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Wooden weapons found at Weltzin in the Tollense Valley (photograph: S. Suhr). Scales 1a & 2a) 1:4; 1b & 2b) 1:2. 

Wooden weapons found at Weltzin in the Tollense Valley (photograph: S. Suhr). Scales 1a & 2a) 1:4; 1b & 2b) 1:2. 

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Article
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Chance discoveries of weapons, horse bones and human skeletal remains along the banks of the River Tollense led to a campaign of research which has identified them as the debris from a Bronze Age battle. The resources of war included horses, arrowheads and wooden clubs, and the dead had suffered blows indicating face-to-face combat. This surprising...

Context in source publication

Context 1
... most unusual finds so far are two wooden clubs found only a few metres apart. The first weapon is c. 0.73m long, it has a thickened end and looks similar to a baseball bat ( Figure 5.1). The second club is also made of a single piece of wood (c. ...

Citations

... The Tollense Valley in north-eastern Germany is well known as the site of a large conflict in the thirteenth century BC. Since 2008, diving surveys, excavations and metal-detecting have revealed evidence of the conflict at numerous locations along an almost 3km stretch of the river Tollense (Jantzen et al. 2011;Lidke et al. 2015;Terberger et al. 2018). About 12 500 bones from a minimum of 150 individuals have been recovered so far, most of them (about 90 individuals) during excavation at the site of Weltzin 20 (Brinker et al. 2018;Lidke et al. 2019). ...
... In addition to the large number of arrowheads, the find context of some of these artefacts is indicative of violent interactions; prominent among these are a human skull cap with a perforating bronze arrowhead ( Figure 2) and a humerus with a flint arrowhead thrust into the shoulder joint (Jantzen et al. 2011: fig. 7). ...
Article
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Investigations in the Tollense Valley in north-eastern Germany have provided evidence of a large and violent conflict in the thirteenth century BC. Typological analysis of arrowheads from the valley (10 flint and 54 bronze specimens) and comparison with type distributions in Central Europe, presented here for the first time, emphasise the supra-regional nature of the conflict. While the flint arrowheads are typical for the local Nordic Bronze Age, the bronze arrowheads show a mixture of local and non-local forms, adding to the growing evidence for a clash between local groups and at least one incoming group from southern Central Europe.
... Instances of individuals dying in battle in the archaeological record span from the Stone Ages (Fibiger et al., 2013(Fibiger et al., , 2023, Bronze Age (Jantzen et al., 2011) to the Iron age and historical periods (Fiorato et al., 2007;Gravett & Turner, 2003) across the globe. With some exceptions, the majority of interest in the battlefield dead has however focused on studying the battlefield dead based on the perimortem or antemortem trauma and basic demographical aspects. ...
Thesis
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A common feature of conflict archaeology in the study of human remains is the attribution of soldierhood based on the presence of trauma in the human remains or their demographic characteristics. This general approach reduces soldierhood or warriorhood to a violent death or history of injury on an individual, rather than the life preceding the injury or death. As civilians can also die violently and can occasionally find themselves on the battlefields, this approach is lacking. To improve the attribution of soldierhood in conflict archaeology, this thesis examines mass burial of Alkmaar, tied to the early years of the Dutch 80-year war, for non-traumatic, non-pathological and activity-related changes in bone morphology. The major research question to be answered was whether the individuals of the Alkmaar mass burial differ from the civilian contemporary population and whether any activity-related morphology in the cohort could be tied to martial activities. These questions were approached with an osteometric and macroscopic line of inquiry, where long bone metrics along with acetabular vertical ovalisation. This information was gathered from the individuals of the mass burial, as well as several other individuals in the same cemetery and additionally from contemporary civilian burials of Arnhem and Delft to form a civilian baseline. The measurements were further refined into metrics which allowed comparisons between individuals of different sizes, bilateral directional asymmetry of long bone circumference and second moment area values of bones, which were stabilised for body mass and bone length. This material was further leveraged with data exploration methods, comprising of hypothesis testing conducted with the Kruskal-Wallis method, Multiple Factor Analysis and Divisive hierarchical clustering. The examination concentrated on identifying individuals who might trained as pike infantry, musketeers, cavalry or swordsmen. The examination of the cohort was able to identify individuals who might have practiced martial skills, but these individuals were not limited to the Alkmaar mass burial. Individuals who were possibly practicing martial skills were also found in the Delft population. Overall, based on the results of the data exploration methods and hypothesis testing, the individuals of the Alkmaar mass burial did not form a distinct group when compared against contemporary civilian population, making the interpretation of professional soldierhood less likely than that of relatively recent civilian recruits or civilian combatants. The examination also uncovered unexpected variance in the activity-related morphological changes of the civilian population, highlighting especially the surprisingly heavy activity present in the more privileged members of the townspeople of Delft. The results of this thesis act to highlight the importance of a more comprehensive inquiry in the attribution of professional soldierhood in the context of conflict archaeology. Repeated application of the methods of this thesis to different conflict archaeological contexts along with new clinical studies focusing on the effects of period warfare could yield meaningful results in the future.
