Gotland

Story

Gotland, Gutland in the local dialect Gutnish, is a province, county, municipality, and diocese of Sweden. It is Sweden's largest island. The province includes the small islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, as well as the even smaller Karlsö Islands (Lilla and Stora) to the west. The population is 58,003, of which about 23,600 live in Visby, the main town. The island of Gotland and the other areas of the province of Gotland make up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area.The island's main sources of income are agriculture along with food processing, tourism, information technology services, design, and some heavy industry such as concrete production from locally mined limestone. From a military viewpoint, it occupies a strategic location in the Baltic sea.HistoryThe island is the home of the Gutes, and sites such as the Ajvide Settlement show that it has been occupied since prehistory. A DNA study conducted on the 5,000-year-old skeletal remains of three Middle Neolithic seal hunters from Gotland showed that they were related to modern-day Finns, while a farmer from Gökhem parish in Västergötland on the mainland was found to be more closely related to modern-day Mediterraneans. This is consistent with the spread of agricultural peoples from the Middle East at about that time.