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Iron Age skeletons found under bridge may have been hit by a tsunami

Twenty people may have died 2000 years ago when an Iron Age bridge suddenly collapsed following a tsunami or flood, but scientists also cannot rule out that they were sacrificed

By Christa Lesté-Lasserre

3 July 2024

Skulls found under the Thielle River in Cornaux/Les Sauges in western Switzerland. Now stored at the Laténium Museum in Hauterive

Skulls found in the banks of the river Thielle in Cornaux/Les Sauges in Switzerland are now stored at the Laténium Museum in Hauterive

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds/Fonds national suisse

For decades, scientists have wondered about the history of 20 people, as well as a handful of farm animals, who seemingly drowned 2000 years ago in a Swiss river. One idea is that these individuals were sacrificed from a bridge, which later collapsed. But new evidence supports the notion that, for at least some of them, their demise – along with the bridge’s – was due to a natural disaster.

In 1965, archaeologists uncovered…

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