Archaeology also includes remains from recent centuries and one category of this has particularly caught my interest, namely waterpowered mills. Its history in Scandinavia stretches all the way back to the early Middle Ages, i.e. the 12th century, but it can be assumed that a strong expansion only took place around the 16th century and its existence lasted until the beginning of the 20th century. I have spent the last 3 years rectifying historical maps of my home area in order to find forgotten and abandoned crofts. Inventorying and finding all these crofts and small huts that have existed is currently a hot topic in Sweden, and is eagerly supported by the cultural authority.

In Sweden, we are fortunate in that we hold one of the world’s largest collected treasures of historical map sheets, a mapping that was done mainly during the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries where the purpose was, among other things, to tax the arable land.

In the “world of the maps”, I discover that the surveyor has also mapped the mills that existed at the time of mapping, because these also had their economic value. Here, with the mills, my special inventory started and this is where, with this introduction, I want to show how I go about retrieving and inventorying the stock of waterpowered mills by rectifying and taking advantage of them in Avenza Maps. I am now halfway through my project, i.e. I have rectified all the historical maps, from the northern county of Halland and south to the middle part, which has resulted in approximately 2500 mills and approximately 1900 maps, maps that are now also available in the Avenza Store for use and enjoyment for other homestead researchers in the county.

Göran Bengtsson is a trained archaeologist at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, with a special interest in our oldest remains from the late Paleolithic and older Stone Age periods, but also in cultural geography. He has also participated in several excavations of Stone Age settlements. In recent years, however, he has focused his research on much younger cultural remains, such as the inventory of older agricultural landscapes, waterpowered mills, crofts and other interesting cultural remains. Göran has been very interested in cartography since his early youth and now with his retirement and free time he has spent thousands of hours correcting historical maps. He has also conducted courses where he has taught native researchers how to take advantage of historical maps and Avenza Maps.

The Avenza User Conference is an opportunity to discover exciting new developments with Avenza's GIS and cartographic solutions and to connect with peers and Avenza team members. Avenza users and staffers from around the globe meet virtually each May to learn what's new with Avenza Maps, MAPublisher, Geographic Imager, and the Avenza Map Store, and see how they are being used to map our world.

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