upcoming conferences by Bente Sven Majchczack
Kiel Conference 24.-29.03.2025, 2025
The European Wadden Sea region and comparable coastal landscapes form a highly dynamic and intens... more The European Wadden Sea region and comparable coastal landscapes form a highly dynamic and intensively settled landscape with a millennia-long human footprint. Especially the salt-marshes bear an extraordinary potential for agriculture and husbandry. At the same time, they are an extremely challenging environment for habitation, requiring elaborated
strategies and adaptation to natural conditions.
Through the ages, we can distinguish different stages of human impact. Starting from a natural developed landscape with low human interaction in form of resource gathering, permanent settlements adapted a “synanthropic” way of life. This included a balanced and sustainable use of resources, agriculture and pasture adapted to a high marine influence and regular floodings by the sea. A much higher impact was created when the water was closed off: coastal protection measures, sophisticated water
management, and large-scale transformation from fenlands to farmland lead to fully established cultural landscapes. This trajectory in land-use created new vulnerabilities, leading to patterns or cycles of settlement development, decline, abandonment or recovery. These patterns are inscribed into the geomorphology and call for interdisciplinary approaches to decipher the biographies of existing or lost coastal landscapes.
We invite colleagues from all fields working on prospection strategies to explore the physical remains in the coastal landscape, such as existing or
drowned settlements, elements of coastal defense or infrastructure, traces of resource extraction or traces of agricultural land use (e.g. from Geophysics, Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, historical Geography); or striving to implement novel dating approaches of coastal deposits or material culture (Radiocarbon, OSL). Besides the physical remains, we look for approaches on subsistence strategies (Biomarker, Archaeobotany; Archaeozoology) and the societal factors such as the perception of coastal communities towards adaptation strategies and dynamics of
vulnerabilities (History, historical Economics). We strive to connect the different research regions and disciplines facing challenges and finding successful approaches along the European Wadden Sea coast to establish a joint State of the Art.
Wadden Sea Research by Bente Sven Majchczack
geosciences, 2025
Along the southern North Sea coast from the Netherlands to Denmark, human
cultivation efforts ha... more Along the southern North Sea coast from the Netherlands to Denmark, human
cultivation efforts have created a unique cultural landscape. Since the Middle Ages, these interactions between humans and natural forces have induced major coastal changes. In North Frisia (Germany), storm floods in 1362 AD and 1634 AD turned wide areas of embanked cultural land into tidal flats. Systematic geoarchaeological investigations between Nordstrand and Hallig Südfall comprise coring, trenching, sedimentary, geochemical and microfaunal palaeoenvironmental parameter analyses and radiocarbon dating. Together with geophysical prospection results and archaeological surveys, they give insights into the landscape’s development and causes for land losses. Results reveal that fens and bogs dominated from c. 800 BC to 1000 AD but are mostly missing in the stratigraphy. Instead, we found 12th to 14th cent. AD settlement remains directly on top of a pre-800 BC fossil marsh. This hiatus of c. 2000 years combined with local ‘Hufen’ settlements implies an extensive removal of peat during cultivation eventually resulting in the use of underlying marshland for agricultural purposes. Fifteenth cent. AD tidal flat deposits on top of the cultivated marsh prove that human impact lowered the ground surface below the mean high water of that time, clearly increasing the coastal vulnerability. We consider these intensive human–environment interactions as a decisive trigger for the massive loss of land and establishment of the tidal flats in North Frisia that are currently part of the UNESCO World Heritage “Wadden Sea”.
Scientific Reports, Jul 6, 2024
A. Nieuwhof, E. Knol, H. van der Velde (Eds.), Making places, making lives. Landscape and settlement in coastal wetlands. Proceedings of the 72th Sachsensymposion, 9 – 12 October 2021 Castricum-Alkmaar. Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 14, 2024
In: A. Nieuwhof, E. Knol, H. van der Velde (Eds.), Making places, making lives. Landscape and set... more In: A. Nieuwhof, E. Knol, H. van der Velde (Eds.), Making places, making lives. Landscape and settlement in coastal wetlands. Proceedings of the 72th Sachsensymposion, 9 – 12 October 2021 Castricum-Alkmaar. Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 14. Wendeburg (2024)
Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, 2024
Historical documents and maps as well as diverse archaeological findings in the Wadden Sea off No... more Historical documents and maps as well as diverse archaeological findings in the Wadden Sea off Nordstrand Peninsula in North Frisia (Germany) suggest a formerly settled landscape in medieval times and severe changes of the coastline since then.
Based on historical maps, the area of the original Trendermarsch polder (Nordstrand) is considered, to have been much larger in the High Middle Ages than it is today. Overall, the pre-medieval land has been settled and cultivated since medieval times when extensive cultivation shaped the landscape. As typical of the region, storm surges had a powerful impact on the embanked land and led to severe changes of the medieval coastline by dyke breaches and land losses. Consequently, for the medieval Trendermarsch, it is assumed that there are archaeological remains from this time period preserved in the Wadden Sea beneath the recent tidal flat sediments.
Geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations such as sedimentary, geochemical and microfaunal analyses of a sediment core were carried out in the tidal flats of the Trendermarsch to search for medieval settlement patterns and to reconstruct its development. Radiocarbon dating and historical reports were used to provide a basic chronological timeframe. Our results revealed traces of a medieval Trendermarsch settlement directly in front of today’s sea dyke off Nordstrand Peninsula as part of a larger settlement area. To sum up, we found, for the first time, geoarchaeological evidence that the area of the present Wadden Sea off Nordstrand Peninsula hides various traces of the sunken medieval Trendermarsch. Yet, the study area is subject to ongoing transformation due to erosion and sediment accumulation, in relation to tides and storm events.