... The assertion of interests can be reflected in the archaeological record in the form of violence with warlike confrontations as a political instrument of conflict for power. Evidence for the direct use of violence can be found primarily at battlefields (e.g. the Tollense Valley battle: Jantzen et al., 2011), mass graves (e.g. the Talheim massacre: Wahl & Trautmann, 2012) or on the basis of bone trauma and symbolically violent treatment of the dead (e.g. the circular grave complex at Pömmelte-Zackmünde: Spatzier, 2019, pp. 415 f.) -although the interpretation of such findings is difficult and must be discussed anew from case to case (Johannesson & Machicek, 2010, pp. 15 f.). ...
Chapter
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Political practices are fundamental for co-existence in human groups, yet the systematic investigation of such practices within prehistoric societies is still very much pending. Relevant discussions are often limited to cases of obvious asymmetric power relations and the alleged establishment of elites. In order to fill this complex gap in the current discussion we take a systematic approach exploring the nature and organisation of prehistoric power relations, decision-making and conflict resolution. We investigate changes in political practices through a diachronic set of case studies from prehistoric west Eurasia, examining the impact of these changes on the overall transformative processes of prehistoric sociality. Here, we explore a set of parameters in five case studies from prehistoric Eurasia in order to characterise power relations and to reconstruct political negotiation and decision-making processes that constitute political practices. The case studies exhibit socio-political complexity in a variety of forms, encompassing a wide range of situations from Mesolithic Siberia, LBK Vráble Slovakia, Neolithic Pile-dwellings Switzerland, Copper Age Tripolye Ukraine, Neolithic and Bronze Age Schleswig-Holstein, to Iron Age Greece. As archaeological proxies, eight parameters have been identified as markers of political practice to be used as a comparative framework: community site, conformity/diversity, (critical) resource access and distribution, network configurations, organisation of decision-making, property rights, (violent) conflict and resolution, and knowledge. In this chapter we aim to develop a systematic approach for the analysis of political practices in order to enable the identification of patterns of power relations within the prehistory of Eurasia. This way we will develop a long-term perspective on transformations of these practices at a geographical macro scale.
... To date, metal residue analysis has never been used in the study of prehistoric skeletal remains. Despite evidence of the peri-and postmortem manipulation of corpses during the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age, including funerary rites, the production of objects, violent events and/or human cannibalism (González-Rabanal et al., 2023;Jantzen et al., 2011;Marginedas et al., 2020;Pérez-Fernández et al., 2022), the role of metals in these contexts is poorly known. In fact, in these contexts, metal tools such as knives, daggers and axes are usually scarce, perhaps as a consequence of the recycling of these raw materials (Bradley, 1988;Pernicka, 2013). ...
Article
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In this manuscript, we explore the potential of studying metal residues in cut marks generated by copper and bronze knives. The method was developed in the forensic sciences for use with modern metals in order to identify microscopic particles of metal tools on bone surfaces. However, the study of residues in archaeological materials can be challenging due to the ways in which the bone remains may have been manipulated, both in the past and in more recent times. Using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), we detected microscopic fragments of bronze and copper knives along with contamination both inside and outside of the cut marks made by those knives. Copper and bronze residues were identified embedded in the bone inside the incisions and, in two cases, they left greenish stains caused by metal oxidation. In contrast, modern contamination of undetermined origin was found unattached to the bone and had a chemical composition not compatible with that of the knives. The amount of residue was influenced by the quantity of soft tissue between the bone and the knife during the butchering tasks. Bone cooking does not seem to influence the preservation of the residues. We anticipate that the approach used in this first exploratory study will emerge as a promising method for identifying the use of metal tools in archae ological bone remains.
