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Researchers in Germany confirm the existence of a "submerged city" using advanced geophysical methods and reconstruct part of the medieval settlement that sank during the Grote Mandrenke (Fever Preservation).
Nearly seven centuries after being swept away by a historic storm, the medieval city of RungholtThe name, on the northern German coast, is no longer just a legend. The name survived in folklore, but the traces remained beneath the tides and mud of the river. Wadden Sea.
In 2023 and 2024, an interdisciplinary team brought back the lost urban design. Main church, dykes, drainage walls e residential hills (terps) They returned to the scientific map..
The tragedy that buried Rungholt occurred in January 1362during the call Second Flood of São Marcelo (Grote Mandrenke), when a storm surge reshaped entire stretches of the North Sea coastline. German museums and chroniclers record the event as a watershed moment for medieval coastal communities.
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The new findings validate what later documents suggested: Rungholt was a thriving port settlement, with a regional role in ecclesiastical and agricultural trade. Confirmation came from field measurements and laboratory analyses that solved a puzzle debated for over a century.
Using previously unpublished data, scientists connected scattered pieces of the puzzle: they located the base of a church measuring approximately 40 x 15 metersthey corrected tens of terps and they aligned these structures with canals and dikes that protected the cultivated plain.
The result is a coherent portrait of a medieval cultural landscape submerged.
Where is Rungholt located and what, ultimately, has been proven?
Rungholt was located in what is now UNESCO World Heritage Site Wadden Sea, a mosaic of sandbanks and intertidal mudflats between the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. The region is dynamic, with strong tides and sensitive ecosystems, which complicates and enhances the value of each archaeological find.
According to the article Scientific Reports (Nature) and technical notes from Kiel UniversityThe researchers reconstructed a set that extends through at least 10 km² with 64 terps, dense drainage network, a sea dike and a port site associated.
At the center, the geophysical signature of main church He guided drilling and small verification excavations.
Based on the mapped structures and historical comparisons, the team estimates 1.000–1.300 inhabitants at the height of settlement, reinforcing the reading of active medieval port and territory intensely reclaimed from the sea by means of dikes and canals. It's not "Atlantis": it's high-resolution coastal archaeology..
How the submerged city was mapped: magnetic gradiometry, EMI and shallow seismic
To "see" under the mud, the team applied multichannel magnetic gradiometry During low tide, anomaly maps are generated that outline streets, terps, and foundations. Key points were... electromagnetic induction (EMI) measurements and profiles of reflection seismic in shallow waters. The geophysical package reduced uncertainties and guided the fine fieldwork.
Then came the vibro-sounding (vibracoring) and geoarchaeological analyses. The sediment evidence linked dates, environments, and phases of occupation, revealing how human use transformed the swamp into field and, later, lowered the terrain by drainage and peat extraction.
Integrated reading allowed rectify old structures already registered and discover newIn 2024, an eight-day campaign added 19 terps He took inventory and tested sections of the church's foundation with 1 m² wells to validate the shapes seen on the magnetometer.
There's a rush. Coastal erosion This already undoes parts of this evidence, often preserved only as "negatives" in the substrate. The authors themselves call for intensified investigations while the window of natural preservation allows.
In the end, the methodology created a replicable model to other submerged sites of Wadden Sea, in which natural processes and human actions have been intertwined for millennia. Tech e archeology They walk together on the boundary between land and sea.
What do the findings reveal about trade and everyday
The maps and findings indicate imported goods and materials of high valueas the glazed ceramic, bronze pots e até Hispano-Moorish earthenware scattered across different areas of the settlement. This indicates transregional exchange networks and an unusual economic capacity for a coastal town.
The 2023–2024 reports also record molded bricks, metal objects e medieval ceramics recovered at low tide, reinforcing a structured urban life around the large church and the port with sluice gate.
Regarding food, Archaeozoological evidence from the Wadden Sea region show combined consumption of Seafood and meats sheep and cattle in medieval coastal sites. It is a useful regional reference for interpreting Rungholt, although specific city samples are still under analysis.
Why Rungholt matters to the debate on climate, land use and coastal risk.
The data reinforces a recurring paradox: the same engineering which allowed production in moist soil — dikes, drainage and peat cutting — downgraded the land and increased vulnerability storm tides. In 1362The system failed. catastrophically.
O Wadden Sea é World Heritage and is the target of trilateral climate management; the UNESCO committee is calling for an assessment of cumulative impacts of ports, extraction and energy, now against the backdrop of sea level riseStudying Rungholt helps to calibrate coastal adaptation Modern with lessons from the past.
What do you think was the most decisive factor in Rungholt's collapse? greed in encroaching on high-risk areas ou an exceptional storm Who could have overcome any medieval dike? Leave your comment.
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