Two maps over the agrarian landscape of the Vadstena plains ca 1640 -- from the dissertation "Ostergotland "Västanstång": studies of the older agrarian landscape and its genesis"

This study is an investigation of the agrarian landscape in the western part of Ostergotland County (in Sweden). The study was published in the form of a dissertation in Human Geography written (in German) by Steffan Helmfrid, and defended in 1962. Two maps were produced as a part of the dissertation, based on historical material. These maps show the agrarian landscape as it was around 1640. Helmfrid's analogue process for producing these maps was unique for the 1960s. These two maps are made available here.

Two maps are made available here:

1) Name: No Title (Working version)
scale: 1:50,000
coordinate system: no coordinates
file format: tiff (.tif)
file size: 198 MB
file name: helmfrid_orginal_photoshop.tif

2) Name: "The Agrarian Landscape on the Vadstena plains around the year 1640"
scale: 1:100,000
coordinate system: RT 90 2.5 gon V (EPSG 3021)
file format: geotiff (.tif)
file size: 40 MB
file name: helmfrid_rectify.tif

The first map is an unpublished working version that was used as the basis for the second map which is the published version contained in Helmfrid's dissertation. The working version has a larger-scale, which means it is more detailed than the second map.

The second map was digitized and rectified in 2009 by Johan Berg, also from Stockholm University. This was done as part of a project on land relations during the Younger Iron Age in western Ostergotland. (See link to separate data , 2019-102, in SND's catalog). The working version (the first map) was digitized in 2019 when it was decided to publish Helmfrid's maps via the Swedish National Data Service.

The working version was based on a compilation of 400 smaller village and farm maps, all from the 1640s. These sources can be found in the following historical property maps (in Swedish: geometriska jordeböcker): D5, D6, D7, D8 and D10 (See https://riksarkivet.se/visa-kartsamlingar -- "D" refers to maps from Ostergotland county). All the original historical maps were signed by one surveyor -- Larson Groth.

The rectified map can be opened in most Geographic Information System (GIS) programs. The map can also be opened in image editing software, but without coordinates. The working version (the first map) is also a raster file, but because the working version was never rectified, it has been saved as a normal tiff file (.tif), not a geotiff. It can be opened in image editing programs like Photoshop or opensource Gimp.

More information on how Helmfrid produced these maps and a link and reference to his dissertation can be found (in Swedish) in the attached documentation file. Show less..