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The article presents some new radiocarbon dates of burnt bones found in cairns and stone-settings in Northern Sweden. The author also describes the earliest known graves in the north. The low and discreet Late Mesolithic stone-settings, with red ochre and inhumations, seem to be elements of a northern burial tradition that continued into the Neolithic Period. The latest hitherto known of these descreet stone-settings was excavated west of Umeå in Västerbotten, and was radiocarbon dated to 1750-1520 BC. However, this grave lacked the typical red ochre. During approximately the same time monumental cairns were erected along the coast of Norrland. The oldest of these were traditionally believed to have been introduced during the Early Bronze Age and contain inhumations in long stone cists, which were replaced by cremations during the Late Bronze Age. However, new radiocarbon dates from five cremations in cairns and stone-settings strongly challenge that belief, placing all in the Early Bronze Age. The cremations in cairns are not necessarily the oldest monumental stratum. The author suggests that the cairns were linked to the introduction of agricultural activities along the coast during the end of the 3rd Millennium BC.

Abstract Background Hunter-gatherer lifestyles dominated the southern African landscape up to ~ 2000 years ago, when herding and farming groups started to arrive in the area. First, herding and livestock, likely of East African origin, appeared in southern Africa, preceding the arrival of the large-scale Bantu-speaking agro-pastoralist expansion that introduced West African-related genetic ancestry into the area. Present-day Khoekhoe-speaking Namaqua (or Nama in short) pastoralists show high proportions of East African admixture, linking the East African ancestry with Khoekhoe herders. Most other historical Khoekhoe populations have, however, disappeared over the last few centuries and their contribution to the genetic structure of present-day populations is not well understood. In our study, we analyzed genome-wide autosomal and full mitochondrial data from a population who trace their ancestry to the Khoekhoe-speaking Hessequa herders from the southern Cape region of what is now South Africa. Results We generated genome-wide data from 162 individuals and mitochondrial DNA data of a subset of 87 individuals, sampled in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, where the Hessequa population once lived. Using available comparative data from Khoe-speaking and related groups, we aligned genetic date estimates and admixture proportions to the archaeological proposed dates and routes for the arrival of the East African pastoralists in southern Africa. We identified several Afro-Asiatic-speaking pastoralist groups from Ethiopia and Tanzania who share high affinities with the East African ancestry present in southern Africa. We also found that the East African pastoralist expansion was heavily male-biased, akin to a pastoralist migration previously observed on the genetic level in ancient Europe, by which Pontic-Caspian Steppe pastoralist groups represented by the Yamnaya culture spread across the Eurasian continent during the late Neolithic/Bronze Age. Conclusion We propose that pastoralism in southern Africa arrived through male-biased migration of an East African Afro-Asiatic-related group(s) who introduced new subsistence and livestock practices to local southern African hunter-gatherers. Our results add to the understanding of historical human migration and mobility in Africa, connected to the spread of food-producing and livestock practices.

This article considers colonial rhetoric manifested in representations of early settlement in the mining town of Kiruna in northernmost Sweden. Kiruna was founded more than 100 years ago by the LKAB Company with its centre the prosperous mine on Sami land. Continued iron ore mining has made it necessary to relocate the town centre a few kilometres north-east of its original location to ensure the safety of the people. The ongoing process of the town’s transformation due to industrial expansion has given rise to the creation of a memorial park between the town and the mine, in which two historical photographs have been erected on huge concrete blocks. For the Swedish Sami, the indigenous people, the transformation means further exploitation of their reindeer grazing lands and forced adaption to industrial expansion. The historical photographs in the memorial park fit into narratives of colonial expansion and exploration that represent the town’s colonial past. Both pictures are connected to colonial, racialised and gendered space during the early days of industrial colonialism. The context has been set by discussions about what Kiruna “is”, and how it originated. My aim is to study the role of collective memory in mediating a colonial past, by exploring the representations that are connected to and evoked by these pictures. In this progressive transformation of the town, what do these photographic memorials represent in relation to space? What are the values made visible in these photographs? I also discuss the ways in which Kiruna’s history becomes manifested in the town’s transformation and the use of history in urban planning. I argue that, in addressing the colonial history of Kiruna, it is timely to reconsider how memories of a town are communicated into the future by references to the past. I also claim that memory, history, and remembrance and forgetting are represented in this process of history-making and that they intersect gender, class and ethnicity.

A neural language model trained on a text corpus can be used to induce distributed representations of words, such that similar words end up with similar representations. If the corpus is multilingual, the same model can be used to learn distributed representations of languages, such that similar languages end up with similar representations. We show that this holds even when the multilingual corpus has been translated into English, by picking up the faint signal left by the source languages. However, just as it is a thorny problem to separate semantic from syntactic similarity in word representations, it is not obvious what type of similarity is captured by language representations. We investigate correlations and causal relationships between language representations learned from translations on one hand, and genetic, geographical, and several levels of structural similarity between languages on the other. Of these, structural similarity is found to correlate most strongly with language representation similarity, whereas genetic relationships—a convenient benchmark used for evaluation in previous work—appears to be a confounding factor. Apart from implications about translation effects, we see this more generally as a case where NLP and linguistic typology can interact and benefit one another.

