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During the last decade, the application of strontium isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr) has increased rapidly. The understanding of the strontium isoscape and the construction of a strontium isotope baseline in southern Scandinavia are biased toward Denmark and southwestern to eastern Scania. We report the results of new baseline samples in Halland and the Bjäre Peninsula, adding to the rich strontium isotope library that exists for southern Scandinavia. We add nuance to the previous divisions of Scania, in which the Bjäre Peninsula is not well represented. The results show that the Bjäre Peninsula is characterized by relatively low 87Sr/86Sr values gathered in the preliminary baseline 0.7100 ± 0.0024 (2σ, n = 8), similar to that of southwest Scania and Zealand in Denmark. There is a greater variation and higher values among the Halland samples. Together with previously published faunal samples, a preliminary 87Sr/86Sr baseline for Halland is 0.7122 ± 0.0055 (2σ, n = 24). We apply these baseline results to archaeological cases, both human and animal, from recent excavations in the Bjäre Peninsula. The results imply that there was a certain degree of mobility and interaction across the landscape in this region of southern Scandinavia in prehistory.

In the art collection of the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome, there are six “dalmålningar” (“dala” or “kurbits” paintings) whose origin, provenance and motifs have not previously been treated in a scholarly context. In fact, their existence is probably unknown to researchers in the field. Five of the paintings are genuine “dalmålningar”, i.e. painted tapestries made in the province of Dalecarlia (central Sweden), in the area around Lake Siljan, during the 18th and 19th centuries. Four of them are by one of the most famous Dala painters, Hjelt Per Persson (1821–1886), while the fifth is a “wedding plaque” the author of which cannot be determined. The sixth and largest painting is actually a Småland tapestry painted by Per i Duvhult (1787–1862), one of the foremost representatives of the Breared school, active in the borderland between the provinces of Småland and Halland (southern Sweden). All the paintings were made during the period 1836–1840. In the article, the individual works are dealt with in turn, their motifs described and their sometimes almost illegible and fragmentary texts interpreted. How and why the paintings ended up at the Swedish Rome Institute during the Second World War is something of a mystery and the article ends with a summary of what the author has been able to find out about their provenance – and a hypothetical reconstruction of their path to Rome.

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Wind-abraded cobbles (ventifacts) and aeolian sand are known from the sandy-gravelly coastal areas of south-western Sweden, especially in association with raised deltas. Ventifacts are recorded on at least two different stratigraphic levels, at some sites atop glaciofluvial sediment, at other sites atop littoral deposits, and in some places at both levels, while aeolian sand usually forms a surficial cover. The formation of ventifacts has usually been coupled to abrasion due to katabatic winds from the retreating ice sheet or with periglacial climate during the Younger Dryas stadial (12.8–11.7 ka). To determine the timing of these deflation events, we have applied a combination of dating methods to ventifacts and associated sediments on top of an ice-contact delta at Veinge, south-western Sweden. Quartz and feldspar luminescence dating as well as portable luminescence profiling has been used for littoral and aeolian sediments over- and underlying deflation surfaces, while rock surface luminescence burial dating and paired 14C–10Be cosmogenic nuclide dating were conducted on ventifacts. The results show that a first deflation event occurred c. 16.5 ka, just after deglaciation and prior to a regional transgression that peaked around 15.7 ka. At 12.4–11.4 ka, during the Younger Dryas stadial, a new set of ventifacts formed on the surface of the exposed littoral sands and gravels. Some wind abrasion also occurred in the early Holocene, but at c. 8.5 ka the surface was covered by aeolian sand, up to 2.5 m thick. The combination of different dating methods have allowed us to draw more informed conclusions on the timing and duration of these wind abrasion/transport events than would have been possible from the use of only single-method dating. It has also made it possible to infer some environmental conditions during deposition. For example, both glaciofluvial and littoral deposits show evidence of incomplete bleaching of the luminescence signal. This suggests short subaerial transport and brief reworking by waves, respectively, though bleaching conditions improved during shore regression. Rock surface burial luminescence profiles reveal that some ventifacts were repeatedly exposed, but that later event(s) were shorter in duration as indicated by quartz-feldspar age comparisons. [Display omitted] • Wind-abraded clasts and aeolian sand occur on an ice-contact delta in SW Sweden. • Three erosional (deflation, abrasion) and one depositional event are recorded. • Luminescence and cosmogenic exposure dating place the events between 17 and 8.5 ka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article's aim is to see how 'intensities' could be used in order to understand general advancement of regional development, and as a specific conceptual tool for the development of experience-based organisational and product thinking in thin structures. The study is conducted in a creative workshop between traditional and creative industries and it involves material from participation in one of these workshops, and from an interview and survey study with entrepreneurs in the region. The result shows that mobile workshops could be an important tool for producing growth in thin geographical structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cores of peat taken from two raised bogs in the near-coastal part of Halland, SW Sweden, were examined for their content of wind-transported clastic material. The Boarps Mosse core has a length of 262 cm and covers the last 2850 years (age model based on three radiocarbon dates), while the Hyltemossen core has a length of 347 cm and records the last 7000 years (age model based on eight radiocarbon dates). The peat contains aeolian quartz silt and sand (from trace amount to more than 10 weight % of the dry peat sample), and the grain-size composition of the minerogenic sediment indicates that the material is composed of both far-travelled dust and local wind-eroded silt and sand. Grains larger than 0.2 mm are present in many intervals and probably record niveo-aeolian transport in connection with severe snowstorms. A systematic count of quartz grains between 0.2-0.35 mm and larger than 0.35 mm was carried out to determine variations in aeolian sand influx (ASI) and winter wind climate with time. The Boarps Mosse site is situated in a hilly terrain and is primarily open to southerly and northerly winds, while the Hyltemossen site is situated in a more flat landscape open to winds from most directions. Furthermore, at Boarps Mosse dense forest stands seem to have protected the site from significant aeolian sand influx until about AD 1000, while aeolian sand influx apparently was less influenced by local forest development at Hyltemossen. However, using periods with low ASI values as marker horizons it is possible to identify a number of periods of high ASI values during the last 2500 years. These periods, which probably record high winter storminess, are dated to 130, 300, 400, 475, (700), 900, (1000), (1100), (1150), (1350), (1450), 1675, (1800), 1875, 1950-2000, (2050), 2150, 2225 and (2300) cal. yr BP. In addition, the Hyltemossen site documents peak storminess at 2450, 2725, 2850-3050, 3275, 3675, 4100-4200, 4550, 4900, 5100-5200 and 5450 5700 cal. yr BP. Most of the aeolian activity phases in Halland correlate with well-known cold periods in northwest Europe, suggesting a link between winter storminess in southern Scandinavia and expansion of the polar vortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]