Oldest known battle was massacre of merchants
Oliver Moody, Berlin
Sunday October 25 2020, 6.00pm GMT, The Times
What was thought to be one of Europe’s oldest known battles may have actually been a massacre, German archaeologists believe, with a caravan of merchants mercilessly attacked by raiders as they tried to flee.
When an ancient human skull with its forehead smashed in and an arm bone pierced by an arrowhead turned up in the banks of a German river, they prompted a revolution in the understanding of Europe’s early history.
In about 1200BC, at roughly the same time as the Greeks were besieging Troy, as many as 4,000 Bronze Age warriors waged a brutal struggle for control of a bridge near the Baltic sea. Perhaps 1,400 died.
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Next best, easily available, from MailOnline:
By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 06:24 EDT, 26 October 2020 | UPDATED: 09:08 EDT, 26 October 2020
'Europe's oldest battle' in Germany's Tollense Valley 3,250 years ago may actually have been a brutal MASSACRE of 1,400 Bronze Age merchants
Fresh analysis of Europe's earliest known battle has thrown up the possibility the 1,400 people who died at the site, in Germany's Tollense Valley, were not warriors engaged in a brutal melee, but ambushed merchants who were ruthlessly slain.
The identity of the assailants remains unknown but it is thought they surprised the entourage and killed their guards before looting and murdering them.
Human remains at the site in North East Germany, near today's border with Poland and 80 miles north of Berlin, were first found in 1996.
Experts have since tried to explain how 1,400 people perished in this one event, when the region was sparsely populated throughout the Bronze Age.
Previous theories centred around a great battle for control of a bridge over a river near the Baltic sea.
But Detlef Jantzen, chief archaeologist for the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, says he site is more likely that of a merciless slaughter.
More:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8879473/Battle-Tollense-Valley-4-250-years-ago-massacre-1-400-Bronze-Age-merchants.html
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