1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Country
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A country is a region that is identified as a distinct national entity in political geography. Sometimes the word countries is used to both to sovereign states and to other political entities, while other times it refers only to states. The word country comes from Old French contrée, itself derived from Vulgar Latin contrata and it most likely entered the English language after the Franco-Norman invasion during the 11th century. Areas much smaller than a state may be called by names such as the West Country in England, the Black Country, Constable Country. In many European countries the words are used for sub-divisions of the territory, as in the German Bundesländer. The modern Italian contrada is a word with its meaning varying locally, the term country is frequently used to refer to sovereign states. There is no agreement on the number of countries in the world. There are 206 sovereign states, of which 193 states are members of the United Nations, all are defined as states by declarative theory of statehood and constitutive theory of statehood. The latest proclaimed state is South Sudan in 2011, the Kingdom of Denmark, a sovereign state, comprises Metropolitan Denmark and two nominally separate countries—the Faroe Islands, and Greenland—which are almost fully internally self-governing. The Kingdom of the Netherlands, a state, comprises four separate countries, Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao. The degree of autonomy of non-sovereign countries varies widely, some are possessions of sovereign states, as several states have overseas territories, with citizenry at times identical and at times distinct from their own
3.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
4.
Provinces of Sweden
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The provinces of Sweden are historical, geographical and cultural regions. Sweden has 25 provinces and they have no function, but remain historical legacies. Dialects and folklore rather follows the borders than the borders of the counties. Several of them were subdivisions of Sweden until 1634, when they were replaced by the counties of Sweden, some were conquered later on from Denmark–Norway. Others, like the provinces of Finland, were lost, Lapland is the only province acquired through colonization. In some cases, the administrative counties correspond almost exactly to the provinces, as is Blekinge to Blekinge County and Gotland, which is a province, county, while not exactly corresponding with the province, Härjedalen Municipality is beside Gotland the only municipality named after a province. In other cases, they do not, which enhances the cultural importance of the provinces. Since 1884 all the provinces are also ceremonial duchies, but as such have no administrative or political functions, the provinces of Sweden are still used in colloquial speech and cultural references, and can therefore not be regarded as an archaic concept. The main exception is Lapland where the see themselves as a part of Västerbotten or Norrbotten. Two other exceptions are Stockholm and Gothenburg, where the see themselves as living in the city. English and other languages occasionally use Latin names as alternatives to the Swedish names, the name Scania for Skåne predominates in English. Some purely English exonyms, such as the Dales for Dalarna, East Gothland for Östergötland, Swedish Lapland for Lappland, swedes writing in English have long used Swedish-language name forms only. The origins of the provincial divisions lay in the petty kingdoms that became more and more subjected to the rule of the Kings of Sweden during the consolidation of Sweden. Until the country law of Magnus Ericson in 1350, each of these still had its own laws with its own assembly. The historical provinces were considered duchies, but newly conquered provinces added to the kingdom either received the status of a duchy or a county, after the separation from the Kalmar Union in 1523 the Kingdom incorporated only some of its new conquests as provinces. Other foreign territories were ruled as Swedish Dominions under the Swedish monarch, Norway, in personal union with Sweden from 1814 to 1905, never became an integral part of Sweden. The division of Västerbotten that took place with the cession of Finland caused Norrbotten to emerge as a county and it was granted a coat of arms as late as in 1995. Some scholars suggest that Sweden revived the concept in the 19th century
5.
Gotland
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Gotland, Gutland in the local dialect Gutnish, is a province, county, municipality, and diocese of Sweden. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north. The population is 57,221, of which about 23,600 live in Visby, the island of Gotland and the other areas of the province of Gotland make up less than one percent of Swedens total land area. From a military viewpoint, it occupies a location in the Baltic sea. The island is the home of the Gutes, and sites such as the Ajvide Settlement show that it has occupied since prehistory. This is consistent with the spread of peoples from the Middle East at about that time. Early on, Gotland became a 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, each represented by its elected judge at the island-ting, new laws were decided at the landsting, which also took other decisions regarding the island as a whole. Gutasaga contains legends of how the island was settled by Þieluar, according to some historians, it is therefore an effort not only to write down the history of Gotland, but also to assert Gotlands independence from Sweden. 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, an invading army of Teutonic Knights conquered the island in 1398, destroying Visby and driving the Victual Brothers from Gotland. 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, the Berezan Runestone, discovered in 1905 in Ukraine, was made by a Varangian 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, 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, the Order never regained its territory, and eventually it reestablished itself in Rome as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. On 22 April 1808, during the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia, a Russian army landed on the shores of Gotland near Grötlingbo. Under command of Nikolaus Andrejevich Bodisco 1,800 Russians took the city of Visby without any combat or engagement, and occupied the island
6.
Counties of Sweden
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The counties of Sweden are the top-level geographic subdivisions of Sweden. Sweden is today divided into 21 counties, however, the numbers of counties has varied over time, due to territorial gains/losses, at that time, they were what the translation of län into English literally means, fiefdoms. The county borders often follow the borders, but the Crown often chose to make slight relocations to suit its purposes. In every county except Gotland there is a county administrative board headed by a governor, appointed by the government, the county council is the elected regional political assembly for the municipal affairs of the county, primarily regarding public healthcare, public transport and culture. A number of other government agencies are organised on a county basis, including the main bodies of the police, employment, social insurance. With county codes, which were official until 1974, each county region contains a number of municipalities, the existence of which is partly at the discretion of the central government. Since 2004 their number has been 290, thus an average of 13.8 municipalities per county. Until 1968, the City of Stockholm had its own county code A, which is used interchangeably with AB in some contexts. L was for Kristianstad County and M was for Malmöhus County but since they were merged to form Skåne County, O used to stand for Gothenburg and Bohus County but has been used for Västra Götaland County since it was merged with Skaraborg County and Älvsborg County. Swedens provinces, or landskap, and the lands, or landsdelar, the provinces had their own laws and justice systems and could have large cultural and religious differences. Note that the province of Småland historically was several provinces with its own laws, here burial tradition in the era before the Viking age could differ significantly from province to province. The province of Norrbotten is a recent creation, it was part of Västerbotten which extended all the way to Österbotten into todays Finland before 1809. Finnish and Swedish Lappland was also one province until 1809, historically, the provinces were grouped in three lands, Götaland, being southern and western Sweden, Svealand being eastern and south-eastern, and Norrland being the entire northern half. The names of the first two refer to ancient tribes, and the third is a geographical reference and they are still commonly used as geographical references. The boundaries have changed over time, with the most significant in 1658 and 1812, in 1812 some provinces were moved from Götaland to Svealand. After the Finnish War, Sweden was forced to cede the counties in Finland to Russia following the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in, however, the counties were upheld in Finland until a reform in 1997. They are still in use in Sweden,370 years later, the counties in Finland established in 1634 were, Turku and Pori County, Nyland and Tavastehus County, Viborg and Nyslott County, Ostrobothnia County and Kexholm County. Over time the number of subdivisions in Finland increased to twelve, until a reorganization in 1997 reduced their number to six provinces, the counties in Finland were abolished in 2010
7.
