This spring from 5th April – 17th May geoscientists from the RWTH Aachen University and archaeologists from the University of Cologne, both of the CRC 806 B1 project, undertook fieldwork in Hungary, Serbia and Romania.
Geoscientific efforts mainly focused on exploration and sampling of loess-palaeosol deposits. The first part of the trip was spent in Hungary in the area around Miskolc and Tokaj, before the trip continued to Vrsac in Serbia. While the archaeologists preferred to dig deep, the geoscientists enjoyed climbing and abseiling on profile edges. This was not only fun but also yielded in numerous samples for luminescence dating, geochemistry, sedimentology, and rock- and palaeo-magnetic investigations. Moreover, several localities in Serbia were drilled to improve our understanding of the landscape and the subsurface. After incomparable fun drilling in rain- soaked sands and clays (some might even call it mud), the last part of the trip was spent in sunny Romania, where we were rewarded with a 16 m profile that represents the last glacial cycle and therefore is exceptional for palaeoclimatic reconstructions during the time of early modern humans.
After six weeks, a total of 10,000 km driven, a stolen navigation system and a small trip to a Hungarian police station, the Aachen team was happy to come home and will spend the following months analysing the samples in the laboratory.