Geographic origin, ancestry, and death circumstances at the Cornaux/Les Sauges Iron Age bridge, Switzerland

Abstract

Cornaux/Les Sauges (Switzerland, Late Iron Age) revealed remnants of a wooden bridge, artifacts, and human and animal skeletal remains. The relationship between the collapsed structure and the skeletal material, whether it indicates a potential accident or cultural practices, remains elusive. We evaluate the most plausible scenario for Cornaux based on osteological, taphonomic, isotopic, and paleogenomic analysis of the recovered individuals. The latter amount to at least 20 individuals, mostly adult males. Perimortem lesions include only blunt force traumas. Radiocarbon data fall between the 3rd and 1st c. BCE, although in some cases predating available dendrochronological estimates from the bridge. Isotopic data highlight five to eight nonlocals. No close genetic relatedness links the analyzed skeletons. Paleogenomic results, the first for Iron Age Switzerland, point to a genetic affinity with other Central and Western European Iron Age groups. The type of skeletal lesions supports an accidental event as the more plausible explanation. Radiocarbon data and the demographic structure of the sample may suggest a sequence of different events possibly including executions and/or sacrifices. Isotopic and paleogenomic data, while not favoring one scenario over the other, do support earlier interpretations of the last centuries BCE in Europe as a dynamic period from a biocultural perspective.