Municipal site leasehold in Sweden: A land policy instrument in Decay

Municipal site leasehold in Sweden is in need of renovation. Municipalities are troubled with securing returns on investments and increments in land values, leaseholders by unpredictability and sharply increased fees, and both are troubled by growing numbers of costly court cases. As a result, the use of site leasehold has come to a near standstill. Recent developments in the use of site leasehold in Sweden are charted, problems are highlighted, and possible solutions are discussed by way of comparison with other countries. If municipal site leasehold is to play a meaningful role in Swedish land policy, it must be reformed.     

Proto-Urban Establishments in Inner Asia: Surveys of an Iron Age Walled Site in Eastern Mongolia

Walled sites attributed to the Xiongnu steppe empire (2nd century b.c.–1st century a.d.) constitute the earliest investments in explicitly non-mortuary built environments among pastoralists of the Mongolian Steppe. These permanent constructions are important precedents to the medieval towns of subsequent steppe empires, yet very little of the complete layouts and surrounding remains of the large enclosures are understood. Our investigations of the walled site at Kherlen-Bars in eastern Mongolia are among the first surveys to fully document all aspects above and below ground across an entire Iron Age walled site area. In addition to detailed documentation of the large structures, our geomagnetic prospections and digital elevation modeling brought to light numerous small sub-surface and subtle-surface features that show such early walled sites, often deemed virtually empty, to be far more complex and diachronic in their formation processes and possible functions.