The sacrifice of an entire army as a post-war ritual differs markedly from other sacrifices where, for example, an entire army's weapons were laid down, as later happens in the same river valley with the famous Illerup Ådal weapon sacrifice find. But at Alken Enge, interestingly enough, only the warriors were killed and not their weapons.

The Alken Enge sacrifice took place in the middle of a time of conflict with many disputes, as the defeated army clearly shows. The Romans marched up through Europe and set in motion great st patricks clothes  upheavals among the peoples they called Celts and Germans. This applied to both their military organization and their faith, and perhaps we can read some of those influences in the post-war ritual at Alken Enge, reports leader of the research project Mads Kähler Holst from Aarhus University

The Alken Enge find resembles something that is otherwise best known from the Celtic world in the centuries BC. The Roman emperor Caesar and the poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus both describe the human sacrifices of the Celts. And archaeological finds have also shown that defeated armies were sacrificed in special sanctuaries.

In the centuries AD the Scandinavian tribes then switch to sacrificing only weapons and not warriors, of which the Illerup sacrifice is a good example. But it happens 200 years further in time.

So the Alken Enge sacrifice takes place in a time of conflict, and here the victorious East Jutland chieftains have thus adhered to Celtic traditions. The big question then is where the sacrificed warriors came from.

Mads Kähler Holst

Alken Enge is an incredibly lucky find because we have a whole soft baseball jacket  army preserved. This gives us a picture on a completely different scale than before. Because with such a large material we can begin to demonstrate the size and composition of an army at this time. And that opens up completely new perspectives, states Mads Kähler Holst.

Fortunately, the extraordinary preservation conditions at Alken Enge have ensured such well-preserved bone material that it makes it possible to carry out scientific studies such as DNA, strontium and other isotope analyses. In this way, many of the questions that are currently burning on the tongues of archaeologists can be answered.

The Alken Enge investigations are therefore also run as an interdisciplinary project, where both archaeologists, geologists and other natural scientists must analyze the unique find from all directions and angles. All sails are set to turn every bone and demonstrate every detail. The latest methods are used in all areas to ensure as optimal documentation as possible.