PLOS ONE
We performed geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations in the Wadden Sea off North Frisia ... more We performed geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations in the Wadden Sea off North Frisia (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) to map the remains and to determine the state of preservation of the medieval settlement of Rungholt, especially its southern dyke segment, called theNiedamdyke. Based on archaeological finds and historical maps, Rungholt is assumed to be located in the wadden sea area around the island Hallig Südfall. During medieval and early modern times, extreme storm events caused major land losses, turning cultivated marshland into tidal flats. Especially the 1stGrote Mandrenke (or St. Marcellus’ flood), an extreme storm surge event in 1362 AD, is addressed as the major event that flooded and destroyed most of the Rungholt cultural landscape. Cultural traces like remains of dykes, drainage ditches, tidal gates, dwelling mounds or even plough marks were randomly surveyed and mapped in the tidal flats by several authors at the beginning of the 20thcentury. Due to the tid...
Archäologie in Schleswig/Arkæologi i Slesvig , 2022
The North Frisian Wadden Sea is regarded as an important natural area and is now protected as a n... more The North Frisian Wadden Sea is regarded as an important natural area and is now protected as a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At the same time, it is a relic of a submerged cultural landscape. Environmental influences, extreme weather conditions but also dyke construction and artificial land reclamation have constantly changed the region over the past millennia. While some areas could be regained after a devastating flood, other parts sank into the sea for ever. Remains of the lost terps and their agricultural land are preserved under the present-day surface of the Wadden Sea.
An interdisciplinary, partly DFG-funded research project is addressing the systematic investigation of selected areas in the North Frisian Wadden Sea. Largescale non-invasive methods of geophysics together with analyses of aerial photographs and drone photography are combined
with targeted geoarchaeological and archaeological investigations.
A defined working area is located near the present-day Hallig Südfall, where the trading centre of Rungholt, which sank on 16 January 1362, is assumed to have been located. Here, for the first time, the path of a medieval dyke, terps, and drainage ditches could be reconstructed, and various locations of tide gates identified. Hallig Hooge and the surrounding tidal flats form another area of investigation. A large number of submerged settlement areas as well as new insights into the extent
and organisation of medieval salt peat quarrying are the focus of the current investigations here.
Remote Sensing, 2022
We present a case study of multi-coil frequency-domain electromagnetic (FD-EMI) prospection of a ... more We present a case study of multi-coil frequency-domain electromagnetic (FD-EMI) prospection of a wooden ship wreckage from the 17th century. The wreckage is buried in a sandbar in the German part of the tidal flat area of the North Sea. Furthermore, the wreckage was excavated in advance and covered again after investigation. This ground truthing background and the position of the wreckage makes it a unique investigation object to test the feasibility of FD-EMI for prospecting wooden archaeological objects in the high conductive sediments of tidal flat areas. Our results reveal the shape and position of the wreckage in terms of conductivity maps. The resulting signal change caused by the wreckage in conductivity is only 10% of the value of the water-saturated sandy background, respectively, making a cautious process necessary, including a precise height correction. The data, furthermore, reveals a sensitivity to the vertical shape of the wreckage and thus sufficient depth sensitivity...
Universitätsverlag Kiel | Kiel University Publishing eBooks, 2023
We performed a research-oriented EU Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Program (BIP) with participants fr... more We performed a research-oriented EU Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Program (BIP) with participants from four countries focused on North Frisian terp settlements from Roman Iron Age and medieval times. We show that the complex terp structure and environment can be efficiently prospected using combined magnetic and EMI mapping, and seismic and geoelectric profiling and drilling. We found evidence of multiple terp phases and a harbor at the Roman Iron Age terp of Tofting. In contrast, the medieval terp of Stolthusen is more simply constructed, probably uni-phase. The BIP proved to be a suitable tool for high-level hands-on education adding value to the research conducted in ongoing projects.
Universitätsverlag Kiel | Kiel University Publishing eBooks, 2023
Dikes protected cultural lands along the Wadden Sea coast in medieval North Frisia. Remains of di... more Dikes protected cultural lands along the Wadden Sea coast in medieval North Frisia. Remains of dikes must be found to reconstruct the drowned and lost landscapes. Certain imprints in sediment layers due to former load can be linked to eroded dikes. Sediment echosounding provides sections of these imprints and reveals dike courses. Medieval dikes have been traced at Hallig Südfall and south of Sylt.
Universitätsverlag Kiel | Kiel University Publishing eBooks, 2023
Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 2021
Inad1362, a major storm surge drowned wide areas of cultivated medieval marshland along the north... more Inad1362, a major storm surge drowned wide areas of cultivated medieval marshland along the north‐western coast of Germany and turned them into tidal flats. This study presents a new methodological approach for the reconstruction of changing coastal landscapes developed from a study site in the Wadden Sea of North Frisia. Initially, we deciphered long‐term as well as event‐related short‐term geomorphological changes, using a geoscientific standard approach of vibracoring, analyses of sedimentary, geochemical and microfaunal palaeoenvironmental parameters and radiocarbon dating. In a next step, Direct Push (DP)‐based Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) and the Hydraulic Profiling Tool (HPT) were applied at vibracore locations to obtainin situhigh‐resolution stratigraphic data. In a last step, multivariate linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was successfully applied to efficiently identify different sedimentary facies (e.g., fossil marsh or tidal flat deposits) from the CPT and HPT test dat...
Florian Huber (Hrsg.), Zeitreisen unter Wasser. Spektakuläre Entdeckungen zwischen Ostsee und Bodensee, 2021
B. S. Majchczack, S. Klooß, H. Hadler, D. Wilken, R. Blankenfeldt, Mehr als Rungholt. Spurensuche... more B. S. Majchczack, S. Klooß, H. Hadler, D. Wilken, R. Blankenfeldt, Mehr als Rungholt. Spurensuche im Nordfriesischen Wattenmeer. In: Florian Huber (Hrsg.), Zeitreisen unter Wasser. Spektakuläre Entdeckungen zwischen Ostsee und Bodensee. Edition AiD (Stuttgart 2021), 116-129.
