Executions and centralised organisation at Stora Tuna in Dalecarlia during post-Viking times: New analyses of human remains from the Kyrkskolan site

When construction started on a new school at Stora Tuna, Dalecarlia, almost 100 years ago, skeletal remains of sixteen people were found. Several had been executed and some showed clear traces of decapitation. The newspapers immediately linked this remarkable find to political opponents executed at the site by King Gustav I in 1528. This story stuck. In 2016 the local historical society transferred the bones to the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm. In this connection, new analyses were carried out whose results tell a completely different story: of power and centralised organisation hundreds of years before King Gustav's day.