A new interdisciplinary research initiative is shedding light on how medieval communities shaped—and sometimes lost—the coastal landscapes of North Frisia in the Wadden Sea region of northern Germany.
The project, titled Times of Rise and Failure – TORF, has been launched to study the human transformation of the Wadden Sea’s medieval environment and the long-term consequences of storm surges, land reclamation, and settlement. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the next four years, TORF will bring together seven subprojects across the natural sciences and humanities.
“The Wadden Sea region in North Frisia as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site is an ecosystem that is globally unique. At the same time, it is the relic of a former cultural landscape that was extensively shaped by humans,” explains Dr. Hanna Hadler of the Institute of Geography at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and spokesperson of TORF. “Large areas drowned during a major storm surge known as the ‘First Grote Mandränke’ in 1362 and were permanently lost. As the subsequent reclamation of these areas failed, today’s tidal flats represent a time capsule that preserves archaeological remains that are of enormous value not only for the cultural heritage of North Frisia, but the entire Wadden Sea region of the North Sea.”
TORF unites experts from archaeology, history, geography, geology, geophysics, and microbiology to reconstruct how human activities and environmental forces interacted in the medieval period. Alongside JGU, participating institutions include Kiel University (CAU), the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA), the State Archaeology Department of Schleswig-Holstein (ALSH), and the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research (NIhK).
This interdisciplinary approach aims to map out medieval land use, settlement strategies, responses to extreme events such as storm floods, and the political, social, and economic structures of the coastal communities.
The new research builds on over a decade of surveys in the tidal flats of North Frisia. These explorations recently revealed the remains of a large church structure, believed to be part of the medieval trading settlement of Rungholt, which was submerged by the catastrophic storm surge of 1362. The church site lies some seven kilometres off the coast of the Nordstrand peninsula.
During its four-year term, TORF plans to reconstruct the broader medieval landscape of North Frisia and investigate how human efforts to reclaim land ultimately failed in the face of nature’s power.
“What we plan to do is reconstruct the complex interactions between humans and their environment in medieval North Frisia and understand the human efforts to secure resources, promote settlement activities and combat land loss here,” says Hadler. “This will provide us with greater insights into the cultural heritage of the region and will also raise public awareness of the potential risks to the current coastline.”
By tracing these centuries-old interactions, TORF hopes not only to preserve the region’s unique medieval heritage but also to highlight the lessons it offers for today’s fragile coastlines.
A new interdisciplinary research initiative is shedding light on how medieval communities shaped—and sometimes lost—the coastal landscapes of North Frisia in the Wadden Sea region of northern Germany.
The project, titled Times of Rise and Failure – TORF, has been launched to study the human transformation of the Wadden Sea’s medieval environment and the long-term consequences of storm surges, land reclamation, and settlement. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the next four years, TORF will bring together seven subprojects across the natural sciences and humanities.
“The Wadden Sea region in North Frisia as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site is an ecosystem that is globally unique. At the same time, it is the relic of a former cultural landscape that was extensively shaped by humans,” explains Dr. Hanna Hadler of the Institute of Geography at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and spokesperson of TORF. “Large areas drowned during a major storm surge known as the ‘First Grote Mandränke’ in 1362 and were permanently lost. As the subsequent reclamation of these areas failed, today’s tidal flats represent a time capsule that preserves archaeological remains that are of enormous value not only for the cultural heritage of North Frisia, but the entire Wadden Sea region of the North Sea.”
A Team Approach to the Past
TORF unites experts from archaeology, history, geography, geology, geophysics, and microbiology to reconstruct how human activities and environmental forces interacted in the medieval period. Alongside JGU, participating institutions include Kiel University (CAU), the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA), the State Archaeology Department of Schleswig-Holstein (ALSH), and the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research (NIhK).
This interdisciplinary approach aims to map out medieval land use, settlement strategies, responses to extreme events such as storm floods, and the political, social, and economic structures of the coastal communities.
Rungholt and the Drowned Landscape
The new research builds on over a decade of surveys in the tidal flats of North Frisia. These explorations recently revealed the remains of a large church structure, believed to be part of the medieval trading settlement of Rungholt, which was submerged by the catastrophic storm surge of 1362. The church site lies some seven kilometres off the coast of the Nordstrand peninsula.
During its four-year term, TORF plans to reconstruct the broader medieval landscape of North Frisia and investigate how human efforts to reclaim land ultimately failed in the face of nature’s power.
“What we plan to do is reconstruct the complex interactions between humans and their environment in medieval North Frisia and understand the human efforts to secure resources, promote settlement activities and combat land loss here,” says Hadler. “This will provide us with greater insights into the cultural heritage of the region and will also raise public awareness of the potential risks to the current coastline.”
By tracing these centuries-old interactions, TORF hopes not only to preserve the region’s unique medieval heritage but also to highlight the lessons it offers for today’s fragile coastlines.
Top Image: With the help of the techniques of geophysics and coring, it is possible to detect cultural remains that would otherwise be inaccessible by archeological excavations. Photo © Hanna Hadler
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