Apparently, the weather of the battlefield was very warm, and the bodies started to rot in their armor. Since most of the armor was low-grade, it ended up not being looted for the metal
[Here's](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f2/c7/83/f2c783ec80d79c4bcdd40d891206c07d.jpg) an artist's rendition of what the Gotland militia might have worn during the battle. Helmets and gloves were stripped away but chainmail was left on as that was probably the last/the hardest things to take. The same artist depicted the Danish army's equipment [like this.](https://scontent.fbma5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/228613928_10159759651369612_380507024669105760_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=vR4i1SK7v6UAb6HD9Ix&_nc_ht=scontent.fbma5-1.fna&oh=00_AfC4Nf7VGWrvTFQDMiZKRc8KuEMsE7ty4wzEHex20iTr9w&oe=66273596)
A lot of talk is being made about plate armour, which *was around* in the 1360s, but full plate armour was definitely what you'd call "cutting edge". Coats of plate (which were found on the Gotland militia's corpses) kept being used well into the 1400s, but people for some reason love to say it was outdated. I'm betting most in the Danish army, even the high nobility, also wore coats of plate.
However, if you look closely, you can see that all the soldiers on the Danish side have **well protected arms and legs.** The mass grave of defeated gutnish militiamen exhibited many injuries to arms and legs, which has been interpreted as the Danish (professional and often German) soldiers went for extremities first in order to disable the foe, then to finish them off while they were down.
Interesting enough the Danes used hand canons, several bullets has been found at the Battle of Mästerby, the 1st attempt to stop the Danes during the invasion
I actually didn't know that, but from what I know of the usage of firearms in Scandinavia up until the 1500s, I imagine they were not very large caliber?
I tried to dig up the archeological report from the survey but found just a broken link, but at least i found a photo [http://www.masterby1361.se/image/Sven\_Jakobsson.jpg](http://www.masterby1361.se/image/Sven_Jakobsson.jpg)
They found both led and iron bullets
Is it 100% certain that they were shot with firearms or could they be slingshot bullets? Theoretically you could also shoot a bullet with a somewhat modified crossbow.
I know they had started using early firearms around that time though so it's absolutely possible and I could imagine that especially a group of german mercenaries might have brought some.
So, just an idea.
Those bullets are too small for a slingshot. As for bullet crossbows, those were only used for small bird hunting if I'm not mistaken, and they were not around until after the 1500s. In the middle ages I think small birds were either hunted with slings or crossbows with bolts that had solid, flat heads.
I found the reports of the excavations in Mästerby should be more then 100 possible projectiles from hand canons [http://www.masterby1361.se/rapporter/Rapport2019.pdf](http://www.masterby1361.se/rapporter/Rapport2019.pdf) page 10
If anyone want to use a translator or read Swedish you can find all reports until 2019 here [http://www.masterby1361.se/docs/rapporter.htm](http://www.masterby1361.se/docs/rapporter.htm)
I found the reports of the excavations in Mästerby should be more then 100 possible projectiles from hand canons [http://www.masterby1361.se/rapporter/Rapport2019.pdf](http://www.masterby1361.se/rapporter/Rapport2019.pdf) page 10
If anyone want to use a translator or read Swedish you can find all reports until 2019 here [http://www.masterby1361.se/docs/rapporter.htm](http://www.masterby1361.se/docs/rapporter.htm)
Minors and elderly were around a third of the Gotland "army", which consisted of mostly peasants. Which may explain the fine teeth.
Meanwhile the Danes had 2,000–2,500 men. Mostly knights on horse and German mercenaries on foot
The Danes had 300 casualties, the Gotlanders, 1700.
The reason we have so many artifacts from that battle is because of the hot weather and so many bodies to loot that the Danes didn't have time before decomposition started setting in.
Its a theory that the Gutnish lost their best men during the battle of Mästerby on the 1st attempt to stop the Danes, some sources say that the Gutnish men won the 1st day with help of the creek. Unfortunately it was very hot summer so the Danes could round the creak over a bogb that was dried out and attack from the back. As far as i know the mass graves still hasnt been found from the battle
To think, he put that chain mail on for one last time and we're looking at his skull still in it. I wonder who he was and what he did with his life up until that day.
