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Sandbyborg Location
image – David Beard

Archaeologists from Kalmar County Museum led by project manager, Helena Victor, have excavated evidence of a brutal 5th century massacre at Sandbyborg ringfort.

Sandbyborg is situated near the coast on on Öland, an island off the south-eastern coast of Sweden

During the Migration Period in Sweden, cremation was the norm, and so it is rare to find uncremated remains.

As of 2013, five bodies had been discovered in one house, although human bone has been found in other parts of the site, making it likely that many more bodies await discovery.

Valuable artefacts have been found – which seems to indicate that the site was not plundered after the massacre.

So far only a few houses have been excavated, and the archaeologists believe that hundreds of people could have lived on the site.

See the official website for the project  here…

Excavation of one of the skeltons

Image: Wikimedia ommons
(click on image to enlarge)

Image: Wikimedia ommons
(click on image to enlarge)

Image: Wikimedia ommons
(click on image to enlarge)

Image: Wikimedia ommons
(click on image to enlarge)

Excavation of the Iron Age Sandbyborg (ringfort) on Öland, an island off the southeastern coast of Sweden, has revealed a number of bodies, lying where they fell.