... These differences, which are not mirrored in Central European Neolithic mass-fatality sites (Table 3), may indicate that a number of males acted as combatants in organised encounters, since warriorhood could have been mainly restricted to this demographic, as it is in most societies 43 . The clear predominance of adolescent and adult males in the assemblage (70%, i.e., 107 of the 153 individuals whose sex could be estimated) may also point in the same direction, as the demographic profiles of prehistoric battles 44 , contrary to those of massacres [i.e., 10 ], tend not to resemble a natural population. ...
... However, skeletal evidence recovered from other coeval Central European LBK ditches (e.g., Vráble, Herxeim) may point to complex ritualized cumulative practices at the end of the period, where violence may or may not be implicated 67 . This is definitely not the case at SJAPL, where the potential duration (at least months if not years) of conflict, the number of direct casualties, the male-biased demographic, and the possible social and economic outcomes (i.e., population sizes involved, health costs, food scarcity, restricted mobility) identified in Late Neolithic Rioja Alavesa region, suggest significant wider impacts than previously appreciated in the European record until over a millennium later [e.g., 44 ]. www.nature.com/scientificreports/ ...
Article
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This paper explores the nature and extent of conflict in Late Neolithic Europe based on expanded skeletal evidence for violence from the San Juan ante Portam Latinam rockshelter in present-day Spain (ca. 3380–3000 cal. BC). The systematic osteological re-examination has identified 65 unhealed and 89 healed traumas—of which 77 were previously undocumented—consistent with aggression. They affect 23.1% of the 338 individuals represented. Adolescent and adult males are particularly affected (44.9% of the 107 identified), comprising 97.6% of unhealed trauma and 81.7% of healed trauma recorded in individuals whose sex could be estimated and showing higher frequencies of injuries per individual than other demographic subgroups. Results suggest that many individuals, essentially men, were exposed to violence and eventually killed in battle and raids, since warriorship is mainly restricted to this demographic in many societies. The proportion of casualties is likely to have been far greater than indicated by the 10.1% individuals exhibiting unhealed trauma, given the presence of isolated cases of unhealed postcranial trauma and of arrowheads potentially having impacted into soft tissues. This, together with skeletal indicators of poor health and the possible socioeconomic outcomes evidenced in the region, suggest wider social impacts, which may relate to a more sophisticated and formalized way of warfare than previously appreciated in the European Neolithic record.
... Because the puncture was created when the bone was fresh but shows no evidence of tissue healing, the impact must have occurred perimortem. Radial and circumferential cracking and crushing, and bone fragments (compacta) are secondary traits that are demonstrated in the forensic literature [56][57][58] , and subsequently recognised in trauma on archaeological bone remains to be typical of impact (e.g., 53,54,[59][60][61]. The primary and secondary traits, as well as the size of the Siegsdorf puncture compare favourably with similar lesions on a cervid vertebra and pelvis from the Neanderthal site Neumark Nord 1, as well as experimental lesions created with wooden spears 54,62 . ...
Article
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During the Upper Paleolithic, lions become an important theme in Paleolithic art and are more frequent in anthropogenic faunal assemblages. However, the relationship between hominins and lions in earlier periods is poorly known and primarily interpreted as interspecies competition. Here we present new evidence for Neanderthal-cave lion interactions during the Middle Paleolithic. We report new evidence of hunting lesions on the 48,000 old cave lion skeleton found at Siegsdorf (Germany) that attest to the earliest direct instance of a large predator kill in human history. A comparative analysis of a partial puncture to a rib suggests that the fatal stab was delivered with a wooden thrusting spear. We also present the discovery of distal lion phalanges at least 190,000 old from Einhornhöhle (Germany), representing the earliest example of the use of cave lion skin by Neanderthals in Central Europe. Our study provides novel evidence on a new dimension of Neanderthal behavioral complexity.
