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Die hier vorgestellte Forschungsarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Rekonstruktion der Landschafts- und Umweltgeschichte mithilfe Geographischer Informationssysteme (GIS) und historischer Karten. In einem Modell sollen die räumliche Dimension der Köhlerei, der damit verbundene Holzverbrauch, der Zustand der Wälder, die vorhandene Infrastruktur etc. errechnet und dargestellt werden. Zeitlicher Schwerpunkt ist die zweite Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts und die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts.
In the apron of the active lignite opencast pit Jänschwalde (Brandenburg, Germany), three archaeological survey trenches were investigated in an area where aeolian sand deposits are widespread. The investigated sediment sequences contain evidence of aeolian morphodynamics, soil formation and agricultural land use. To study the age and the causes of sand drifting and surface stabilization, standard soil physical and chemical laboratory analyses as well as optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating (14C) were carried out. Two main sedimentological units were identified: Unit 1 consists of glacio-fluvial and Late Glacial aeolian sands representing the parent material for the native Podsol-
Braunerde, while Unit 2 represents the Late Holocene aeolian deposits. Four periods of Late Glacial and Holocene aeolian activity and three phases of geomorphological stability have been identified: (i) Aeolian sedimentation during the Late Glacial, (ii) Mesolithic reactivation of aeolian processes, (iii) soil formation until Late Roman Iron Age settlers intensified the agricultural land use, (iv) intensive drift sand formation
during the High Middle Ages due to agricultural expansion, (v) stabilization of the drift sands and weak soil formation, (vi) reactivation of aeolian processes due to the increasing wood consumption and charcoal production from the early 17th until the mid-19th century, (vii) surface stabilization and formation of Regosols since the mid-19th century due to afforestation.
Analysing the spatial distribution of anthropogenic relief structures can contribute to the understanding of past landuse systems. With automated mapping routines, small relief forms can be detected efficiently from high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs). In this study, we describe an approach for the automated mapping of charcoal kiln sites from an airborne laser-scanning DTM. The study site is located north of Cottbus, Germany, where an exceptionally large historic charcoal production field has been documented in previous archaeological surveys. The goal of this study was to implement, evaluate and improve an automated GIS-based routine for mapping these features based on the template-matching principle. In addition to the DTM, different morphometric variables were evaluated for their suitability to detect kiln sites. The mapping results were validated against a comprehensive database of kiln sites recorded from archaeological excavations and via manual digitization. The effects of irregular kiln-site geometry and DTM noise were evaluated using synthetic DTMs. The results of the synthetic DTM mapping show that the template-matching results differed depending on the morphometric variable used for the mapping process. In accordance with this observation, a validation of the mapping procedure for the field site suggests that feature mapping can be improved. In particular, the number of false detections can be reduced using a combination of morphometric variables. For the validation area, the kiln sites with diameters of at least 10m were mapped using the automated routine, with detection rates that were close to those of manual digitization. Therefore, the described method can considerably facilitate the mapping and distribution analysis of kiln sites or similar small relief forms that are prominent in a specific landscape.
Modern lignite mining in southern Brandenburg (East Germany) causes the destruction of entire landscapes. To date, research concentrated on the reclamation of areas affected by mining-related activities, but the significance of prehistoric and historic cultures on land use changes is disregarded. Recently, a joint research project was launched for interdisciplinary long-term palaeoenvironmental research and to study anthropogenic landscape change in southern Brandenburg. The project partners are geoscientists from the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU) Cottbus and archaeologists from the Brandenburgisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologisches Museum (BLDAM), within the scope of this project pedological and geomorphological investigations are carried out to reconstruct Holocene landscape and land use change in the apron of the opencast pit Jänschwalde (Lower Lusatia), c. 100 southeast of Berlin and c. 15 km northeast of Cottbus. By law large-scale surveys and excavations have to be carried out in the forefield to document all archaeological findings. In combination with the excellent outcrop situation the archaeological investigation offers ideal conditions to study the soil geomorphology on a landscape scale.
Fieldwork includes topographical surveying by differential GPS. Soils and sediments are described along cross-sections (up to 140 m long, up to 2 m deep). Field-portable XRF analyzes (FPXRF) is used for a quick characterization of total element concentrations of the substrates. Standard analytical methods (e.g., soil texture, contents of pedogenic oxides) are carried out in the laboratory. To obtain chronological information, radiocarbon and OSL (optically stimulated luminescence) dating are applied on suitable material.
Evidence of different land use and land use change in the study area is abundant. For example, at several cross-sections agricultural soil horizons are covered with up to 150 cm thick eolian sands, proving that deforestation and agricultural use induced eolian soil erosion. In addition, remnants of charcoal piles buried under up to 150 cm thick eolian sands indicate remobilization of Quaternary sands as a consequence of clearing for charcoal production.
The ongoing investigations will concentrate on fieldwork. Preliminary results are presented.