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Gotland (; ,〔() Svenska Akademiens ordlista, 6 February 2013〕 older spellings include Gottland or Gothland ,〔()〕), ''Gutland'' in the local language 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 57,221,〔(Statistics Sweden (as of December 31, 2009) )〕 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, IT solutions, 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. == History == The island is the home of the Gutes (the tribal name of the Gotlandic people), and sites such as Ajvide show that it has been occupied since prehistory.〔Outram, A. K. 2006. Distinguishing bone fat exploitation from other taphonomic processes: what caused the high level of bone fragmentation at the Middle Neolithic site of Ajvide, Gotland?, pp. 32-43. In Mulville, J and Outram, A (eds). ''The Zooarchaeology of Milk and Fats''. Oxford: Oxbow Books.〕 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.〔(DNA study published in nature.com on April 26, 2012. Pontus Skoglund on prehistoric Gotlanders: ''"The hunter-gatherers show the greatest similarity to modern-day Finns."'' )〕 The region is considered by some historians to be the original homeland of the Goths.〔See Goths and Scandza for more information on this matter.〕 Early on, Gotland became a commercial center, with the town of Visby the most important Hanseatic city in the Baltic Sea. In late medieval times, the island had twenty district courts (tings), each represented by its elected judge at the island-ting, called ''landsting''. New laws were decided at the landsting, which also took other decisions regarding the island as a whole. Among medieval Scandinavian accounts discussing or mentioning Gotland are Gutasaga and the more legendary Hversu Noregr byggdist〔(Hversu Noregr byggdist ). See also (original text ).〕 and Orkneyinga saga.〔(Orkneyinga saga ). See also (original text ).〕 Orkneyinga saga was written around 1200 CE by an unknown Icelandic author. The Hversu account is only known to have survived in one single copy in Icelandic Flateyjarbók from 1387 CE, but may have been written earlier. According to Orkneyinga saga, Norwegian rulers were descendants of king Fornjót who ''"reigned over Gotland, which we now know as Finland and Kvenland"''. The Hversu account states that a descendant of Fornjót ''"ruled over Gothland, Kvenland (Kænlandi), and Finland"''.〔 Gutasaga contains legends of how the island was settled by Þieluar and populated by his descendants. It also tells that a third of the population had to emigrate and settle in southern Europe, a tradition associated with the migration of the Goths, whose name has the same origin as ''Gutes'', the native name of the people of the island. It later tells that the Gutes voluntarily submitted to the king of Sweden and asserts that the submission was based on mutual agreement, and notes the duties and obligations of the Swedish King and Bishop in relationship to Gotland. According to some historians it is therefore not only an effort to write down the history of Gotland, but also an effort to assert Gotland's independence from Sweden. It gives Awair Strabain as the name of the man who arranged the mutually beneficial agreement with the king of Sweden; the event would have taken place before the end of the 9th century, when Wulfstan of Hedeby reported that the island was subject to the Swedes: The city of Visby and rest of the island were governed separately, and a civil war caused by conflicts between the German merchants in Visby and the peasants they traded with in the countryside had to be put down by King Magnus III of Sweden in 1288. In 1361, Valdemar Atterdag of Denmark invaded the island. The Victual Brothers occupied the island in 1394 to set up a stronghold as a headquarters of their own in Visby. At last, Gotland became a fief of the Teutonic Knights, awarded to them on the condition that they expel the piratical Victual Brothers from their fortified sanctuary.〔 An invading army of Teutonic Knights conquered the island in 1398, destroying Visby and driving the Victual Brothers from Gotland. In 1409 Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen of the Teutonic Knights guaranteed peace with the Kalmar Union of Scandinavia by selling the island of Gotland to Queen Margaret of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.〔 The number of Arab dirhams discovered on the island of Gotland alone is astoundingly high. In the various hoards located around the island, there are more of these silver coins than at any other site in Western Eurasia. The total sum is almost as great as the number that has been unearthed in the entire Muslim world. These coins moved north through trade between Rus merchants and the Abbasid Caliphate, along the Silver-Fur Road, and the money made by Scandinavian merchants would help northern Europe, especially Viking Scandinavia and the Carolingian Empire, as major commercial centers for the next several centuries. The Berezan' Runestone, discovered in 1905 in Ukraine, was made by a Varangian (Viking) trader named Grani in memory of his business partner Karl. It is assumed that they were from Gotland. The Mästermyr chest, an important artefact from the Viking Age, was found in Gotland. The authority of the landsting was successively eroded after the island was occupied by the Teutonic Order, then sold to Eric of Pomerania and after 1449 ruled by Danish governors.〔 In late medieval times, the ting consisted of twelve representatives for the farmers, free-holders or tenants. Since the Treaty of Brömsebro in 1645, the island has remained under Swedish rule.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gotland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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