Gotland County
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Gotland County is a county or län of Sweden. Gotland is located in the Baltic Sea to the east of Öland, counties are usually sub-divided into municipalities, but Gotland County only consists of one municipality, Gotland Municipality. Gotland County is the county in Sweden that is not governed by a county council. The municipality handles the tasks that are handled by the county council, mainly health care. Like other counties, Gotland has a County Administrative Board that oversees implementation of the Swedish state government, both the County Administrative Board and the municipality have their seat in the largest city Visby, with over 22,000 inhabitants. The counties of Sweden are no longer officially administrative units, but are used when reporting population size, politics, in this case the province, the county and the municipality all have identical borders and cover an area of 3151 km². Gotland is the only Swedish county that is not administered by a county council, instead, the municipality is tasked with the responsibilities of a county, including public health care and public transport. The County Administrative Board is a Government agency headed by a Governor, during a trial period the County Council provisions for Gotland has been evolved to provisions for a Regional Council, meaning that it has assumed certain tasks from the County Administrative Board. Similar provisions are applicable to the counties of Västra Götaland and Skåne during the trial period, the five most populous localities of Gotland County in 2010, Gotland County inherited its coat of arms from the province of Gotland. When it is shown with a royal crown it represents the County Administrative Board, Gotland County Administrative Board Gotland Municipality
8.
Municipalities of Sweden
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The municipalities of Sweden are its lower-level local government entities. There are 290 municipalities which are responsible for a proportion of local services, including schools, emergency services. The Local Government Act of 1991 specifies several responsibilities for the municipalities and it also regulates a process through which any citizen can appeal the decisions of a local government to a county court. Municipal government in Sweden is similar to city government and cabinet-style council government. The assembly in turn appoints an executive committee from its members. The executive committee is headed by its chairman, the chairman is often referred as Municipal Commissioner. The first local government acts were implemented on January 1,1863, there were two acts, one for the cities and one for the countryside. The total number of municipalities was about 2,500, the rural municipalities were based on the old parishes and the then 89 cities/towns were based on the old chartered cities. There was also a type, köping or market town. The status of these was somewhere between the municipalities and the cities. There were only eight of them in 1863, rising to a peak of 96 in 1959, up until 1930, when the total number of municipalities reached its peak, there were more partitions than amalgamations. After years of preparations the first of the two nationwide municipal reforms of the 20th century was implemented in 1952, the number of rural municipalities was reduced from 2,281 to 816. Rather soon it was established that the reform of 1952 was not radical enough, a new commission,1959 års indelningssakkunniga concluded that the next municipal reform should create new larger mixed rural/urban municipalities. The Riksdag decided in 1962 that the new reform should be implemented on a voluntary basis, the process started in January 1964, when all municipalities were grouped in 282 kommunblock. The co-operation within the blocks should ultimately lead to amalgamations, the amalgamations within the blocks started in 1965 and more were accomplished in 1967 and 1969, when the number of municipalities dropped from 1006 to 848. The Riksdag, however, found the process too slow. In 1971 the unitary municipality was introduced and the number of entities went down to 464, in one case the process was not accomplished until 1977. Most of the municipalities were soon consolidated, but in cases the antagonism within the new unities was so strong that it led to divorces
9.
Gotland Municipality
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Gotland Municipality is a municipality that covers the entire island of Gotland in Sweden. The city of Visby is the municipalitys seat, twenty years later the situation was totally different. The first of the two local government reforms in Sweden during the 20th century was implemented on January 1,1952. After ten years it was clear that reform had not been radical enough. On January 1,1971 the second and last local government reform was implemented in Sweden, all administrative and judicial differences between rural and urban areas were abolished. Only one type of municipality existed from that date on, in the case of Gotland all the former entities were united into one single unit. As there was one municipality in the county, also the County Council was abolished and merged into the new unitary municipality. There are 16 urban areas in Gotland Municipality, in the table the localities are listed according to the size of the population. The municipal seat is in bold characters, the municipality of Gotland is there for in this respect also a region. It has responsibility for the healthcare system and public transport. The municipality coordinates the annual Almedalen Week, an important meetingplace for everyone involved in Swedish politics, during the week, representatives from the political parties in the Riksdag take turns to hold speeches in the Almedalen park in Visby. Politics of Sweden Elections in Sweden List of Gotland Governors Statistics Sweden Gotland Municipality – Official site Coat of arms
10.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
11.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
12.
Urban areas in Sweden
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Urban area is a common English translation of the Swedish term tätort. The official term in English used by Statistics Sweden is, however and it could be compared with census-designated places in the United States. A tätort in Sweden has a minimum of 200 inhabitants and may be a city and it is a purely statistical concept, not defined by any municipal or county boundaries. Urban areas referred to as cities or towns for statistical purposes have a minimum of 10,000 inhabitants, in 2010, there was 1,956 urban areas in Sweden, covering 85% of the Swedish population. Until the beginning of the 20th century, only the towns/cities were regarded as urban areas, the built-up area and the municipal entity were normally almost congruent. Urbanization and industrialization created, however, many new settlements without city status. New suburbs grew up just outside city limits, being de facto urban and this was of course a statistical problem. The census of 1910 introduced the concept of densely populated localities in the countryside, the term tätort was introduced in 1930. The municipal amalgamations placed more and more rural areas within city municipalities, the administrative boundaries were in fact not suitable for defining rural and urban populations. From 1950 rural and urban areas had to be separated even within city limits, as, from 1965 only non-administrative localities are counted, independently of municipal and county borders. In 1971 city was abolished as a type of municipality, urban areas in the meaning of tätort are defined independently on the division into counties and municipalities, and are defined solely according to population density. In practice, most references in Sweden are to municipalities, not specifically to towns or cities, most municipalities contain many localities, but some localities are, on the other hand, multimunicipal. Stockholm urban area is spread over 11 municipalities, when comparing the population of different cities, the urban area population is to prefer ahead of the population of the municipality. The population of, e. g. Stockholm should be accounted as about 1.2 million rather than the approximately 800,000 of the municipality, tätort is the central concept used in statistics. – without regard to the ward, municipal or county boundaries, delimitation of localities are made by Statistics Sweden every five years. Småort is a locality with 50–199 inhabitants in a contiguous built-up area with no more than 150 meters between houses. The concept is used outside the field of statistics, where it is used for settlements just below the limit defined for tätort. Centralort is mostly used in the municipal seat or municipal center of service, commerce
13.
Socken
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Socken is the name used for a part of a county in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. A socken is an area that was previously like a civil parish, a socken was formerly linked to a parish but is now a traditional area with other borders than the original parishes. In some parts of Sweden the use of socken as a way to describe an area is more prominent than in others, a socken may also have the same name as a locality or parish. Socken, in old Swedish sokn, Danish or bokmål sogn, nynorsk sokn, is a name for the original country church parishes. It also describes an area, a sockenkommun or a taxation area. The jordbrukssocken remained in use until the Fastighetsdatareformen 1976–1995 was complete, no further alterations to the sockens was made after this. On 1 January 2016, a new division and area for statistics. Geographically, the districts correspond with the parishes of the Church of Sweden of 31 December 1999, about 85% of the old sockens corresponds with the new districts. Socken is a convenient parameter for these purposes since it does not change with time, List of sockens in Sweden on Swedish Wikipedia, sv, Kategori, Socknar i Sverige. Administrative divisions of Sweden Civil parishes in England Historical region Hundred Soke Townships of the Peoples Republic of China Almquist, den civila lokalförvaltningen i Sverige 1523-1630, med särskild hänsyn till den kamerala indelningen. Meddelanden från svenska Riksarkivet, 99-0506720-5,6, den civila lokalförvaltningens gränser 1630-1952, kameral redovisning, areell beteckning och gränsförändring. Meddelanden från Kulturgeografiska institutionen vid Stockholms universitet, 0585-3508, B24, peter Aronsson & Lennart Johansson, ed. Att skapa ordning och reda, administrativa förändringar på landsbygden omkring 1870-1940. Sogneportalen, information about sockens in Denmark Swedish Tax Agency, Parishes in Sweden, Swedish National Heritage Board, List of towns and sockens
14.
