The Wadden Sea along the German North Sea coast forms an aquatic landscape with a rich archaeological heritage. Natural and human influenced dynamics and repeated catastrophic storm events have constantly reshaped the marshes and tidal flats throughout history, forcing the coastal communities to find strategies of adaptation to these changes. The tidal flats and young marshes conceal traces of medieval and early modern settlements and their cultural landscapes. The project aims to research the early to late medieval settlement patterns as well as the causes and dynamics of the rise and decline of the early settlements in the Southern Wadden Sea area of North Frisia. The search for the settlements on the tidal flats will be conducted with geophysical prospections and aerial drone-photography and will additionally be coupled with archaeological surveys and the analysis of archived find material. As key activities of the project, regular field surveys will be conducted in the areas of Nordstrand and Hallig Hooge, starting in summer 2020.

Drone photo of the tidal flats near Nordstrand (North Frisia, Germany). The tidal creeks reveal traces of medieval drainage ditches and wurts (photo: H. Hadler, Mainz).

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Project by Bente Sven Majchczack and Wolfgang Rabbel