Wo heute der Urlauber durch die raue Schönheit des Nationalparks Wattenmeer wandert und die einmalige Welt der Halligen bewundert, spielte sich am 16. Januar 1362 die Urkatastrophe der Nordfriesen ab: die Erste Grote Mandränke. Die Zeugnisse der Katastrophe liegen heute zumeist unter den ökologisch wertvollen Wattflächen begraben. Doch nicht nur diese: Seit der letzten Eiszeit hat sich die Landschaft im Bereich des Nordfriesischen Wattenmeeres ständig verändert. Unter landfesten, sumpfig-moorigen oder marinen Bedingungen haben sich ganz verschiedene Schichten abgelagert oder wurden wieder abgetragen. In ihnen liegt der Schlüssel zu der seit Jahrtausenden andauernden Landschafts- und Besiedlungsgeschichte
verborgen. Aber natürlich sind jene Siedlungen und Wirtschaftsflächen, deren Untergang durch die beiden größten Sturmfluten in den Jahren 1362 und 1634 besiegelt wurde, auf den freigespülten Wattflächen am sichtbarsten. Archäologen, Geophysiker und Geomorphologen sind diesen historischen Kulturlandschaften nun mit modernsten Mitteln auf der Spur und machen auch Unsichtbares sichtbar.
Archäologische Nachrichten aus Schleswig-Holstein , 2020
H. Hadler, S. Klooß, D. Wilken, B. Majchczack, R. Blankenfeldt, U. Ickerodt, C. von Carnap-Bornhe... more H. Hadler, S. Klooß, D. Wilken, B. Majchczack, R. Blankenfeldt, U. Ickerodt, C. von Carnap-Bornheim, W. Rabbel, A. Vött
Archäologische Nachrichten aus Schleswig-Holstein, 2020
Archäologische Nachrichten Schleswig-Holstein 2020, Sonderband "Horizonte", 2020
Iron Age - Viking Age Research by Bente Sven Majchczack
New Narratives for the First Millennium AD? Alte und neue Perspektiven der archäologischen Forschung zum 1. Jahrtausend n. Chr. Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 11 , 2022
During the years of 2013-2018, the North Sea Harbour Project investigated early medieval settleme... more During the years of 2013-2018, the North Sea Harbour Project investigated early medieval settlement sites of the 7th-11th centuries along the German North Sea coast with a methodological bundle of archaeological and geophysical surveys, geoarchaeological investigations of their local settings and archaeological excavations. One of the core research areas were the North Frisian Islands of Föhr, Amrum and Sylt, which have a unique setting in the German Wadden Sea area. The islands consist of elevated Pleistocene moraine cores with adjacent marshes and easy access to the open sea. Their topography offers favoured settlement locations with high arable land and fertile pasture in the marshes. Natural
harbour situations like small rivers and tidal creeks through the marshland provide navigable access to the maritime trade networks along the North Sea coast. It was possible to investigate sites at Witsum, Nieblum and Goting on the island of Föhr and Tinnum and Wenningstedt on the island
of Sylt. The surveys revealed a pattern of enclosed village complexes, open complexes with separated functional areas and protective ring fortresses. During the 8th and 9th centuries, the sites show a high level of specialised craft production focused on textiles and amber, but also numerous imports and the refining of imported raw materials, especially glass bead production. It is argued that these sites acted as trading sites for production and re-distribution on a local and regional level, firmly connected to the maritime trade along the North Sea Coast and the nearby emporium of Ribe. The high level of trade and production activities can be traced until the middle of the 9th century, when the maritime trade routes shift focus towards Hedeby and bypass the islands. Subsequently, settlement structures change and the harbour locations lose relevance, although the strong involvement of North Frisian residents in the maritime trade is maintained throughout the Viking Age.
Glas als Fernhandelsprodukt im frühen Mittelalter – Köln und der europäische Norden. Interdisziplinäre Forschungen zu den Häfen von der Römischen Kaiserzeit bis zum Mittelalter in Europa 11. RGZM-Tagungen 46, 2022
The North Frisian Islands, located along the northernmost part of the German North Sea coast, wer... more The North Frisian Islands, located along the northernmost part of the German North Sea coast, were part of the early medieval Frisian settlement area and an important station in the North Sea trade network. The islands of Föhr, Amrum and Sylt were therefore a major focus area for the investigation of 7th-11th century trade settlements, conducted by the North Sea Harbour Project during the years of 2013-2018. The Project,
located at the Lower Saxony Institute for historical coastal Research, was part of the German Research Foundation’s Priority Programme 1630 »Harbours from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages«. Geophysical
Prospections and subsequent archaeological excavations uncovered several large trade settlements on the island of Föhr at Witsum, Nieblum and Goting, yielding a rich spectrum of import related goods, including
a remarkable number of glass objects 1 (fig. 1). While glass objects, namely vessel glass and beads, were already known to occur in early medieval graves on the North Frisian Islands, there are only two other
settlements with vessel glass. Excavations and find collection by the State Archaeological Department of Schleswig-Holstein had previously uncovered two settlement sites at Tinnum and Wenningstedt on the
island of Sylt, which also possess a large number of glass objects. These recent findings indicated the unexpected magnitude of glass objects in the early medieval North Frisian trade and the possibilities for research
into the islands’ trade connections and local consumption. The North Sea Harbour Project was thus invited by M. Dodt and A. Kronz to join in the programme of chemical glass analysis conducted by the Project »The
early Medieval Harbour of Cologne – Place of Production and export of glass«. 41 glass objects from the North Frisian trade settlements were chosen for chemical analysis in order to answer research questions raised by both projects: Where did the North Frisian glass objects originate and is
there a trade connection between the glass production centres at Cologne as well as in the Rhineland and the North Sea coastal areas? Which kind of glass was used? Was vessel glass recycled for a local glass bead production?
This paper aims to provide an overview on the North Frisian sites with finds of vessel glass, the analysed find material and the conclusions drawn from the chemical analysis.
