Walter Dörfler
Biographic Data
| ID | 288974 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Walter Dörfler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Walter |
| FAMILY NAME | Dörfler |
| SIGNATURE | DÖRFLER W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6251-7185 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 127 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Unravelling vegetation and human dynamics during the first millennium ad in Brandenburg, north-eastern Germany
During the first millennium ad , Germany, like other European regions, witnessed dynamic interactions between human populations and the environment, resulting in effects on landscapes and vegetation. Despite their significance, the detailed changes and links between vegetation and population dynamics in Germany during this period are not yet fully understood. This study addresses this gap in an interdisciplinary approach combining high resolution…
Hunte 4
One of the few areas of the central North European Plain with settlement structures of the Single Grave groups (SG) as well as the Bell Beaker (BB) phenomenon is the Dümmer region in northwestern Germany. This region is characterised by extensive wetlands on the southern border of the Northern Lowland and has been subject of several research projects on Mesolithic and Neolithic sites since the last century. Archaeological prospections in the 1940…
Environment and settlement - A multiproxy record of holocene palaeoenvironmental development from Lake Wonieść, Greater Poland
This multi-proxy approach combines results of sedimentological, pollen and diatom studies on sediments of Lake Wonieść, Greater Poland. This enables reconstruction of the natural and anthropogenic drivers of past environmental change. Several steps of lake development are recorded, from a eutrophic to an oligotrophic stage, and with increasing human influence back to a hypereutrophic one. Human influence in the form of eutrophication due to arabl…
Reconstructing the palaeoenvironment at the early Mesolithic site of Lake Duvensee
We investigate the landscape development of the early Mesolithic hunter-gatherer sites of Duvensee (10000–6500 cal. BCE). Based on ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and geoarchaeological drillings, we present for the first time a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment of 63 ha covering subarea of the former lake during the Mesolithic. The archaeological aims were (1) to detect the location of former islands possibly hosting h…
Two cultures in the times of interdisciplinary archaeology. A response to commentators
We would like to begin by thanking the journal and the commentators for their time and attention
Adaptations and transformations of hunter-gatherers in forest environments
Like any other living being, humans constantly influence their environment, be it intentionally or unintentionally. By extracting natural resources, they shape their environment and also that of plants and other animals. A great difference setting people apart from all other living beings is the ability to construct and develop their own niche intentionally, and the unique tool for this is cultural behaviour. Here, we discuss anthropogenic enviro…
Human impact and population dynamics in the Neolithic and Bronze Age
This paper aims at reconstructing the population dynamics during the Neolithic and Bronze Age, c. 4500–500 cal. BC, in north-western Central Europe. The approach is based on the assumption that increased population density is positively linked with human activity and human impact on the environment, respectively. Therefore, we use archaeological 14 C dates and palaeoenvironmental data from northern Germany and south-western Denmark to construct a…
Cultural change and population dynamics during the Bronze Age
In archaeology, change in material culture is viewed as indicating social or cultural transformation and is the basis of our typo-chronological classification of phases and periods. The material culture from northern Germany reveals both quantitative and qualitative changes during the Bronze Age. At the same time, there is also evidence for ‘boom and bust’ cycles in population density/size, as indicated by changing human impact on the environment…
Transforming landscapes
How did socio-cultural transformation processes change land-use patterns? Throughout the last 50 years, outstanding comprehensive geographic, archaeobiological, and archaeological data have been produced for the area of Oldenburger Graben, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Based on this exceptional data set, we are able to study the land-use patterns for a period ranging from the Final Mesolithic until the Late Neolithic (4600–1700 BCE). By applicatio…
Monuments and economies
In the regions of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany, within the Neolithic ( c. 4100–1700 BCE), two episodes of intensified monumental burial construction are known: Funnel Beaker megaliths mainly from c. 3400–3100 BCE and Single Grave burial mounds from c. 2800–2500 BCE. So far, it remains unclear whether these boom phases of monumental construction were linked with phases of economic expansion, to phases of economic changes or to periods…
