Europe's Earliest Battle? - The Mystery of the Tollense Valley // Ancient History Documentary

This video is sponsored by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform to build an online presence and pursue your dream. But more on that at the end of the video. Towards the end of the 20th century, in a remote valley in northeastern Germany, a unique archaeological discovery was made. A find so important that it would revolutionise our understanding of ancient Europe forever. A battle was fought here. We know not who the combatants were. We know not what they were fighting over. But we do know that this battlefield, dating to well over 3,000 years ago, is the earliest ever yet found in Europe, and therefore one of the most significant in the entire world. We have records of many battles during the Bronze Age, that era of metalworking and progress which began in the 4th millennium BC and ended in collapse during the 12th. Perhaps the most striking of these was the conflict fought between Hittites and Egyptians at Kadesh in 1274 BC, recorded in vivid detail in inscriptions dedicated to the pharaoh Ramesses II. Kadesh is well known for being the earliest battle we have evidence for of actual tactics and strategies. Yet earlier battles were fought too, such as at Tel Megiddo in 1457 BC, again involving Imperial Egypt, but this time against a coalition of vassal states in Canaan. Such was the brutality of this battle that it lent itself to the modern term Armageddon. But others exist too, countless untold more, since the birth of the first cities some 6,000 years ago. Yet all of these battles have one thing in common. They took place near or within the Fertile Crescent, where agriculture was first intensively harnessed after the last Ice Age. Thus giving rise to the first cities, civilisations and empires. In the north however, thousands of kilometres away from the mighty chariot-riding empires of the Late Bronze Age, across the Mediterranean, over the Alps, beyond the ocean of trees which then coated mainland Europe. Astonishingly, though no written records exist from this time, the northern peoples wouldn't develop their own writing systems for more than a thousand years to come. Battles and conflicts between clashing powers were playing out. Equally astonishingly, one site in modern day Germany, situated close to the ancient highway of the Baltic Sea, and dating to roughly the same time as the Great War of Empires at Kadesh, contains more bones and archaeological evidence of warfare than any other site from the Bronze Age. This is the story of the Battle for the Tollens Valley, a conflict between unknown combatants, fought for entirely unknown reasons, which dwarfs all other evidence of battles in Europe and the Middle East for centuries to come. Unlike in the Middle East, where very little actual archaeological evidence of battlefield sites has been discovered, and in the rest of the world too, where in truth the vast majority of archaeologists' time is taken up by investigating grave sites, buildings or settlements, along with the occasional shipwreck, the battlefield uncovered at the Tollens Valley contains thousands upon thousands of bones, from humans and from horses, suggesting that at least some of these ancient warriors rode into battle on horseback. Thus, rather than the usual sites which progressed over hundreds or thousands of years, this astonishing archaeological find, contemporary with the remarkable material culture of the Bronze Age, contains the record of a very short space of time, perhaps a single day, albeit a violent, and for many involved, final one. The Tollens Valley, situated in Germany's north-eastern province of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, just to the north of a wide expanse of untouched fenland and lakes, is one of Germany's least populated provinces. Its national parks and idyllic countryside have long been a popular destination for tourists, and thankfully for us, provides at times a relatively untouched landscape for archaeological excavations to be carried out. In 1997, the story of the Tollens Battle, like that of many archaeological sites, begins with a completely accidental discovery, when a volunteer conservationist with no background in archaeology chanced upon a human arm bone poking out of the valley floor. This grisly discovery was made all the more shocking, though perhaps made the conservationist call the historical society, rather than the police, was the flint arrowhead embedded in the bone. Whilst this discovery in itself is interesting and provides evidence of at least some conflict going on in the Bronze Age, it was by no means unusual. Weapons and other items dated to that era had been found at the bottom of rivers in the area since the 1980s, and though of course these piqued the interest of historians and archaeologists, they were by no means unusual. Until another weapon was found. A war club made of ash wood. Then another. A hammer-like weapon made of slow wood. Then another. And of course more and more bones, until finally it was decided that a full-scale archaeological investigation was necessary. Up until this time, it was generally thought that the Bronze Age had been a relatively peaceful time in Northern Europe, with populations generally not high enough to sustain enough warriors to spark war. Many excavated shields, helmets, and even swords are still thought by some researchers to have been largely used for ceremonial purposes, being placed alongside musical instruments and ceremonial shields at the Danish National Museum, and perhaps not too dissimilar to roughly contemporary items found to the south in Central Europe, such as the Nebra Skydisk, Golden Hat, and the Eberswelds Hoard. This was a time of outstanding material culture in Northern and Central Europe, long linked to the Middle East by trade routes and the exchange of items. Yet, nevertheless, despite calls for a sustained archaeological excavation at the Tollens site, no one who worked there at the time could have predicted the sheer magnitude of what they had found. By 2007, wide-scale archaeological investigations finally began, specifically uncovering and excavating the thick layer of peat bog which covers the entire valley, an expanse of at least five kilometres. This is the same type of terrain which has so expertly preserved bodies in bogs in Ireland, Denmark, and Britain, though the Tollens site dwarfs all of these in its sheer scale. Volunteer metal detectors scoured the region looking for weapons. Underwater archaeologists explored the riverbed, thought to have changed course down the millennia since the battle took place, and even cutting-edge laser scanning techniques were used to chart the terrain's surface from the sky. All these techniques provided more and more evidence of the Tollens site being of major historical importance. In 2010, a golden spiral ring