The river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) was previously caught in large numbers in Europe when migrating up in the rivers during autumn for spawning the next spring. It was used as food and was also used as bait in cod fishing in the North Sea. Today the river lamprey has decreased in numbers over much of it’s distribution range, but in the Baltic Sea area, the population is still at a fairly good level, and fishing for lampreys as food (a tradition going back to at least the fifteenth century) is still going on in northern Swedish and Finnish rivers, as well as in coastal rivers in the southern Baltic Sea area. In this article the current situation as regards river lamprey fishing in Sweden, Finland, Latvia and, to some extent, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland is presented.

The aim of this paper is to examine if any homogeneity or heterogeneity can be traced in burials from Preboreal, Boreal and Early Atlantic period, in the area of the Baltic Sea. Furthermore, the paper will deal with the Early Mesolithic burials based on theoretical perspectives on rituals, materiality and agency.To enable the purpose of identifying the homogeneity or heterogeneity of the data, relational multi-varied Correspondence Analysis of the individuals and their artifact variations, body position, burial type etc. have been applied.The data used in this study contain information from 41 sites including 171 graves with 194 individuals from nine different countries (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway Poland, Russia and Sweden). The study is based on the work Mesolithische Bestattungen in Europa. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Gräberkunde. Teil I-II of Judith M. Grünberg from 2000, however some new sites and graves have been added.This study is expected to contribute new contextual interpretations of the Early Mesolithic burials of the area of the Baltic Sea.

In the years after WWII the Baltic Sea Area developed into an area strongly divided between East and West. Because of the tensions between the blocs, the coastal areas where strongly militarized and prepared for war. The new political situation after 1989 propelled an international military disarmament and closing down of bases, training areas around Europe. Since the Baltic Sea Area was one of the heaviest militarized part of Europe the question of disarmament here is of particularly great economic, social and cultural importance. This study is about the post-military landscape in the Baltic Sea Area with examples from Dejevo on the Estonian island Saaremaa, Dranske on the (East)German island Rügen and Fårösund on the Swedish island Gotland. The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the process where the military landscape of the Cold War is transformed in order to be incorporated in the macro-regional endeavors for unity in the new Europe. I want to analyze the implications that planning visions have on the everyday life of people. A following aim is to shed light on the challenges that urban planning has to face in this transformation. Three research questions frame the study. The first question analyzes the process where the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea after the end of the Cold War are disarmed and transformed, from a landscape of production of military services and objects into a landscape of consumption for recreation and tourism. The second question takes its point of departure in the relation between planning visions and everyday life. The third question concerns the matter of the past and analyzes what aspects of the military landscape are emphasized respectively pushed aside in the transformation into post-military landscape. The study is based on interviews with inhabitants and local planners as well as macro-regional and local planning documents, articles and photographs.

L'espace baltique est souvent cité comme l’archétype d’un espace transnational construit par des réseaux. Depuis la chute du Rideau de fer, les acteurs locaux et européens ont régulièrement convoqué le passé fantasmé de la Hanse médiévale, une association de marchands créée au XIIe siècle, afin d’établir une prétendue unité de la région. Davantage que la volonté de rapprocher des territoires avant tout concurrents, l'existence d'une multitude de forums baltiques traduit surtout la difficile adaptation des acteurs locaux à de nouvelles dynamiques relevant de la mondialisation économique et de l'européanisation politique. Depuis les années 1980, marquées par une recomposition du rôle des États, les autorités municipales ont la possibilité de mener une politique internationale plus autonome et de porter leurs actions à des niveaux inédits. Encore faut-il que les municipalités concernées disposent d'une masse critique suffisante et d'une localisation avantageuse. Les réseaux de villes forment un espace intermédiaire permettant aux territoires périphériques de l'espace baltique de développer des stratégies dans et avec les niveaux géographiques. Il n'existe pas un seul modèle de recomposition interterritoriale mais une multitude de stratégies et de parcours, dont l'espace baltique, traversé de nombreuses discontinuités, peut témoigner. Au-delà d'une géopolitique classique centrée sur les relations interétatiques, l'étude des municipalités riveraines invite à considérer la diversité des modèles d'inscription dans des dynamiques mondiales et européennes qui ne constituent pas des processus linéaires et monolithiques. / The Baltic Sea area is often quoted as the archetype of a transnational space achieved through networks. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, local and European stakeholders have frequently relied on the fantasized history of the Hanseatic League, a mediaeval association of merchants created in the 12th century, in order to foster the idea of a unified region. Rather than a desire to bring together territories that are essentially rivals, the existence of numerous Baltic forums suggests the difficulty local stakeholders have in adapting to the new dynamics of economic globalization and political Europeanization. Since the 1980s, a period that was characterized by a change in the role of States, city authorities have been able to launch more autonomous international policies and extend the scope of their actions to unprecedented levels, the condition being that the cities in question have a sufficient critical mass and enjoy an attractive location. City networks make up an intermediary space allowing the territories bordering the Baltic Sea to develop strategies within and together with various geographical levels. With its many disparities, the Baltic Sea area exemplifies not one single model of rescaling, but a vast number of inter-territorial strategies and approaches. Beyond classical geopolitics based on inter-state relations, the study of the cities bordering the Baltic Sea leads to the idea that there is a great variety of ways in which they participate in both global and European dynamics that are not linear or monolithic processes.