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To comprehend better the meaning of a runic monument as a complex phenomenon it is necessary to have knowledge of its original location in relation to the surrounding environment. Our knowledge of such initial locations varies. Some runestones still stand in the place where they were first erected. In other cases, the first placement is well documented even if the runestone has been moved or indeed lost; sometimes, however, the documentation indicates only a general placement. In several instances the original location is wholly unknown. There are eighty-two known runic monuments from the late Viking Age in an area called Tiohärad in southern Sweden. For twenty-nine of these only a secondary location, mostly in or near a church, is known. Some mention bridges and eleven are known to have been located near a passage of water (which presumably also indicates the presence of a road). At least sixteen more are found near a later road, and two of these mention a crossroad. Thirteen seem to have been found near farms or villages. In many cases, the monuments could have marked ancient boundaries. Of particular interest in these instances are the examples located at boundaries that not only border two farms, but also larger administrative areas. Of the fifty-two monuments with a known location, only eighteen have any connection to grave-fields.

The study of the economics of education has a history that can be regarded as long, or short, depending on the perspective. As early as the eighteenth and nineteenth century, physiocrats and classical economists dealt with education as an economic phenomenon.1 However, it was first in the middle of the twentieth century that education became a fundamental issue in the science of economics, due in large part to human capital theory which, among many other things, highlighted the impact of educational attainment on economic growth.2 One of the key areas of research within the field of education economics is the study of educational finance. In the OECD countries, the expected length of five-year old child’s education in the year 2000 was 16.8 years, representing more than onefifth of a child’s life expectancy. In addition, an increasing number of these individuals are internationally mobile during their education. The funding of this lengthy and geographically diverse education entails enormous costs. In 2004, it was reported that the OECD countries spent an average of 5.8 percent of their GDP on education alone.3 Issues regarding the funding of such immense costs have generated research on topics such as the effects of the marketisation of education, and the balance between national, regional and local funding of education.4 Some of this research is, as will be discussed below, historical in nature. The articles in this special issue discuss the

Titele in WoS: The metropolises of the Middle East

How can the Danish lawn be read and interpreted through the last century? The cases vary a lot, therefore the cases reach out towards a general discussion.The investigation aims at exploring the Danish lawn in an international perspective, and lawns in landscape architecture or lawns as symbols signify critical points of view to societal matters.The present contribution explores the lawn as a central component in selected cases from 1915 till today. The modern breakthrough in the 1920s in Danish landscape architecture revitalized the lawn. Further artistic contributions in the 1950s launched the lawn in a delicate poetic edition. Only a few years later in the 1960s, the lawn signified the inhuman, industrialized suburb. The color TV in the 1980s made the lawn synonymous with commercial football and technology. In 2019, the lawn is an everyday thing, and parallelly it exists as the antonym to the ecological flower meadow – the “true” urban nature.

