Archaeologists in Sweden have discovered evidence of a brutal massacre on the shores of Oland Island in the south-east.

A massacre, which was carried towards the end of 5th century, was recently discovered by Swedish archaeologists at a small village on a Swedish island. Dozens of unarmed bodies and ‘three vertebrae of a young child aged approximately two to five years, and the femur of a 1.5–3-month-old infant’ were dug out.

“The assault on Sandby borg may have been the result of subsequent power struggles on the island, at a time when the political map and power structures were being rewritten across the European continent,” read the study published in an archaeology journal Antiquity.

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Along with human skeletons, animal skeletons were also found. Hair ornaments, jewelry, gold coins and some weapons were also discovered by the team. According to BBC, the archaeologists are still left with more to examine even after years of digging. “To date, the remains of a minimum of 26 human individuals have been found at Sandby borg,” read the study.

Interestingly, the archaeologists found no females and only males of the adults whose gender could be estimated. “The dead individuals span all age groups but are gender-biased towards males,” read the journal. The founding may suggest that the slaughter was either taking the women hostage or sparing them while men were being targeted, The Forbes reported.

Further archaeological work in the area could help in discovering how life was like in ancient Scandinavia.