A few weeks ago, I was contacted by an engineer who developed a special app for outdoor enthusiasts. With the application you can load hiking routes on your smartphone, which allow a completely different view of nature.
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Issue 45/2019
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About real and perceived boundaries of the wordDigital Edition | Printed Edition | Apps | SUBSCRIPTION
The three-dimensional surface profiles of the app are created from lidar data (Light Detection and Ranging) and show the landscape as it would look without vegetation. For example, this technique, for which the ground is laser-scanned on the ground, is used by geo-researchers to make flood forecasts. The data has been collected nationwide in Germany and are even available for free download in some states.
The technology has an interesting side effect: Archaeologists can use it to identify surface structures that are typical of the remnants of old ramparts, paths or burial mounds. The digital aerial photos sometimes point to previously unknown finds in the ground, the tracks under trees and bushes would be hard to identify.
Panthermedia / imago images
The engineer also wanted to enable hikers with his app a new look at the environment. The Lidarkarten shows what there is to discover exciting things to the right and left of the path. Recently, he himself discovered a wall in the Eifel, which apparently was not yet known. He reported the find to the responsible office for earth monument maintenance and also wrote a small tweet about his discovery.
When the archaeologists from the office later examined the wall, which may date from the Middle Ages or the modern era, they found fresh traces of prey graves in the ground. Apparently, people with metal detectors had been looking for exciting finds here. Now the engineer is in dispute with the Bodensekmalpflege. The facility accuses him of having lured the robber graves with his Twitter message.
Illegal predatory graves are a problem in the region anyway, the engineer noticed on his walks more and more frequently typical traces in the ground. The Eifel was contested towards the end of the Second World War like no other front section. Militaria collectors traveling here use probes to search for old weapons or ammunition. This is not only dangerous for duds in the ground, the digging bothers also archaeologists. Later you will find only destroyed structures.
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The story touches on the question of dealing with new technology. Lidardaten or high-tech metal probes make amazing. But they also have potential for abuse. Should one regulate lid data or couple the purchase of metal probes to a license or registration? Finally, especially the so-called Sondler often move in legal gray areas, sometimes even unknowingly. You may buy metal probes though. But they are usually not allowed to dig up archaeological remains on their own. Many probe researchers want to support the researchers in their work.
Actually, only one approach that many land conservation offices can successfully implement, including those responsible for the Eifel: they offer courses for volunteers, in which they receive basic knowledge of archeology and learn how to use their probes in the service of research. Before there is a permit for certain areas, the Sondlers must cram properly. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the brochure "Probe and Archeology" is 68 pages long.
Difficult is only: The work with Sondlern now binds a lot of capacity in the not very lavishly equipped authorities. Maybe it could be improved here first.
warmly
Your Jörg Römer
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Abstract
My reading recommendations this week
- Attention, just for strong nerves: This story about bloodsucking insects fits in well with the Halloween week. It should shock one or the other readers with disgusting pictures.
- This year the German Archaeological Institute celebrates its 190th birthday. How to treat the history of one of the world's leading archeology research institutions? In a comic.
- The election results from Europe's countries have recently seen growth for populists and extremists: Multiculturalism currently has a hard time. Researchers are getting more and more evidence that thousands of years ago, it was quite colorful in Europe.
- The Bayeux Tapestry is an impressive testimony to the medieval embroidery craft. Historians disagree on the origin of the nearly 70-meter-long rug, which captures numerous scenes of the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century. Now, a theory provides new details.
- Sport scientists, long-distance runners and athletics officials are currently arguing about a new running shoe from Nike. Apparently, athletes with a US-brand equipment contract are a step ahead of their competitors thanks to the shoe. Should the miracle shoes be banned?
- The British Physician Organization (BMA) has apologized to doctors who have been victims of sexual harassment in the course of their careers. An investigation had previously revealed that women in the organization had been discriminated against and in some cases sexually molested.
Quiz*
What is the abbreviation behind the OMG particle?
What is special about the reproduction of seahorses?
What was the explanation for a toad dying, which was observed in 2005 in Hamburg? Hundreds of animals inflated with air until they exploded.
* The answers can be found at the bottom of the newsletter
Picture of the week
Britta Yashinsky / laif
Like a bizarre department store of horror acts the National Wildlife Property Repository in the State of Colorado. Here are stored about 1.3 million wild animals objects that have confiscated authorities: stool made of elephant feet, slippers made of bear paw - and a zebra head, prepared as a trophy and kept in a shopping cart. He is transported through the depot.
footnote
At most, it takes 300 milliseconds for listeners to recognize a popular song - then their pupils dilate, and in the brain a firework of happy emotions begins, which at times causes ecstatic jubilation in the audience at concerts. Sometimes it took only 100 milliseconds. Brain researchers led by Maria Chait from University College London measured this astonishingly short reaction time in test subjects.
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* Quiz answers: OMG stands for the Oh-My-God particle, a high-energy particle of cosmic radiation / In seahorses, the males become pregnant. Previously, the females inject their eggs in a fanny pack of male animals / crows had pecked the toads and their liver eaten, was the explanation of a veterinarian. When threatened, toads are pumping up. The liver serves as a mechanical resistance for the lungs. Due to the missing organ and the hole in the body, the vessels tore and the other organs came out of the animals.
