Runes were used by most Germanic peoples, but were gradually replaced by the Latin alphabet. Runes had the shortest lifespan in Germany; the ancestors of the English, the Anglo-Saxons, continued to write in runes until the 10th century, and the Scandinavians until the late Middle Ages. In the remote Swedish province of Dalarna, runes survived into the 20th century: hundreds of runic inscriptions have been preserved there on buildings, furniture, tools, and utensils from the last four centuries. Many of these are owner's signatures, but there are also longer texts, such as an inscription on a wooden table made in the famine year of 1730 that reads: "There is room for much food on this table. He who has so much would be happy."