Medieval stone moulds – mass-production of metal objects for secular and religious use in RibeThe Museum of Southwest Jutland’s collection contains seven fragments of High Medieval metal-casting moulds of stone, all found during construction works and archaeological excavations in Ribe (figs. 1 and 5). These moulds constitute a relatively rare artefact type in Denmark and the examples from Ribe differ from those found in the rest of the country (figs. 2-4). Five of the moulds were recovered in the vicinity of the cathedral, suggesting that it was in this area that metal casting, and perhaps also sale of the finished products, took place.The moulds are all in the form of fragments, but they contain a great deal of information with respect to the production techniques, craftsmanship and artefact types of the period. They are all made of limestone, which must have been imported to Ribe, but perhaps also arrived in the form of finished products. This is hinted at by the major differences in the quality of their execution as well as the existence of some very close foreign parallels to the more spectacular and complicated pieces. Comparisons with other finds, coupled with X-ray analyses, suggest that the moulds were used to cast objects of lead/tin alloy. These mould types and metal types are a reflection of the mass-production of small objects that developed in the High and Late Middle Ages; a phenomenon that is documented in written sources, supported by the large number of artefacts surviving from this period.The artefacts cast in the moulds fall into the category of small objects intended for personal use: costume accessories and ornaments as well as objects with religious/magical symbolism and application (figs. 9-16).The demand for mass-produced objects included both costume accessories and ornaments intended to be sewn on to clothing, as well as other small objects with either a secular or religious iconography or function.Compared to the rest of Denmark, Ribe has yielded a relatively large number of Medieval stone moulds. However, relative to similar records from elsewhere in northern Europe, the finds from Ribe are rather modest, both in number and in quality. Nevertheless, they bear witness to Ribe’s strong contacts and exchange network with Medieval towns across northern Europe and to the everyday objects and religious accessories that had the same form across a vast area.The finding of mould fragments in Ribe shows that here, as in other European Medieval towns, there were also mass-produced secular personal items as well as objects for religious use. Recent excavations in the town have been responsible for the recovery of half the (stone) mould fragments found in the museum’s collection. This is due partly to the application of sieving as an excavation method and perhaps also to the fact that the area around the cathedral, the location of the excavations of recent years, was where the metal casters plied their trade. Perhaps they sold their wares here too, either from their workshops or from stalls on the market, Fisketorvet, which lay directly east of the cathedral. Written sources from pilgrimage sites around Europe document the sale of both religious equipment and other items in the close vicinity of churches, which were places that attracted large numbers of visitors. The fact that so many fragments have been recovered during the excavations here possibly means that many more than have been recovered to date lie concealed in the area, and the present finds provide just a hint of the metal-casting activities that took place here in the High Middle Ages.The limestone used to make the moulds must have been imported to Ribe. Whether this represented a by-product or reuse of imported building materials, actual minor import of stone or perhaps material brought to Ribe by non-local craftsmen is impossible to say. From the moulds’ motifs it can be seen that the quality of the finished products varied immensely. Some of the carvings are very beautifully executed, for example those for the openwork spherical object and the ampoule, while those for the costume accessories and other items appear much coarser and more carelessly made. The latter could though, in some cases, represent worn-out moulds or practice pieces. The mould for the spherical object has a close parallel in a find from Magdeburg, prompting speculation about whether some of the finest moulds could have been imported from much more skilled and highly-specialised workshops located in the major towns and cities of Europe.There are already a number of finds of Medieval metal costume accessories and ornaments, but the local production of these items has not previously been demonstrated. One of the most interesting aspects is the local production of religious equipment in Ribe. The manufacture of ampoules to hold sacred fluids, a pan-European phenomenon associated with pilgrimages and pilgrimage sites, raises questions about whether these ampoules were sold as pilgrim souvenirs in Ribe and what the nature was of the sacred fluid with which they were filled. Or were they sold to pilgrims who were on their way out into Europe, so they could fill them with sacred fluid on reaching their destination?The relatively large number of mould fragments from Ribe must reflect the town’s international contacts and orientation at this time, with strong cultural contacts and exchange networks involving other north European towns. However, the state of preservation of the cultural deposits and the archaeological methods applied in their excavation has also played a role. For the purposes of comparison, an earlier discovery of a metal workshop in Aalborg shows, in terms of date and repertoire, great similarity to the finds from Ribe. Perhaps this range of small personal objects was something that was manufactured in every Medieval town with respect for itself, even though no major traces of this craft survive.Mette Højmark SøvsøSydvestjyske MuseerAnne Juul JensenSyddansk UniversitetMichael NeißUppsala Universitet

Editorial for Vol. 32/1 of Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies. Editorial for Vol. 32/1

The importance of philanthropy for academic exchange cannot be overestimated. Especially in the first half of the twentieth century, scholarships for academic exchange originated from the private sector instead of the state. But what is the relationship between academic exchange and the donations which finance scholarships? How can specific donations and the restrictions placed on them change the flow of exchange? This article investigates donation and scholarship praxis within the American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) from 1912–1995, a philanthropic organisation devoted to academic exchange between Scandinavia and the United States. The period, 1912–1944, is characterised by various small donations and few scholarships to mostly American fellows. The second period, 1945–1995, represents an era of economic growth created from a surge in large, restricted donations invested in scholarship funds. This led to an increased number of scholarships to a more geographically diverse population.

By analysing the regulating mechanisms of state subsidies to Swedish institutions generally considered mediating “popular education” during the twentieth century, it is argued that a tension has been developed between two parallel notions of popular education. A narrower ideal popular education—emphasising non-formality and independence—has been discursively nurtured along with a broader organisational popular education, denoting the de facto institutions that have received government funding, primarily the folk high schools and study associations. It is argued that the organisational popular education is a reality in itself, spanning over border zones between, for example, non-formal and formal education. Furthermore, an argu- ment against using “popular education” as an analytical concept is put forth, since it is overly contested. Rather, it is promoted as a discursive construct that has for- med real organisational structures with their own logic, which cannot be denoted by words such as non-formal adult education. Folkbildningens finansiering 1872–1991: ekonomisk styrning, normer och praxis i spänningsfältet mellan offentlig och frivillig sektor