The Battle of Good Friday
A Warrior Grave from Uppsala, Sweden
Links Bone Trauma War Trauma Fort William Henry Battle of Good Friday Battle of Aljubarrota Fort Laurens Interesting Links References Contact me dontrealylcontactme@aol.com	Towards the end of the 14^th century, alliances between Norway, Sweden and Denmark caused unrest in Scandinavia. But when Denmark split from the union in the early 16^th century, violence ensued. For several decades the Swedish peasantry, led by Sten Sture, violently rose up against the Danish King Kristian II. In 1520 Sture died in battle but his peasant soldiers continued on. In the spring of that same year, the conflict climaxed at the Battle of Good Friday. On the cold and snowy day of April 6^th, Good Friday, the Swedish troops raided the Danish stronghold in the town of Uppsala, Sweden. The under-trained, rag tag farmer troops of the Swedes, with their swords and poleaxes, fought the Danish troops who were well trained mercenaries. The Swedes had success in the first hours of battle, but it wasn’t enough. By day’s end, the Danish troops who had lost close to 2,000 men had defeated the Swedes. Today it is hard to pinpoint the precise location of the battle or of the grave’s of the soldiers. But, in May 2001 skeletal remains were found during the construction of a new road. The bones were then sent in for radiocarbon dating and it was concluded that they were from the same time as the Battle of Good Friday. At present, the exact number of burials at the site is not known. However, it is believed that at least 50 burials may exist in the 200-300m area. The osteological material was put into 3 general categories: complete skeletons, articulated bones, and commingled bones. There are a total of 5,895 postcranial and 959 cranial specimens. Although analysis determined basic elements such as age, sex and stature, the focus was on sharp force trauma. When considering the affected crania, 85 blade wounds were found on 31 of 52 (60%). That’s 2.7 wounds per affected cranium! In addition, 48% of the blade wounds were found on the left side, 43% on the right side and 8% parasagittally. Postcranially, there were less blade wounds when compared with the crania. Only 11 were found on 9 different bones. They were no less severe, however. One wound, on an os coxae, was found superior to the acetabulum and actually sliced the ilium, so there must have been a great amount of force behind the blow. Also found was one man who was most likely decapitated. Both the superior and inferior sides of the vertebral body had smooth cut marks along with a severe wedge-shaped slice. In addition, no other signs of bone trauma were found. The greater distribution of cranial wounds, with the total lack of rib trauma, seems to suggest that the head was the main target in battle. Or it may just suggest that the helmets worn by the soldiers provided less protection than did their chest shields. It is also fairly easy to conclude that most, if not all of the diagnosed cranial wounds were fatal because they penetrated the neuocranium and healed trauma was very low. It is generally believed that one could determine who won the battle without being told. Collectively, the remains show almost no signs of defense wounds (Parry Fracture), a high number of posterior wounds, and the large number of horizontal cranial wounds, all suggesting that these victims were not facing their assailants and even may have been executed. Add to that the fact that the Swedes were peasants without any battle training and probably even worse equipment, and it is apparent that the bones in the graves were the Swedes.