1500-Year-Old Mystery Of The Sandby Borg – Excavation Of Ringfort On Öland, Sweden

AncientPages.com - During the excavation of Sandby borg ringfort on the island of Öland, Sweden, a number of macabre finds were made.

Skeletal remains from a small child were found in one of the houses in the ringforts central block. This is the first child to be identified among the victims of the massacre at Sandby borg.

'It is both frightening and sensational in the sense that prior to this find the results showed that there had only been adults in the ringfort when this horrific event took place,' says Helena Victor, project manager at the Dept. of Museum Archaeology at Kalmar County Museum, Sweden.
It sheds a whole new light on the massacre, she continues.

The excavation was carried out in September by the Department of Museum Archaeology at Kalmar County Museum, in cooperation with students from Linnaeus University.

Sword pendant in gilded silver, found in House 40 at Sandby borg. Photo courtesy of Daniel Lindskog.

Osteological analyses have now been made of the bones that were uncovered and experts confirm that they belong to two individuals, one of which is a child of an estimated age of 2 to 5 years.

In the same house the skeleton of a middle - aged, 50 to 60 year old man was found lying on its stomach in the central of the building.

Photo from the excavation of one of five caches of 5th century jewellery found at Sandby borg in 2010. Photo courtesy of Jan-Henrik Fallgren.

This skeleton of an old man was found lying across the large fireplace in House 52. to him, a humerus of a small child (estimated to around 2-5 years old) was found. Photo courtesy of Kalmar County Museum.

What we can see by looking at the position in which the skeleton was found is that he was probably struck down and fell prone into the burning fireplace, says Clara Alfsdotter, osteologist at the museum of Bohuslän who conducted the analysis.

Left: Photo from the excavation of one of five caches of 5th century jewellery found at Sandby borg in 2010. Photo cedits: Jan-Henrik Fallgren. Right: Exclusive millefiori glass object, found in House 40 at Sandby borg. Photo courtesy of Daniel Lindskog.

Satellite image of the Sandby borg ringfort, with the layout of the houses and the defence wall marked. The two houses mentioned in the text are indicated. Courtesy of Kalmar County Museum and Andreas Viberg.

Despite the fact that less than 3% of the ringfort have been excavated, the remains of over ten individuals have been uncovered and all of them show indications to having died in a violent massacre that took place around 1500 years ago.

A three-year research project on Sandby borg, in collaboration with Linnaeus University and Stockholm University will continue. The researchers will try to shed light on the mysterious events that took place one day, on Sandby borg on Öland, 1500 years ago.

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