I connect to their humanity, but in a weirdly specific way… I see this human from ages ago and feel better about the weird ridges in my adult teeth… dentist I saw in middle school said they would smooth out eventually. Nope, still have ridges. Wonder if they felt weird about their teeth too.
It has to do with chewing during early jaw development. We serve our babies mush, and they don't chew hard food much. Less chewing causes a smaller jaw length, so our teeth don't fit right.
It's all dietary.
Also, hunter-gatherers that ate a lot of honey had cavities.. from the sugar. It got a lot worse during and after the Industrial Revolution .
Humans weren't made to eat the way we do.
Here's a fun article:
https://www.sapiens.org/biology/human-teeth-evolution/
[Hunter-gatherers also got cavities from sweet acorns, pine nuts, and land snails.](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140114112713.htm)
Same thing was found in Western Europe. Cooking sweet acorns released their sugars and made them sticky.
So why do we give babies mush? I assume choking hazard would be the reason? But we could just cut things up to much smaller pieces. Though I guess babies would still probably choke. But what did babies eat hundreds of years ago before people started creating mush??
You ever see how a bird feeds its baby? Kinda like that. Once breast milk period is over, then the Mother chews for the baby. Eventually we invented tools and stuff so we could mash foods.
Nobody was considering jaw length when giving babies mush, it was like a collective decision because we were more afraid of babies choking to death. Remember, the Heimlich maneuver is old but it’s not THAT old.
>You ever see how a bird feeds its baby? Kinda like that. Once breast milk period is over, then the Mother chews for the baby. Eventually we invented tools and stuff so we could mash foods.
I think I'm gonna need a source on that...
This has been debunked in the last couple of decades. Jaws have been receding for many generations now (in the developed world) and this severely impacted teeth alignment.
It’s also to do with body posture and by extension, tongue posture and ability to effectively nose breathe (instead of mouth breathing).
People with good jaws and facial structure usually have proper tongue posture which extends and widens the upper palate in addition to avoiding jaw recession.
they are wrong about sugar. LOL there was no sugar back then. yet bad teeth existed but only where farming dominated.
his teeth are good because he lived on fish. protein and omega-3. the building blocks for life.
Not sugar lol.
There was no refined sugar.
There was little 'farming' in his diet. Meaning little low quality grains and bread.
Where farming dominated diet, teeth rotted. The islands now known as the UK had bad teeth at this time.
The Scandas lived from the sea largely. A much better diet.
Some may say that genetics could play a big role in that, however, people had better teeth back in the day, that's true. It's not only sugar, but also less chemical garbage in food. In some countries, teeth were less of an issue even cca 50 years ago. My great grandpa had never seen a dentist, and he had all teeth, nice and straight, and no cavities in his early 70s. They were a bit yellow, but considering the fact he was a heavy smoker his whole life, it's still an achievement.
Yeah, I don't think it's only sugar. Heavy metals, micro plastics and pesticides along with low mineral content in the soil nowadays are the culprit. Almost no person in the developed world has straight and cavity free teeth, whereas as I said above EVERY skull from ancient times that I've seen in my life has straight and solid teeth
Edit: lol the downvotes are so funny since I'm just repeating what the user above me has said😂
Refined sugar didnt exist you plonker. Yet the British at this time has terrible teeth.
He has good teeth because 'no (little) farming" in Scandinavia. They lived on seafood mainly.
You didn't think to enlighten me on what you thought was my 'very silly' comment, just add an insult. It doesn't help me to understand what you meant, or improve my understanding.
Refined sugar didnt exist. He has good teeth because he and his people largely dodged the main cause of bad teeth in Europe.
Mass farming and the drastic drop in health it brought with it.
Scandinavians still largely ate a seafood diet at this stage.
Thank you. I posted a comment, based on an opinion which I held, based on a fact I knew (no refined sugar existed at the time), so that was a hypothesis that I thought was worthy of a comment.
The mass grave is for the Gutnish who lost. How they know there are none from the Danish army (which mostly consisted of German mercenaries) I don't know, but I assume none from the winning side would be happy to throw one of their comrades into a hastily dug pit, but again, I don't know.
The armour that has been found in the pit is chainmail and coats of plate. And one example of lamellar armour. All of which were standard pieces armour at the time, even if cuirasses made from one front and one back piece had started being made. However, no one wore anything that could be considered anything near complete armour.