Environmental determinism and archaeology. Understanding and evaluating determinism in research design
With the emergence of modern techniques of environmental analysis and widespread availability of accessible tools and quantitative data, the question of environmental determinism is once again on the agenda. This paper is theoretical in character, attempting, for the benefit of drawing up research designs, to understand and evaluate the character of environmental determinism. We reach three main conclusions: (1) in a typical pattern of research d…
The best of both worlds
A mid-Holocene annually laminated sediment sequence from Lake Woserin
Annually laminated sediments of Lake Woserin in north-eastern Germany are investigated using sedimentological and palynological methods. They facilitate high-resolution reconstruction of environmental and land-use change during ca. 7000–4000 cal. BP. Between 6100 and 5800 cal. BP, changes in woodland composition and structure are evident which coincide with a change in subsistence strategy, that is, the adoption of animal husbandry. For the remai…
Pollen‐based quantitative reconstructions of Holocene regional vegetation cover (plant‐functional types and land‐cover types) in Europe suitable for climate modelling
We present quantitative reconstructions of regional vegetation cover in north‐western Europe, western Europe north of the Alps, and eastern Europe for five time windows in the Holocene [around 6k, 3k, 0.5k, 0.2k, and 0.05k calendar years before present ( bp )] at a 1° × 1° spatial scale with the objective of producing vegetation descriptions suitable for climate modelling. The REVEALS model was applied on 636 pollen records from lakes and bogs to…
The glade effect
Late Glacial to mid-Holocene palaeoclimate development of Southern Greece inferred from the sediment sequence of Lake Stymphalia (NE-Peloponnese)
The Western Altmark versus Flintbek – palaeoecological research on two megalithic regions
A Middle Neolithic well from Northern Germany
New records from old tephra from Northern Germany
An east-west transect through the Funnel-Beaker-landscape
A high-quality annually laminated sequence from Lake Belau, Northern Germany
The annually laminated record of Lake Belau offers an exceptional opportunity to investigate with high temporal resolution Holocene environmental change, aspects of climate history and human impact on the landscape. A new chronology based on varve counts, 14 C-datings and heavy metal history has been established, covering the last 9400 years. Based on multiple varve counting on two core sequences, the easily countable laminated section spans abou…
Mid- to late-Holocene climate change in central Turkey
The mineralogy and grain-size distribution of sediments from Tecer Lake in central Anatolia provides a 6000 year record of mid- to late-Holocene climate trends and events. Correspondences between key measured parameters allow a reconstruction of variations in lake level, evaporation intensity (summer droughts) and humidity (triggering erosion in winter and spring). They also indicate, occasionally, seasonal contrasts (e.g. phases with high winter…
Holocene history of environment and human impact on two islands in the Ostholstein lakeland area, Northern Germany
Historical soil erosion and land-use change during the last two millennia recorded in lake sediments of Frickenhauser See, northern Bavaria, central Germany
Based on palaeolimnological investigations on a 1275 cm long lacustrine sediment record, sediment yields (SY) and denudation rates (DR) for the last 2000 years were reconstructed from Frickenhauser See, a small lake in central Germany. SY and DR generally correspond with the human land-use history derived from pollen analysis and reveal a drastic interruption of natural processes starting in the eleventh century AD. SY increased over 350-fold fro…
Environmental changes and the Migration Period in northern Germany as reflected in the sediments of Lake Dudinghausen
Paleolimnological techniques were used to identify environmental changes in and around Lake Dudinghausen (northern Germany) over the past 4800 yr. Diatom-inferred total phosphorus (DI-TP) changes identify four phases of high nutrient levels (2600–2200 BC, 1050–700 BC, 500 BC–AD 100 and AD 1850–1970). During these high DI-TP phases, fossil pollen, sediment geochemistry and archaeological records indicate human activities in the lake catchment. Alt…
Environmental determinism and archaeology. Understanding and evaluating determinism in research design
With the emergence of modern techniques of environmental analysis and widespread availability of accessible tools and quantitative data, the question of environmental determinism is once again on the agenda. This paper is theoretical in character, attempting, for the benefit of drawing up research designs, to understand and evaluate the character of environmental determinism. We reach three main conclusions: (1) in a typical pattern of research d…
