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1: Partial skeleton, clear draconian origin. Remarkably well preserved; though centuries old, fragments of the skull, two vertebrae, and a rib had sunk to the bottom of the ocean and been preserved in pelagic red clay. Though not enough bone remains to reproduce the shape of the head with any degree of certainty, we can now confirm the size of the head would have been at a minimum 4.6 meters wide and 5.8 meters long. One particularly well preserved tooth was measured at 48.5 cm in length.
See addendum A for detailed sketches of the recovered skeleton.
2: Arrowhead, found near the eye socket of the aforementioned draconian skull. Flint. Simple design and choice of material indicates a probable human origin.
3-16: Swords. Hard iron, highly degraded due marine corrosion. These are made in a one handed style, curved as sabres; no decoration survives.
17-23: Swords. Steel, somewhat degraded due to marine corrosion. These are made in a two-handed style, and are much larger than the previous set. 18 and 22 retain decorative elements on the pommels and cross guards. Cross-hatching on 18 may have once depicted a star or flower. The pommel of 22 is set with a red gem.
24: Sword. Unknown material1, which shows no sign of degradation. Researchers onsite initially assessed it as having no archeological significance due to its appearance; it was, however, found buried underneath three meters of marine sediment, embedded in copper helmet and skull (25). The site had been undisturbed for longe enough for significant vegetation to have grown over it; we are forced to conclude 24 could not have been placed there recently. Still, the age of the weapon remains unknown and hotly debated among field researchers.
This is a two-handed great-sword measuring 2.1 meters in length and weighing 4 kg. It is heavily ornamented. The pommel is decorated with an amber set in gold, surrounded by concentric golden circles and protruding rays; it appears to depict a rising sun. The blade itself is engraved, depicting eagles in flight. It remains extraordinarily sharp.
25: Partial skeleton; skull, spinal column, pelvis. The weight of the skull and distinctive jaw shape indicate orcish origin. The skull was found still encased in a copper helmet, highly degraded due to marine corrosion. Cause of death is plainly trauma to the top of the skull, which, along with the helmet, had been pierced by the great-sword (24) described above.
26: Full skeleton. Elven origin. Most probably female and roughly 185 cm in height. Based on placement and position of the body 2 it appears to have been laid to rest before any battle had taken place on the site. Cause of death appears to be blunt force trauma to the chest, with several ribs broken in at an angle that would have pierced the lungs. The body was buried wearing jewelry (4 sets of silver earrings, silver lip ring, copper circlet, two silver rings worn on the fingers, copper ankle-bracelets) and with a great-sword laid across the chest.
27: Full canine skeleton. Size and shape indicate a medium herding dog, perhaps somewhat resembling a collie. Osteoarthritis and severe hip dysplasia observed on the skeleton indicate the specimen had likely been of advanced age at time of death; otherwise no cause of death could be determined. Placement of the bones indicates that the body has been tightly wrapped in a now-degraded piece of fabric (such as a towel or blanket) when buried. A silver flower charm, which may have once been attached to a leather or rope collar, was found by the neck.
Notably, it appears to have been buried with the elven remains described above (26). Placement of the body indicates that the graves were not dug simultaneously; it is our opinion that another party returned to bury 27 alongside 26.
28-29: Two full skeletons. Orcish origin. One (28) is most probably male, roughly 174 cm in height. Cause of death appears to be blunt force trauma to the head. The second (29) is roughly 171 cm in height; bone structure and degradation makes sex impossible to determine with any degree of certainty. Though the bones of this skeleton show no damage, an elven knife (30) was found inside the ribcage. It is our opinion that it is likely the body had died as a result of the injuries inflicted by the blade, and that the blade, buried inside the body, likely had gone unnoticed by the party responsible for burial.
Placement of the bones indicates a shared burial; the two skeletons had been laid side-by-side, with their hands placed on top of each other.
30: Obsidian knife, 12 cm in length and 4 cm in width. Found resting inside the ribcage of an orcish skeleton (29). It is engraved with writing in Sindarin. Only one word, believed to be “aurë” (S. day ) is still legible.
31: Bone fragment: partial right radius with attached carpal fragments. The bone is damaged on both ends. On the medial end, bone has been severed four inches above the wrist, likely while the body had still been living: splinter patterns indicate a relatively crude, blunt weapon, implying the amputation had relied largely on brute force. On the lateral end, adjacent to the remaining carpal fragments, the bone appears to have been drilled into. The drilling indicates a highly precise, surgical procedure; the drilling site would have been very near vital blood vessels, and a high level of skill would have been necessary to avoid killing the subject. When the bone fragment was found, a thin rod of unknown metal had been driven through the hole, attached to an eight-link chain; the bone had broken during extraction attempts and detached from the rod. Neither the rod nor the chain could be removed from rock formations on the ocean floor by divers.
The bone is unusually large (radial length estimated at minimum 38cm, though exact measurement impossible due to degradation of bone). Size and elongated shape indicate a probable elven origin, though further testing may be needed to confirm. Age and damage of the sample have made attempts at DNA extraction unviable. 3
32: Chiseled stone toy. The toy depicts a humanoid figure consisting of two spheres stacked atop each other. A smiling face with upturned lips and large eyes is carved into the top circle; indentations as feet have been made on the bottom. Two prongs protrude from the head; these may be meant to represent ears, horns, or hair.
This figure has proved particularly hard to categorize. The protruding ears may indicate an elven origin. The relative crudeness of the features of the face suggests orcish make. The style of the carving, meanwhile, is reminiscent of artifacts recovered from contemporary human settlements.
(1) Field tests inconclusive; currently awaiting results of off-site testing. return to text
(2) Found supine with arms crossed over chest. return to text
(3) That any bone should remain intact for years (let alone centuries) in such an environment is highly unusual. Further study of this phenomenon is necessary; at present we can only hypothesize the cause to be some form of hyper-preservation common in elven remains, or perhaps an effect of the unknown black metal. return to text