dig from anIron Agefort in New - mean solar day Sweden revealed brutalized human remains and other macabre traces of a massacre that discontinue a small Scandinavian community in its tracks some 1,500 years ago .
Six years after the archaeological probe begin , the squad has write a report of their findings in the journalAntiquity . Although only 6 percent of the site has been unearth and analyzed , the evidence gathered thus far paint an unprecedently brilliant picture of life – and death – in late 5th - one C Europe , a turbulent time period following the fall of the Western Roman Empire .
settle on the island of Öland off the coast of southeasterly Sweden , theSandby Borg ringfortresembled a large oval - shape mound of grass and dirt encircled by tumble stone before the archaeologists arrive . Hoping to keep up the contents of the site from latterly spotted treasure hunters , the team slow but surely revealed that the unassuming ruination belong to a 5,000 - square - metre ( 54,000 - square - foot ) village , hold 53 dwellings , enclosed by Oliver Stone rampart that once stood 4 - 5 cadence ( 13 - 16 feet ) mellow .
Within thefirst few years of the dig , a wealth of luxury items – include gilded brooch , fine meth beads , and imported ornaments – were indeed found at Sandby Borg , as were remnants of abundant food stores ; proving that the residents were well-heeled and prosperous .
That is , until an strange mathematical group of attackers descended upon the once - idyllic small town , kill some , if not all , of the resident in their homes and on the streets , leave behind the body to decompose where they put .
As of now , stay from 26 children and adults have been witness inside four planetary house and near the town kernel . Many of the remains bear signs of psychic trauma visit by blast to the back and sides of the body and oral sex – implying that the victims were caught by surprisal and/or unable to fight back .
Theindiscriminate nature of the siegeis further prove by scattered bones from a 2 to 5 - year - honest-to-goodness child , a 1.5 to 3 - calendar month - onetime babe , and the remains of sheep , dogs , and a horse . It is potential that these victims expire not from violence , but rather famishment or overleap soon later . Either style , the archaeological phonograph record confirm that no one came back for them .
Without drop a line chronicle of the outcome , it ’s impossible to know the need behind this swift act of brutality . Yet due to the staggering number of valuable goods leave behind , the source conclude that the butchery was not simply " an act of outright swag ” , and is more likely to have been the event of political tensions .
The fact that these commodities were not recovered by other locals after the armed effect leave , along with the fact that the well - built locus was not resettled , betoken to the squad that this consequence made a live on impact in the cultural remembering of the area .
“ I do feel it most potential that the issue was remembered and that it triggered strong taboo get in touch to the site , peradventure brought on through oral history for century , ” generator Ludwig Papmehl - Dufay toldThe Guardian .