Studien zur Landschafts- und Siedlungsgeschichte im südlichen Nordseegebiet / Studies in Landscape and Settlement History in the Southern North Sea Region 11, 2020
Noch zu Beginn dieses Jahrhunderts hätte die in der vorliegenden Publikation diskutierte Frage na... more Noch zu Beginn dieses Jahrhunderts hätte die in der vorliegenden Publikation diskutierte Frage nach der Rolle der nordfriesischen Inseln innerhalb der frühmittelalterlichen Handelsnetzwerke kaum eine fundierte Antwort zugelassen. Zwar hatte ein 1976 im Bereich des Goting Kliffs entdecktes Depot von 87 Denaren und Sceattas gemeinsam mit einzelnen Fragmenten fränkischer Gläser, Bruchstücken Mayener Basaltlava oder Scherben von Ribe-Drehscheibenware vermuten lassen, dass die Inseln Amrum, Föhr und Sylt zwischen dem 8. und 11. Jh. immer wieder von Handelsschiffen angesteuert worden waren. Welche gesellschaftliche Bedeutung der Handel besaß und wie er organisiert war, ließ sich hingegen nur erahnen. Erst eine systematische Luftbildprospektion ab 2006 führte gemeinsam mit großflächigen geo-magnetischen Messungen zur Entdeckung mehrerer gut erhaltener Siedlungsplätze, die zunächst im Rahmen von baubedingten Rettungsgrabungen und schließlich innerhalb des von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft geförderten Projekts "Nordseehäfen" detailliert untersucht werden konnten. Auf diese Weise ist ein überaus qualitätvolles und vielfältiges Befund-und Fundmaterial erschlossen worden, das optimale Voraussetzungen dafür bot, die frühmittelalterliche Besiedlungs- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der nordfriesischen Inseln neu zu schreiben. Diese Aufgabe hat Bente Sven Majchczack übernommen, der nicht nur einen Teil der Ausgrabungen selbst geleitet hat, sondern auch auf der Insel Föhr aufgewachsen ist. Seine Untersuchungsergebnisse wurden an der Universität Rostock als Dissertation angenommen und werden mit den vorliegenden Bänden präsentiert.
As late as the beginning of this century, the question discussed in this publication-the role of the North Frisian islands within Early Medieval trading networks-could not have been answered in any detail. When a hoard of 87 denarii and sceattas, deposited as well as a few shards of Frankish glasses, fragments of basaltic lava from Mayen and sherds of wheel-thrown Ribe ware, was discovered in the area of Goting cliff in 1976, it indicated that trading vessels must have repeatedly visited the islands of Amrum, Föhr and Sylt between the 8 th and 11 th centuries. However, the social importance of trade and its organisation remained subject to speculation. It is only the systematic analysis of aerial survey data, initiated in 2006, which in combination with large-scale geophysical work led to the discovery of several well-preserved settlements. These were first investigated in the course of rescue excavations and later in much more detail as part of the "North Sea Harbours" project, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. This yielded an exceptionally diverse and high-quality set of finds and features, thus providing the perfect opportunity for rewriting the Early Medieval settlement and economic history of the North Frisian islands. This task has been tackled by Bente Sven Majchczack, who not only directed several of the excavations, but also grew up on the island of Föhr. The results of his investigations were accepted as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Rostock and are presented in this volume.
Frisians of the Early Middle Ages. Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology. Eds.: John Hines, Nelleke IJssenagger-van der Pluijm, 2021
The German county of North Frisia (Kreis Nordfriesland) is the northernmost part of the “Frisian”... more The German county of North Frisia (Kreis Nordfriesland) is the northernmost part of the “Frisian” settlement area and still today, parts of the population speak several local Frisian dialects. Being somewhat removed from the Frisian core area in the Netherlands and Lower Saxony, it is often out of focus when dealing with Frisian archaeology. In the past decade, new archaeological discoveries and subsequent investigations provided new insights into the Early Medieval settlements of North Frisia. Their focus lies on the three northern islands of Sylt, Föhr and Amrum, which possess an especially rich archaeological heritage and may be regarded as a foremost important settlement area for the first settlers in the period. The paper will give a short overview in the recent developments and aims to draw a picture of the early medieval inhabitants of North Frisia.
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upcoming conferences by Bente Sven Majchczack
strategies and adaptation to natural conditions.
Through the ages, we can distinguish different stages of human impact. Starting from a natural developed landscape with low human interaction in form of resource gathering, permanent settlements adapted a “synanthropic” way of life. This included a balanced and sustainable use of resources, agriculture and pasture adapted to a high marine influence and regular floodings by the sea. A much higher impact was created when the water was closed off: coastal protection measures, sophisticated water
management, and large-scale transformation from fenlands to farmland lead to fully established cultural landscapes. This trajectory in land-use created new vulnerabilities, leading to patterns or cycles of settlement development, decline, abandonment or recovery. These patterns are inscribed into the geomorphology and call for interdisciplinary approaches to decipher the biographies of existing or lost coastal landscapes.
We invite colleagues from all fields working on prospection strategies to explore the physical remains in the coastal landscape, such as existing or
drowned settlements, elements of coastal defense or infrastructure, traces of resource extraction or traces of agricultural land use (e.g. from Geophysics, Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, historical Geography); or striving to implement novel dating approaches of coastal deposits or material culture (Radiocarbon, OSL). Besides the physical remains, we look for approaches on subsistence strategies (Biomarker, Archaeobotany; Archaeozoology) and the societal factors such as the perception of coastal communities towards adaptation strategies and dynamics of
vulnerabilities (History, historical Economics). We strive to connect the different research regions and disciplines facing challenges and finding successful approaches along the European Wadden Sea coast to establish a joint State of the Art.