... And finally, the exceptional cases of La Hoya (Fernández-Crespo et al., 2020) in Á lava and Las Rabas (Bolado del Castillo et al., 2019) in Cantabria, both dated to the Iron Age. The archaeology of conflict can be explored in depth from the analysis of indirect archaeological evidence -defensive structures, battlefields (Jantzen et al., 2011), rock art, and weapons (Christensen, 2004;Guilaine and Zammit, 2004;López-Montalvo, 2015)-, but osteoarchaeology is the only direct indicator of violent episodes at specific people in Prehistory and, therefore, can give us solid information about their implications and the reality of a violent event (Martin and Harrod, 2015). However, how the evidence of conflict is difficult to demonstrate through the analysis of human remains due to the majority absence of soft tissues because of preservation biases (Knüsel and Robb, 2016), bioarchaeological studies rise as a tool to reconstruct the history of violence among prehistoric societies (Walker, 2001). ...
... The origins of war? No more than 5,000 years ago and probably less (and the Tollense fight Pyburn mentions was less than 3,500 years ago: Jantzen et al., 2011;Lidke et al., 2018): that is why it is not an innate part of human nature because it is a comparatively recent invention in the entirety of human existence (Fergu-son, 2006;Carman and Carman, 2020, pp. 104-108). ...
Article
Contemporary trends in mass media communication indicate serious confusion in the public consciousness about the nature of science and the status of evidential reasoning. Archaeologists, in an effort to make esoteric research programs interesting to the public, have contributed to this problem by providing over-simplified stories and “lessons from the past” based on sketchy evidence and mystified analysis. How archaeologists present the past has important implications for the future of archaeology as a discipline, but also for the future of the planet if we continue to patronize the public and oversimplify what archaeological data show about the ramifications of sociopolitical change.
... Independently of whether this is true or not, there is certainly widespread agreement that warfare in antiquity was mostly men's business (e.g. Cintas-Peña & García Sanjuán 2019; Gentile et al. 2018;Harding 2015;Jantzen et al. 2011). Given this premise, one way to investigate socially accepted gender variance would be to ask the following question: Were female individuals formally granted masculine attributes in the burial rite? ...
Article
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Gender is under focus in prehistoric archaeology, with traditional binary models being questioned and alternatives formulated. Quantification, however, is generally lacking, and alternative models are rarely tested against the archaeological evidence. In this article, we test the binary hypothesis of gender for prehistoric Central Europe based on a selection of seven published burial sites dating from the Early Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. Results show that the binary model holds for the majority of individuals, but also supports the existence of non-binary variants. We address such variants as ‘minorities’ rather than ‘exceptions’, as only the former can be integrated in interpretive models. However, we also find that quantification is undermined by several sources of error and systematic bias.
... Investigations of the famous Late Bronze Age Tollense battlefield in northern Germany, which involved more than 1000 participants and resulted in hundreds of casualties, have also provided many interesting insights into the lives of elite professional warriors from that period (Jantzen et al. 2011), and into the earliest episodes of millet dispersal to northern Germany. Isotopic ratios of lead, strontium, oxygen, and carbon in tooth enamel from the remains of humans who died at the Tollense Valley battle show that they came from a range of different locales, of varying distance from the battlefield. ...
Article
Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) was one of the most important and enigmatic crops of the ancient world. The integration of millet into existing crop systems drove significant transformations in past societies. Thanks to the environmental adaptability and short growing period of millet, many societies across Eurasia were dependent on millet cultivation for food security. For modern researchers, broomcorn millet also possesses unique botanical and biochemical characteristics that make it an ideal candidate for tracing its ancient dispersal and integration, which in turn provides a unique avenue for understanding the broader mechanisms of dietary transformations. This paper offers a review of the multiproxy evidence for the initial broomcorn millet dispersal across Eurasia. In light of millet's unique biomolecular properties, multiple archaeological examples are drawn on to describe how millet consumers can be traced down to demographic categories of sex, age, social status, and individual mobility history. In combination with other research methods, this paper reviews evidence for past millet preparation for human consumption , using various archaeological sites as case studies, along with offering a theoretical reasoning for the discontinuities in millet exploitation over time, which is likely to be the result of past climate change.