RB 34

131 or by means of the border regulations between Sweden and Denmark, that were decided in 1050—60, under the reign of the Swedish king Edmund Olofsson (ca 1050—ca 1060) and the Danish king Sven Estridson (ca 1047—ca 1076), a theory the present writer advanced in 1979. The creation of a borderline between Sweden and Denmark about 1050 included—according to the document concerning the treaty still existing—the erection of six border stones on the decided border line, streching supposedly fromthe Baltic in the east to the Göta river in the west, at that time representing the border between Sweden and Norway. Five of those stones have been located by Swedish research but the position of the sixth—the stone most westward—had not been found in spite of intensive research. The present writer has been able to identify it by a careful study of the materials in the case. In fact the stone had been located already in 1735 by E. Benzelius, at that time bishop of Gothenburg and later the Swedish archbishop. Benzelius, who was also an historian, wrote a letter to his brother in this year, in which he tells him in veiled language, that he had located the stone at the borderline between Sävedals härad in Västergötland and the province of Halland at a place about 30 kilometers east of the Göta river. The bishop was right, on the spot indicated by him, the stone still stands. The location of the stone allows for the conclusion that the territories between the stone and the Göta river, the härads of Sävedal and Askim, were in Swedish possession at the time when the stone was erected. The location of the stone strongly supports the hypothesis set forth by the present writer in 1979. The stipulations concerning the construction of the borderline between Sweden and Denmark in the years of 1050—60 is interesting also from another angle: according to the stipulations the borderline had to be drawn up by 12 men, 6 Swedes and 6 Danes. Of the Swedes, 3 should represent Götaland and 3 Svealand, of the Danes 3 represented Jutland and 3 the rest of the country. The present writer has found these figures indicating that at the time when the borderline was decided there existed in Sweden as well as in Denmark representative administrative systems, dividing both countries into two clearly distinguishable parts: in Sweden Götaland and Svealand, in Denmark Jutland on one hand, and the rest of the country on the other. This conjecture is quite in accordance with the hypothesis, advanced by the present writer in his earlier paper.

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