Wadden Sea Research by Bente Sven Majchczack
cultivation efforts have created a unique cultural landscape. Since the Middle Ages, these interactions between humans and natural forces have induced major coastal changes. In North Frisia (Germany), storm floods in 1362 AD and 1634 AD turned wide areas of embanked cultural land into tidal flats. Systematic geoarchaeological investigations between Nordstrand and Hallig Südfall comprise coring, trenching, sedimentary, geochemical and microfaunal palaeoenvironmental parameter analyses and radiocarbon dating. Together with geophysical prospection results and archaeological surveys, they give insights into the landscape’s development and causes for land losses. Results reveal that fens and bogs dominated from c. 800 BC to 1000 AD but are mostly missing in the stratigraphy. Instead, we found 12th to 14th cent. AD settlement remains directly on top of a pre-800 BC fossil marsh. This hiatus of c. 2000 years combined with local ‘Hufen’ settlements implies an extensive removal of peat during cultivation eventually resulting in the use of underlying marshland for agricultural purposes. Fifteenth cent. AD tidal flat deposits on top of the cultivated marsh prove that human impact lowered the ground surface below the mean high water of that time, clearly increasing the coastal vulnerability. We consider these intensive human–environment interactions as a decisive trigger for the massive loss of land and establishment of the tidal flats in North Frisia that are currently part of the UNESCO World Heritage “Wadden Sea”.
Based on historical maps, the area of the original Trendermarsch polder (Nordstrand) is considered, to have been much larger in the High Middle Ages than it is today. Overall, the pre-medieval land has been settled and cultivated since medieval times when extensive cultivation shaped the landscape. As typical of the region, storm surges had a powerful impact on the embanked land and led to severe changes of the medieval coastline by dyke breaches and land losses. Consequently, for the medieval Trendermarsch, it is assumed that there are archaeological remains from this time period preserved in the Wadden Sea beneath the recent tidal flat sediments.
Geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations such as sedimentary, geochemical and microfaunal analyses of a sediment core were carried out in the tidal flats of the Trendermarsch to search for medieval settlement patterns and to reconstruct its development. Radiocarbon dating and historical reports were used to provide a basic chronological timeframe. Our results revealed traces of a medieval Trendermarsch settlement directly in front of today’s sea dyke off Nordstrand Peninsula as part of a larger settlement area. To sum up, we found, for the first time, geoarchaeological evidence that the area of the present Wadden Sea off Nordstrand Peninsula hides various traces of the sunken medieval Trendermarsch. Yet, the study area is subject to ongoing transformation due to erosion and sediment accumulation, in relation to tides and storm events.
An interdisciplinary, partly DFG-funded research project is addressing the systematic investigation of selected areas in the North Frisian Wadden Sea. Largescale non-invasive methods of geophysics together with analyses of aerial photographs and drone photography are combined
with targeted geoarchaeological and archaeological investigations.
A defined working area is located near the present-day Hallig Südfall, where the trading centre of Rungholt, which sank on 16 January 1362, is assumed to have been located. Here, for the first time, the path of a medieval dyke, terps, and drainage ditches could be reconstructed, and various locations of tide gates identified. Hallig Hooge and the surrounding tidal flats form another area of investigation. A large number of submerged settlement areas as well as new insights into the extent
and organisation of medieval salt peat quarrying are the focus of the current investigations here.
Wo heute der Urlauber durch die raue Schönheit des Nationalparks Wattenmeer wandert und die einmalige Welt der Halligen bewundert, spielte sich am 16. Januar 1362 die Urkatastrophe der Nordfriesen ab: die Erste Grote Mandränke. Die Zeugnisse der Katastrophe liegen heute zumeist unter den ökologisch wertvollen Wattflächen begraben. Doch nicht nur diese: Seit der letzten Eiszeit hat sich die Landschaft im Bereich des Nordfriesischen Wattenmeeres ständig verändert. Unter landfesten, sumpfig-moorigen oder marinen Bedingungen haben sich ganz verschiedene Schichten abgelagert oder wurden wieder abgetragen. In ihnen liegt der Schlüssel zu der seit Jahrtausenden andauernden Landschafts- und Besiedlungsgeschichte
verborgen. Aber natürlich sind jene Siedlungen und Wirtschaftsflächen, deren Untergang durch die beiden größten Sturmfluten in den Jahren 1362 und 1634 besiegelt wurde, auf den freigespülten Wattflächen am sichtbarsten. Archäologen, Geophysiker und Geomorphologen sind diesen historischen Kulturlandschaften nun mit modernsten Mitteln auf der Spur und machen auch Unsichtbares sichtbar.
Iron Age - Viking Age Research by Bente Sven Majchczack
harbour situations like small rivers and tidal creeks through the marshland provide navigable access to the maritime trade networks along the North Sea coast. It was possible to investigate sites at Witsum, Nieblum and Goting on the island of Föhr and Tinnum and Wenningstedt on the island
of Sylt. The surveys revealed a pattern of enclosed village complexes, open complexes with separated functional areas and protective ring fortresses. During the 8th and 9th centuries, the sites show a high level of specialised craft production focused on textiles and amber, but also numerous imports and the refining of imported raw materials, especially glass bead production. It is argued that these sites acted as trading sites for production and re-distribution on a local and regional level, firmly connected to the maritime trade along the North Sea Coast and the nearby emporium of Ribe. The high level of trade and production activities can be traced until the middle of the 9th century, when the maritime trade routes shift focus towards Hedeby and bypass the islands. Subsequently, settlement structures change and the harbour locations lose relevance, although the strong involvement of North Frisian residents in the maritime trade is maintained throughout the Viking Age.
located at the Lower Saxony Institute for historical coastal Research, was part of the German Research Foundation’s Priority Programme 1630 »Harbours from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages«. Geophysical
Prospections and subsequent archaeological excavations uncovered several large trade settlements on the island of Föhr at Witsum, Nieblum and Goting, yielding a rich spectrum of import related goods, including
a remarkable number of glass objects 1 (fig. 1). While glass objects, namely vessel glass and beads, were already known to occur in early medieval graves on the North Frisian Islands, there are only two other
settlements with vessel glass. Excavations and find collection by the State Archaeological Department of Schleswig-Holstein had previously uncovered two settlement sites at Tinnum and Wenningstedt on the
island of Sylt, which also possess a large number of glass objects. These recent findings indicated the unexpected magnitude of glass objects in the early medieval North Frisian trade and the possibilities for research
into the islands’ trade connections and local consumption. The North Sea Harbour Project was thus invited by M. Dodt and A. Kronz to join in the programme of chemical glass analysis conducted by the Project »The
early Medieval Harbour of Cologne – Place of Production and export of glass«. 41 glass objects from the North Frisian trade settlements were chosen for chemical analysis in order to answer research questions raised by both projects: Where did the North Frisian glass objects originate and is
there a trade connection between the glass production centres at Cologne as well as in the Rhineland and the North Sea coastal areas? Which kind of glass was used? Was vessel glass recycled for a local glass bead production?
