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Archeology: Germany's garden owners are currently digging up an unusual number of treasures

2021-03-06T08:49:23.639Z


Germany's garden owners are currently digging up an unusual number of treasures. The treasure hunt is a side effect of the corona pandemic.


"An outstanding discovery," enthuses Susanne Friederich from the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archeology in Saxony-Anhalt.

The archaeologist is currently registering an "unusually high number of cases" of this type. A man in Halle an der Saale, for example, uncovered a splendid 10th century robe pin while building a children's swing in his garden.

Friederich considers the garden finds, which are currently increasingly reported, to be a kind of side effect of the corona pandemic.

Because there is no guarantee of a vacation away from home, many private individuals are making their green spaces more attractive.

While digging and tinkering, they came across things that had been hidden in the soil of their property for centuries or even millennia.

Archeology profiting from the pandemic

How many garden finds were made in the past few months has not been recorded separately by the responsible German monument protection authorities.

There are significant figures from Great Britain that make archeology appear to have benefited from the pandemic: The British Museum announced that around 47,000 objects had been reported to the authorities last year, including 6,000 garden finds in the first lockdown alone.

This is primarily due to the fact that the numerous amateur archaeologists and probe goers that exist in the country have been looking for treasures behind their own houses out of sheer necessity.

Icon: enlarge

Gardening

Photo: Zbynek Pospisil / iStockphoto / Getty Images

I am excited to see what discoveries Germany's hobby gardeners and homeowners will make in the coming weeks.

Especially from the people in Saxony-Anhalt, the land of the Nebra sky disk, I still expect a lot.

The black earth soils there offer particularly good conditions for preserving bones and other souvenirs from the past, and some regions of the country were relatively densely populated well over 3000 years ago because the grain thrived so well there.

Anyone who wants to get an overview of what could still be hidden in the ground in the archaeological paradise of Saxony-Anhalt should definitely take a look at the new film series of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle.

Museum director Harald Meller explains the most important finds - and consoles a little over the fact that Germany's exhibition halls are currently all closed.

It also makes you want to grab a shovel yourself.

It could be that there is a second sky disc directly under the flowerbed.

Stay healthy!

Yours Guido Kleinhubbert

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Feedback & suggestions?

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Abstract

My reading recommendations this week:

  • Jogging with a mask?

    I'm neither a virologist nor an epidemiologist, but a passionate runner.

    As such, I find the regulation now issued in Hamburg to wear mouth and nose protection in some places when jogging, to say the least, terrible.

    My colleagues Christoph Seidler and Detlef Hacke dare to judge how useful the mask is in the park - and what you have to pay attention to.

  • What is the Federal Institute for Materials Research, or BAM for short, actually doing?

    The authority, which is celebrating its 150th birthday these days, is largely unknown, but it has many exciting projects and stories to offer.

    If you want to convince yourself, you should definitely take a look at the elaborately produced BAM report, which can be downloaded as a PDF.

  • One of the most colorful figures in literary history

    was the British poet Lord Byron.

    My colleague Andreas Wassermann talks about Byron's exciting life.

    Among other things, the charismatic nobleman did something for which I will be eternally grateful to him personally: He encouraged Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein, one of the best books of all time.

  • "Every Jeck is different"

    is a Rhenish proverb - and it can also be applied to dinosaurs, scientists at the University of Bonn have now discovered.

    They examined several skulls of the Plateosaurus and found astonishing differences.

  • History buffs

    like me should definitely check out the Seehpunkte website on a regular basis.

    Nowhere else are there as many in-depth and free reviews of non-fiction books as there.

Quiz*

1. How did the introduction of the mandatory seat belt system for drivers in 1984 affect the number of road deaths?

a) The number of those killed fell by around 1400


b) Contrary to expectations, the number rose slightly


c) The number fell by almost 200 to a good 10,000

2. In March the common godwit leaves its winter quarters in New Zealand and makes its way to Scandinavia and other areas.

How far can she fly without a break?

a) About 4000 kilometers


b) About 6000 kilometers


c) Up to 120,000 kilometers

3. According to animal welfare and responsible authorities ...

a) about two million cats on Germany's streets


b) more than 150,000 stray dogs in Istanbul alone


c) about 1500 abandoned ring-necked parakeets in Düsseldorf

* You can find the answers at the bottom of the newsletter.

Picture of the week 

Icon: enlarge

North Rift on February 26th

Photo: 

British Antarctic Survey / Reuters

A deep crack

in the Antarctic Brunt Ice Shelf has eaten its way north at a speed of up to one kilometer per day in the past few weeks.

As a result, a huge plate about the size of the megacity of Los Angeles broke off the 150-meter-thick ice sheet.

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey reported that there was no evidence that climate change played a significant role in the demolition.

In fact, the breaking off of ice sheets in Antarctica is a normal process.

footnote

The allegedly oldest tree in Germany could be

1000

years younger than expected.

The old wooden man is a summer linden tree in the Hessian Schenklengsfeld, which according to the municipality should be at least 1200 years old.

The forest botanist Andreas Roloff from the TU Dresden considers the previous estimate to be "extremely unrealistic".

The four individual trunks of the linden tree are about 200 years old "re-shoots" of the original tree, which has long since died.

Recommendations from science 

  • Mobility:

    More electric cars, but too few charging stations - how the state must now ensure the expansion of charging stations

  • Accident research:

    Deadly sea foam - why five surfers drowned in the North Sea

  • Pandemic:

    Interview with the doctor Christian Karagiannidis about the situation in the intensive care units and the risks of early openings

  • Corona:

    The particular difficulties faced by families with disabled children

* Quiz answers


1a) The number fell by around 1400, more than ever before.


2c) The common godwit can fly continuously for more than a week at a speed of about 70 kilometers per hour;

only then does she take a break.


3) All of the answers are correct.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-03-06

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