Archaeogenetics shedding light on medieval society on Gotland

The project aims to make an archaeogenetic analysis of remains from the Battle of Visby, providing new knowledge about the battle itself, the societies behind the armies, and medieval society on the Baltic island of Gotland.

In 1361, many lives were lost on Gotland in the Battle of Visby between a professional Danish army and a local Gotland force armed only with primitive weapons. Most of those who died were Gotlanders, but many of the Danish occupation force also lost their lives.

Casualties were buried in mass graves at Solberga Monastery, known today as Korsbetningen. Human skeletal remains from battle casualties (1,185 people) has been excavated from three mass graves at Korsbetningen. This material has been analyzed both archaeologically and osteologically, and described in the context of medieval warfare, but no archaeogenetic analyses of the material have been conducted yet. 

The human remains from the battle will now be used to explore how armies were organized in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages and to assess general health conditions on Gotland during that period.

The researchers will conduct an in-depth archaeogenetic analysis of the mass graves at Korsbetningen by generating genomic data and applying new approaches focused on demographics, kinship, and complex diseases. Such analyses will be used to address the following questions: What was the composition of the two armies? (e.g. analyzing the demographics of each army). How was the local army recruited? Did it consist of entire families from farms, or only random Gotlanders? Were there close relatives in that army? What was the health status of medieval society on Gotland in the 14th century?

The results will deepen our understanding of the Battle of the Ring Wall, the societies behind the armies, and medieval society on Gotland - in a way never before explored in this depth in northern Europe. Additionally, by applying new techniques to ancient DNA, researchers will investigate diseases associated with the medieval lifestyle.

The project will generate a wealth of medieval genomes, which will be made available to other researchers, opening up new possibilities for future archaeogenetic and archaeological studies.