Military on Gotland
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The presence of the military on Gotland results from the Swedish islands strategic military importance in the Baltic Sea for most of the nations history. Gotland has been fortified in stages since the 13th century, during the 20th century, infantry, artillery, air force and naval elements were stationed on Gotland as part of Swedens defense system, until all permanent military units were stood down in 2005. With tensions in Northeastern Europe and Russia escalating in 2014–2015, the Swedish government has taken a new interest in remilitarizing the island, and in September 2016 regular troops were once again stationed on the island, albeit as an interim measure until a permanent garrison could be reestablished. Since the Iron Age, Gotland has occupied a location in the Baltic Sea from both a trade and military perspective. Second period, From the 12th century to the 15th century, a time of great discord and open warfare between various polities and interests. The era saw the end of Gotland as an independent kingdom, the fortified town of Visby was built and expanded during this time. Third period, From the 16th century to the mid 17th century, an unsettled time in both politics and on the battlefield eventually led to the end of Gotlands time as an autonomous entity and it becoming an integral part of Sweden. Fourth period, From the 1810s to around the 1880s and this period included an industrious time during the 1860s and 1870s when a number of well-designed, major artillery forts, like Fårösund Fortress and Enholmen Fortress, were constructed. These and other fortifications on Gotland would later serve to help ensure Swedens neutrality in World War I, a massive new round of major construction began as the world headed for a new world war, which continued right on into, and throughout the Cold War. From the late 1940s, most of the part of Gotland became an even more heavily fortified, military only zone. Tasked with training all units of the Gotland Brigade and Gotland Military Command, except for artillery, a 7 - Gotland Artillery Regiment in Visby. Tasked with training field artillery units on Gotland, one heavy anti-ship missile battery armed with Robot 08 missiles. The 7th Coastal Artillery Battery in Bunge with 3x mobile 152mm M/37 cannons, furthermore, the regiment trained a few smaller units, which maintained minefields with controlled mines along the coast of Gotland and Fårö. Additionally the regiment fielded a number of 75mm m/65 automatic cannons, which were a mobile version of the 75mm Tornpjäs m/57 automatic guns. Lv 2 - Gotland Air-defence Battalion in Visby with Robot 69 and Robot 70 man-portable surface-to-air missiles, as well as 20mm lvakan m/40-70 and 40mm lvakan m/48 anti-aircraft autocannons. Prior to the closure of the garrison, there had been a continuous Swedish military presence on Gotland in one form or another. After the standing down of the garrison, a battalion of the Swedish Home Guard is based on Gotland for emergencies as part of the Eastern Military Region. The unit,32, a Gotlandsbataljonen acts as an element of the regular 1st Marine Regiment based at Muskö island
15.
Enduro
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Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on extended cross-country, off-road courses. Enduro consists of different obstacles and challenges. The main type of event, and the format to which the World Enduro Championship is run, is a time-card enduro. In a traditional time-keeping enduro, riders leave together in groups or rows, the object of the event is to arrive at pre-defined checkpoints according to a strict schedule. Early or late arrivals result in the scores being penalized. Throughout a day there will also be allocated periods for refuelling and servicing the machine, penalties apply for not meeting defined times or for outside-assistance when not permitted. A world championship course must be at least 200 km and a maximum of 30% of its length can be on paved roads, American Motorcycle Association rules are different with respect to course length and other variables. The rules of the sanctioning body can also affect the rules for a particular enduro course. Competitors are moderated by a series of time keeping checkpoints along the race course. Rallies, on the hand, are run on point to point courses where the competitor with the fastest time between the two points being declared the winner. Such courses may be shorter than the length of the race, in which case the course is repeated several times. Such courses may also be very long such that competitors never cover the ground twice. Examples of such include the Baja 500 and Baja 1000. Engines are generally single-cylinder two-stroke between 125 and 300 cm³, or four-stroke between 250 and 650 cm³, the World Enduro Championship and several other championships currently categorize enduro motorcycles into three classes, Enduro 1, Enduro 2 and Enduro 3. Major events in the calendar include the World Enduro Championship. The world governing body for enduro is the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, in the United States, the national governing body is the American Motorcycle Association. In the United Kingdom, the governing body is the Auto-Cycle Union. The World Enduro Championship was started in 1990, replacing the European Enduro Championship, the championship is run under the FIM and generally consists of around eight or nine Grands Prix spread around the globe
16.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
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Stone Age
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The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make implements with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 8700 BCE and 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking, bone tools were used during this period as well but are rarely preserved in the archaeological record. The Stone Age is further subdivided by the types of tools in use. According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the East African Rift System, especially toward the north in Ethiopia, where it is bordered by grasslands. The closest relative among the living primates, the genus Pan, represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest. The rift served as a conduit for movement into southern Africa and also north down the Nile into North Africa and through the continuation of the rift in the Levant to the vast grasslands of Asia. The oldest indirect evidence found of stone tool use is fossilised animal bones with tool marks, the oldest stone tools were excavated from the site of Lomekwi 3 in West Turkana, northwestern Kenya, and date to 3.3 million years old. Prior to the discovery of these Lomekwian tools, the oldest known stone tools had been found at sites at Gona, Ethiopia, on the sediments of the paleo-Awash River. All the tools come from the Busidama Formation, which lies above a disconformity, or missing layer, the oldest sites containing tools are dated to 2. 6–2.55 mya. One of the most striking circumstances about these sites is that they are from the Late Pliocene, excavators at the locality point out that. the earliest stone tool makers were skilled flintknappers. The possible reasons behind this seeming abrupt transition from the absence of tools to the presence thereof include. The species who made the Pliocene tools remains unknown, fragments of Australopithecus garhi, Australopithecus aethiopicus and Homo, possibly Homo habilis, have been found in sites near the age of the Gona tools. Innovation of the technique of smelting ore ended the Stone Age, the first most significant metal manufactured was bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, each of which was smelted separately. The Chalcolithic by convention is the period of the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age, the transition out of the Stone Age occurred between 6000 BCE and 2500 BCE for much of humanity living in North Africa and Eurasia. Note the Rudna Glava mine in Serbia, Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy from about 3300 BCE carried with him a copper axe and a flint knife. In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age, the Middle East and southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, and the rest of Asia became post–Stone Age societies by about 4000 BCE, the proto-Inca cultures of South America continued at a Stone Age level until around 2000 BCE, when gold, copper and silver made their entrance
18.