Introduction The waterfront of Stockholm, one of Europe's fastest-growing cities, stands at the forefront of climate change challenges. As such, there is a pressing need for innovative solutions and resilient urban design. The SOS Climate Waterfront research project gathered international experts and local representatives, coming from different disciplines to work together in May-June 2022 to discuss, explore proposals and design Sustainable Open Solutions (SOS). This book explores three urban sites in Stockholm, holding significant implications for the city's waterfront— Lövholmen, Frihamnen, and Södra Värtan. During the workshop, SOS Climate Waterfront participants, mainly European researchers, analyzed future challenges, raised new questions, and depicted solutions, which can now contribute to cross-country comparisons in a larger EU-framework. The three sites are not only driven by the demand for more housing but also face crucial issues related to cultural heritage, climate change, landscape ecology, and social development. Achieving a delicate balance between these aspects and economic interests presents a significant task for the city. The waterfront of Stockholm holds substantial relevance in the context of climate change and its impact on coastal areas. Thus, analysis of the Swedish context, based on data collected and on-site knowledge sustains a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Stockholm is expected to be affected by the impacts of climate change, including temperature increases, changing precipitation patterns, and the potential for more frequent cloudbursts. While the rising sea level is a long-term challenge rather than an immediate concern, increasing risks of extreme weather events and flooding were taken in consideration. Stockholm rests on two different bodies of water, at a location where the Baltic Sea (Östersjön in Swedish) with brackish water meets Lake Mälaren, which is an important provider of freshwater for the larger Stockholm area. As the lyrics of a popular contemporary Swedish song (by Robert Broberg) describe it: “the city is full of water”. However, to ensure that the ecological and chemical status will be maintained, in facing future challenges in terms of urbanisation and climate change, much attention has been paid to ensure the preservation of the water quality of the Mälaren Lake, a vital water source for two million people. The city values its water and continuously invests in improving the situation (e.g. the new sluice at Slussen). The activities carried out in the SOS Climate Waterfront workshop in Stockholm integrated this relationship to water as well as the continuing land-rise, the balance of which adds complexity to the sea level modelling and therefore also to the anticipations and scenarios for the future. In this book, the authors explore innovative strategies and design proposals to tackle these challenges while preserving the cultural identity and heritage value of the sites. Researchers from various European cities, supported by experts and academic lectures, analyze extensive input materials and information, ranging from planning documents and historical records to consultation reports and city visions. By drawing upon multidisciplinary backgrounds and experiences, the researchers identify the socioeconomic and environmental qualities of each site, ultimately developing site design concepts and solutions that address climate change challenges, the maintenance of cultural identities, and the protection of biodiversity. Throughout the book, the proposed designs emphasize the importance of finding a balance between preserving cultural heritage, the values of local communities, the stimulating economic growth, and promotion of sustainable urban development. Key elements include the reuse of existing infrastructure, the integration of green-blue schemes, the improvement of biodiversity, and the creation of vibrant and multi-functional neighbourhoods that connect people to each other and their surroundings. While design solutions present promising approaches, their implementation and the institutional challenges that may arise in specific city contexts remain external to the results presented here. The book acknowledges the need for further research and highlights the shared recognition among the workshop participants regarding the gaps and blind spots in their findings. The following chapters of the book delve into climate change in Sweden, the role of culture and arts in the environmental movement, and specific case studies and design proposals for each site. By exploring these diverse perspectives, this book aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on sustainable urban design and planning, to inspire innovative approaches in addressing complex challenges faced by Stockholm in the future. PART 1 of the book offers a comprehensive understanding of climate change in Sweden, street fishing in Stockholm, and the role of culture and arts in the environmental movement in the Nordic Region and internationally. Furthermore, the lessons from Stockholm and its surroundings in this report draw on presentations, by professionals and researchers from various fields, made during the workshop. Some of these lessons have been written into interesting articles, introduced below. The chapter “Climate change in Sweden” by Magnus Joelsson from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) provides an updated analysis with data and the context for discussing climate change in Sweden. The text makes the distinction between weather and climate, referring to the expression “Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get” that Mark Twain is said to have coined. Moreover, calling for actions by emphasising that the trend of climate change is expected to continue, both globally and in Sweden. What will happen in the far future still depends on our actions, now and in the future. The contribution entitled “Urban nature does not stop at the waterfront, neither should urban planning, a case study of street fishing in Stockholm” raises questions about how planning and strategies for waterfront areas in cities should consider more perspectives from a wider group of interests. It discusses how urban dwellers live with water, with a focus on recreational fishing and what this use entails. The authors (Anja Moum Rieser, from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Wieben Johannes Boonstra and Rikard Hedling, both from Uppsala University) go beyond the human-centric view and expand the gaze to other species’ needs and