Secondary deposit

The team from the University of Rostock is working directly along the river Tollense as their main research question is related to activities carried out in the river in the 1960s and 1970s when Germany was divided and the river Tollense was part of East Germany. In those days, the river has been regularly dredged to deepen the riverbed for water drainage and boat operations. The sediment was deposited on the riverbanks. The Rostock team is now excavating one of those heaps made of ‘secondary deposit’ sediment in order to determine possible human-related assemblages and cultural layers in the water and the effects of dredging Tollense river.

Bone fragments

Right under the topsoil, the team already found numerous bone fragments, from humans and animals, but mostly these were only small fragments likely due to the dredging and grading works. Among the archaeological objects, there is even a flint arrowhead, possibly relating to the Tollense conflict as described in earlier blog posts. Each recorded sediment layer was documented (incl. 3D photogrammetry) and the findings (inclunding bones) were measured in with GPS. In excavating this secondary deposition along the riverbank, the Tollense team gets new data and information about past activities in and around the Tollense river – particularly from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.