Cist
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A cist is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East, a cist may have been associated with other monuments, perhaps under a cairn or long barrow. Several cists are sometimes found close together within the cairn or barrow. Often ornaments have been found within an excavated cist, indicating the wealth or prominence of the interred individual
19.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
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Iron Age
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The Iron Age is an archaeological era, referring to a period of time in the prehistory and protohistory of the Old World when the dominant toolmaking material was iron. It is commonly preceded by the Bronze Age in Europe and Asia with exceptions, meteoric iron has been used by humans since at least 3200 BC. Ancient iron production did not become widespread until the ability to smelt ore, remove impurities. The start of the Iron Age proper is considered by many to fall between around 1200 BC and 600 BC, depending on the region, the earliest known iron artifacts are nine small beads dated to 3200 BC, which were found in burials at Gerzeh, Lower Egypt. They have been identified as meteoric iron shaped by careful hammering, meteoric iron, a characteristic iron–nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its metallic state, required no smelting of ores. Smelted iron appears sporadically in the record from the middle Bronze Age. While terrestrial iron is abundant, its high melting point of 1,538 °C placed it out of reach of common use until the end of the second millennium BC. Tins low melting point of 231, similarly, recent archaeological remains of iron working in the Ganges Valley in India have been tentatively dated to 1800 BC. By the Middle Bronze Age, increasing numbers of smelted iron objects appeared in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, African sites are turning up dates as early as 1200 BC. Modern archaeological evidence identifies the start of iron production in around 1200 BC. Between 1200 BC and 1000 BC, diffusion in the understanding of iron metallurgy and use of objects was fast. As evidence, many bronze implements were recycled into weapons during this time, more widespread use of iron led to improved steel-making technology at lower cost. Thus, even when tin became available again, iron was cheaper, stronger, and lighter, and forged iron implements superseded cast bronze tools permanently. Increasingly, the Iron Age in Europe is being seen as a part of the Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East, in ancient India, ancient Iran, and ancient Greece. In other regions of Europe, the Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe, the Near Eastern Iron Age is divided into two subsections, Iron I and Iron II. Iron I illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age, during the Iron Age, the best tools and weapons were made from steel, particularly alloys which were produced with a carbon content between approximately 0. 30% and 1. 2% by weight. Steel weapons and tools were nearly the same weight as those of bronze, however, steel was difficult to produce with the methods available, and alloys that were easier to make, such as wrought iron, were more common in lower-priced goods
21.
Grooves (archaeology)
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There are grooves carved into rock in many places in Europe, and some of them appear on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland. They are common in France, where they were used to stone axes. In Sweden, there are also grooves in north-western Scania and Halland, in Gantofta located 14 km south of Helsingborg a face of sandstone rock is engraved with thousands of grooves. Local tradition says they were made as whetstones, Grooves in France date from the Neolithic and are called polissoirs. Those in l’Aube date from c.2500 to 2000 BCE, people who built dolmens, erected menhirs and made grooves supported an archaeological culture known as Seine-Oise-Marne. The l’Aube district had more than 130 monuments from this period including 49 grooves before 1927, today there are only 34 including 16 grooves. Many stones were cut into roadstones or building blocks for homes, Grooves have also been found in Tavastia in Finland and in Luxembourg, as well as at Fyfield Down in England. Neolithic Grooves have been found in Tamil Nadu, India,3,600 grooves have been discovered on Gotland, of which 700 are in limestone outcrops, while the remainder are on c.800 boulders and slabs. The grooves are 50–100 cm long, c.10 cm deep, the grooves have apparently been made with an abrasive pendulum measuring c. The grooves began to attract attention in the 1850s. At first they were called sharpening stones, but later received the name sword sharpening stones. After some time, newspapers and scholarly publications began to dispute this, another reason was that by 1933, more than 500 sites with grooves had been identified on Gotland. They were evenly distributed across the island and it was also noted that they ran in different directions and often crossed each other. The grooves under overhangs in Scania cannot have been used as sightlines in this suggested manner, certain late 1st-millennium picture stones on Gotland carry grooves that have been made after the relief of the stones was carved, which show the grooves to be late. Likewise with the level above current sea surface of the lowest grooved outcrops on the island, that shows them to be no older than AD1000 judging from post-glacial shoreline displacement. It has been suggested that on one stone, part of the Late Iron Age decoration is carved into the bottom of a groove. Media related to Archaeological grooves at Wikimedia Commons
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Picture stone
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A picture stone, image stone or figure stone is an ornate slab of stone, usually limestone, which was raised in Germanic Iron Age or Viking Age Scandinavia, and in the greatest number on Gotland. More than four hundred picture stones are known today, all of the stones were probably erected as memorial stones, but only rarely beside graves. Some of them have been positioned where many people could see them at bridges and they mainly differ from runestones by presenting the message in pictures rather than runes. Some picture stones also have inscriptions, but they tell little more than to whom the stone was dedicated. Lacking textual explanations, the stones are consequently difficult to interpret. Similar stones in Scotland are known as Pictish stones, the dating of the stones is based on studies of their shapes and ornamentations. Subsequently, three groups of stones exist with various aesthetics, locations and purposes. The first group of stones was made in the period 400–600 CE. These have a form and the upper part is shaped like the edge of an axe. The ornamentations are usually circular forms with vortex patterns and spirals, but also with images of ships, people and these older stones were usually raised within grave fields, albeit not on the graves themselves. The second group of stones come from the period 500–700 CE. The third group was made in the period 700–1100 CE and they consist of stones with necks. Their ornamentations present an array of pictures, ships with checkered sails. The borders are decorated with various plaited patterns. Many scenes show sacrifices and battles, and a scene on the stones is a man, riding a horse. What is seen are representations of a wealth of legends and myths, sometimes depictions from Norse mythology and Norse legends can be identified, but largely the stories behind them have not survived in written form. The image stones are valuable sources which complete knowledge from archaeology concerning ships and sails, and they provide information on armor, wagons, the later stones in this group feature an upper field with stylized cross and dragon patterns in the style of some runestones. These stones usually were raised on roads and at bridges to be visible, a comparable tradition is found on the Isle of Man where high funeral crosses of stone were richly ornamented with the same teeming world of warriors and Norse deities as the image stones of Gotland
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Hillfort
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A hillfort or hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages, some were used in the post-Roman period. The fortification usually follows the contours of a hill, consisting of one or more lines of earthworks, with stockades or defensive walls, and external ditches. Hill forts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium BC, the terms hill fort, hill-fort and hillfort are all used in the archaeological literature. They all refer to a site with one or more ramparts made of earth, stone and/or wood. Many small early hill forts were abandoned, with the ones being redeveloped at a later date. Similar but smaller and less defendable earthworks are found on the sides of hills and these are known as hill-slope enclosures and may have been animal pens. It has been estimated that in about 5000 BC during the Neolithic between 2 million and 5 million lived in Europe, in the Late Iron Age it had an population of around 15 to 30 million. Outside Greece and Italy, which were densely populated, the vast majority of settlements in the Iron Age were small. Hill forts were the exception, and were the home of up to 1,000 people, with the emergence of oppida in the Late Iron Age, settlements could reach as large as 10,000 inhabitants. As the population increased so did the complexity of prehistoric societies, around 1100 BC hill forts emerged and in the following centuries spread through Europe. They served a range of purposes and were variously tribal centres, defended places, foci of ritual activity, during the Hallstatt C period, hill forts became the dominant settlement type in the west of Hungary. Julius Caesar described the large late Iron Age hill forts he encountered during his campaigns in Gaul as oppida, by this time the larger ones had become more like cities than fortresses and many were assimilated as Roman towns. Hill forts were occupied by conquering armies, but on other occasions the forts were destroyed, the local people forcibly evicted. For example, Solsbury Hill was sacked and deserted during the Belgic invasions of southern Britain in the 1st century BC. Excavations at hill forts in the first half of the 20th century focussed on the defenses, the exception to this trend began in the 1930s with a series of excavations undertaken by Mortimer Wheeler at Maiden Castle, Dorset. From 1960 onwards, archaeologists shifted their attention to the interior of hill forts, currently, post-processual archaeologists regard hill forts as symbols of wealth and power. Michael Avery has stated the view of hill forts by saying
