Blog
Thursday 23 June 2022, Bad Bederkesa, Niedersachsen
Poster presentation at the Jahrestagung der Archäologischen Kommission für Niedersachsen.
On the charred plant remains from 3 prehistoric sites along the Weser river
Mesolithic, Bronze and Iron Age archaeology
Thursday 27 April 2023, Heuberg, Niedersachsen
Watching brief and excavation prior to a housing development
All we found were traces of shrubs and trees that had burnt in the past hundred-or-so years.
Saturday 23 September 2023, Oyten, Niedersachsen
Watching brief and excavation prior to a housing development
We discovered a storage pit with the remnants of at least a dozen 12th -14th Century vessels. A tree had grown in the middle. Its roots spread neatly to the apex 154 cm below the surface. Alas this growth had shattered two "hart gebrannte Irdenware Dreiknubbenkruge" : a rare jug with three small protrusions in the rounded base as feet, or stands, which had been placed upright in the very tip of the funnel-shaped pit.
Thursday 11 January 2024, Schloßstraße-Kanalplatz, Hamburg
We slowly dismantled and removed this 17th Century barrel that stood in the back yard at the border between two house plots.
The barrel staves were cleaved from mature oaken trunks. The hoops mostly consisted of overlapping segments of hazel rods that had been cut lengthwise in half. Their bark had been removed to decrease rot and attack from wood boring insects. Young rods; between four and seven spring growths, presumably from coppiced woods, were chosen. Occasionally pomaceous saplings were worked into the hazel hoop segments. They had been split into three with only the middle heartwood part used. In this manner both flat surfaces could be pressed between the barrel staves and the dorsal surface of the hazel rods. The ligatures that held the hoop segments tight around the barrel staves were made by splitting young - one, sometimes two spring growths - willow shoots lengthwise, with their bark intact as the greater need for flexibility outweighed the slighter risk of rot.
Tuesday 20 February 2024, Schloßstraße-Kanalplatz, Hamburg
Reached 50 cm above sea level, a good four meters below the street and well past the water table. If we weren't ceaselessly pumping, we would be waist deep in sulphur-smelling water.
Found this toddler's shoe.
Thursday 29 February 2024, Schloßstraße-Kanalplatz, Hamburg
Detail of our completed western profile.
From the 20th Century to the 14th Century.
17th and 16th Century town conflagrations in the middle.
Note the close succession of grey loam house floors and screed,
the pale sand levelling horizons
(after each house renovation/dismantlement) and
the darker organic bands that hint at temporal
abandonments of the house plot.
The thick layer of sand near the top attests quite the levelling effort
undertaken prior to the pub's construction early in the 18th Century.
"Zum Weißen Schwan" was badly damaged during Gomorrah.
The missing 135 cm at the top of this profile picture was all the rubble
that we removed following the pub's abandonment in the late 1960's.
Friday 8 March 2024, Magna, Al Bad', Saudi Arabia
Take samples from a Nabataean settlement site at the Red Sea.
hearths, a latrine, storage pits, a midden and living floors.
sieve, sort, identify, analyse and write the report back home.
dates, cereals, jujube, pulses, apricots, grapes, cotton, pine nuts, pistacio
were found in charred and desiccated state.
Friday 11 October 2024, Harburg
Preparing charcoal for instruction in anthracology at Hamburg University.
16 European tree species, wrapped up like baked potatoes.
Part of the practice session of the
Introduction to Archaeobotany seminar this winter semester.
Tuesday 12 November 2024, Al Bad', Saudi Arabia
Finished the archaeobotanical report on tomb 4 of Magháir Shúayb.
Desert it may be, but it had quite a flora in the past.
These little grasses (Trisetaria linearis) are just a fraction of what grew in the uplands of Tabuk province.
Plenty to feast on for people and animals.
