Böse and Brande, 2010, Landscape History and Man-Induced Landscape Changes in the Young Morainic Area

Geomorphology 122 (2010) 274–282 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Geomorphology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geomorph Landscape history and man-induced landscape changes in the young morainic area of the North European Plain — a case study from the Bäke Valley, Berlin Margot Böse a,⁎, Arthur Brande b a Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Geographical Sciences, Physical Geography, Malteserstr. 74-100, 12249 Berlin, Germany b Technical University Berlin, Institute of Ecology, Ecosystem Sciences/Plant Ecology, Rothenburgstr.12, 12165 Berlin, Germany article info abstract Article history: The Bäke creek valley is part of the young morainic area in Berlin. Its origin is related to meltwater flow and Received 12 May 2008 dead-ice persistence resulting in a valley with a lake–creek system. During the Late Glacial, the slopes of the Received in revised form 10 February 2009 valley were affected by solifluction. A Holocene brown soil developed in this material, whereas parts of the Accepted 16 June 2009 lakes were filled with limnic–telmatic sediments. The excavation site at Goerzallee revealed Bronze Age and Available online 17 July 2009 Iron Age burial places at the upper part of the slope, as well as a fireplace further downslope, but the slope itself remained stable. Only German settlements in the 12th and 13th centuries changed the processes in the Keywords: creek–lake system: the construction of water mills created a retention system with higher ground water Landscape history Quaternary levels in the surrounding areas. On the other hand, deforestation on the till plain and on the slope triggered Holocene erosion. Therefore, in medieval time interfingering organic sediments and sand layers were deposited in the Man-induced changes lower part of the slope on top of the Holocene soil. The new soil which formed on top of these sediments was Medieval time transformed by ploughing until the 19th century. In 1905/06 the lower part of the slope was reshaped by the construction of the Teltow Canal, following the valley of the former Bäke creek. Finally, the whole area was levelled by infill after World War II. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The Bäke creek, tributary to the Havel river, flowed in a westerly direction through these lakes, called Teltower See, Schönower See, The investigation area is part of the young morainic area of the and Griebnitz See. Machnower See belonged to the same valley system North European Plain and is located on the Teltow till plain in the but was located in a minor northern branch, and its outflow was southwestern part of Berlin. This till plain is confined by the Warsaw– tributary to the Bäke creek (Fig. 2). Berlin ice marginal spillway to the north, the Havel river lakes to the west, the Nuthe–Nieplitz–Notte lowland to the south, and the Dahme lowland to the east (Fig. 1). The main features of the relief were 1.1. The influence of humans since medieval time formed or reshaped about 22 000 BP by the Weichselian ice sheet and its meltwalters. The till plain itself was originally structured by some The Bäke creek meandered strongly during the Holocene and was end-moraine features, branched meltwater channels and partly embedded in wetlands in which fens were formed (Brande and Hühn, aligned dead-ice hollows. In the latter, organic Late Glacial to 1988). Substantial human intervention in the fluvial system is Holocene infills have repeatedly been found (Pachur and Schulz, evidenced by the construction of three water mills in High Medieval 1983). time. The “Mittel-Mühle” (middle mill) between the villages of Teltow The research area is located at the slope of a small meltwater and Kleinmachnow is mentioned in a document of 1289, and is still channel paralleling a minor ice retreat marginal position (Pachur and recognisable today as a mill location. The two other mills were located Schulz, 1983; Böse, 1989). Dead-ice blocks, buried in this meltwater at Schönower See and close to the village of Kleinmachnow, channel, were melting during the Oldest Dryas/Bölling transition, and respectively (Fig. 2). These mills were barrages and led to water lakes came into existence in the deepest depressions (Böse, 1995; ages retention in the creek, inducing a rise in the ground water level of the according to Litt et al., 2001). In addition, the slopes of the meltwater surrounding areas followed by increasing wetness in the adjacent low channel were affected by periglacial gelifluction processes, thus partly parts of the valley. The village closest to the excavation site is reshaping and smoothing the slopes. Giesensdorf on the east bank of the Bäke valley, first mentioned in 1299. In the 19th century it became part of Lichterfelde, and then of Berlin. The Lake “Der Teich”, also mentioned on maps as “Lichter- ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 30 83870373, fax: +49 30 83870762. ” E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M. Böse), [email protected] feldsche See, was obviously a shallow, temporary lake. On some maps (A. Brande). of the 18th and 19th centuries it is missing or marked as a drained lake 0169-555X/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2009.06.026 M. Böse, A. Brande / Geomorphology 122 (2010) 274–282 275 Fig. 1. Location of the Bäke creek in the Berlin-Potsdam area. Dashed line indicates the boundary of Berlin. (Rach, 1988;p.108–109 (map details), Preußische Kartenaufnahme, 1990) from a tributary depression to the Bäke valley and others (e.g. 1831,1835). Brande, 1985), correlated with the Berlin palynological chronozones Between 1901 and 1905, the limnic and fluvial situation in the (Brande, 1996). valley was completely changed by the construction of the Teltow The results of drillings for foundation soil analyses (Baugrund- und Canal for inland navigation: Teltower See was transformed into a Gründungsgutachten, 1997) at the study site, as well as a 15 m harbour area, and the former Schönower See disappeared completely sediment core from the former Teltow Lake were also taken into owing to filling; the Machnower See was reshaped by the construction consideration by the reconstruction of the varying processes in time. of a lock (1902–1909, enlargement 1938–1940, new enlargement Age estimates of the archaeological site, based on radiocarbon currently under construction) at its western outflow (Pachur and dating, are published by Wagner in Heide (1998) and Wagner (2000). Röper, 1987). Since that time, the Bäke creek has no longer existed as a continuous watercourse. 3. Description of the investigation site in the landscape 2. Field and laboratory methods The Bronze and Iron Age archaeological sites excavated in 1996/97 (Hauptmann and Schöneburg, 1998; Heide, 1998; Wagner, 2000)were Representative profiles of the archaeological excavation between located on the right margin of the Bäke valley at the bay of the former Goerzallee and Ortlerweg in Berlin—Lichterfelde were studied with Teltower See. The bay was originally dammed by a natural sandy sedimentological and palaeobotanical methods for reconstructing protrusion (Fig. 3), extending from northeast to southwest, from the landscape evolution at different time slices. The profiles and trenches course of the Bäke creek (Berlin-Steglitz und Umgebung, 1850; in the planar excavation field were described after the surface had Geologische Übersichtskarte von Berlin (West), 1971; Geomorpholo- been carefully cleaned. The profiles were studied in detail in six gische Karte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1:25.000, GMK Blatt 13, example sections. A first granulometric designation was done in the 1983). The influence of running water here was therefore only indirect. field; 33 samples were taken from well determinable horizons of The location of the excavation site described in this paper belongs which granulometric analyses by sieving were performed in the to a transitional zone between erosion in the upper parts of the slope laboratory. The carbonate content was tested in the field by 9.9% HCl and accumulation on its lower parts and in the bay. These processes (Bär and Böse, 1998; Bär, 1999). The results related to the landscape were very active during the Late Glacial periglacial phase. During the development will be summarised in this paper. Holocene, several-metre-thick limnic deposits accumulated in the bay Pollen samples were taken mainly from the soil horizons and the before it developed into a peat bog. limnic or telmatic deposits and also from a sediment core (Fig. 9, core To the west of the trenches, topographically in higher positions, the a). Pollen analyses were made for dating and palaeoecological Iron Age urnfield was excavated, but no traces of a settlement have reconstruction, using a reference pollen diagram (Brande et al., been detected in this specific area until now, though Iron Age 276 M. Böse, A. Brande / Geomorphology 122 (2010) 274 – 282 Fig. 2. Topographic map of 1780, modified. M. Böse, A. Brande / Geomorphology 122 (2010) 274–282 277 Fig. 3. Geological sketch of the envrironment of the archaeological sites and the drillings (a–e, cf. Fig. 9) based on: Geologische Karte von Berlin 1:10.000, Blatt 404, Berlin 1968). settlements have been found in other places along the Bäke valley. was covered by colluvia in which the plough horizon developed later on Further east, at the northern edge of the sandy protrusion, remnants (Figs. 5–7). of a Bronze Age settlement have been found (Heide, 1998). Human influence since medieval time has changed the relief 4.2. Profile 2 during several distinct phases. The most recent changes in relief are linked to the construction of the Teltow Canal when limnic calcareous This profile is the most informative part of the excavation, located and sandy soil material was deposited here, levelling the surface.

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