The Warriors from the Lake

In a damp marsh in Jutland, Denmark, around 1700, human bones have been discovered, dating from around the time of the Birth of Christ. The bones derive from more than 60 persons, predominately young males commingled and in no anatomical order. The excavated area covers just a small fraction of a once large prehistoric lake, where the human parts were submerged.The bones show clear signs of being victims of an act of war and several also bear witness of being left on the battlefield where wild animals fed on the carcasses. The circumstances around the bone deposition in the wet grave are ambiguous. The deliberate separation of body parts and traces of mutilation towards the victims indicates that the deposition in the lake is ritual, but it cannot be excluded, that the act is purely practical such as a clearing up of the battlefield. This paper discusses different interpretations of the way these mass fatalities are dealt with.In a damp marsh in Jutland, Denmark, around 1700, human bones have been discovered, dating from around the time of the Birth of Christ. The bones derive from more than 60 persons, predominately young males commingled and in no anatomical order. The excavated area covers just a small fraction of a once large prehistoric lake, where the human parts were submerged.The bones show clear signs of being victims of an act of war and several also bear witness of being left on the battlefield where wild animals fed on the carcasses. The circumstances around the bone deposition in the wet grave are ambiguous. The deliberate separation of body parts and traces of mutilation towards the victims indicates that the deposition in the lake is ritual, but it cannot be excluded, that the act is purely practical such as a clearing up of the battlefield. This paper discusses different interpretations of the way these mass fatalities are dealt with.