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Gone Medieval

Sandby Borg Massacre: The Evidence

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.62.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When archeologists uncovered a jewellery hoard buried beneath the Iron Age ring fort of Sandby Borg in 2010, their excitement was palpable. Yet little did they know that they had only scratched the surface. As they dug deeper they began to find the remains of a community that had been brutally slaughtered - their wounds evidence of a terrible Early Medieval massacre.


In today’s episode of Gone Medieval, Dr Cat Jarman talks to Dr Ludwig Papmehl-Dufay - one of Sandby Borg’s lead archaeologists. Together they discuss the story of the massacre’s victims, exploring how the latest archaeological techniques can peel back the mystery and tell us more about who they were and what actually happened to them.


This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.


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Transcript

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1:33.2

Hello and welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit. I'm your host for today, Dr Cat German.

1:39.6

In 2010, archaeologist working on the small island of Urland in the Baltic Sea

1:45.3

off the coast of Sweden made it completely unexpected discovery.

1:50.8

At Sunbyborg, one of the island's many ring forts, they discovered human remains dating to

1:56.3

around the year 500. But this was no cemetery. The dead showed signs of being brutally murdered,

2:04.0

the victims of a massacre. For 1500 years, the bodies lay there, some shut inside houses,

...

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