An interesting new study proves extreme gullying in a landscape in Southwestern Germany. By now there have been little indications that 1342 St. Magdalen’s flood had impact also on settlement landscapes in Southwest Germany.
- E. Beckenbach/U. Niethammer/H. Seyfried, Spätmittelalterliche Starkregenereignisse und ihre geomorphologischen Kleinformen im Schönbuch (Süddeutschland): Erfassung mit hochauflösenden Fernerkundungsmethoden und sedimentologische Interpretation. Jahresberichte und Mitteilungen des Oberrheinischen Geologischen Vereins 95, 2013, 421–438.
DOI: 10.1127/jmogv/95/2013/421 – http://www.schweizerbart.de/papers/jber_oberrh/detail/95/79656/Spatmittelalterliche_Starkregenereignisse_und_ihre mit Zusammenfassung
Today this landscape – the southwestern Schönbuch natural park north of Tübingen – is completely forrested, but it must have been a rather open landscape vulnerable to erosion in the 14th century. In neighbouring settlements there are various indication for rural industries. There need for firing wood may have been an important factor for deforestation and environmental risk. A blog-post at Archaeologik discusses the archaeological evidence of settlement activity.
Documents from the town of Esslingen, less than 30 km northwest of the gullies indicate that in fact rains in summer 1342 also affected the Neckar region (http://archaeologik.blogspot.de/2013/01/bodenerosion-1342-ein-rechtsstreit-in.html).
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| erosion gully in the southwestern Schönbuch forest northwest of Tübingen. Todya the landscape is completely forrested with little traces of medieval settlement. (Foto: R. Schreg, 2013) |
Rainer Schreg
archaeologist professor in medieval and postmedieval archaeology at Bamberg university
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OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Rainer Schreg (August 28, 2013). Environmental damages in 14th century Southwest Germany. The Black Death Network. Retrieved December 10, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.58079/m23j