Hunters and gatherers at the sources of the Upper Wümme lowland

The team of the project “Mesolithic in Northwest Germany” at the NIhK is investigating traces of the people who settled in the Upper Wümme lowland near Groß Todtshorn after the last ice age. The focus is on how these last hunters and gatherers used the landscape between 7,000 and 11,000 years ago. Evidence of Stone Age activities in the area are thousands of stone artifacts that have been collected there by amateur archaeologists over the past decades. The researchers suspect that this region was particularly attractive as a settlement area at that time due to a widely system consisting of streams and rivers in the lowlands.

Under the direction of Dr. Svea Mahlstedt and Jeffrey König, the team of students from the universities of Kiel, Hamburg, Berlin, and Groningen is excavating at two sites in the lowlands.  The field work was preceded by various investigations, the results of which are now being verified through the excavation. These include geophysical methods, such as geomagnetic and radar measurements, as well as drilling to determine the soil conditions. The samples collected will be analyzed by geologists Dr. Martina Karle and Dr. Friederike Bungenstock, as well as botanist Dr. Steffen Wolters at the NIhK. The results will be provide evidence of the vegetation and conditions of the environment during the Mesolithic period between 9,000 and 5,000 BC. 

The NIhK team will remain on site until the end of September this year. Another campaign is planned for 2026.