The face of war: Trauma analysis of a mass grave from the Battle of Lützen (1632)

Abstract

Contemporary accounts of battles are often incomplete or even erroneous because they reflect the—often biased—viewpoints of the authors. Battlefield archaeology faces the task of compiling an historical analysis of a battle and of gathering all the available facts. Besides cultural historical evidence and artefacts, the human remains of those who have fallen in battle also provide invaluable information. In studying mass graves from a military context, the injury types and patterns are significant. They allow us to reconstruct the circumstances surrounding the soldiers’ deaths and provide information on the hostilities that occurred on the battlefield. One such mass grave was discovered in 2011 at Lützen, Saxony-Anhalt (Germany). Based on its geographical location and on the results obtained from archaeological examinations carried out in the area, the grave could be dated to the Thirty Years War (1618–1648). Further archaeological research confirmed that the dead had been soldiers from the Battle of Lützen (1632). The mass grave was block-lifted and then comprehensively examined at the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle (Saale). As well as osteological examinations to determine age, sex, height, state of health, i.e. diseases or injuries, imaging methods were also employed and histological and isotopic analyses carried out. The focus of this study was on the injuries sustained by the soldiers both prior to and during the battle. The results revealed that the 47 deceased had been between the ages of 15 and 50 when they died. Numerous healed injuries showed that the men had often been involved in violent encounters. Approximately three in every four soldiers had injuries that could have been fatal. Wounds inflicted by handguns, particularly to the skull, were predominant. The integrative analysis of the archaeological and anthropological data allowed us to conclude that the majority had been killed during a cavalry attack.

The last battle of Anne of Brittany: solving mass grave through an interdisciplinary approach (paleopathology, anthropobiology, history, multiple isotopes and radiocarbon dating)

“…The absence of gunshot injuries, the high number of stab wounds and the absence of historical records argues for a late 15th century conflict [7,83]. Rennes has only known one major violent episode likely to have caused casualties during this time period.…”

Between belief and fear - Reinterpreting prone burials during the Middle Ages and early modern period in German-speaking Europe

“…Prone inhumations were included in this study if they: a) dated following 950 AD; b) were part of burials including a maximum of three individuals; c) information on age-at-death and sex of the individual were available. Multiple (including more than three individuals) burials are often the result of catastrophic events leading to random or necessarily careless deposition of the dead [57][58][59]. They would potentially bias the variability of our sample and were not…”

Wounded to the bone: Digital microscopic analysis of traumas in a medieval mass grave assemblage (Sandbjerget, Denmark, AD 1300–1350)

“…Unlike Towton, Wittstock, Bucharest or Lützen, no blunt force trauma was detected (Novak, 2000;Eickhoff et al, 2012;Constantinescu et al, 2015;Nicklisch et al, 2017). In 93% of traumas, the injuries were penetrating and were likely to have caused brain damage.…”

“…Only two antemortem traumas were identified. At Aljubarrota, Towton and Lützen, the high percentage of antemortem injuries was linked to prior experiences in battle (Cunha and Silva, 1997;Novak, 2000;Nicklisch et al, 2017) (table 1). Here, their scarcity, as in Uppsala (Kjellström, 2005), may imply that few of them had experienced previous armed conflicts, which would again support the notion that these men were civilians who had become involved in this violent episode.…”

“…A further 60 skeletons recovered at Uppsala, Sweden, are alleged to be the victims of the Battle of Good Friday (AD 1520) (Kjellström, 2005). Among other European assemblages (Zoffmann, 1982;Cunha and Silva, 1997;Eickhoff et al, 2012;Dziedzic et al, 2011;Constantinescu et al, 2015;Nicklisch et al, 2017), the most famous remains the mass grave from the Battle of Towton (AD 1461, North Yorkshire, UK), containing at least 61 individuals, 38 of which were analysed osteologically (Fiorato et al, 2000). For comparison these published examples have been aggregated and are referred to as the 'reference sample'.…”