I am curious as to how we come to the conclusion that these soldiers
were ever sacrificed. I certainly see the losers of a tribal
conflict been throttled and tossed into the bog, even if surprised
and captured. The reality of barbarian warfare was simple. Without a
handy slave market to sell captured men in particular into made these
folks surplus and a real and present danger.
We can presume women and children would be absorbed as slaves into
the tribe during the aftermath. This is one really good reason that
named tribes disappear but do not disappear from the genetic record.
In the barbarian world, these events happened over and over again,
and were generally always that bloody. The advent of ritualized
cannibalism was surely a response to the surplus male slaves
naturally acquired. Yet as a dietary mainstay, it was always
insufficient and most likely used irregularly as perhaps a feast.
Tribal warfare always kept populations rather low in terms of
potential as empty lands became important in terms of strategic
defence.
Alken Enge: Danish
Bog Excavation Reveals Remains Of Hundreds Of Ancient Soldiers
The Huffington Post
By Samreen Hooda Posted: 08/14/2012 5:32 pm
A team of
archaeologists has uncovered the remains of 'hundreds' of ancient
warriors at a Danish bog known as Alken Enge.
The skeletons, thought
to date back about 2,000 years, appear to have been sacrificed at the
bog, according to a written statement from Aarhus University,
which conducted the dig along with collaborators from Denmark's
Skanderborg and Moesgård Museums.
"It's clear that
this must have been a quite far-reaching and dramatic event that must
have had profound effect on the society of the time," Project
Manager Mads Kähler Holst, professor of archaeology at Aarhus
University said in the statement.
The particular
motivation for the sacrifices remains unclear, but the Skanderborg
Museum's website notes that "The area has been a focal
point for a wider hinterland as a place to conduct sacrificial
rituals, which appear to have taken place regularly during the Iron
Age."
Alken Enge has been of interest to archaeologists since the 1950s, when the first human remains were found there. Excavations in 2008 and 2009 yielded scattered bones, and the current dig was planned based on these previous searches.
Geologists from Aarhus
University note that the bog's sediments will yield important
information for the archaeologists. The Skanderborg Museum notes that
"Apparently the peat layers are chronologically deposited which
therefore creates a timeline for the discoveries that are found in
each layer."
Although the summer
dig period is nearing completion, excavation Field Director Ejvind
Hertz said in Aarhus University's statement that the bog hasn't yet
given all it has to give:
"We've done small test digs at different places in the 40 hectare Alken Enge wetlands area, and new finds keep emerging."
"We've done small test digs at different places in the 40 hectare Alken Enge wetlands area, and new finds keep emerging."
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