Christine Pümpin

Christine Pümpin
University of Basel | UNIBAS · Department of Environmental Sciences

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73
Publications
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Publications

Publications (73)
Article
Full-text available
In archaeological soil and sediment micromorphology, research is grounded in observations made with petrographic microscopes. These observations are recorded using standardised terms and microphotographs. The two-pillar database system allows a user-friendly recording of these observations with I-GEOARCHrec and the possibility to link these data to...
Article
Cologne constituted one of the political and economic centres of the northernmost frontier (limes) region of the Roman Empire, and was at the core of important socio-political upheavals following its collapse. Here, an interdisciplinary approach (combining zooarchaeology, archaeobotany and soil micromorphology) is applied to examine the late Roman...
Article
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We studied the corrosion of Roman copper alloy coins that experienced alternations or progressive changes in their burial environment. We used coins that were still embedded in soil or in a concretion selected from three professional excataved sites - Berlicum and Krommenie in the Netherlands and Kempraten in Switserland. mCT scanning and neutron s...
Article
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In the summers of 2020 and 2021, a team of archaeologists and palaeoecologists examined the “Flözerbändli” site, a rocky overhang located directly above the right bank of the River Muota at an elevation of 740 m a.s.l. The excavations unearthed Early Mesolithic layers which yielded charcoal fragments from the period between 9746 and 8294 BC, stone...
Poster
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Faecal pellets of invertebrates from burial contexts can be used as indicators of textiles and other organic grave goods, even in cases where the actual fabric has already completely decayed. Microscopic bricket-like particles are frequently observed in Ancient Near Eastern burial contexts, such as the Late Bronze Age Royal Tombs of Qaṭna/Tall Miš...
Chapter
The Paleolithic site of Mutzig, discovered by chance in 1992 (Sainty 1992), has been the focus of several excavations since 2009. Located in Alsace (Bas-Rhin, France), it is presently one of only a handful of sites reliably attributed to the Mid- dle Paleolithic in this area, thus providing rare evidence for a zone still relatively unknown for Earl...
Conference Paper
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Programme and abstracts of the first virtual micromorphology meeting "ViMi"
Article
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Due to the well­preserved stratigraphic sequence and extraordinary finds and features uncovered at Martinsgasse 6+8, the excavation occupies a key position in the medieval history of the city of Basel. The most significant individual features presented here in their con­ structional context include one of the earliest latrine shafts found north of...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Many archaeological research projects today are interdisciplinary and combine different research traditions, questions, perspectives, and types of data. Such approaches are indispensable when answering complex questions; however, they also necessitate a complex working practice. Combining and correlating the results from various disciplines as well...
Poster
Full-text available
Studies in the Late Bronze Age Royal Tomb of Qaṭna (Syria) include, among others, the micromorphological analysis of soil thin sections, textiles and plant vestiges. The results raise complex taphonomical issues resulting from the interplay of human and post-depositional processes. Micromorphological studies of soil structures from the different bu...
Article
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Circumalpine lakeside settlements have been declared Unesco world heritage in 2011. Their importance is mainly due to waterlogged preservation of organic material and hence the outstanding potential of these sites for performing detailed archaeological studies of prehistoric societies. However, the details of the taphonomic processes (depositional...
Article
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Vom Frühjahr 2002 bis zum Frühjahr 2003 wurde in der Liegenschaft Münsterplatz 1+2 eine Grabung durchgeführt, bei der ein Teilstück der spätlatène- und frühkaiserzeitlichen Strasse, die auf den Münsterhügel führte, untersucht wurde. Dank der vorliegenden interdisziplinären Auswertung konnten insbesondere Fragen zur Datierung, zur Strassenbautechnik...
Article
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Band 24 der Materialhefte zur Archäologie in Basel widmet sich mit der Spätantike und dem Übergang zum Frühmittelalter auf dem Münsterhügel einem Geschichtsabschnitt, der einen Forschungsschwerpunkt der Archäologischen Bodenforschung bildet. In der spätrömischen Zeit nahm die Bedeutung von Basel immer mehr zu: Die von militärischen Erfordernissen g...
