page_title: Battle of Visby
section_title: Archaeological excavation
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Visby / Archaeological excavation
caption_attribution_description: English: Disenterred bodies at Korsbetningen mass grave in Visby during the excavation in 1905 led by Dr Wennersten and master builder Nils Pettersson.
context_page_description: The Battle of Visby was fought in 1361 near the town of Visby on the island of Gotland, between the forces of the Danish king and the Gutnish country yeomen. The Danish force was victorious.
context_section_description: The first archeological excavations were done in 1905, led by Oscar Wilhelm Wennersten and master builder Nils Pettersson at the place now known as Korsbetningen in Visby, where the first mass grave from the battle was found. The excavation also revealed the location of the Solberga Abbey. It showed that at least a third of the Gotlandic army consisted of minors and elderly. Many of the dead defenders were, unusually, buried in their armour; according to historian John Keegan "...hot weather and their great number (about 2,000 bodies were disinterred six hundred years later) defeated the efforts of the victors to strip them before decomposition began". The site of the excavation "yielded one of the most fearsome revelations of a medieval battle known to archaeologists".
  Five mass-graves were located outside the city's walls.
caption: The mass grave at Korsbetningen during the 1905 excavation.
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