This paper aims to provide an overview on the North Frisian sites with finds of vessel glass, the analysed find material and the conclusions drawn from the chemical analysis.
As late as the beginning of this century, the question discussed in this publication-the role of the North Frisian islands within Early Medieval trading networks-could not have been answered in any detail. When a hoard of 87 denarii and sceattas, deposited as well as a few shards of Frankish glasses, fragments of basaltic lava from Mayen and sherds of wheel-thrown Ribe ware, was discovered in the area of Goting cliff in 1976, it indicated that trading vessels must have repeatedly visited the islands of Amrum, Föhr and Sylt between the 8 th and 11 th centuries. However, the social importance of trade and its organisation remained subject to speculation. It is only the systematic analysis of aerial survey data, initiated in 2006, which in combination with large-scale geophysical work led to the discovery of several well-preserved settlements. These were first investigated in the course of rescue excavations and later in much more detail as part of the "North Sea Harbours" project, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. This yielded an exceptionally diverse and high-quality set of finds and features, thus providing the perfect opportunity for rewriting the Early Medieval settlement and economic history of the North Frisian islands. This task has been tackled by Bente Sven Majchczack, who not only directed several of the excavations, but also grew up on the island of Föhr. The results of his investigations were accepted as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Rostock and are presented in this volume.
strategies and adaptation to natural conditions.
Through the ages, we can distinguish different stages of human impact. Starting from a natural developed landscape with low human interaction in form of resource gathering, permanent settlements adapted a “synanthropic” way of life. This included a balanced and sustainable use of resources, agriculture and pasture adapted to a high marine influence and regular floodings by the sea. A much higher impact was created when the water was closed off: coastal protection measures, sophisticated water
management, and large-scale transformation from fenlands to farmland lead to fully established cultural landscapes. This trajectory in land-use created new vulnerabilities, leading to patterns or cycles of settlement development, decline, abandonment or recovery. These patterns are inscribed into the geomorphology and call for interdisciplinary approaches to decipher the biographies of existing or lost coastal landscapes.
We invite colleagues from all fields working on prospection strategies to explore the physical remains in the coastal landscape, such as existing or
drowned settlements, elements of coastal defense or infrastructure, traces of resource extraction or traces of agricultural land use (e.g. from Geophysics, Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, historical Geography); or striving to implement novel dating approaches of coastal deposits or material culture (Radiocarbon, OSL). Besides the physical remains, we look for approaches on subsistence strategies (Biomarker, Archaeobotany; Archaeozoology) and the societal factors such as the perception of coastal communities towards adaptation strategies and dynamics of
vulnerabilities (History, historical Economics). We strive to connect the different research regions and disciplines facing challenges and finding successful approaches along the European Wadden Sea coast to establish a joint State of the Art.
cultivation efforts have created a unique cultural landscape. Since the Middle Ages, these interactions between humans and natural forces have induced major coastal changes. In North Frisia (Germany), storm floods in 1362 AD and 1634 AD turned wide areas of embanked cultural land into tidal flats. Systematic geoarchaeological investigations between Nordstrand and Hallig Südfall comprise coring, trenching, sedimentary, geochemical and microfaunal palaeoenvironmental parameter analyses and radiocarbon dating. Together with geophysical prospection results and archaeological surveys, they give insights into the landscape’s development and causes for land losses. Results reveal that fens and bogs dominated from c. 800 BC to 1000 AD but are mostly missing in the stratigraphy. Instead, we found 12th to 14th cent. AD settlement remains directly on top of a pre-800 BC fossil marsh. This hiatus of c. 2000 years combined with local ‘Hufen’ settlements implies an extensive removal of peat during cultivation eventually resulting in the use of underlying marshland for agricultural purposes. Fifteenth cent. AD tidal flat deposits on top of the cultivated marsh prove that human impact lowered the ground surface below the mean high water of that time, clearly increasing the coastal vulnerability. We consider these intensive human–environment interactions as a decisive trigger for the massive loss of land and establishment of the tidal flats in North Frisia that are currently part of the UNESCO World Heritage “Wadden Sea”.
Based on historical maps, the area of the original Trendermarsch polder (Nordstrand) is considered, to have been much larger in the High Middle Ages than it is today. Overall, the pre-medieval land has been settled and cultivated since medieval times when extensive cultivation shaped the landscape. As typical of the region, storm surges had a powerful impact on the embanked land and led to severe changes of the medieval coastline by dyke breaches and land losses. Consequently, for the medieval Trendermarsch, it is assumed that there are archaeological remains from this time period preserved in the Wadden Sea beneath the recent tidal flat sediments.
Geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations such as sedimentary, geochemical and microfaunal analyses of a sediment core were carried out in the tidal flats of the Trendermarsch to search for medieval settlement patterns and to reconstruct its development. Radiocarbon dating and historical reports were used to provide a basic chronological timeframe. Our results revealed traces of a medieval Trendermarsch settlement directly in front of today’s sea dyke off Nordstrand Peninsula as part of a larger settlement area. To sum up, we found, for the first time, geoarchaeological evidence that the area of the present Wadden Sea off Nordstrand Peninsula hides various traces of the sunken medieval Trendermarsch. Yet, the study area is subject to ongoing transformation due to erosion and sediment accumulation, in relation to tides and storm events.
