Genesis of Iron Pans in Bronze Age Mounds in Denmark

Genesis of Iron Pans in Bronze Age Mounds in Denmar

The hydrology and preservation condition in the flat-topped burial mound: Klangshøj at Vennebjerg in Vendsyssel

Klangshøj is a flat-topped burial mound similar to the Royal Jelling mounds, although smaller. The myths tell that a well has existed on top of the mound as at Jelling and a spring had flown at the base of the mound. In order to verify the myths and a similar hydrology in Klangshøj as found in Jelling, several borings have been carried out in a north-south line across the mound. The investigation showed that Klangshøj is built of sods mainly harvested from heathland. The sods are of different grain sizes from fine sand to clay. The preservation conditions were excellent in three of the six borings, where undecomposed plant remnants, occasionally greenish, were observed. A 14C-dating showed that the mound was built in the Viking Age. The hydrology in Klangshøj is the same as in the Jelling mounds, with a permeable bioturbation zone covering almost impermeable, distinct sod layers. This form a perched groundwater table in the transition zone, which keeps the distinct sod layer below anaerobic, i.e. the preservation conditions extremely favourable. The perched water table drains internally as in the Jelling mounds, and there are no current nor fossil evidence to suggest a spring was ever present at the foot slope, as the local legend suggests. Moreover, it seems unlikely that a well, similar to the one on the Jelling mound, has existed on the top of the north-facing slope, as the amount of water the well would have been able to collect is little

Development of a harmonised soil profile analytical database for Europe:a resource for supporting regional soil management

Soil mapping is an essential method for obtaining a spatial overview of soil resources that are increasingly threatened by environmental change and population pressure. Despite recent advances in digital soil-mapping techniques based on inference, such methods are still immature for large-scale soil mapping. During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, soil scientists constructed a harmonised soil map of Europe (1:1 000 000) based on national soil maps. Despite this extraordinary regional overview of the spatial distribution of European soil types, crude assumptions about soil properties were necessary for translating the maps into thematic information relevant to management. To support modellers with analytical data connected to the soil map, the European Soil Bureau Network (ESBW) commissioned the development of the soil profile analytical database for Europe (SPADE) in the late 1980s. This database contains soil analytical data based on a standardised set of soil analytical methods across the European countries. Here, we review the principles adopted for developing the SPADE database during the past five decades, the work towards fulfilling the milestones of full geographic coverage for dominant soils in all the European countries (SPADE level 1) and the addition of secondary soil types (SPADE level 2). We illustrate the application of the database by showing the distribution of the root zone capacity and by estimating the soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks at a depth of 1 m for Europe to be 60×1015 g. The increased accuracy, potentially obtained by including secondary soil types (level 2), is shown in a case study to estimate SOC stocks in Denmark. Until data from systematic cross-European soil-sampling programmes have sufficient spatial coverage for reliable data interpolation, integrating national soil maps and locally assessed analytical data into a harmonised database remains a powerful resource to support soil resources management at regional and continental scales by providing a platform to guide sustainable soil management and food production