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Runes
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The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark or fuþark, the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuþorc. Runology is the study of the runic alphabets, runic inscriptions, runestones, runology forms a specialised branch of Germanic linguistics. The earliest runic inscriptions date from around 150 AD, the characters were generally replaced by the Latin alphabet as the cultures that had used runes underwent Christianisation, by approximately 700 AD in central Europe and 1100 AD in northern Europe. However, the use of runes persisted for specialized purposes in northern Europe, until the early 20th century, runes were used in rural Sweden for decorative purposes in Dalarna and on Runic calendars. The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, and the Younger Futhark, the Younger Futhark is divided further into the long-branch runes, short-branch or Rök runes, and the stavlösa or Hälsinge runes. The Younger Futhark developed further into the Medieval runes, and the Dalecarlian runes, historically, the runic alphabet is a derivation of the Old Italic scripts of antiquity, with the addition of some innovations. Which variant of the Old Italic family in particular gave rise to the runes is uncertain, suggestions include Raetic, Venetic, Etruscan, or Old Latin as candidates. At the time, all of these scripts had the same angular letter shapes suited for epigraphy, the process of transmission of the script is unknown. The oldest inscriptions are found in Denmark and northern Germany, not near Italy, a West Germanic hypothesis suggests transmission via Elbe Germanic groups, while a Gothic hypothesis presumes transmission via East Germanic expansion. The runes were in use among the Germanic peoples from the 1st or 2nd century AD, no distinction is made in surviving runic inscriptions between long and short vowels, although such a distinction was certainly present phonologically in the spoken languages of the time. Similarly, there are no signs for labiovelars in the Elder Futhark The term runes is used to distinguish these symbols from Latin and it is attested on a 6th-century Alamannic runestaff as runa and possibly as runo on the 4th-century Einang stone. The name comes from the Germanic root run-, meaning secret or whisper, in Old Irish Gaelic, the word rún means mystery, secret, intention or affectionate love. Similarly in Welsh and Old English, the word rhin and rūn respectively means mystery, secret, secret writing, or sometimes in the sense of the word. Ogham is a Celtic script, similarly carved in the Norse manner, the root run- can also be found in the Baltic languages, meaning speech. In Lithuanian, runoti means both to cut and to speak, according to another theory, the Germanic root comes from the Indoeuropean root *reuə- dig. The Finnish term for rune, riimukirjain, means scratched letter, the Finnish word runo means poem and comes from the same source as the English word rune, it is a very old loan of the Proto-Germanic *rūnō. The runes developed centuries after the Old Italic alphabets from which they are historically derived. The formation of the Elder Futhark was complete by the early 5th century, specifically, the Raetic alphabet of Bolzano is often advanced as a candidate for the origin of the runes, with only five Elder Futhark runes having no counterpart in the Bolzano alphabet
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Runestone
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A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, most runestones are located in Scandinavia, but there are also scattered runestones in locations that were visited by Norsemen during the Viking Age. Runestones are often memorials to dead men, Runestones were usually brightly coloured when erected, though this is no longer evident as the colour has worn off. The tradition of raising stones that had runic inscriptions first appeared in the 4th and 5th century, in Norway and Sweden, the earliest Danish runestones appeared in the 8th and 9th centuries, and there are about 50 runestones from the Migration Period in Scandinavia. Most runestones were erected during the period 950-1100 CE, and then they were raised in Sweden. —The Ynglinga saga What may have increased the spread of runestones was an event in Denmark in the 960s, King Harald Bluetooth had just been baptised and in order to mark the arrival of a new order and a new age, he commanded the construction of a runestone. The runestone has three sides of two are decorated with images. On one side, there is an animal that is the prototype of the animals that would be commonly engraved on runestones. Shortly after this stone had been made, something happened in Scandinavias runic tradition, scores of chieftains and powerful Norse clans consciously tried to imitate King Harald, and from Denmark a runestone wave spread northwards through Sweden. In most districts, the fad died out after a generation, but, in the central Swedish provinces of Uppland and Södermanland, there are about 3,000 runestones among the about 6,000 runic inscriptions in Scandinavia. The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia, Denmark has 250 runestones, Sweden has as many as between 1,700 and 2,500 depending on definition. The Swedish district of Uppland has the highest concentration with as many as 1,196 inscriptions in stone, outside of Scandinavia, the Isle of Man stands out with its 30 runestones from the 9th century and early 11th century. Scattered runestones have also found in England, Ireland, Scotland. Runestones were placed on selected spots in the landscape, such as locations, roads, bridge constructions. In medieval churches, there are often runestones that have been inserted as construction material, in southern Scania, runestones can be tied to large estates that also had churches constructed on their land. In the Mälaren Valley, the appear to be placed so that they mark essential parts of the domains of an estate, such as courtyard, grave field. Runestones usually appear as single monuments and more rarely as pairs, in some cases, they are part of larger monuments together with other raised stones. However, although scholars know where 95% of all runestones were discovered, the remainder have been found in churches, roads, bridges, graves, farms, and water routes
26.
Tofta Church, Gotland
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Tofta Church is a medieval Lutheran church in Tofta on the Swedish island of Gotland, in the Diocese of Visby. The earliest church on this location was built during the end of the 12th century. The oldest part of the visible church is the tower. The nave and choir date from the middle of the 14th century. The church walls display fragments of medieval frescos that were found during a restoration in 1958-1959, a few medieval stained glass windows are likewise preserved in the church. Of the furnishings, the font is the oldest, dating from the 12th century. It was probably made for the earliest church, the high altar has a retable from the 14th century, probably made in Lübeck. Two other wooden sculptures from the century are also preserved in the church, one of the Virgin Mary. An unusually well-preserved medieval bench also stands in the church, in the floor of the choir is a gravestone, made for a farmer and his son who were beaten to death in 1340. The pews and the date from the Baroque era. In 2004, an extremely well-preserved mail coif was discovered in a room in the tower during cleaning of the church, reputedly it is one of the most well-preserved mail coif ever found in Europe, second only to a similar one displayed at the National Museum of Scotland. It may be connected to a war that was fought on the island in 1288. The mail coif is now displayed inside Tofta church, media related to Tofta Church at Wikimedia Commons
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Plateau
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Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, and erosion by water and glaciers. Magma rises from the mantle, causing the ground to swell upward, in way, large, flat areas of rock are uplifted. Plateaus can also be built up by lava spreading outward from cracks, plateaus can also be formed by the erosional processes of glaciers on mountain ranges, leaving them sitting between the mountain ranges. Water can also erode mountains and other landforms down into plateaus, volcanic plateaus are produced by volcanic activity. The Columbia Plateau in the northwestern United States is an example, dissected plateaus are highly eroded plateaus cut by rivers and broken by deep narrow valleys. Plateaus are classified according to their surrounding environment, intermontane plateaus are the highest in the world, bordered by mountains. The Tibetan Plateau is one such plateau, Piedmont plateaus are bordered on one side by mountains and on the other by a plain or a sea. The Piedmont Plateau of the Eastern United States between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Coastal Plain is an example, continental plateaus are bordered on all sides by plains or oceans, forming away from the mountains. The Tibetan plateau covers approximately 2,500,000 km2, the plateau is sufficiently high enough to reverse the Hadley cell convection cycles and to drive the monsoons of India towards the south. The second-highest plateau is the Deosai Plateau of the Deosai National Park at an elevation of 4,114 m. It is located in the Astore and Skardu districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, Deosai means the land of giants. The park protects an area of 3,000 km2 and it is known for its rich flora and fauna of the Karakoram-West Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe ecoregion. In spring it is covered by sweeps of wildflowers and a variety of butterflies. The highest point in Deosai is Deosai Lake, or Sheosar Lake from the Shina language meaning Blind lake near the Chilim Valley. The lake lies at an elevation of 4,142 m, one of the highest lakes in the world, and is 2.3 km long,1.8 km wide, and 40 m deep on average. Some other major plateaus in Asia are, Armenian Highlands, Iranian plateau, Anatolian Plateau, Mongolian Plateau, and the Deccan Plateau. This polar ice cap is so massive that the echolocation sound measurements of ice thickness have shown that parts of the Antarctic dry land surface have been pressed below sea level. Thus, if that same ice cap were removed, the large areas of the frozen white continent would be flooded by the surrounding Antarctic Ocean or Southern Ocean
