A paper just came in about Tollense: we are looking at visitors from the Alps, marching north to hit this region. We'd already sussed as much from the genetics (where researchers let us see 'em): some I2 from south Europe others R1a-b from Da Steppe.
This study is looking at the (thousands) of arrows fired. 3/4 of them are of type 4A and 5A/B which are "Period III" in graves of Mecklenburg and Pòmòrskô... close to the valley. The paper argues that 5A/B are indeed indigenous. But 4A are foreign - nasty barbed bastids, from the south (if they had northern ancestry, they'd forgotten it). The paper presents Behringersdorf Bronze Age D burial #5 as a snapshot in how such a (Bavarian Celtic) invader was equipped.
Someone had impressed some porters: their employers are probably the invaders. Someone was assuredly rich enough, with silk and your classic LBA Phoenician glass-beads (proper glasswork won't happen until Rome). This battle was a bid for the Baltic amber-trade.
As for the locals I assume they were protoLusatian. It may be that the locals were the rich folk, taking the trade from the sea and not overland.
So... who won? Given that no Celtic was spoken here when the Historical Record opens up, which was a German Futhark record alongside lots o' West Prussian: the locals won. They appear not to have treated the porters with mercy; which is telling me, the porters were hoping to displace the locals and colonise the place. The Germans would try the same trick later.
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