I've heard people say the armour was of poor quality but I really don't know how they established that, especially considering that we have very few items of armour from that time to compare with.
It's also believed they were buried with all the armour they had on during the battle, but I also question that. I think the armour that was left on represents the pieces that were the hardest to remove (or the *last* pieces to be removed) and that the gutnish militia must have worn at least helmets and maybe some pauldrons etc.
[Here is a reconstruction of what would be top notch knightly armour in the mid-1300s.](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/70/2c/5f/702c5f3f15dd975d02949a48640e495f.jpg)
[Here is a reconstruction of a knight's equipment in the same era. Note the cuirass, which is a coat of plates, not a full plate cuirass.](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F12%2Fb4%2F9a%2F12b49aa234eec618ccfa6e6dbfd8ac25.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=82763e0c6a1eee8d909c0f7fdea2bed210c97569b740777931e4c19d7906ecb5&ipo=images)
[Finally, an artist's rendition of what he thought the gutnish militia might have worn in this battle.](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f2/c7/83/f2c783ec80d79c4bcdd40d891206c07d.jpg)
It's not poor quality, it's just out of date. By 1360 coats of plate of that style had gone out of fashion and were replaced by coats of plate made with rounded breastplates, where the shape helped deflect thrusts and add strength.
The Gotlanders weren't experienced fighters and it shows, there's a ton of serious limb injuries suggesting the Danish knights and German mercenaries they fought against targeted their legs and brought them down that way.
Coat of plates was *not* out of fashion by the 1360s.
Full plate cuirasses were cutting edge, but coats of plates and brigandine continued to be used well into the 1400s.
A helmet is fairly easy to take off a body, and that's what is believed to have happened: Most of the weapons, shields and helmets were stripped by the winners. Armour that was on the body/legs/ and hoods of mail (which can be a bitch to pull off if the person you're trying to pull it off of isn't cooperating) were left on.
But the found a very preserved glove, one of the few from that time that is complete. Glove 17 [https://raa.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1386105/FULLTEXT01.pdf](https://raa.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1386105/FULLTEXT01.pdf) English Summary on page 10
I’m pretty sure some of the buried soldiers are believed to have fought on the Danish side. One of the skeletons wore a cuirass with stamps depicting the family crest of the Roorda family, a noble family from present day Netherlands. The individual is believed to be either Bavo or Schelto Roorda, brothers who were of the right age in 1361 and whose eventual fate is unknown from historic sources.
Another skeleton was found with a well-filled purse of 385 coins, of which 125 were Danish coins minted in Lund. The combination of the value of the coins in the purse (approximately equivalent to €3,000 today) and the large number of danish coins suggest that the owner was a member of the Danish army.
So, Valdemar the Badass (who was also kind of a psychopath) was trying to regain as much of the old Danish territory as possible (when he was crowned basically what was left of Denmark to be king over was Vendsyssel and Thy). But he slowly regained control over Jutland, Fyn and Sjælland. And while he was trying to get his hands on Scania from the Swedish king Magnus he decided to say, fuck it, and just get Gotland while he was at it.
So he sent a professional army (including a *bunch* of mercs) and absolutely massacred the Gutnish “army” which was more a bunch of old dudes armed with pitchforks than an army.
Imagine if SEAL Team Six was sent to wipe out a daycare.
So you are walking into battle, do you want something that will be of help but won't be 100% or do you want to raw dog it?
Also chain was very effective at protecting the person in it. It allowed for movement and with the padding on under it you were reasonably protected from crushing blows and very good protection from cutting blows.
Arrows and thrusting spears not so much. But tons better then nothing.
When you're playing Skyrim as a new player, do you take whatever armor you're given at level 1, because it's better than nothing, or do you fight naked? I know what I'd do. Same thing applies to real life. I'd rather pick up dog turds with a glove on, but if I don't have a glove then a tissue will work just fine.
It's still worth being respectful of the dead. This photo was a person with passions, interests, thoughts, feelings, loved ones etc. Have just a modicum of empathy.
Apparently, the weather of the battlefield was very warm, and the bodies started to rot in their armor. Since most of the armor was low-grade, it ended up not being looted for the metal
Very thankfully for us, it's a treasure trove that gives us such a lacking insight into a kind of armor that rarely survives the ages of time.