An interdisciplinary, partly DFG-funded research project is addressing the systematic investigation of selected areas in the North Frisian Wadden Sea. Largescale non-invasive methods of geophysics together with analyses of aerial photographs and drone photography are combined
with targeted geoarchaeological and archaeological investigations.
A defined working area is located near the present-day Hallig Südfall, where the trading centre of Rungholt, which sank on 16 January 1362, is assumed to have been located. Here, for the first time, the path of a medieval dyke, terps, and drainage ditches could be reconstructed, and various locations of tide gates identified. Hallig Hooge and the surrounding tidal flats form another area of investigation. A large number of submerged settlement areas as well as new insights into the extent
and organisation of medieval salt peat quarrying are the focus of the current investigations here.
Wo heute der Urlauber durch die raue Schönheit des Nationalparks Wattenmeer wandert und die einmalige Welt der Halligen bewundert, spielte sich am 16. Januar 1362 die Urkatastrophe der Nordfriesen ab: die Erste Grote Mandränke. Die Zeugnisse der Katastrophe liegen heute zumeist unter den ökologisch wertvollen Wattflächen begraben. Doch nicht nur diese: Seit der letzten Eiszeit hat sich die Landschaft im Bereich des Nordfriesischen Wattenmeeres ständig verändert. Unter landfesten, sumpfig-moorigen oder marinen Bedingungen haben sich ganz verschiedene Schichten abgelagert oder wurden wieder abgetragen. In ihnen liegt der Schlüssel zu der seit Jahrtausenden andauernden Landschafts- und Besiedlungsgeschichte
verborgen. Aber natürlich sind jene Siedlungen und Wirtschaftsflächen, deren Untergang durch die beiden größten Sturmfluten in den Jahren 1362 und 1634 besiegelt wurde, auf den freigespülten Wattflächen am sichtbarsten. Archäologen, Geophysiker und Geomorphologen sind diesen historischen Kulturlandschaften nun mit modernsten Mitteln auf der Spur und machen auch Unsichtbares sichtbar.
harbour situations like small rivers and tidal creeks through the marshland provide navigable access to the maritime trade networks along the North Sea coast. It was possible to investigate sites at Witsum, Nieblum and Goting on the island of Föhr and Tinnum and Wenningstedt on the island
of Sylt. The surveys revealed a pattern of enclosed village complexes, open complexes with separated functional areas and protective ring fortresses. During the 8th and 9th centuries, the sites show a high level of specialised craft production focused on textiles and amber, but also numerous imports and the refining of imported raw materials, especially glass bead production. It is argued that these sites acted as trading sites for production and re-distribution on a local and regional level, firmly connected to the maritime trade along the North Sea Coast and the nearby emporium of Ribe. The high level of trade and production activities can be traced until the middle of the 9th century, when the maritime trade routes shift focus towards Hedeby and bypass the islands. Subsequently, settlement structures change and the harbour locations lose relevance, although the strong involvement of North Frisian residents in the maritime trade is maintained throughout the Viking Age.
located at the Lower Saxony Institute for historical coastal Research, was part of the German Research Foundation’s Priority Programme 1630 »Harbours from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages«. Geophysical
Prospections and subsequent archaeological excavations uncovered several large trade settlements on the island of Föhr at Witsum, Nieblum and Goting, yielding a rich spectrum of import related goods, including
a remarkable number of glass objects 1 (fig. 1). While glass objects, namely vessel glass and beads, were already known to occur in early medieval graves on the North Frisian Islands, there are only two other
settlements with vessel glass. Excavations and find collection by the State Archaeological Department of Schleswig-Holstein had previously uncovered two settlement sites at Tinnum and Wenningstedt on the
island of Sylt, which also possess a large number of glass objects. These recent findings indicated the unexpected magnitude of glass objects in the early medieval North Frisian trade and the possibilities for research
into the islands’ trade connections and local consumption. The North Sea Harbour Project was thus invited by M. Dodt and A. Kronz to join in the programme of chemical glass analysis conducted by the Project »The
early Medieval Harbour of Cologne – Place of Production and export of glass«. 41 glass objects from the North Frisian trade settlements were chosen for chemical analysis in order to answer research questions raised by both projects: Where did the North Frisian glass objects originate and is
there a trade connection between the glass production centres at Cologne as well as in the Rhineland and the North Sea coastal areas? Which kind of glass was used? Was vessel glass recycled for a local glass bead production?
This paper aims to provide an overview on the North Frisian sites with finds of vessel glass, the analysed find material and the conclusions drawn from the chemical analysis.
As late as the beginning of this century, the question discussed in this publication-the role of the North Frisian islands within Early Medieval trading networks-could not have been answered in any detail. When a hoard of 87 denarii and sceattas, deposited as well as a few shards of Frankish glasses, fragments of basaltic lava from Mayen and sherds of wheel-thrown Ribe ware, was discovered in the area of Goting cliff in 1976, it indicated that trading vessels must have repeatedly visited the islands of Amrum, Föhr and Sylt between the 8 th and 11 th centuries. However, the social importance of trade and its organisation remained subject to speculation. It is only the systematic analysis of aerial survey data, initiated in 2006, which in combination with large-scale geophysical work led to the discovery of several well-preserved settlements. These were first investigated in the course of rescue excavations and later in much more detail as part of the "North Sea Harbours" project, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. This yielded an exceptionally diverse and high-quality set of finds and features, thus providing the perfect opportunity for rewriting the Early Medieval settlement and economic history of the North Frisian islands. This task has been tackled by Bente Sven Majchczack, who not only directed several of the excavations, but also grew up on the island of Föhr. The results of his investigations were accepted as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Rostock and are presented in this volume.
sites. The prospections and excavations revealed a distinctive settlement pattern dominated by pit houses with traces of craft activities
such as glass and amber working and a large-scale textile production. Remains from smithing workshops prove the construction or repair of boats. Numerous finds of imported goods from the core Frisian area, the
Frankish empire, and Scandinavia indicate a strong connection to the cross-regional trade routes along the North Sea coasts. Especially
the analysis of glass objects shows that the North Frisian Islands were strongly embedded in the North Sea trade networks of the 8th and 9th centuries with connections towards the Rhineland as well as the important emporium of Ribe (South Denmark).
