GIS-material for the archaeological project: The urban cultivated lands of Skänninge

The information in the abstract is translated from the archaeological report: Due to the planned construction of a new train station in Skänninge, Mjölby municipality, the Swedish National Heritage Board's contract archaeology division, UV Öst, performed a preliminary investigation beside the existing station in November 2005. Skänninge is seen as being one of the central places of Östergötland County already in the Late Iron Age and Early Middle Ages. Recent excavations have also indicated that the place has had central functions already in the Early Iron Age. The historical maps show that the investigated area is situated on what was once cultivated land belonging to the city of Skänninge, at least from the 17th century and onwards. Most of the remains found during the excavating are connected to agriculture. A few features were found that might be older than the agricultural layers, but that are difficult to interpret. One of them, a shallow pit or the remains of cultural layer, has been dated to the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age. East of the railway are modern layers of soil, as thick as 2 m, probably originating from the construction of the railway at the end of the 19th century. Purpose: The information in the purpose is translated from the archaeological report: The purpose of the preliminary investigation was to examine whether the development area contained any archaeological remains and, if so, to elucidate their scientific potential. The aim was to identify, document, interpret and characterize the features, cultural layers and possible constructions that could be affected by the development works. The ZIP file consist of GIS files and an Access database with information about the excavations, findings and other metadata about the archaeological survey.