TY - JOUR A1 - Trappe, Julian A1 - Büdel, Christian A1 - Meister, Julia A1 - Baumhauer, Roland T1 - Combining geophysical and geomorphological data to reconstruct the development of relief of a medieval castle site in the Spessart low mountain range, Germany JF - Earth Surface Processes and Landforms N2 - Within the Spessart low mountain range in central Germany, numerous castle ruins of the 13th century ce exist. Their construction and destruction were often determined by the struggle for political and economic supremacy in the region and for control over the Spessart's natural resources. Wahlmich Castle is located in a relatively uncommon strategic and geomorphological position, characterized by a fairly remote position and atypical rough relief. In order to reconstruct the local relief development and possible human impact, a multi-method approach was applied combining two-dimensional geoelectrical measurements, geomorphological mapping and stratigraphic-sedimentological investigations. This provides new insights into the influence of landscape characteristics on choices of castle locations. The combined geoelectrical, geomorphological and stratigraphic-sedimentological data show that the rough relief is of natural origin and influenced by regional faulting, which triggered sliding and slumping as well as weathering and dissection of the surface deposits. The rough relief and the lithology permitted intensive land use and building activities. However, the location of the castle offered access to and possibly control over important medieval traffic routes and also represented certain ownership claims in the Aschaff River valley. The economic situation combined with rivalry between different elites led to the castle being built in a geomorphological challenging and strategically less valuable location. Focusing on castles located in rare and challenging geomorphological positions may therefore lead to a better understanding of castle siting in the future. KW - faulting KW - sedimentology KW - percussion core probing KW - geophysical prospection KW - geomorphological mapping KW - geoarchaeology Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-257433 VL - 47 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Trappe, Julian A1 - Kneisel, Christof T1 - Geophysical and sedimentological investigations of Peatlands for the assessment of lithology and subsurface water pathways JF - Geosciences N2 - Peatlands located on slopes (herein called slope bogs) are typical landscape units in the Hunsrueck, a low mountain range in Southwestern Germany. The pathways of the water feeding the slope bogs have not yet been documented and analyzed. The identification of the different mechanisms allowing these peatlands to originate and survive requires a better understanding of the subsurface lithology and hydrogeology. Hence, we applied a multi-method approach to two case study sites in order to characterize the subsurface lithology and to image the variable spatio-temporal hydrological conditions. The combination of Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and an ERT-Monitoring and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), in conjunction with direct methods and data (borehole drilling and meteorological data), allowed us to gain deeper insights into the subsurface characteristics and dynamics of the peatlands and their catchment area. The precipitation influences the hydrology of the peatlands as well as the interflow in the subsurface. Especially, the geoelectrical monitoring data, in combination with the precipitation and temperature data, indicate that there are several forces driving the hydrology and hydrogeology of the peatlands. While the water content of the uppermost layers changes with the weather conditions, the bottom layer seems to be more stable and changes to a lesser extent. At the selected case study sites, small differences in subsurface properties can have a huge impact on the subsurface hydrogeology and the water paths. Based on the collected data, conceptual models have been deduced for the two case study sites. KW - peatland KW - slope bogs KW - geomorphology KW - subsurface hydrology KW - electrical resistivity tomography KW - ground penetrating radar KW - boreholes KW - Hunsrueck Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201699 VL - 9 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ullmann, Tobias A1 - Nill, Leon A1 - Schiestl, Robert A1 - Trappe, Julian A1 - Lange-Athinodorou, Eva A1 - Baumhauer, Roland A1 - Meister, Julia T1 - Mapping buried paleogeographical features of the Nile Delta (Egypt) using the Landsat archive JF - E&G Quartnerny Science Journal N2 - The contribution highlights the use of Landsat spectral-temporal metrics (STMs) for the detection of surface anomalies that are potentially related to buried near-surface paleogeomorphological deposits in the Nile Delta (Egypt), in particular for a buried river branch close to Buto. The processing was completed in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) for the entire Nile Delta and for selected seasons of the year (summer/winter) using Landsat data from 1985 to 2019. We derived the STMs of the tasseled cap transformation (TC), the Normalized Difference Wetness Index (NDWI), and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). These features were compared to historical