Simultaneous and non-simultaneous, life rhythms and proper times in the past and present - comments on the uncertainty relation of archaeological time observations

Die chronologische Bewertung des archäologischen Untersuchungsmaterials sowie dessen Deutung gehen eine enge Symbiose ein. Ihr Bindeglied ist das europäische Entwicklungsdenken. Dessen verbreitete Akzeptanz macht archäologische Forschung in seiner heutigen Ausprägung erst möglich. Wegbereiter dieser Form des Zeitverstehens waren geologische, paläontologische und ethnografische Feldbeobachtungen. Insbesondere das ethnografische Präsens wurde auf die menschliche Vor- und Frühgeschichte ausgedehnt. So entstand das Bild der kulturellen Statik der Steinzeit und der sich zur Gegenwart hin beschleunigenden Geschichte. Dieser Gegensatz resultiert letztlich aus der Verschmelzung der Plausibilitäten ‚unserer‘ kulturellen Eigenzeit mit der der wissenschaftlichen Beobachtungssituation. Die eigenen Zeitkonventionen wirken sich auf den fachlichen Umgang mit kultur- und naturwissenschaftlichen Datierungen und Chronologiesystemen aus. Sie führen zu der hier untersuchten inhaltlichen Unbestimmtheit des archäologischen Deutens. Vergleichbares gilt auch für den Umgang mit dem archäologischen Quellenmaterial. Hier ist auf zwei Ebenen eine wissenschaftliche Unbestimmtheit zu konstatieren. Einerseits ist es die chronologische Unschärfe, andererseits beinhaltet das Untersuchungsobjekt (Befunde und Funde) selbst in sich verschiedene Zeitdimensionen. Diese werden im Rahmen der archäologischen Forschung als objektcharakterisierende Eigenschaften erfasst. Hinzu kommen noch weitere Einflussfaktoren, die ebenfalls zur Unbestimmtheit wissenschaftlicher Aussagen beitragen. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags werden die Auswirkungen dieser Einflussfaktoren auf den archäologischen Umgang mit Zeit hinterfragt.The chronological assessment of archaeological material as well as its cultural and historical interpretation incurs a close symbiosis. Their tie is the European development thinking, whose widespread scientific and social acceptance made archaeological research in its contemporaneous shape possible. Trailblazers of this form of time comprehension were geological, paleontological and ethnographic field observations. Especially the so-called ethnographic present was generalised in terms of stages of human pre- and proto-history and created pictures of phases of long-term cultural stasis: The past was perceived as static and unprogressively. It was opposed antithetically to an accelerating modernity. This opposition was an out-put the fusion of “our” proper time with the scientific situation of watching. Our commonly agreed time conventions have an effect on the scientific handling of cultural and scientific age determination and chronological systems. They cause in respect of content indeterminacy in archaeological interpretation. A comparable indetermination can be stated while dealing with archaeological source material itself. On the one hand archaeological research has to deal with chronological blur or lack of definition. One the other hand the archaeological source material incorporates different time dimensions. These have to be detected in the realm of archaeological research as object characterizing attribute or quality. Further influencing factors contribute to the indeterminacy of scientific conclusion. This contribution questions the effects of these mentioned influencing factors on archaeological practice and its relation to “time” and “time observations”

Automated facies identification by Direct Push‐based sensing methods (CPT, HPT) and multivariate linear discriminant analysis to decipher geomorphological changes and storm surge impact on a medieval coastal landscape

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, 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 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.Presenting a new approach of automated facies identification based on palaeoenvironmental parameter (PEP) analyses of vibracores, Direct Push‐based Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) and the Hydraulic Profiling Tool (HPT) sensing data, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and seismic measurements, gradual as well as extreme landscape changes associated with major storm surges in ad 1362 and ad 1634 are reconstructed for a study area in the Wadden Sea of North Frisia (Germany). imageDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659Research Foundation http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/10000593

Automated facies identification by Direct Push-based sensing methods (CPT, HPT) and multivariate linear discriminant analysis to decipher geomorphological changes and storm surge impact on a medieval coastal landscape

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, 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 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

The discovery of the church of Rungholt, a landmark for the drowned medieval landscapes of the Wadden Sea World Heritage

Abstract The UNESCO World Heritage Wadden Sea holds remains of a medieval cultural landscape shaped by interactions between man and natural forces. From the Netherlands to Denmark, human efforts of cultivating low-lying areas created a unique coastal landscape. Since the Middle Ages, storm floods widely drowned embanked cultural land and especially affected North Frisia (Germany), where once fertile marshland was permanently turned into tidal flats. One key region, the Edomsharde, was widely destroyed in 1362 AD. Medieval settlement remains still occur in the tidal flats around the island Hallig Südfall and are commonly associated with Edomsharde’s trading centre Rungholt—ever since a symbol for the region’s drowned landscapes and focus of this study. We present a first-time comprehensive reconstruction of this medieval settlement by means of new geophysical, geoarchaeological and archaeological data. Our results reveal remains of up to 64 newly found and rectified dwelling mounds, abundant drainage ditches, a seadike, and especially the discovery of Edomshardes’s main church as important landmark in this former cultural landscape. These finds together with the documented imported goods confirm a thriving society, involved in transregional trade and thereby close a significant gap in medieval history not only for North Frisia, but the entire Wadden Sea region