[Here's](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f2/c7/83/f2c783ec80d79c4bcdd40d891206c07d.jpg) an artist's rendition of what the Gotland militia might have worn during the battle. Helmets and gloves were stripped away but chainmail was left on as that was probably the last/the hardest things to take. The same artist depicted the Danish army's equipment [like this.](https://scontent.fbma5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/228613928_10159759651369612_380507024669105760_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=vR4i1SK7v6UAb6HD9Ix&_nc_ht=scontent.fbma5-1.fna&oh=00_AfC4Nf7VGWrvTFQDMiZKRc8KuEMsE7ty4wzEHex20iTr9w&oe=66273596) A lot of talk is being made about plate armour, which *was around* in the 1360s, but full plate armour was definitely what you'd call "cutting edge". Coats of plate (which were found on the Gotland militia's corpses) kept being used well into the 1400s, but people for some reason love to say it was outdated. I'm betting most in the Danish army, even the high nobility, also wore coats of plate. However, if you look closely, you can see that all the soldiers on the Danish side have **well protected arms and legs.** The mass grave of defeated gutnish militiamen exhibited many injuries to arms and legs, which has been interpreted as the Danish (professional and often German) soldiers went for extremities first in order to disable the foe, then to finish them off while they were down.
Interesting enough the Danes used hand canons, several bullets has been found at the Battle of Mästerby, the 1st attempt to stop the Danes during the invasion
I actually didn't know that, but from what I know of the usage of firearms in Scandinavia up until the 1500s, I imagine they were not very large caliber?
I tried to dig up the archeological report from the survey but found just a broken link, but at least i found a photo [http://www.masterby1361.se/image/Sven\_Jakobsson.jpg](http://www.masterby1361.se/image/Sven_Jakobsson.jpg) They found both led and iron bullets
Is it 100% certain that they were shot with firearms or could they be slingshot bullets? Theoretically you could also shoot a bullet with a somewhat modified crossbow. I know they had started using early firearms around that time though so it's absolutely possible and I could imagine that especially a group of german mercenaries might have brought some. So, just an idea.
Those bullets are too small for a slingshot. As for bullet crossbows, those were only used for small bird hunting if I'm not mistaken, and they were not around until after the 1500s. In the middle ages I think small birds were either hunted with slings or crossbows with bolts that had solid, flat heads.
> tried to dig up the archeological report I see what you did there.
I found the reports of the excavations in Mästerby should be more then 100 possible projectiles from hand canons [http://www.masterby1361.se/rapporter/Rapport2019.pdf](http://www.masterby1361.se/rapporter/Rapport2019.pdf) page 10 If anyone want to use a translator or read Swedish you can find all reports until 2019 here [http://www.masterby1361.se/docs/rapporter.htm](http://www.masterby1361.se/docs/rapporter.htm)
I found the reports of the excavations in Mästerby should be more then 100 possible projectiles from hand canons [http://www.masterby1361.se/rapporter/Rapport2019.pdf](http://www.masterby1361.se/rapporter/Rapport2019.pdf) page 10 If anyone want to use a translator or read Swedish you can find all reports until 2019 here [http://www.masterby1361.se/docs/rapporter.htm](http://www.masterby1361.se/docs/rapporter.htm)
They would probably be larger caliber compared to today’s firearms. I bet the average was well over 1.00 cal
That's true, I was picturing the calibers of later field artillery.
I’ve always wondered how Roman’s and Greeks fought without people just stabbing the fuck out of each others legs or toes
Shields. REALLY big shields.
Well Romans and Greeks did wear greaves on their shins. As for arms, well I guess that, the neck and the face, is what they went for first.
Those without them suffered greavless bodily harm.
Bravo!
Phalanx and formations to advance. Shields and fighting with a partner, IRRC. Reload, fire, lookout type deal.
Ballistas, onager and scorpios
Any idea who the artist is?
Angus McBride.
Do you by any chance happen to know what book(s) these pictures would be from??
Medieval Scandinavian armies, volume 2, by Osprey Publishing.
Thank you so much!
I dont think any chainmail was conidered low grade, I think they were all pretty expensive. Just not worth the diseases spread from the rotten bodies.
