Among the peat and sediments left by the river, a series of remains have been found (the result of excavations carried out by the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Department of Historic Preservation and Greifswald University) that tell us about a battle of an unprecedented magnitude. at those dates, around the year 1250 B.C. In an area of 12m 2 1,478 bones have been found, including 20 skulls. Horses, weapons of different quality and various decorative elements complete the picture of a combat that represents the first indication of large-scale violence during the Bronze Age that we cannot even trace in theoretically more advanced contemporary societies such as the Egyptian or Greek.
The remains of the combat were perfectly preserved by the conditions of moisture and chemical composition of the soil resulting from the fall of the corpses of the defeated in the river bed. The analysis of these remains has allowed forensic archaeologists to reconstruct the weapons used in the confrontation, based on the wounds they inflicted, and has made it possible to create a typology of clubs, axes, swords, spears and arrows made of wood, flint and bronze. in the case of the most sophisticated The panoply of combatants tells us of the existence of a warrior class that fought on horseback with high-quality weapons and probably had war training, commanding a larger contingent of warriors equipped with improvised weapons such as wooden clubs.
Before being thrown into the river, many of the Bodies were looted by the victors, but luckily those that fell during the combat in the deepest areas of the stream preserved a series of decorative elements of great value to researchers. Rings, bracelets and other prestigious elements made of gold, bronze and tin tell us about the differences in status between some combatants and others.
Another interesting aspect of the battle is the sheer number of people who must have taken part in it. The researchers speculate around 4,000 participants, most of them men, which means speaking of a new level in the organization of societies at the time. The difficulties in raising this army must have been even greater, if we take into account that most of them came from areas very far from the Tollenberg Valley, which could have been Scandinavia, southern Europe or present-day Poland.
The discovery of the Tollense Valley, which is paralyzed by lack of funds, it has had a profound impact on the study of Bronze Age societies, which could lead to a reassessment of the entire period in the area between the Baltic and the Mediterranean. In the future, we will be able to find out, through the recovered material, features such as the color of the eyes, the hair, and finally the specific origin of the individuals involved in the conflict. It is, in short, a key discovery due to the scale and brutality of the battle, which contributed to rebuilding the societies of the time, which reached a point of no return in the European social and warrior organization of the time.
Original text:Science