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Tank
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A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat, with heavy firepower, strong armour, and tracks providing good battlefield maneuverability. The first tanks were designed to overcome the deadlock of trench warfare, now they are a mainstay of ground forces. Modern tanks are versatile mobile land weapon platforms, mounting a large-calibre cannon in a rotating gun turret. In both offensive and defensive roles, they are units that are capable of performing tasks which are required of armoured units on the battlefield. As a result of advances, tanks underwent tremendous shifts in capability in the years since their first appearance. Tanks in World War I were developed separately and simultaneously by Great Britain and this was a prototype of a new design that would become the British Armys Mark I tank, the first tank used in combat in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. The name tank was adopted by the British during the stages of their development. While the British and French built thousands of tanks in World War I, Germany was unconvinced of the tanks potential, Tanks of the interwar period evolved into the much larger and more powerful designs of World War II. Tanks in the Cold War were designed with these weapons in mind, improved engines, transmissions and suspensions allowed tanks of this period to grow larger. Aspects of gun technology changed significantly as well, with advances in shell design, during the Cold War, the main battle tank concept arose and became a key component of modern armies. Modern tanks seldom operate alone, as they are organized into combined arms units which involve the support of infantry and they are also usually supported by reconnaissance or ground-attack aircraft. The tank is the 20th century realization of an ancient concept, the internal combustion engine, armour plate, and continuous track were key innovations leading to the invention of the modern tank. Many sources imply that Leonardo da Vinci and H. G. Wells in some way foresaw or invented the tank, leonardos late 15th century drawings of what some describe as a tank show a man-powered, wheeled vehicle with cannons all around it. However the human crew would not have power to move it over larger distance. In the 15th century, Jan Žižka built armoured wagons containing cannons, the caterpillar track arose from attempts to improve the mobility of wheeled vehicles by spreading their weight, reducing ground pressure, and increasing their traction. Experiments can be traced back as far as the 17th century and it is frequently claimed that Richard Lovell Edgeworth created a caterpillar track. It is true that in 1770 he patented a machine, that should carry and lay down its own road and his own account in his autobiography is of a horse-drawn wooden carriage on eight retractable legs, capable of lifting itself over high walls. The description bears no similarity to a caterpillar track, armoured trains appeared in the mid-19th century, and various armoured steam and petrol-engined vehicles were also proposed
29.
Artillery
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Artillery is a class of large military weapons built to fire munitions far beyond the range and power of infantrys small arms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach fortifications, and led to heavy, as technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery developed for battlefield use. This development continues today, modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility providing the largest share of an armys total firepower, in its earliest sense, the word artillery referred to any group of soldiers primarily armed with some form of manufactured weapon or armour. In common speech, the artillery is often used to refer to individual devices, along with their accessories and fittings. However, there is no generally recognised generic term for a gun, howitzer, mortar, and so forth, the United States uses artillery piece, the projectiles fired are typically either shot or shell. Shell is a widely used term for a projectile, which is a component of munitions. By association, artillery may also refer to the arm of service that customarily operates such engines, in the 20th Century technology based target acquisition devices, such as radar, and systems, such as sound ranging and flash spotting, emerged to acquire targets, primarily for artillery. These are usually operated by one or more of the artillery arms, Artillery originated for use against ground targets—against infantry, cavalry and other artillery. An early specialist development was coastal artillery for use against enemy ships, the early 20th Century saw the development of a new class of artillery for use against aircraft, anti-aircraft guns. Artillery is arguably the most lethal form of land-based armament currently employed, the majority of combat deaths in the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II were caused by artillery. In 1944, Joseph Stalin said in a speech that artillery was the God of War, although not called as such, machines performing the role recognizable as artillery have been employed in warfare since antiquity. The first references in the historical tradition begin at Syracuse in 399 BC. From the Middle Ages through most of the era, artillery pieces on land were moved by horse-drawn gun carriages. In the contemporary era, the artillery and crew rely on wheeled or tracked vehicles as transportation, Artillery used by naval forces has changed significantly also, with missiles replacing guns in surface warfare. The engineering designs of the means of delivery have likewise changed significantly over time, in some armies, the weapon of artillery is the projectile, not the equipment that fires it. The process of delivering fire onto the target is called gunnery, the actions involved in operating the piece are collectively called serving the gun by the detachment or gun crew, constituting either direct or indirect artillery fire. The term gunner is used in armed forces for the soldiers and sailors with the primary function of using artillery. The gunners and their guns are usually grouped in teams called either crews or detachments, several such crews and teams with other functions are combined into a unit of artillery, usually called a battery, although sometimes called a company
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Land mine
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A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automatically by way of pressure when a target steps on it or drives over it, a land mine may cause damage by direct blast effect, by fragments that are thrown by the blast, or by both. The name originates from the ancient practice of mining, where tunnels were dug under enemy fortifications or troop formations. These killing tunnels were at first collapsed to destroy targets located above, nowadays, in common parlance, land mine generally refers to devices specifically manufactured as anti-personnel or anti-vehicle weapons. The use of mines is controversial because of their potential as indiscriminate weapons. They can remain dangerous many years after a conflict has ended, harming the economy, to date,162 nations have signed the treaty. To act as passive area-denial weapons, land mines are currently used in large quantities mostly for this first purpose, thus their widespread use in the demilitarized zones of likely flashpoints such as Cyprus, Afghanistan and Korea. As of 2013, the governments that still laid land mines were Myanmar in its internal conflict. Land mines continue to kill or injure at least 4,300 people every year, even decades after the ends of the conflicts for which they were placed. This claim is dubious, as gunpowder warfare did not develop in China until the advent of the flamethrower in the 10th century, while the land mine was not seen in China until the late 13th century. Explosive land mines were being used in 1277 by the Chinese during the Song dynasty against an assault of the Mongols, the invention of this detonated enormous bomb was credited to one Lou Qianxia of the 13th century. The wad of the mine was made of wood, carrying three different fuses in case of defective connection to the touch hole. Pieces of bamboo are sawn into sections nine feet in length, all septa in the bamboo being removed, save only the last, boiling oil is next poured into and left there for some time before being removed. The fuse starts from the bottom, and is compressed into it to form an explosive mine, the gunpowder fills up eight-tenths of the tube, while lead or iron pellets take up the rest of the space, then the open end is sealed with wax. A trench five feet in depth is dug, the fuse is connected to a firing device which ignites them when disturbed. Further description of how this flint device operated was not made until a Chinese text of 1606 AD revealed that a drive had been used to work the steel wheel. Besides the use of steel wheels providing sparks for the fuses, there were other methods used as well, when the weapons were removed from the mound, this movement disturbed the bowl beneath them where the butt ends of the staffs were, which in turn ignited the fuses. According to the Wubei Huolongjing volume of the 17th century, the formula for this slow-burning incandescent material allowed it to burn continuously for 20 to 30 days without going out