Article
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Im Beitrag werden die geoarchäologischen Untersuchungen der dark-earth-Ablagerungen vom Basler Münsterhügel vorgestellt.
Chapter
A number of parasites have been detected in micromorphological thin sections. In this chapter, the most frequently encountered and characteristic types of helminth eggs found in thin sections of archaeological sediments from Central Europe are presented: whipworm (Trichuris sp.), hairworm (Capillaria sp.) and roundworm (Ascaris sp.). The colour of...
Chapter
Shape, preservation, embedded components and groundmass characteristics allow distinction between herbivore excrements and the coprolites of omnivores or carnivores. Herbivore dung remains may occur in a wide range of onsite archaeological features but are also known from offsite situations. Fresh herbivore excrements are usually porous, loosely pa...
Chapter
Full-text available
Micromorphologists are often interested in identifying surfaces intercalated within stratified sequences, and in analysing the activities that took place on them. This chapter illustrates the micromor-phological features deriving from trampling, poaching and traffic through a series of examples from archaeological contexts. Trampling usually takes...
Chapter
The micromorphological analysis of faecal remains started with the investigation of hyena excrements in connection with cave-sediment studies. In an archaeological context, coprolites of domestic pigs are reported rarely - mostly with uncertain attribution. This apparent lack of pig excrements in archaeological sediments is probably a consequence o...
Article
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The Quaternary stratigraphy of the Alpine Foreland consists of distinct terrace levels, which have been assigned to four morphostratigraphic units: Höhere (Higher) Deckenschotter, Tiefere (Lower) Deckenschotter, Hochterrasse (High Terrace) and Niederterrasse (Lower Terrace). Here, we focus on the terrace gravels at Hohle Gasse, SSE of Pratteln near...
Chapter
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This paper is an in-depth analysis of the taphonomy of the site and in particular of the best preserved layer 13. Few settlements have experienced a comparable interdisciplinary study on the mechanisms that governed the deposition of the archaeological remains.
Book
The first part of the book contains chapters on Pollen Chironomids Botanical remains (the largest dataset on plant remains from a waterlogged settlement ever collected) Animal bones Small animal remains such as fish, molluscs, mice... Insects Human bones Parasitology Mycology Find distribution mechanisms The second part contains six syntheses on Ta...
Chapter
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In the southern End of the Rhine Graben near Basel (Switzerland), an up to 3 m thick stratigraphy of loess deposits and palaeosols was investigated in a construction pit. Field studies in combination with sedimentology, micromorphology and OSL-dating provided insights on the processes of loess deposition, formation of cambisols (brown earth) and pe...
Article
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und eine «arme» Unterstadt im archäo(bio)logischen Fundmaterial aus Schacht MR 6/MR 32 nicht widerspiegelt. Im Gegenteil: Die Analyse des keramischen Fundmaterials, der Klein-und Grosstierknochen sowie der botanischen Makroreste hat gezeigt, dass die in der Umgebung von Schacht MR 6/MR 32 lebende Bevölkerung weitgehend romanisiert war und sich auch...
Article
The site Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar, an ancient artesian spring near the village of El Kowm, Central Syria, is an example of long lasting human occupation in a desert environment throughout the Middle and Late Pleistocene. The excavations expose a succession of sedimentary units, containing an artifact assemblage assigned to the Acheulean techno-complex....
Article
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The Berglibalm site is located in the municipality of Muotathal in the Bisistal valley at an altitude of 1140 m a.s.l. The excavated area of 2015 measured 4 m2 and yielded the remains of a single-phased Early Mesolithic layer dating from the period around 8100 BC. The charcoal concentrations recorded showed that hazel and maple were the main specie...
Article
Le site de Mutzig, découvert fortuitement en 1992 (Sainty et al., 1994) est fouillé en contexte programmé depuis 2009. Localisé en Alsace (Bas-Rhin), il est à l’heure actuelle un des seuls témoins fiables attribués au Paléolithique moyen dans la région, permettant ainsi de documenter une zone assez méconnue pour la Préhistoire ancienne. La très bon...