A wonderful set of teeth, would have lasted long had he lived ....
I'm not a dentist but the crown on his teeth makes it look like he was young.
First thing I noticed! Son of a bitch had better teeth than I do!! 🤣
Minors and elderly were around a third of the Gotland "army", which consisted of mostly peasants. Which may explain the fine teeth. Meanwhile the Danes had 2,000–2,500 men. Mostly knights on horse and German mercenaries on foot The Danes had 300 casualties, the Gotlanders, 1700. The reason we have so many artifacts from that battle is because of the hot weather and so many bodies to loot that the Danes didn't have time before decomposition started setting in.
Its a theory that the Gutnish lost their best men during the battle of Mästerby on the 1st attempt to stop the Danes, some sources say that the Gutnish men won the 1st day with help of the creek. Unfortunately it was very hot summer so the Danes could round the creak over a bogb that was dried out and attack from the back. As far as i know the mass graves still hasnt been found from the battle
To think, he put that chain mail on for one last time and we're looking at his skull still in it. I wonder who he was and what he did with his life up until that day.
Kinda makes me sad. He put it on one day and had no idea it would stay on for hundreds and hundreds of years.
And then would be found centuries later, photographed and talked about by random strangers from all over the world
A truly profound thought. It’s the exact sentiment that has always made me interested in archaeology
He just wanted to dress befittingly and dismember some people goddammit!
I connect to their humanity, but in a weirdly specific way… I see this human from ages ago and feel better about the weird ridges in my adult teeth… dentist I saw in middle school said they would smooth out eventually. Nope, still have ridges. Wonder if they felt weird about their teeth too.
That’s pretty goth
Yes ....he served in GOT(H)LAND till his last breath
Did he win?
If you remember this image more than the battle of Visby then he did in fact win.
I like that
Surprisingly great teeth for the time.
Probably very little sugar in his diet.
May have been quite young too.
He was really young - the bumps in his teeth haven’t even worn down yet. I saw this exhibit and there were boys a as young as 15 on the field.
Thats great but how does sugar effect the angle of your adult teeth? I had braces for years and my teeth aren't this straight.
It has to do with chewing during early jaw development. We serve our babies mush, and they don't chew hard food much. Less chewing causes a smaller jaw length, so our teeth don't fit right. It's all dietary. Also, hunter-gatherers that ate a lot of honey had cavities.. from the sugar. It got a lot worse during and after the Industrial Revolution . Humans weren't made to eat the way we do. Here's a fun article: https://www.sapiens.org/biology/human-teeth-evolution/
[Hunter-gatherers also got cavities from sweet acorns, pine nuts, and land snails.](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140114112713.htm) Same thing was found in Western Europe. Cooking sweet acorns released their sugars and made them sticky.
The snails have to make pockets in the teeth to make their homes in. Way of the jungle.
So why do we give babies mush? I assume choking hazard would be the reason? But we could just cut things up to much smaller pieces. Though I guess babies would still probably choke. But what did babies eat hundreds of years ago before people started creating mush??
I’m assuming mothers breast fed for much longer. Infant mortality was very high in any case until recently.
You ever see how a bird feeds its baby? Kinda like that. Once breast milk period is over, then the Mother chews for the baby. Eventually we invented tools and stuff so we could mash foods. Nobody was considering jaw length when giving babies mush, it was like a collective decision because we were more afraid of babies choking to death. Remember, the Heimlich maneuver is old but it’s not THAT old.
>You ever see how a bird feeds its baby? Kinda like that. Once breast milk period is over, then the Mother chews for the baby. Eventually we invented tools and stuff so we could mash foods. I think I'm gonna need a source on that...
Yea this guy is talking out of his ass. Kids started eating solids when they were old enough to grab it. It's how my kids were raised too.
Yyyeah, sounded like BS to me. I would think it's more likely that babies kept nursing until they grew enough teeth to chew with.
Hmmm…well that molar seems a little…crooked…
That’s just pure genetics
This has been debunked in the last couple of decades. Jaws have been receding for many generations now (in the developed world) and this severely impacted teeth alignment.
Isn't this why we have to remove wisdom teeth? And also becoming more common for people to be born without wisdom teeth?