Mid- to late-Holocene climate change in central Turkey
The mineralogy and grain-size distribution of sediments from Tecer Lake in central Anatolia provides a 6000 year record of mid- to late-Holocene climate trends and events. Correspondences between key measured parameters allow a reconstruction of variations in lake level, evaporation intensity (summer droughts) and humidity (triggering erosion in winter and spring). They also indicate, occasionally, seasonal contrasts (e.g. phases with high winter…
Human impact and population dynamics in the Neolithic and Bronze Age
This paper aims at reconstructing the population dynamics during the Neolithic and Bronze Age, c. 4500–500 cal. BC, in north-western Central Europe. The approach is based on the assumption that increased population density is positively linked with human activity and human impact on the environment, respectively. Therefore, we use archaeological 14 C dates and palaeoenvironmental data from northern Germany and south-western Denmark to construct a…
A Middle Neolithic well from Northern Germany
A mid-Holocene annually laminated sediment sequence from Lake Woserin
Annually laminated sediments of Lake Woserin in north-eastern Germany are investigated using sedimentological and palynological methods. They facilitate high-resolution reconstruction of environmental and land-use change during ca. 7000–4000 cal. BP. Between 6100 and 5800 cal. BP, changes in woodland composition and structure are evident which coincide with a change in subsistence strategy, that is, the adoption of animal husbandry. For the remai…
The Western Altmark versus Flintbek – palaeoecological research on two megalithic regions
Adaptations and transformations of hunter-gatherers in forest environments
Like any other living being, humans constantly influence their environment, be it intentionally or unintentionally. By extracting natural resources, they shape their environment and also that of plants and other animals. A great difference setting people apart from all other living beings is the ability to construct and develop their own niche intentionally, and the unique tool for this is cultural behaviour. Here, we discuss anthropogenic enviro…
Cultural change and population dynamics during the Bronze Age
In archaeology, change in material culture is viewed as indicating social or cultural transformation and is the basis of our typo-chronological classification of phases and periods. The material culture from northern Germany reveals both quantitative and qualitative changes during the Bronze Age. At the same time, there is also evidence for ‘boom and bust’ cycles in population density/size, as indicated by changing human impact on the environment…
A high-quality annually laminated sequence from Lake Belau, Northern Germany
The annually laminated record of Lake Belau offers an exceptional opportunity to investigate with high temporal resolution Holocene environmental change, aspects of climate history and human impact on the landscape. A new chronology based on varve counts, 14 C-datings and heavy metal history has been established, covering the last 9400 years. Based on multiple varve counting on two core sequences, the easily countable laminated section spans abou…
Historical soil erosion and land-use change during the last two millennia recorded in lake sediments of Frickenhauser See, northern Bavaria, central Germany
Based on palaeolimnological investigations on a 1275 cm long lacustrine sediment record, sediment yields (SY) and denudation rates (DR) for the last 2000 years were reconstructed from Frickenhauser See, a small lake in central Germany. SY and DR generally correspond with the human land-use history derived from pollen analysis and reveal a drastic interruption of natural processes starting in the eleventh century AD. SY increased over 350-fold fro…
Reconstructing the palaeoenvironment at the early Mesolithic site of Lake Duvensee
We investigate the landscape development of the early Mesolithic hunter-gatherer sites of Duvensee (10000–6500 cal. BCE). Based on ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and geoarchaeological drillings, we present for the first time a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment of 63 ha covering subarea of the former lake during the Mesolithic. The archaeological aims were (1) to detect the location of former islands possibly hosting h…
Monuments and economies
In the regions of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany, within the Neolithic ( c. 4100–1700 BCE), two episodes of intensified monumental burial construction are known: Funnel Beaker megaliths mainly from c. 3400–3100 BCE and Single Grave burial mounds from c. 2800–2500 BCE. So far, it remains unclear whether these boom phases of monumental construction were linked with phases of economic expansion, to phases of economic changes or to periods…
The glade effect
