Sweden's ringforts

Angela

Angela

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See:
https://www.archaeology.org/news/5984-171012-gold-sandby-borg

"Gold rings and a coin have been discovered at Sandby Borg, a ringfort on an island off Sweden’s southeastern coast, according to a report in The Local. The site is known for the large number of unburied bodies that have been uncovered there, suggesting a massacre occurred in the fifth century A.D. Archaeologists Clara Alfsdotter and Sophie Vallulv said the gold artifacts are evidence of a link to the Roman Empire. The coin was minted between A.D. 425 and 455, during the rule of Emperor Valentinian III, who is depicted on one side of the coin with his foot resting on the head of a barbarian. The size of the rings suggest they belonged to a woman. The gold objects were found in an area where a house once stood. “It seems to have had a special purpose, and it may have been the house of a chieftain or a minor king,” said team leader Helena Victor.."

I don't remember reading about this massacre. This is what I could find.

See:
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/207-1603/features/4158-sweden-sandbyborg-massacre
 
I found more on this topic: Clues to an Iron Age massacre lie in what the assailants left behind

"Club-wielding assailants struck the Scandinavian settlement with devastating violence, slaughtering at least 26 people and leaving the bodies where they fell. There, the bodies lay for 1,500 years until recovered recently by archaeologists analyzing clues about the Iron Age massacre.

It’s unclear why the seaside ringfort of Sandby borg, on the Baltic Sea island of Ӧland, was targeted at a time of political turmoil following the Roman Empire’s fall in Western Europe. Adults, teenagers and children died suddenly and brutally — their skeletons showing bones fractured by clubs, but no defensive wounds, say archaeologist Clara Alfsdotter of Bohuslӓns Museum in Udevalla, Sweden, and her colleagues. When the slaughter was over, the attackers left the sheep and other animals to starve and the valuables untouched, the scientists report in the April Antiquity. No one came back to bury the dead.

...

In one house, the skeletons of nine individuals of various ages were found. Their positions suggested they had been surprised by the attack, say Alfsdotter, Papmehl-Dufay and coauthor Helena Victor, also of Kalmar County Museum. One teenage boy appears to have fallen backward over an adult victim. Two corpses showed evidence of being partially burned, suggesting the attackers tried unsuccessfully to set the structure on fire or that a fire accidentally broke out. A tiny half skeleton from a herring lay next to the fireplace, adding support to the theory that the attackers left quickly without touching or eating anything. A pile of lamb skeletons stacked in the corner and showing signs of recent slaughter suggests the attack occurred sometime between late spring and early fall, the researchers say."
 
They would have been Geats, likely massacred by Swedes (Upsala?).

There was strife and struggle 'twixt Swede and Geat
o'er the width of waters; war arose,
hard battle-horror, when Hrethel died,
and Ongentheow's offspring grew
strife-keen, bold, nor brooked o'er the seas;
pact of peace, but pushed their hosts
to harass in hatred by Hreosnabeorh.
Click to expand...
 
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