was found on the banks of the Then in June 2011, a similar one was found. The material of this was identified by x-ray diffraction as tin. These findings of gold and tin are of particular importance because of the rarity of these resources, and the fact that tin was vitally needed for producing bronze. In fact, such is the scarcity of the archaeological record, rings such as these are the oldest known items made of tin found in Germany. The next ones we find are from Hallstatt in Austria, dated some 600 years into the future. No one could deny it anymore, a Bronze Age battle had been fought here all those centuries ago. Radiocarbon dating indicates a time frame between 1300 and 1200 BC, the Nordic Bronze Age. By 2018, some 13,000 bone fragments had been uncovered from the valley, from humans and from horses, most of them containing the telltale signs of injuries from battle. Likely the remains of some 1,000 people, with the number still rising all the time. Most of the bodies identified were from young males between the ages of 20 and 40, though some women and children were present too. Practically all of them showed signs of being killed by a variety of weapons. Initially, alternative explanations were considered to warfare. Partly because before this excavation, direct evidence of large-scale violence in the Bronze Age was practically unheard of, especially in this region. Mass human sacrifice was initially considered as an alternate theory. However, the location in a swamp, local preference at the time being for dry ground, and the lack of any ornaments or pottery, as well as the sheer numbers involved, make this hypothesis unlikely. However, if this had indeed been a battle, the existence of women and children gives us tantalising hints into what happened here. Perhaps they were camp followers to one or both of the armies, or, as many experts now believe, they may have been part of a local population, fighting for their homes against an incoming army of outsiders. In 2013, geomagnetic surveys revealed evidence of an 120-metre-long bridge or causeway stretching across the entire valley. Once excavated, this colossal, submerged structure turned out to be built of wooden posts and stone. Radiocarbon dating showed that although much of the structure predated the battle by more than 500 years, it in itself suggests a lengthy settlement in the region in continuous use for many centuries. Parts of it may have been built or restored around the time of the battle, perhaps suggesting a militarisation in the region just prior to the events which created this unique archaeological site. The plot thickened when one particularly interesting corner of the site was uncovered. Here, in a small plot of land just 12 metres in diameter, researchers found an astonishing 1,478 bones all piled together. Was this the site of the final pocket of resistance of the causeway builders? A last stand of the inhabitants of the region against an encroaching migratory people? As no clear signs of healing have been found on any of these wounds, the whole encounter seems to have taken place in not much more than a single day. Ominously, a quarter of the total skeletons show signs of healed traumas from earlier fights, including three skulls with healed fractures. One particularly hardy individual had suffered three previous wounds to his skeleton that he survived, only to be put back into the fray to die in this last engagement. Therefore, far from the peaceful society once thought to inhabit the region, it seems that many trained and experienced warriors not only took part in the Tolend battle, but in previous engagements beforehand. Spears, clubs, swords, knives, bows and arrows, and even sickles were used during the fight, as evidenced by the wounds found on the uncovered bodies. Many of the skulls, of which over 40 so far have been uncovered, show particularly brutal signs of battle, such as bronze arrowheads to the face and slashes in unusual positions. Perhaps these people were hemmed in by horse riders and filled with arrows, or they had already fallen down before being dealt a final killing blow. By late 2017, around 50 bronze arrowheads have been found. Remnants of the arrow's wooden shafts provided a further possibility for dating, with more than a third dating to the same time as the bones. Contrasting these arrowheads with others made from flint and with wooden clubs, it has been suggested by some researchers that two differently equipped groups confronted each other on that day, with the victors potentially enjoying more advanced weaponry than their foes. No swords have been found at the site so far, but many bones do show cutting traces typical for this type of weapon, and their non-existence is not uncommon. The fact that almost no material finds were made between the bones except for single arrowheads suggests that the corpses were probably robbed after the battle, with any swords, armour and weapons of worth being claimed by the victors. Given that most of the remains are no longer anatomically connected, it's thought that the victors might simply have stripped the dead before throwing them into the river, which carried them downstream into a grisly dam of corpses. They were then deposited in a calmer part of the river, covered by turf over the years and thereby partially conserved. Some of the combatants rode into battle as evidenced by horse bones of at least five different specimens found on the site. The original arrowhead's position in the initially found humerus bone shows that an archer on foot wounded a horseman. Did both sides have horsemen, or again was it a one-sided fight in this regard, perhaps from a nomadic horse riding culture coming into the area? Unless more information comes to light, we may never know. The total number of dead at the site is estimated to lie somewhere between 750 and 1500. Thus, for this many to have died, the total number of fighters on both sides might have ranged somewhere between around 3,000 and more than 5,000 men, assuming a casualty rate of around 20-25%. Therefore, this obscure, almost unknown battle in Bronze Age Europe may have fielded similar numbers to battles fought during the early Middle Ages, some 2,000 years later. An astonishing thought for a time when the population density is estimated to have been no more than 3-5 people per square kilometre. In the Bronze Age, the European landscape was relatively open, though for the most part, human influence was still small. A group of 5,000 combatants implies that these men had been gathered, organised, fed, briefed, and led into battle for a specific purpose. This would have been an astounding feat for the time, perhaps enabled by a central government, suggesting that socio-political development in at least parts of Central Europe were far more advanced and nuanced than previously assumed. 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