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Stone ship
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The stone ship or ship setting was an early burial custom in Scandinavia, Northern Germany and the Baltic states. The grave or cremation burial was surrounded by slabs or stones in the shape of a ship. The ships vary in size and were erected from c.1000 BC to 1000 AD. Stone ship were a burial custom, characteristically Scandinavian but also found in Northern Germany. The grave or cremation burial was surrounded by tightly or loosely fit slabs or stones in the outline of a ship and they are often found in grave fields, but are sometimes far from any other archaeological remains. Ship settings are of varying sizes, some of monumental proportions, the largest known is the mostly destroyed Jelling stone ship in Denmark, which was at least 170 m long. In Sweden, the size varies from 67 m to only a few metres, inside, they can be cobbled or filled with stones, or have raised stones in the positions of masts. The illusion of being ships has often been reinforced by larger stones at the ends, scattered examples are found in Northern Germany and along the coast of the Baltic States. Excavations have shown that they are usually from the part of the Nordic Bronze Age, c.1000 BC –500 BC or from the Germanic Iron Age, the Vendel Period. One puzzling feature is that sometimes occur at the base of a barrow. 800 m north of Bække there is a 45 m ship which dates to the Viking Age. Under the southern mound in Jelling, Denmark, which is associated with Queen Thyra, remains of a giant Viking Age stone ship have been found, by far the largest known, kerteminde fjord, Denmark, a 20 m ship which dates to the Viking Age. An approximately 80 m ship of 28 stones, the ship was cleared in 1921 by a landowner, but some local people interested in history succeeded in saving the stones. The highest concentration of well-preserved stone ships, altes Lager near Anklam, Western Pomerania, Germany. The stone ships date back to the 9th century, ales Stones is a stone ship in southernmost Sweden. It is 67 m long and 19 m wide, Anundshög double stone ship at Anundshög has a total length of 100 m and one of the ships is 25 m wide. In the same there are several smaller stone ships. Askeberga stone ships is Swedens second largest stone ship, measuring 55 m in length and it is, however, the most remarkable one as it is made of 24 enormous boulders, weighing about 25 tonnes each. The stone ship at Blomsholm near Strömstad in Bohuslän measures more than 40 m in length, the bow and stern are about 4 m high
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Asteroid
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Asteroids are minor planets, especially those of the inner Solar System. The larger ones have also been called planetoids and these terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disc of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet. As minor planets in the outer Solar System were discovered and found to have volatile-based surfaces that resemble those of comets, in this article, the term asteroid refers to the minor planets of the inner Solar System including those co-orbital with Jupiter. There are millions of asteroids, many thought to be the remnants of planetesimals. The large majority of known asteroids orbit in the belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, or are co-orbital with Jupiter. However, other orbital families exist with significant populations, including the near-Earth objects, individual asteroids are classified by their characteristic spectra, with the majority falling into three main groups, C-type, M-type, and S-type. These were named after and are identified with carbon-rich, metallic. The size of asteroids varies greatly, some reaching as much as 1000 km across, asteroids are differentiated from comets and meteoroids. In the case of comets, the difference is one of composition, while asteroids are composed of mineral and rock, comets are composed of dust. In addition, asteroids formed closer to the sun, preventing the development of the aforementioned cometary ice, the difference between asteroids and meteoroids is mainly one of size, meteoroids have a diameter of less than one meter, whereas asteroids have a diameter of greater than one meter. Finally, meteoroids can be composed of either cometary or asteroidal materials, only one asteroid,4 Vesta, which has a relatively reflective surface, is normally visible to the naked eye, and this only in very dark skies when it is favorably positioned. Rarely, small asteroids passing close to Earth may be visible to the eye for a short time. As of March 2016, the Minor Planet Center had data on more than 1.3 million objects in the inner and outer Solar System, the United Nations declared June 30 as International Asteroid Day to educate the public about asteroids. The date of International Asteroid Day commemorates the anniversary of the Tunguska asteroid impact over Siberia, the first asteroid to be discovered, Ceres, was found in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, and was originally considered to be a new planet. In the early half of the nineteenth century, the terms asteroid. Asteroid discovery methods have improved over the past two centuries. This task required that hand-drawn sky charts be prepared for all stars in the band down to an agreed-upon limit of faintness. On subsequent nights, the sky would be charted again and any moving object would, hopefully, the expected motion of the missing planet was about 30 seconds of arc per hour, readily discernible by observers
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Asteroid belt
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The asteroid belt is the circumstellar disc in the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets, the asteroid belt is also termed the main asteroid belt or main belt to distinguish it from other asteroid populations in the Solar System such as near-Earth asteroids and trojan asteroids. About half the mass of the belt is contained in the four largest asteroids, Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, the total mass of the asteroid belt is approximately 4% that of the Moon, or 22% that of Pluto, and roughly twice that of Plutos moon Charon. Ceres, the belts only dwarf planet, is about 950 km in diameter, whereas Vesta, Pallas. The remaining bodies range down to the size of a dust particle, the asteroid material is so thinly distributed that numerous unmanned spacecraft have traversed it without incident. Nonetheless, collisions between large asteroids do occur, and these can form a family whose members have similar orbital characteristics. Individual asteroids within the belt are categorized by their spectra. The asteroid belt formed from the solar nebula as a group of planetesimals. Planetesimals are the precursors of the protoplanets. Between Mars and Jupiter, however, gravitational perturbations from Jupiter imbued the protoplanets with too much energy for them to accrete into a planet. Collisions became too violent, and instead of fusing together, the planetesimals, as a result,99. 9% of the asteroid belts original mass was lost in the first 100 million years of the Solar Systems history. Some fragments eventually found their way into the inner Solar System, Asteroid orbits continue to be appreciably perturbed whenever their period of revolution about the Sun forms an orbital resonance with Jupiter. At these orbital distances, a Kirkwood gap occurs as they are swept into other orbits. Classes of small Solar System bodies in other regions are the objects, the centaurs, the Kuiper belt objects, the scattered disc objects, the sednoids. On 22 January 2014, ESA scientists reported the detection, for the first definitive time, of water vapor on Ceres, the detection was made by using the far-infrared abilities of the Herschel Space Observatory. The finding was unexpected because comets, not asteroids, are considered to sprout jets. According to one of the scientists, The lines are becoming more and more blurred between comets and asteroids. This pattern, now known as the Titius–Bode law, predicted the semi-major axes of the six planets of the provided one allowed for a gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
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Vikings
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The term is also commonly extended in modern English and other vernaculars to the inhabitants of Viking home communities during what has become known as the Viking Age. Facilitated by advanced seafaring skills, and characterised by the longship, Viking activities at times also extended into the Mediterranean littoral, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. A romanticized picture of Vikings as noble savages began to emerge in the 18th century, current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy. One etymology derives víking from the feminine vík, meaning creek, inlet, various theories have been offered that the word viking may be derived from the name of the historical Norwegian district of Viken, meaning a person from Viken. According to this theory, the word simply described persons from this area, however, there are a few major problems with this theory. People from the Viken area were not called Viking in Old Norse manuscripts, in addition, that explanation could only explain the masculine and ignore the feminine, which is a serious problem because the masculine is easily derived from the feminine but hardly vice versa. The form also occurs as a name on some Swedish rune stones. There is little indication of any negative connotation in the term before the end of the Viking Age and this is found in the Proto-Nordic verb *wikan, ‘to turn’, similar to Old Icelandic víkja ‘to move, to turn’, with well-attested nautical usages. In that case, the idea behind it seems to be that