The Transformation of Rural Society, Economy and Landscape During the First Millennium Ad
Environment and settlement - A multiproxy record of holocene palaeoenvironmental development from Lake Wonieść, Greater Poland
This multi-proxy approach combines results of sedimentological, pollen and diatom studies on sediments of Lake Wonieść, Greater Poland. This enables reconstruction of the natural and anthropogenic drivers of past environmental change. Several steps of lake development are recorded, from a eutrophic to an oligotrophic stage, and with increasing human influence back to a hypereutrophic one. Human influence in the form of eutrophication due to arabl…
Transforming landscapes
How did socio-cultural transformation processes change land-use patterns? Throughout the last 50 years, outstanding comprehensive geographic, archaeobiological, and archaeological data have been produced for the area of Oldenburger Graben, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Based on this exceptional data set, we are able to study the land-use patterns for a period ranging from the Final Mesolithic until the Late Neolithic (4600–1700 BCE). By applicatio…
Holocene history of environment and human impact on two islands in the Ostholstein lakeland area, Northern Germany
The Transformation of Rural Society, Economy and Landscape During the First Millennium Ad
The Transformation of Rural Society, Economy and Landscape during the First Millennium AD
Dietrich Meier, Helmut Kroll, The Transformation of Rural Society, Economy and Landscape during the First Millennium AD: Archaeological and Palaeobotanical Contributions from Northern Germany and Southern Scandinavia, Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 70, No. 1, Landscape History (1988), pp. 53-68
Die Geschichte des Hanfanbaus in Mitteleuropa aufgrund palynologischer Untersuchungen und von Großrestnachweisen
Article Die Geschichte des Hanfanbaus in Mitteleuropa aufgrund palynologischer Untersuchungen und von Großrestnachweisen was published on January 1, 1990 in the journal Praehistorische Zeitschrift (volume 65, issue 1)
Two Tephra Layers Bracketing Late Holocene Paleoecological Changes in Northern Germany
Paleoecological records from two Holocene peat bogs in northern Germany are linked by two microscopic volcanic ash layers, correlated by petrology and geochemistry to explosive volcanism on Iceland. The younger “Microlite tephra” cannot be correlated to any known eruption, while the older tephra layer is identified as a deposit of the Hekla 3 eruption. The tephra layers are dated by an age–depth regression of accelerator mass spectrometry 14 C ag…
Environmental changes and the Migration Period in northern Germany as reflected in the sediments of Lake Dudinghausen
Paleolimnological techniques were used to identify environmental changes in and around Lake Dudinghausen (northern Germany) over the past 4800 yr. Diatom-inferred total phosphorus (DI-TP) changes identify four phases of high nutrient levels (2600–2200 BC, 1050–700 BC, 500 BC–AD 100 and AD 1850–1970). During these high DI-TP phases, fossil pollen, sediment geochemistry and archaeological records indicate human activities in the lake catchment. Alt…
Historical soil erosion and land-use change during the last two millennia recorded in lake sediments of Frickenhauser See, northern Bavaria, central Germany
Based on palaeolimnological investigations on a 1275 cm long lacustrine sediment record, sediment yields (SY) and denudation rates (DR) for the last 2000 years were reconstructed from Frickenhauser See, a small lake in central Germany. SY and DR generally correspond with the human land-use history derived from pollen analysis and reveal a drastic interruption of natural processes starting in the eleventh century AD. SY increased over 350-fold fro…
Mid- to late-Holocene climate change in central Turkey
The mineralogy and grain-size distribution of sediments from Tecer Lake in central Anatolia provides a 6000 year record of mid- to late-Holocene climate trends and events. Correspondences between key measured parameters allow a reconstruction of variations in lake level, evaporation intensity (summer droughts) and humidity (triggering erosion in winter and spring). They also indicate, occasionally, seasonal contrasts (e.g. phases with high winter…
Holocene history of environment and human impact on two islands in the Ostholstein lakeland area, Northern Germany
New records from old tephra from Northern Germany
An east-west transect through the Funnel-Beaker-landscape
A high-quality annually laminated sequence from Lake Belau, Northern Germany
The annually laminated record of Lake Belau offers an exceptional opportunity to investigate with high temporal resolution Holocene environmental change, aspects of climate history and human impact on the landscape. A new chronology based on varve counts, 14 C-datings and heavy metal history has been established, covering the last 9400 years. Based on multiple varve counting on two core sequences, the easily countable laminated section spans abou…
