Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Massacre Site | Video

This today so peaceful and desolate place was once the scene of a terrible massacre. In the migration period in the 5th century hundreds of people lived here in a fort on the island of Öland just off the Swedish coast. One dark night when they were fast asleep behind the high walls, doors suddenly burst open. I think they were surprised and there are so many bodies and two of them are lying by the door as if they were running for the door and people were coming in and they're lying very close to each other so I think that they were just ambushed in some way and people were running into the house trying to kill them and they almost didn't have a chance. In a house of 62 square meters the archaeologists found at least five dead people all victims of a sudden death and the number of dead is likely to rise. We found the house and the door and in the doorway there were two feet peeking out so we decided to make another trench the year after and follow the feet and found the first body. A man lying on his back that had some sharp force trauma to his head and his shoulder and he had obviously been killed. The archaeologists from Kalmar County Museum and Lund University seem to have found a frozen moment a Swedish Pompeii. 1500 years ago the fort was a lively place with guards patrolling the high walls. In the middle of the courtyard there were many small houses with one family in each. In the outer part close to the walls there were houses for food supplies and stables for animals. Probably they did look forward to supper. Yes I think they ate good because they had a lot of access to meat but in the sense of cereals you are dependent on some network of trade. The archaeologists are now making 3D models to reconstruct the complete crime scene. In this specific site I found extremely interesting the relation between the bodies and the reconstruction of the events. So I want to actually understand how much the use of these techniques is going to help us to understand the events so what's actually happening in terms of really minute by minute. The first excavation took place in 2010 and that's when the magnificent gilded brooches were found. The skeletons emerge in later excavations. This man is lying on his stomach with his face down. I'm not sure if that was how he fell when he died but it could also be a sign of disrespect. It's a mystery why the place has been left untouched. It's such a terrible massacre that it completely destroyed the fort and everything in it. I don't think anyone dared to go near it for a very long time. It's more of a frozen moment than you normally see in archaeology. It's like Pompeii. Something terrible happened and everything just stopped. It's pretty much just a day in the life. In the migration period and that's completely unique. And we have nothing to compare it with actually.