An early Bronze Age causeway in the Tollense Valley, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – The starting point of a violent conflict 3300 years ago?

Abstract

Research on the Bronze Age battlefield site in the Tollense Valley (Mecklenburg-
Western Pomerania, 13th cent. BCE) has to date uncovered the remains of more
than 130 individuals, predominantly young adult men with perimortal as well as healed lesions, together with weapons of the same period, especially flint and socketed bronze arrowheads, and wooden clubs. The find material comes from several sites along a stretch of river more than 2.5 km long. The sites Weltzin 13 on the western bank and Kessin 12 on the eastern bank of River Tollense mark the beginning of the distribution, with finds of human skeletal remains, partly with lesions, as well as finds of weapons. The topographical situation provides a suitable site for crossing the river and the valley, and finds from the Neolithic up to the Middle Ages testify to the importance of the crossing, which seems to have been used over several millennia. Wooden construction elements discovered in the eastern riverbank could be dated dendrochronologically to the 14th-12th
centuries BCE, thus indicating structures contemporaneous with the violent event in the valley. Other wooden remains yielded dates from the 7th cent. BCE, as well as the 11th cent. CE, again indicating repeated phases of re-use. Geophysical surveys were initiated to check the adjacent meadows for structures on land. At the Kessin 12 site, in the eastern floodplain of the river, a linear structure more than 100 m long was visible in the geomagnetic plan. During excavation it turned out to be the remains of a causeway constructed of timbers, sand and turf, using for stabilisation dense rows of posts in the wetter parts of the floodplain, and stone rows on drier ground. According to dating results, this embankment was constructed during the 19th cent. BCE. The causeway seems to have been in use for centuries, as is indicated by horse remains discovered on the top of the embankment dating to Period III of the Nordic Bronze Age. This could also indicate a connection with the battlefield horizon. According to a current hypothesis, the fighting could have started at this focal point in the river valley, and would then have spread northwards. The discovery of the causeway in the Tollense Valley represents a first glimpse into the Early Bronze Age network of land routes in the southern Baltic. The River Tollense crossing must have been of more than local significance, which could also help to explain why the river valley became the site of a major battle at around 1300 BCE.