the rower moves aside for the rested rower on the thwart when he relieves him. A víkingr would then originally have been a participant on a sea journey characterized by the shifting of rowers, in that case, the word Viking was not originally connected to Scandinavian seafarers but assumed this meaning when the Scandinavians begun to dominate the seas. In Old English, the word wicing appears first in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Widsith, in Old English, and in the history of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen written by Adam of Bremen in about 1070, the term generally referred to Scandinavian pirates or raiders. As in the Old Norse usages, the term is not employed as a name for any people or culture in general, the word does not occur in any preserved Middle English texts. The Vikings were known as Ascomanni ashmen by the Germans for the ash wood of their boats, Lochlannach by the Gaels, the modern day name for Sweden in several neighbouring countries is possibly derived from rōþs-, Ruotsi in Finnish and Rootsi in Estonian. The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians, Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard. The Franks normally called them Northmen or Danes, while for the English they were known as Danes or heathen. It is used in distinction from Anglo-Saxon, similar terms exist for other areas, such as Hiberno-Norse for Ireland and Scotland. The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history, Vikings used the Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea for sea routes to the south. The Normans were descended from Vikings who were given feudal overlordship of areas in northern France—the Duchy of Normandy—in the 10th century, in that respect, descendants of the Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe
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Swedish National Heritage Board
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The Swedish National Heritage Board is a Swedish government agency responsible for World Heritage Sites and other national heritage monuments and historical environments. It is governed by the Ministry of Culture, the goals of the agency are to encourage the preservation and protection of historic environments and to promote the respect for and knowledge of historic environments. The National Heritage Board was founded in 1630, on the 20 May that year, Johannes Bureus who was a prominent rune researcher and King Gustavus Adolphus private teacher, was appointed the first riksantikvarien. Bureus teachings had made the king interested in ancient monuments and national sites and artifacts. Together with a priest and a student, Bureus went on a journey though Sweden to draw and document runestones, collect old coins, chronicles, law books, letter. In 1666, Johan Hadorph the seventh National Antiquarian, established the Placat och Påbudh, Om Gamble Monumenter och Antiquiteter, aside from laws of the Vatican City, it was the first antiquities regulation in Europe. The decree made it possible to protect ancient monuments and sites from treasure hunters and vandalism, public interest in ancient monuments and their protection subsided after the time of the Swedish Empire in the 1720s. In 1780, most of the collections owned by the government were handed over to the National Library. In 1768, the remainder of the objects were placed in the care of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, with the National Antiquarian as the academys secretary. During the 18th century, there was a new interest in science as well as Neoclassicism. Some renewal of the studies was brought about when Johan Gustaf Liljegren became National Antiquarian in 1826, among the projects he started was an organized inventory of objects and sites and archaeological excavations were done at Birka and Visby. A new antiquities regulation was created in 1867. It stated that any violation of an ancient monument was a criminal offence, while the Heritage Boards collection of historical objects was still in Stockholm, several additional positions within the area of heritage preservation were instituted during the 20th century. Sigurd Curman created a central head agency with a number of County Antiquarians to head all the county museums in Sweden, the County Antiquarians also coordinated their work with the National Heritage Board, which function as an independent government agency since 1938. Part of the collections are today under the Statens historiska museer. The Antikvarisk-topografiska arkivet and the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and these departments are housed in the Eastern Stable at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm. These were separated into two agencies, the National Heritage Board and the National Historical Museums, in 1998, on 2 June 2005, the government decided to relocate a major part of the National Heritage Boards activeties from Stockholm to Gotland. The move was made to compensate for the loss of jobs on the island when the Swedish military closed down all permanent garrisons there, the National Heritage Board moved to the newly built facilities at the old A7 military compound in Visby, in 2008
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Ministry of Finance (Sweden)
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The ministry has a staff of 490, of whom only 20 are political appointees. The ministry offices are located at Drottninggatan 21 in central Stockholm, the Ministry of Finance is principal for the following government agencies, Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency, or Kammarkollegiet. Swedish National Institute of Economic Research, or Konjunkturinstitutet, swedish Fiscal Policy Council, or Finanspolitiska rådet. Swedish National Financial Management Authority, or Ekonomistyrningsverket, swedish National Tax Board, or Skatteverket. Swedish National Accounting Standards Board, or Bokföringsnämnden, swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, or Finansinspektionen. Swedish National Debt Office, or Riksgäldskontoret, swedish National Deposit Guarantee Board, or Insättningsgarantinämnden. Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, or Boverket, county Administrative Boards of Sweden, or Länsstyrelserna. Apoteket Nationwide pharmacy and former monopoly, bilprovningen Former national monopoly for vehicle inspections. National Property Board of Sweden, or Statens fastighetsverk, swedish National Fortifications Administration, or Fortifikationsverket. Financial markets Central government budget International cooperation Local authorities Taxes Ministry of Finance, official website
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Swedish History Museum
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The Swedish History Museum is a museum located in Stockholm, Sweden, that covers Swedish archaeology and cultural history from the Mesolithic period to present day. Founded in 1866, it operates as a government agency and is tasked with preserving Swedish historical items as well as making knowledge about history available to the public, the origin of the museum is the collections of art and historical objects gathered by Swedish monarchs since the 16th century. It has a number of permanent exhibitions and annually hosts special exhibitions tied to current events, the History Museum is part of a central museum agency called the Statens historiska museer. Other institutions under the aegis of this agency are the Royal Coin Cabinet, the Tumba Papermill Museum, the museum is also one of five so called ansvarsmuseum in Sweden. It is tasked with coordinating activities between museums, assist other museums and develop contacts between museums and other parts of the Swedish community, the foundation for what was to become the History Museum and the Nationalmuseum, was King Gustav Vasas 16th century art collection at Gripsholm Castle. The collection grew through acquisitions, gifts and spoils of war during the time of the Swedish Empire, some of the collections were lost during the fire in the Tre Kronor castle. During the later part of the 18th century, art and antiquities were bought by ambassadors and members of the royal family, after the death of King Gustaf III in 1792, the collections were turned over to the Swedish government. That same year the Royal Museum opened in the palace and it was one of the first public museums in the world. In 1846–47, the museum moved from the palace to the Ridderstolp House at Skeppsbron where it resided until 1865, Swedish archaeologist Stig Welinder argues that the History Museum was in fact founded with its establishment in the Ridderstolp House in 1847. The present-day museum was founded in 1866 by Bror Emil Hildebrand, the collections of the museum were exhibited on the ground floor of the recently built Nationalmuseum. The premises soon became too small for both museums, when plans for the new Nordic Museum building were made in 1876, it was suggested that the building should also include the History Museums collections. The debate about housing for the History Museum continued for decades until Sigurd Curman became Custodian of Ancient Monuments and he moved the issue forward to a more concrete and permanent solution. In 1929, the Swedish government suggested that the military barracks and stables at Storgatan in the city block known as the Krubban. An architectural competition was held in 1930, for the conversion of the block into suitable accommodation for the museum. They developed the design for the new museum in cooperation with Curman, the National Property Board, in 1932, the Swedish government granted funds for construction of official buildings to create jobs during the depression. Some of these were used to build the museum in 1934–39, the plans for the museum were not finalized until 1936. The museum consists of four two- and three-story block-like buildings surrounding an inner courtyard, the façade is austere and decorated with sculptures made by Bror Marklund and reliefs by artist Robert Nilsson. In the courtyard by a pool is a sculpture called Näcken by Carl Frisendahl, most of the decorations of the museum were selected through a series of competitions
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