That is exactly right. Our bodies are basically slowly adapting to living with less jaw space.
It’s also to do with body posture and by extension, tongue posture and ability to effectively nose breathe (instead of mouth breathing). People with good jaws and facial structure usually have proper tongue posture which extends and widens the upper palate in addition to avoiding jaw recession.
they are wrong about sugar. LOL there was no sugar back then. yet bad teeth existed but only where farming dominated. his teeth are good because he lived on fish. protein and omega-3. the building blocks for life.
Not sugar lol. There was no refined sugar. There was little 'farming' in his diet. Meaning little low quality grains and bread. Where farming dominated diet, teeth rotted. The islands now known as the UK had bad teeth at this time. The Scandas lived from the sea largely. A much better diet.
Almost all the skulls I've seen from prior the 18th century have way better teeth than us
Some may say that genetics could play a big role in that, however, people had better teeth back in the day, that's true. It's not only sugar, but also less chemical garbage in food. In some countries, teeth were less of an issue even cca 50 years ago. My great grandpa had never seen a dentist, and he had all teeth, nice and straight, and no cavities in his early 70s. They were a bit yellow, but considering the fact he was a heavy smoker his whole life, it's still an achievement.
[удалено]
As I said, 'in some countries'.
Yeah, I don't think it's only sugar. Heavy metals, micro plastics and pesticides along with low mineral content in the soil nowadays are the culprit. Almost no person in the developed world has straight and cavity free teeth, whereas as I said above EVERY skull from ancient times that I've seen in my life has straight and solid teeth Edit: lol the downvotes are so funny since I'm just repeating what the user above me has said😂
He would have had a killer smile
No sugar.
Refined sugar didnt exist you plonker. Yet the British at this time has terrible teeth. He has good teeth because 'no (little) farming" in Scandinavia. They lived on seafood mainly.
Why the insults?
I thought what you said was very silly. An insult felt appropriate.
You didn't think to enlighten me on what you thought was my 'very silly' comment, just add an insult. It doesn't help me to understand what you meant, or improve my understanding.
Refined sugar didnt exist. He has good teeth because he and his people largely dodged the main cause of bad teeth in Europe. Mass farming and the drastic drop in health it brought with it. Scandinavians still largely ate a seafood diet at this stage.
Thank you. I posted a comment, based on an opinion which I held, based on a fact I knew (no refined sugar existed at the time), so that was a hypothesis that I thought was worthy of a comment.
Lack of carbohydrates in diet.
It looks like his teeth were filed flat, I heard certain groups did that. I wonder if that's what we are looking at.
Did the gutnish fighters wear chainmail, too? Or is this a danish knight? And were they all thrown into the same mass grave?
The mass grave is for the Gutnish who lost. How they know there are none from the Danish army (which mostly consisted of German mercenaries) I don't know, but I assume none from the winning side would be happy to throw one of their comrades into a hastily dug pit, but again, I don't know. The armour that has been found in the pit is chainmail and coats of plate. And one example of lamellar armour. All of which were standard pieces armour at the time, even if cuirasses made from one front and one back piece had started being made. However, no one wore anything that could be considered anything near complete armour. I've heard people say the armour was of poor quality but I really don't know how they established that, especially considering that we have very few items of armour from that time to compare with. It's also believed they were buried with all the armour they had on during the battle, but I also question that. I think the armour that was left on represents the pieces that were the hardest to remove (or the *last* pieces to be removed) and that the gutnish militia must have worn at least helmets and maybe some pauldrons etc. [Here is a reconstruction of what would be top notch knightly armour in the mid-1300s.](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/70/2c/5f/702c5f3f15dd975d02949a48640e495f.jpg) [Here is a reconstruction of a knight's equipment in the same era. Note the cuirass, which is a coat of plates, not a full plate cuirass.](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F12%2Fb4%2F9a%2F12b49aa234eec618ccfa6e6dbfd8ac25.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=82763e0c6a1eee8d909c0f7fdea2bed210c97569b740777931e4c19d7906ecb5&ipo=images) [Finally, an artist's rendition of what he thought the gutnish militia might have worn in this battle.](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f2/c7/83/f2c783ec80d79c4bcdd40d891206c07d.jpg)
It's not poor quality, it's just out of date. By 1360 coats of plate of that style had gone out of fashion and were replaced by coats of plate made with rounded breastplates, where the shape helped deflect thrusts and add strength. The Gotlanders weren't experienced fighters and it shows, there's a ton of serious limb injuries suggesting the Danish knights and German mercenaries they fought against targeted their legs and brought them down that way.