Late Glacial to mid-Holocene palaeoclimate development of Southern Greece inferred from the sediment sequence of Lake Stymphalia (NE-Peloponnese)
The Western Altmark versus Flintbek – palaeoecological research on two megalithic regions
A Middle Neolithic well from Northern Germany
The glade effect
Pollen‐based quantitative reconstructions of Holocene regional vegetation cover (plant‐functional types and land‐cover types) in Europe suitable for climate modelling
We present quantitative reconstructions of regional vegetation cover in north‐western Europe, western Europe north of the Alps, and eastern Europe for five time windows in the Holocene [around 6k, 3k, 0.5k, 0.2k, and 0.05k calendar years before present ( bp )] at a 1° × 1° spatial scale with the objective of producing vegetation descriptions suitable for climate modelling. The REVEALS model was applied on 636 pollen records from lakes and bogs to…
A mid-Holocene annually laminated sediment sequence from Lake Woserin
Annually laminated sediments of Lake Woserin in north-eastern Germany are investigated using sedimentological and palynological methods. They facilitate high-resolution reconstruction of environmental and land-use change during ca. 7000–4000 cal. BP. Between 6100 and 5800 cal. BP, changes in woodland composition and structure are evident which coincide with a change in subsistence strategy, that is, the adoption of animal husbandry. For the remai…
The best of both worlds
Two cultures in the times of interdisciplinary archaeology. A response to commentators
We would like to begin by thanking the journal and the commentators for their time and attention
Adaptations and transformations of hunter-gatherers in forest environments
Like any other living being, humans constantly influence their environment, be it intentionally or unintentionally. By extracting natural resources, they shape their environment and also that of plants and other animals. A great difference setting people apart from all other living beings is the ability to construct and develop their own niche intentionally, and the unique tool for this is cultural behaviour. Here, we discuss anthropogenic enviro…
Human impact and population dynamics in the Neolithic and Bronze Age
This paper aims at reconstructing the population dynamics during the Neolithic and Bronze Age, c. 4500–500 cal. BC, in north-western Central Europe. The approach is based on the assumption that increased population density is positively linked with human activity and human impact on the environment, respectively. Therefore, we use archaeological 14 C dates and palaeoenvironmental data from northern Germany and south-western Denmark to construct a…
Cultural change and population dynamics during the Bronze Age
In archaeology, change in material culture is viewed as indicating social or cultural transformation and is the basis of our typo-chronological classification of phases and periods. The material culture from northern Germany reveals both quantitative and qualitative changes during the Bronze Age. At the same time, there is also evidence for ‘boom and bust’ cycles in population density/size, as indicated by changing human impact on the environment…
Transforming landscapes
How did socio-cultural transformation processes change land-use patterns? Throughout the last 50 years, outstanding comprehensive geographic, archaeobiological, and archaeological data have been produced for the area of Oldenburger Graben, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Based on this exceptional data set, we are able to study the land-use patterns for a period ranging from the Final Mesolithic until the Late Neolithic (4600–1700 BCE). By applicatio…
Monuments and economies
In the regions of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany, within the Neolithic ( c. 4100–1700 BCE), two episodes of intensified monumental burial construction are known: Funnel Beaker megaliths mainly from c. 3400–3100 BCE and Single Grave burial mounds from c. 2800–2500 BCE. So far, it remains unclear whether these boom phases of monumental construction were linked with phases of economic expansion, to phases of economic changes or to periods…
Environmental determinism and archaeology. Understanding and evaluating determinism in research design
With the emergence of modern techniques of environmental analysis and widespread availability of accessible tools and quantitative data, the question of environmental determinism is once again on the agenda. This paper is theoretical in character, attempting, for the benefit of drawing up research designs, to understand and evaluate the character of environmental determinism. We reach three main conclusions: (1) in a typical pattern of research d…
Geography (27 works) · Archaeology (21 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (20 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (17 works) · Geology (16 works) · Holocene (13 works) · Physical geography (13 works) · Ecology (11 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (11 works) · Paleontology (10 works)