a little bit about this battle before but that has bee

germanicseidr:

Tollense Valley Battle

I wrote a little bit about this battle before but that has been months ago and only a small piece so I want to extend that piece since this is such a fascinating battle.

The Tollense valley battlefield is located in Northern Germany near the Mecklenburg lakes. A conservationist found a human bone at the riverside back in 1996. What made this bone so special is that a flint arrowhead was stuck inside of it. Later that year, excavations began around the site of the found bone and more human bones were found as well as weapons.

So many bones and weapons were found that this place must have been the site of a major battle. The bones and weapons are dated to be around 3200 years old which makes them belong in the bronze age. Never before has a battlefield of this scale been found that is so old. The battlefield spanned an estimated 4600m2.

The remains of over 100 people have been found, most of these were young men between 20 and 40 years old. Historians however believe that at least 750-1000 people died in this battle so most of the bodies have not even been discovered yet. As of now, 13,000 human bone fragments have been found.

The weapons used by these warriors were spears, clubs, knives, swords, arrows and sickles. Many of the found skulls show signs of trauma, one skull even has an arrowhead stuck in it. Interestingly, both flint and bronze arrowheads have been found, these might have belonged to the two different groups who fought here. One group might have been less technologically advanced, still using flint arrowheads and clubs while the other group used swords and bronze arrowheads.

This battlefield is a huge archeological puzzle. Why did so many warriors come together to this place such a long time ago? We used to think that the bronze age was a relative peaceful era with people focussed on trade and small conflicts. This battle however proves that larger scaled conflicts took place which were organized.

Beside the estimated 1000 dead, in total around 5000 people would have been involved. This is just an extraordinary feat for the bronze age. It seems that the bronze age society was more advanced than we think. Why did thousands of warriors gathered here to fight? We do not know. We do know that some of these warriors travelled hundreds of kilometers to participate in this battle.

Photos of:
Battlescene by Karol Schauer
Battlescene by unknown artist
Photo of arrowhead through skull
Photo of the first bone found with an arrowhead
Photo of objects found at the battle site