topographic maps of the Survey of Egypt, CORONA imagery, the digital elevation model of the TanDEM-X mission, and modern high-resolution satellite imagery. The results suggest that the extent of channels is best revealed when differencing the median NDWI between summer (July/August) and winter (January/February) seasons (ΔNDWI). The observed difference is likely due to lower soil/plant moisture during summer, which is potentially caused by coarser-grained deposits and the morphology of the former levee. Similar anomalies were found in the immediate surroundings of several Pleistocene sand hills (“geziras”) and settlement mounds (“tells”) of the eastern delta, which allowed some mapping of the potential near-surface continuation. Such anomalies were not observed for the surroundings of tells of the western Nile Delta. Additional linear and meandering ΔNDWI anomalies were found in the eastern Nile Delta in the immediate surroundings of the ancient site of Bubastis (Tell Basta), as well as several kilometers north of Zagazig. These anomalies might indicate former courses of Nile river branches. However, the ΔNDWI does not provide an unambiguous delineation. N2 - Die Rekonstruktion der Paläotopographie und -hydrographie des Nildeltas spielt für landschaftsarchäologische Fragestellungen eine zentrale Rolle, da die antike Siedlungsaktivität stark von der Dynamik des antiken Flussnetzes beeinflusst war. Für viele Bereiche des Deltas ist die Lage antiker Flussarme jedoch unbekannt, da diese im Laufe der Zeit verlandet und heute nicht mehr eindeutig im Landschaftsbild erkennbar sind. In diesem Kontext erlauben moderne Fernerkundungsdaten eine flächendeckende Untersuchung und ermöglichen Anomalien der Landbedeckung und Diskontinuitäten der Oberflächenmorphologie zu identifizieren, wodurch wertvolle Hinweise zur paläogeomorphologischen Situation gewonnen werden können. Zur Detektion solcher Anomalien wird in diesem Beitrag das Landsat Archiv genutzt, wobei verschiedene spektrale und zeitlich-räumliche Metriken für das gesamte Nildelta (Ägypten) für den Zeitraum 1985 bis 2019 in der Google Earth Engine berechnet wurden. Die Merkmale der Merkmale der Tasseled Cap Transformation (TC), des Normalized Difference Wetness Index (NDWI) und des Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) wurden analysiert und mit historischen topographischen Karten des Survey of Egypt, CORONA-Bildern, dem digitalen Höhenmodell der TanDEM-X-Mission und modernen Satellitenbildern verglichen. Die Ergebnisse der Zeitserienanalyse zeigen die Lage eines verlandeten Flussarms in der Nähe von Buto, der durch den Vergleich der Medianwerte des NDWI zwischen Sommer- (Juli/August) und Wintersaison (Januar/Februar) (ΔNDWI) deutlich zu erkennen ist. Der beobachtete Unterschied ist wahrscheinlich auf eine geringere Boden- und/oder Pflanzenfeuchtigkeit während des Sommers zurückzuführen, welche möglicherweise durch grobkörnige Ablagerungen im Untergrund bedingt wird. Ähnliche Anomalien wurden in der unmittelbaren Umgebung mehrerer pleistozäner Sandhügel (Geziras) und Siedlungshügel (Tells) des östlichen Nildeltas gefunden, was die Kartierungen der potentiellen oberflächennahen Fortsetzung ermöglichte. Weitere lineare und mäandrierende ΔNDWI Anomalien wurden im östlichen Nildelta in der unmittelbaren Umgebung der antiken Stätte von Bubastis (Tell Basta) sowie einige Kilometer nördlich der Stadt Zagazig gefunden. Diese Anomalien weisen vermutlich auf frühere Verläufe von Flussarmen des Nils in diesem Bereich des Deltas hin. KW - Nile Delta KW - paleogeography Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-230349 VL - 69 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Meister, Julia A1 - Garbe, Philipp A1 - Trappe, Julian A1 - Ullmann, Tobias A1 - Es-Senussi, Ashraf A1 - Baumhauer, Roland A1 - Lange-Athinodorou, Eva A1 - El-Raouf, Amr Abd T1 - The Sacred Waterscape of the Temple of Bastet at Ancient Bubastis, Nile Delta (Egypt) JF - Geosciences N2 - Sacred water canals or lakes, which provided water for all kinds of purification rites and other activities, were very specific and important features of temples in ancient Egypt. In addition to the longer-known textual record, preliminary geoarchaeological surveys have recently provided evidence of a sacred canal at the Temple of Bastet at Bubastis. In order to further explore the location, shape, and course of this canal and to find evidence of the existence of a second waterway, also described by Herodotus, 34 drillings and five 2D geoelectrical measurements were carried out in 2019 and 2020 near the temple. The drillings and 2D ERT surveying revealed loamy to clayey deposits with a thickness of up to five meters, most likely deposited in a very low energy fluvial system (i.e., a canal), allowing the reconstruction of two separate sacred canals both north and south of the Temple of Bastet. In addition to the course of the canals, the width of about 30 m fits Herodotus’ description of the sacred waterways. The presence of numerous artefacts proved the anthropogenic use of the ancient canals, which were presumably connected to the Nile via a tributary or canal located west or northwest of Bubastis. KW - ancient Egypt KW - Tell Basta KW - sacred lakes KW - Herodotus KW - ERT KW - drilling KW - Isheru Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246129 SN - 2076-3263 VL - 11 IS - 9 ER -