also incorporating the body of water in planning for the urban waterfront areas. The chapter “The role of culture and arts in the environmental movement in the Nordic Region and internationally” by Elisavet Papageorgiou and Iwona Preis from Intercult, discusses artistic perspectives on sustainability and climate change. This focuses on how art and culture can raise awareness, provide inspiring actions, and promote social cohesion around sustainable practices. Drawing on experiences from projects aiming to invite and engage community dialogues, they argue that artistic strategies can challenge dominant narratives and promote alternative visions for a sustainable future. The contribution “Sense the Marsh” by Thelma Dethelfsen from KTH The Royal Institute of Technology, emphasises the importance of architecture and landscape design in creating adaptive and resilient strategies to manage flooding and sea level rise. The study focuses on how designs can encourage interaction and awareness with the surroundings. Thereby highlighting the interfaces between humans and nature and raising questions about how flooding can be used as a quality and catalyst to attract more people to an area. The resulting design provides an opportunity to experience nature though the design and architectural solutions, situated on the border between human, non-human species and nature. In PART 2, readers will explore the detailed design proposals developed by different groups for the urban sites in focus. These proposals aim to intertwine sustainability, cultural identity, and economic interests, offering insights into the potential for resilient and vibrant urban spaces. By assessing existing conditions on three sites analysed in Stockholm, including Lövholmen, Frihamnen, and Södra Värtan, the teams participating in the workshop actively contributed to the analysis of the sites and development of design solutions for the areas, in the end forming strategies for better preparedness for future challenges and better lives for the inhabitants. Lövholmen is located in the north-western part of Liljeholmen, one of the major developmental centres in Stockholm. The area is currently a closed-off industrial site, but the municipality’s intention is to redevelop it into a mixed urban space with homes, workplaces, shops, schools, and more. It's expected that 1500 new homes will be built in the area. Many of the current industrial buildings are empty and in bad shape. While some of these will be replaced with housing, other industrial buildings have heritage value and should be protected during the development, after which a new use should be found for them. Frihamnen is, together with the Södra Värtan project, part of the larger development of ”Norra Djurgårdsstaden”, the Stockholm Royal Seaport. Frihamnen is located to the south of Värtahamnen and is in turn strongly connected to Loudden in the south. The municipality plans for the area to contain approximately 1700 homes, 4000 workplaces and 75,000 m2 of retail and office space. Some of the existing businesses in Frihamnen will remain, but much of the existing infrastructure is planned to be removed. The harbour no longer handles freight shipping, but passenger ships will continue to depart from the harbour (Frihamnspiren). Södra Värtan is planned to contain 1500 apartments, 20 preschool departments, 155,000 m2 of office and retail space, as well as 10,000 m2 of parks and a 600 m long waterfront walkway. The new development is intended to co-exist with the activities in the harbour, which creates challenges such as the blocking of noise stemming from the cruise ships. The walkways along the waterfront are planned to have shops and restaurants. The contributions of the articles, together with the SOS Climate Waterfront teams’ analysis of the three sites in Stockholm, provides relevant and timely interdisciplinary efforts to co-create novel solutions and future strategies to manage the climate challenges ahead. The solutions relate to the history of the urban territory, actors involved (or those excluded) and changes, over time, of planning ideals. A key theme is how to plan by creating inclusive strategies for the future by involving representatives of diverse interests, competences, and future visions for the sites. The consequences of climate change are affecting these different stakeholders and citizens in a wide range of ways, so including them in the process is crucial. This also includes the inclusion of future generations’ views on urban transformation. The largest challenge is to create new, novel solutions where these human interests, as well as those of local nature and non-human species, can be incorporated, in an effort to plan and design for a mitigation and management of the consequences of climate change. As we embark on this journey of exploration and innovation, we invite readers to delve into the pages of this book, where interdisciplinary research, creative design, and a shared commitment to sustainable urban development and decarbonisation strategies converge. Together, let us envision a future where cities thrive, harmoniously balancing their heritage, environment, and economic aspirations. QC 20231115 SOS Climate Waterfront https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/823901

”A new form of musical upbringing”: Pretenses of reform pedagogy content in the Siljan schoolIn this article, I describe the Siljan school in Tällberg as a Swedish example of alternative pedagogy. The overall questions relate to the reform pedagogy content of the school and its ability to give Swedish music teaching a new form of musical upbringing. An important issue is how the Siljan school as a model for Swedish reform has been inspired by the reform pedagogy movements in USA and Germany. The analysis is thus based on the Alm couple’s ability to give the school an international character which shines light on Swedish reforms in the greater context of reform pedagogy. With its basis in discursive education of the 1930s, two main questions are discussed: what perspective on musical education can be identified in the personal development ethos of the Siljan school? How can the school’s relation to the reform pedagogy music movement during the start of the 1900s be understood? From a hermeneutic perspective, the article contributes by investigating how the Siljan school can have affected decisions in education politics, Swedish schooling, and Swedish musical life. In summary, the article contributes with new knowledge on a chapter in the history of Swedish music pedagogy.