Chapter
In den Jahren 2009 bis 2013 führten Marion Sauter und Walter Imhof im Kanton Uri Prospektionskampagnen mit Studierenden der Hochschule Luzern – Technik & Architektur durch. Ziel war es, alpine Wüstungen zu inventarisieren. Der Geissrüggen in Attinghausen (1911 m ü.M.), eine von über 700 Fundstellen, wurde für eine archäologische Forschungsgrabung a...
Article
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Der Rhein bildet seit je die Lebensader nicht nur der Stadt Basel, sondern auch ihrer ur- und frühgeschichtlichen Vorgängersiedlungen. Funde und archäologische Strukturen sind in geologische Ablagerungen eingebettet, die allesamt Zeugnisse der Geschichte des Rheintales sind. Bei der Erforschung der Geschichte des Rheins und der an seinen Ufern lebe...
Article
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Berichte zu den archäologischen Untersuchungen der Archäologischen Bodenforschung Basel-Stadt im Jahr 2014.
Poster
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The site of Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar is an ancient artesian spring in the oasis of El Kowm, Central Syria. The oasis, coasts of several dozens of local wetlands that were active at least since the lower Pleistocene. The area has steadily been frequented by humans for at least 1.8 million years. The Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar site covers environmental human h...
Book
In 2010 a large scale rescue excavation of a waterlogged neolithic site in the center of Zurich took place. 3000 Square meters of aracheological deposits with organic preservation were documented. More than 20´000 wood samples were taken. The deposits of eight settlement phases between 3234 and 2727 BC werde dated dendrochronologically. This first...
Article
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The Swiss Basel-Gasfabrik site represents an important Celtic settlement of urban character. Two species of intestinal parasites, Trichuris sp. and Ascaris sp., were identified in micromorphological thin sections from settlement pits. Species identification is complicated by taphonomic effects as well as the random representation of samples and cut...
Article
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Berichte zu den archäologischen Untersuchungen der Archäologischen Bodenforschung Basel-Stadt im Jahr 2011.
Article
The Central Oman Palaeolithic Survey (COPS), initiated by the Institute for Prehistory and Archaeological Science (IPAS), University of Basel (Switzerland), and carried out in the al-Ḥuqf-al-Ḥawshī area (Central Oman) in 2007 and 2008, focused on the earliest human occupation in the southern Arabian Peninsula. A total of 1445 locations were surveye...
Article
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Pedological investigations in combination with luminescence dating have been used to reconstruct the genesis and chronology of a sediment succession at Sierentz, France. The sequence comprises loess and palaosols on top of gravel attributed to the High Terrace of River Rhine. According to the dating results, three phases of soil development occurre...
Article
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The El Kowm oasis in the desert steppe of Central Syria is one of the oldest settlement centers in the Middle East and is significant worldwide for its great density of Paleolithic sites. About 180 open-air sites dating between about one million and 10,000 years ago testify that humans regularly resided at or near the springs. The region represents...
Article
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Die Stadt Basel, in der Südostecke der oberrheinischen Tiefebene gelegen, grenzt im Westen an die Ausläufer des Sundgauer Hügellandes, dessen lössbedeckte Anhöhen bedeutende quartärgeologische Archive darstellen. Einzig die geologischen Beobachtungen in Riehen-Gerhalde (CH), einem rechtsrheinischen Aufschluss am Eingang des Wiesentals, lieferten er...
Article
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Die Ausgrabung fand im praktisch nicht überbauten Hofareal statt. Die Kulturschichten waren hier ausserordentlich gut erhalten und hatten eine durchschnittliche Mächtigkeit von fast 3 Metern. Die Ränder des an der nördlichen Spitze des Basler Münsterhügels gelegenen Martinskirchsporns fallen steil zu Rhein und Birsig hin ab. Aufgrund der natürliche...

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