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When a small bridge in western Switzerland collapsed 2,000 years ago , the body of 20 people , three cows and two knight became mat in the wreckage . But whether this event was the final result of a catastrophic deluge or an detailed ritual sacrifice has puzzled archeologist for decades . Now , new research , let in an analysis of haggard hurt and genetics , suggests that the answer may be both .
In the late 1960s , the splintered remains of a wooden bridge across the Thielle River were come across along with iron and bronze weapons ; clayware ; and two dozen human and animal skeletons . Most of the recover human skeletons were those of grownup males , in some case pinned underneath the shaft of light of the bridgework , which was initially build in 135 B.C. While a flood may have triggered the prostration , result in expiry , the other possible interpretation is aCelticritual offer of sacrificed world and animals .
The fallen bridge was discovered along the Thielle river in the 1960’s.
In a work print June 17 in the journalScientific Reports , researchers used a variety of analytic thinking techniques to suggest that there may have been a complicated chronological sequence of events at the site , including both forfeiture and a span flop .
The researchers look into the 20 human systema skeletale to learn each victim ’s age at death , sex and traumatic injuries . They key out that most of the stagnant were manlike and that about half of the masses had confirm blunt - violence injuries around the time of death . However , most of the injuries were to the skull , which is at odds with the tree branch injuries expect in a flop , and more closely match head trauma inflict by others . Additional probe of the animal remains bring out no grounds of sharp trauma that is usually seen in sacrificial circumstance , supporting an accidental bridge deck collapse .
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An artist’s illustration of what the Cornaux/Les Sauges bridge may have looked like when intact.
The team also usedcarbon-14 analysisto date 11 of the human skeleton in the cupboard , with all of them shine between the third and first centuries B.C. Surprisingly , though , the old skeleton was dated to 361 to 152 B.C. , while the most recent was dated to 167 B.C. to A.D. 7 . , suggesting that skeletons determine in the river end up there at slightly different times , some through the chance event that destroyed the bridgework and others through possible violent execution .
In other words , some of the citizenry who were pin under the bridge circuit may have been long dead when it collapsed .
To investigate the masses further , the researchers employed isotope andDNAanalyses on the 10 most well - preserved skeletons to see whether they were biologically relate and whether they grew up somewhere other than Switzerland . isotope — variations of element that have a unlike number of neutrons in their nuclei — become part of a person ’s teeth and bones through the water they salute and the nutrient they eat , and can bring out where a person grew up .
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The psychoanalysis let on that nine of them were biologically virile and that there were no closelipped genetic relationships . Further , the chemical substance psychoanalysis suggested that the hoi polloi were descended from West or Central European peoples but that some of them moved around quite a scrap during their life .
Taken together , the evidence add up up to a vehement and sudden accident taking place at the bridge , likely in the early first century B.C. , " but this bridge circuit had a anterior life , " subject area co - leaderMarco Milella , a researcher in the Department Anthropology at the University of Bern in Switzerland , said in astatement .
" It may have been a place of sacrifice , and it is conceivable that some corpses preceded the accident , " Milella order . " There is no reason to pick out between the two alternatives . "
