Nicole NICKLISCH et al.
(State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt – State Museum of Prehistory, Halle (Saale), Germany)

Keywords: mass grave, thirthy years’ war, injury patterns, health status

Abstract:
In November 1632 a small town in today’s Central Germany, was the setting for one of the largest combats of the Thirty Years’ War: the great Battle of Lützen. At the end of this bloody day the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf was mortally wounded and with him more than 6.000 soldiers lost their lives. The dead bodies were looted and buried in numerous mass graves.
In the summer of 2011 archaeologists discovered one of these mass graves at the edge of Lützen. The grave was recovered en bloc, transferred to a lab and the skeletal remains were analyzed in situ. Tooth and bone samples from all individuals were taken for isotope studies (δ13C, δ15N, 87Sr/86Sr, δ18O), almost half of the skulls and bones were available for medical imaging techniques (X-ray, CT, DVT). In addition, selected pathological cases were analyzed by histological techniques.
The grave contained the skeletal remains of 47 men with an age at death range from about 15 to 45 years. Among numerous perimortem injuries a high number of cranial gunshot wounds were found. This kind of death, the caliber of the lead bullets as well as gunshot experiments with historical weapons helped to reconstruct the situation in the area the soldiers died. In addition, the results of strontium and oxygen isotope analyses were used to localize the possible provenance of the soldiers. Further aspects of the study contain the healing conditions and medical treatment of injuries, such as fractures of the upper and lower limbs or blunt and sharp force trauma to the cranium. Osteological traces of deficiency diseases combined with carbon and nitrogen isotope data provide information about the dietary habits during wartime.