Direct evidence of a large Northern European Roman period martial event and postbattle corpse manipulation

New archaeological excavations at Alken Enge, Jutland, Denmark,
have revealed a comprehensive assemblage of disarticulated human
remains within a 75-ha wetland area. A minimum of 82 individuals
have been uncovered. Based on the distribution, the total population
is estimated to be greater than 380 individuals, exclusively male and
predominantly adult. The chronological radiocarbon evidence of the
human bones indicates that they belong to a single, large event in the
early first century AD. The bones show a high frequency of unhealed
trauma from sharp-edged weapons, which, together with finds of
military equipment, suggests that the find is of martial character.
Taphonomic traces indicate that the bones were exposed to animal
gnawing for a period of between 6mo and 1 y before being deposited
in the lake. Furthermore, the find situations, including collections of
bones, ossa coxae threaded onto a stick, and cuts and scraping marks,
provide evidence of the systematic treatment of the human corpses
after the time of exposure. The finds are interpreted as the remains of
an organized and possibly ritually embedded clearing of a battlefield,
including the physical manipulation of the partly skeletonized bones
of the deceased fighters and subsequent deposition in the lake. The
date places the finds in the context of the Germanic region at the peak
of the Roman expansion northward and provides the earliest direct
archaeological evidence of large-scale conflict among the Germanic
populations and a demonstration of hitherto unrecognized postbattle
practices.