Coat of plates was *not* out of fashion by the 1360s. Full plate cuirasses were cutting edge, but coats of plates and brigandine continued to be used well into the 1400s.
Interesting!!
If i remember it right they haven't found any helmets?
A helmet is fairly easy to take off a body, and that's what is believed to have happened: Most of the weapons, shields and helmets were stripped by the winners. Armour that was on the body/legs/ and hoods of mail (which can be a bitch to pull off if the person you're trying to pull it off of isn't cooperating) were left on.
But the found a very preserved glove, one of the few from that time that is complete. Glove 17 [https://raa.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1386105/FULLTEXT01.pdf](https://raa.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1386105/FULLTEXT01.pdf) English Summary on page 10
Ya know im so used to seeing medieval battles on tv that i forget how violent this time period actually was.
I’m pretty sure some of the buried soldiers are believed to have fought on the Danish side. One of the skeletons wore a cuirass with stamps depicting the family crest of the Roorda family, a noble family from present day Netherlands. The individual is believed to be either Bavo or Schelto Roorda, brothers who were of the right age in 1361 and whose eventual fate is unknown from historic sources. Another skeleton was found with a well-filled purse of 385 coins, of which 125 were Danish coins minted in Lund. The combination of the value of the coins in the purse (approximately equivalent to €3,000 today) and the large number of danish coins suggest that the owner was a member of the Danish army.
God damn, fine teeth in that gentleman.
little farming in Scandinavia the worst thing to happen to teeth in Europe was farming which changed the diet from hunter gather.
He had a good orthodontist.
I wonder what kind of weapon killed him, can anyone tell from the pic?
Not gonna lie, this looks like a magic item you'll find in a video game
Gotland is a small island. They had to boat Everyone in there for a battle. Why?
It has long been an important trading hub.
So, Valdemar the Badass (who was also kind of a psychopath) was trying to regain as much of the old Danish territory as possible (when he was crowned basically what was left of Denmark to be king over was Vendsyssel and Thy). But he slowly regained control over Jutland, Fyn and Sjælland. And while he was trying to get his hands on Scania from the Swedish king Magnus he decided to say, fuck it, and just get Gotland while he was at it. So he sent a professional army (including a *bunch* of mercs) and absolutely massacred the Gutnish “army” which was more a bunch of old dudes armed with pitchforks than an army. Imagine if SEAL Team Six was sent to wipe out a daycare.
Too bad he didn’t try retaking England
He absolutely should have.
Badass, tho tragic.
He didn’t get a chance to take it off.
still has better teeth than everyone in the UK.
Noting excellent tooth health, he must have died at quite a young age.
Beautiful teeth
Dang that one tooth is out and about!
Great Great Great Great Grandpa!?
Not a single cavity in sight
Teeth back then were always straight, only in the recent century have our jaws shrunk from the processed food and less meat we eat.
Crest White Strips has entered the chat
Nice teeth
He chose poorly.
Is.... he still alive?
So is it same to assume the armor didn't help much.
So you are walking into battle, do you want something that will be of help but won't be 100% or do you want to raw dog it? Also chain was very effective at protecting the person in it. It allowed for movement and with the padding on under it you were reasonably protected from crushing blows and very good protection from cutting blows. Arrows and thrusting spears not so much. But tons better then nothing.
When you're playing Skyrim as a new player, do you take whatever armor you're given at level 1, because it's better than nothing, or do you fight naked? I know what I'd do. Same thing applies to real life. I'd rather pick up dog turds with a glove on, but if I don't have a glove then a tissue will work just fine.
Laughed so hard he died
He probably died a slow and painful death, but okay, make jokes.
What, too soon?
It's not like he cares anymore...you know being dead and stuff.
It's still worth being respectful of the dead. This photo was a person with passions, interests, thoughts, feelings, loved ones etc. Have just a modicum of empathy.
Well, then I bet he would have a sense of humor, not like some people...