The Bog Army of Alken Enge

In the wetlands at the mouth of the Illerup river, Iron Age Danes deposited the remains of an entire defeated army — hundreds of fighting-age men, their bones cleaned, sorted and cast into the sacred lake months after the battle. Alken Enge is the largest war-sacrifice deposit known from northern Europe, proof that the Germanic tribes Rome faced could field and destroy armies of remarkable size. These warriors, drawn from that offering, were the ancestors and contemporaries of the peoples whose languages became Danish, English and German.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Steppe ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic languages.

Every Ancestrify Global25 report includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported — a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances — that is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Bog Army of Alken Enge are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about the full G25 analysis.

• 01

  Who were the Bog Army of Alken Enge?

  The Bog Army of Alken Enge (c. 100 BCE–150 CE, Lake Mossø, Jutland, Denmark) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 12 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Steppe ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic languages".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Bog Army of Alken Enge mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported — a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

• 03

  Are they my ancestor?

  No — and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

• 04

  How do I see my own distance to the Bog Army of Alken Enge?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestrify Global25 report — never sold separately. Order the G25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers — browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Victims of Pompeii79 CE

• The Durotriges of Dorsetc. 100 BCE–50 CE

• The Xiongnu Imperial Elitec. 100 BCE–100 CE

• The Romans of Viminacium1st–6th century CE

• The People of Imperial Romec. 100–300 CE

• The Balkan Celtsc. 300–50 BCE

• The Romans of Docleac. 100–400 CE

• The Sarmatians of the Lower Danubec. 100–400 CE

• The Goths of the Vistulac. 100–400 CE

• The Celts of the Cornaux Bridgec. 260–80 BCE

• The Chariot Riders of East Yorkshirec. 230–110 BCE

• The Greeks of Histria2nd–6th century CE