Team work in the field: Students and employees of the University of Mainz are preparing a direct push measurement together with employees of the NIhK. The drilling track is visible on the right with the dwelling mound Hasenburg in the background. Photo: T. Becker, NIhK.

First field campaign on dwelling mounds and beach ridges in Butjadingen

In March, Thorsten Becker and Kira Raith from the NIhK, in cooperation with the working group of Prof. Dr. Andreas Vött from the Department of Geomorphology at the University of Mainz, carried out the first field work in the project “dwelling mounds and beach ridges”. The weeklong campaign focused on the area between Langwarden and Roddens in Butjadingen. Along a distance of 1.6 km, one dwelling mound and three beach ridges were examined using electrical resistance tomography (ERT), direct push measurements (CPT, HPT and OIP) as well as various drillings. In the coming work phase, the promising data will be interpreted and evaluated while the obtained drill cores will be further analysed in the laboratory. The age of the dwelling mound and the beach ridge is going to be determined by radiocarbon and luminescence dating. A first excavation is planned for the summer of 2024, which will examine the interlock of the base of a dwelling mound with the underlying beach ridge in more detail.