The Battle of the Tollense Valley

Let's Start of the Very Beginning, it's a Very Good Place to Start

The Beginning

In this first edition of Flint and Steal, we will be talking about edits. Now, before you run and unsubscribe, let me explain what we will be editing. Edits are firstly defined as, “preparing (written material) for publication by correcting, condensing, or otherwise modifying it.”  Which is why, today, we will be helping edit the history of Europe. The event we will cover has the potential to change the history of the Germanic peoples that existed in present day Northern Germany around 3200 years ago. So come, take a seat around my fire, and let’s begin. History will not rewrite itself. 

First and foremost, as this is my first publication, I would like to make a disclaimer that I am not a historian but a student. A seeker of knowledge trying to find the secrets of the future through the history of the past. Human history, has more or less, been a rollercoaster ride of actions and emotions that have gotten us to where we are today. Humans have been surviving, thriving, fighting, loving, laughing, suffering, selling, buying, growing, learning, and, as a whole, living. However, the past is not all lattes and central heating as it is today. Now, make no mistake, I love these things as much as the next person but we’ve had quite the road to get here and by no means was it a straight one. In this first publication we will delve into the exciting details of one of Europe’s oldest confirmed conflicts that now has the potential to change our viewpoint about history as we know it: The Battle of the Tollense Valley.

The Middle

Dating back to 1200 BCE, this Bronze Age skirmish is the oldest, to date, conflict in Northern Europe. As we delve deeper into this conflict, dear reader, we will find that skirmish is putting it mildly. Today, it is a beautiful field with livestock, birds, bees, trees, and a lazy river that is used by fisherman and kayakers alike. Now listen, I know what you’re thinking, why should we care about a field in Northern Germany? My response would be: you shouldn’t, at least not the way the field stands today. The dead are gone and buried and sometimes they should be left that way. My challenge to you, dear reader, is to care about what happened in the past because this battle can tell us more about ourselves and our ancestors than we would care to think.

The Battle of the Tollense Valley may not only be the oldest but one of the bloodiest battles of the Germanic Bronze Age. This was a conflict in which, it is estimated, that somewhere around 5,000 total men from two opposing armies fought each other in the most brutal way. Artifacts uncovered from the site can tell us that most of the fighting that occurred was from hand to hand combat. Some of these artifacts can include things like spearheads, bronze axes, wooden clubs, along with flint and bronze arrowheads. Bones have even been found with arrowheads still embedded into them. Although these weapons may seem trivial in comparison to today’s modern weaponry, these weapons were the height of military technology of the day, which alludes to the fact that this was no simple feud between warring clans or farmers. These were soldiers, veterans, professionals, who had most likely used these weapons before. Not every man in the Bronze Age had access to such high end weapons, only a skilled fighting force. The other evidence that points towards these men being professional fights was through healed bones. A staggering 27% of the bodies uncovered have evidence of healed trauma. It is not clear if these men got this trauma from battles themselves, but it can be inferred that these men had battle experience, and no shortage of it. According to a statement from Detlef Jantzen, Chief Archaeologist of MVDHP, he states, “It's hard to tell the reason for the injuries, but these don't look like your typical young farmers.”

Now, I am sure that you have assumed if there have been bones recovered, there have been casualties in this battle. You, dear reader, would be most assuredly correct. The current number of bodies recovered ranges at about 130, with a number of horses included. The horses are an interesting discovery as thoughts of calvary come to mind. However, this is most likely not the case, as the horses probably just belonged to chieftains or other high-ranking people that were part of this great force. Please note that this is not the entire battlefield, there is more research to be conducted in the future. The bones recovered also show that this was a heated, pitched battle, as there was an area excavated with over 1400 bones in an area of around 20 spare meters. These men fought, bled, and died in a single spot, on top of each other. 

However, dear reader, I am sure you are wondering why? Professional fighters would not gather in the thousands to kill each other for no reason. Well, maybe they would but that’s a debate for a different day. The question still stands: what was so significant about this place and what were the reasons for them to do battle in the first place? Well, dear reader, it may have to do with the river, or rather what stood over the river. I am talking about a bridge, a crossing that would have enabled traders, soldiers, or travelers to get from one side of the river to another. There has been radiocarbon dating and geometric surveys showing that there was a structure over the river that predates the battle by 500 years, made of stone and wood. That means that this bridge, most likely, would have been well known and well used. Trade and transportation of goods is thought to have been its primary purpose but that is a conversation for another day.

Fighting over bridges, as this battle shows, is quite literally a tale as old as time, and it is still happening today. It should be noted that human beings have conquered the land in every imaginable way possible. We have trains, trucks, cars, bikes, scooters, skateboards and the important tracks, roads, and other things to go with it to ensure that they work. However, human beings have, arguably, never fully conquered water. Even giant Sealiners, that you can view in the vast oceans, or even the Great Lakes, are at the mercy of the waves. Bridges are so important that militaries have created fully artificial and mobile bridges to allow troops to get from one side of a body of water to another.

The End

With this context firmly in place, dear reader, one might think that this sounds like chaos, and to put it simply, it would have been chaos. However, getting 5,000 men to agree on one thing, especially killing each other, would have been no easy feat. This would have required an amount of organization thought impossible in the ancient world, especially in a place that was deemed somewhat of a frontier. The consequences of this battle can put to death an entire viewpoint of how historians and others viewed Europe in Antiquity or at least European history that took place North of the Alps. (I’m sorry Rome and Greece, I love you, but the world did not start and end with you.) Organization in today’s modern times is immediate. A text, phone call, an email, are all nearly instantaneous, even with people around the world. In Antiquity it is a different story, especially in Northern Europe where the population density was estimated to 12 people per square mile. For comparison, modern Germany houses about 623 people per square mile and approximately 1% of the world’s population. I cannot understate how incredibly impressive amassing an army of this size would have been in a time frame such as this.

There is also the potential for another major shift in how history viewed Northern Europeans when it came to violence. Prior to this battle, most Northerners were thought to have been trade-focused and peaceful.This bloody battle with scores of casualties changes all of that. It was thought that the people who inhabited this area did not understand war. They understood raids and killing but war was a different story. Tollense clearly changes that preconceived notion because these people did understand war. They understood war very well and executed it with the highest level of prejudice. They used organization, tactics, horses, veterans, and the best weapons of the age.  

The last, and potentially most interesting piece of information that is to come out of this story is this: many of the people that participated in this battle, in the middle of nowhere, were not even Germanic. Food isotopes found in the teeth of some of these warriors show diets that were popular in the Southern reaches of Europe, instead of in the Northern ones. So, not only do we have immense organization from a time where that was previously thought impossible, but organization between other cultures and people that fought and died together. There is a potential for the discovery of new civilizations that could rewrite the history books and change everything we know about Antiquity. If that does not set a new precedent for the history of ancient Europe, I do not know what will. That is why the Battle of the Tollense Valley is so important. 

Well, dear reader, it seems our time has come to an end. I want you to know that I thoroughly enjoyed our time together and you are welcome around my fire anytime. Stay tuned for my next publication, detailing an event so tragic, it has assuredly set humanity back thousands of years.

-Flint