The main topic of this database is harbours and trading sites of the Roman Iron Age to Early Middle Ages in the German North Sea coastal area. It focuses on sites of the types of Geestrandburgen, Langwurten and Gewerbewurten (see Thesauri under place_topography for definitions) which were included for research in the project. Furthermore, archaeological sites and infrastructure connected to harbour/trade activities and navigation, such as waterways, shipwrecks, beach markets and major superregional emporia have also been integrated. These are not limited to project’s research objects but contain selected sites of high interest for the understanding of the trade networks in the research
area.
The database contains 51 datasets, including 44 harbours, 5 navigable waterways, 2 vessels.
The burial site of Nieblum LA 41, District of North Frisia, is a small urn field, located on the southern coast of the island of Föhr (Germany). The site yields a number of old finds of the Roman Iron Age and Migration Period (1st-5th century AD), clearly belonging to a burial context. Archaeological features were unknown, since the old finds were mostly eroded from the cliff. An archaeological excavation in 2006 uncovered three more urns, which provided the opportunity for an analysis and re-evaluation of the site’s entire archaeological inventory. It comprises mostly ceramic vessels and bronze fibulas, but also capsule pendants, knifes and needles. The find objects are sorted by burials, described in detail and classified by typology for dating. For the old finds, the find-history was taken into consideration. The typological analysis of the pottery shows a broad spectrum of vessel types, covering the 1st-5th century AD. The typology and the decorations place the pottery in the North Sea Coastal Group, but with many supra-regional connections. The evaluation of the find spots of individual finds in connection with their dating reveal the burial site to be a rather large area. It is containing several scattered, small burial sites with a divergent chronology.
Summary
During the Early Medieval Period (7th-8th century CE), different types of settlements can be distinguished along the German North Sea coast. Especially the elevated ‘geest’ boundaries with navigable connections to the North Sea provided the natural setting for settlements with a specialization on trade and craft production. Protected by ringforts, a craft production with an emphasis on the maritime trade was conducted in pit houses. The North Sea Harbour Project investigates several of these ‘Geest Boundary Harbours’ combining archaeological, geoarchaeological and geophysical methods. The paper presents some results from the sites of Witsum (island of Föhr, North Frisia) and Cuxhaven-Altenwalde (Lower Saxony). At the Witsum site, geomagnetic prospection revealed a village-like settlement layout, connected to a natural harbour via a small river. Excavation of several pit houses proved a strong craft production, mainly of textile weaving, but also production of amber beads. Numerous glass finds from beads and glass vessels demonstrate participation in long-distance trade during the 8th century CE. At altenwalde, a pit house settlement close to the ringfort was partially excavated. The finds attest to textile production as well as iron smithing. Imported goods comprise glass beads, glass vessels and rhenish pottery. Both sites show strong parallels in settlement layout and economic activities. They are integrated into a supraregional structure of trade settlements with a joint trade route along the North Sea coast.
water content of the soil. Using deep learning methods and fitting (DLF) algorithms, it is possible to automatically detect and analyze large numbers of hyperbola in 3D Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) datasets. As a result, a 3D velocity model can be established. Combining the hyperbola
locations and the 3D velocity model with reflection depth sections and timeslices leads to improved archaeological interpretation due to (1) correct time-to-depth conversion through migration with the 3D velocity model, (2) creation of depthslices following the topography, (3) evaluation of the spatial distribution of hyperbolae, and (4) derivation of a 3D water content model of the site. In an exemplary study, we applied DLF to a 3D GPR dataset from the multi-phased (2nd to 12th century CE) archaeological site of Goting on the island of Föhr, Northern Germany. Using RetinaNet, we detected 38,490 hyperbolae in an area of 1.76 ha and created a 3D velocity model. The velocities ranged from approximately 0.12 m/ns at the surface to 0.07 m/ns at approx. 3 m depth in the vertical direction; in the lateral direction, the maximum velocity variation was ±0.048 m/ns. The 2D-migrated radargrams and subsequently created depthslices revealed the remains of a longhouse, which was not known
beforehand and had not been visible in the unmigrated timeslices. We found hyperbola apex points aligned along linear strong reflections. They can be interpreted as stones contained in ditch fills. The hyperbola points help to differentiate between ditches and processing artifacts that have a similar appearance as the ditches in time-/depthslices. From the derived 3D water content model, we could identify the thickness of the archaeologically relevant layer across the whole site. The layer contains a
lot of humus and has a high water retention capability, leading to a higher water content compared to the underlying glacial moraine sand, which is well-drained.
In AD 1362, a major storm surge drowned wide areas of cultivated medieval marshland along the north-western coast of Germany and turned them into tidal flats. This study presents a new methodological approach for the reconstruction of changing coastal landscapes developed from a study site in the Wadden Sea of North Frisia.
Initially, we deciphered long-term as well as event-related short-term geomorphological changes, using a geoscientific standard approach of vibracoring, analyses of sedimentary, geochemical and microfaunal palaeoenvironmental parameters and radiocarbon dating. In a next step, Direct Push (DP)-based Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) and the Hydraulic Profiling Tool (HPT) were applied at vibracore locations to
obtain in situ high-resolution stratigraphic data. In a last step, ultivariate linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was successfully applied to efficiently identify different sedimentary facies (e.g., fossil marsh or tidal flat deposits) from the CPT and HPT test dataset, to map the facies’ lateral distribution, also in comparison to reflection seismic measurements and test their potential to interpolate the borehole and CPT/HPT data. The training dataset acquired for the key site from coring and DP sensing finally allows an automated facies classification of CPT/HPT data obtained elsewhere within the study area. The new methodological approach allowed a detailed reconstruction of the local coastal landscape development in the interplay of natural marsh formation, medieval land reclamation and storm surge-related land losses.