Hmm. That's actually a really interesting question. Is there such a thing as a purely physical event? I've never lived in a period of magical dormancy, and based on my personal experience, once you open up your eyes to the ways of the etheric everything starts looking a little bit mystical. But maybe I'm just bias.

Either way, I think human casualties could cause spiritual upset as they pass on to other realms. And it's also possible that a number of those artifacts could have held particular significance on the spiritual plane.

I'm going to do some reading on the subject and see what I can find. I'll try narrowing down the possibilities over here so you can analyze in peace.