Dennis Wilken

Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel | CAU · Institute of Geosciences

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

The publication at hand are the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection held between March 28 and April 1, 2023, in Kiel, Germany. The content of the articles ranges from local to large-scale case studies all over the world and from various archaeological times, over methodological improvements, new processing...

Since medieval times, North Frisia (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) has experienced large-scale natural and man-made geomorphological changes. First, Frisian settlers turned the coastal marshes and fenlands into arable land but also increased the region's vulnerability to flooding. Then major storm surges drowned wide areas in 1362 CE and 1634 CE and...

Hyperbolic diffractions in Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data are caused by a variety of subsurface objects such as pipes, stones, or archaeological artifacts. Supplementary to their location, the propagation velocity of electromagnetic waves in the subsurface can be derived. In recent years, it was shown that deep learning tools can automatically...

In this study, we investigate GPR measurements in freshwater of less than 5 m at four different locations to derive rules of thumb in terms of depth penetration, resolution, and material contrasts of the method for 200 and 400 MHz antennas under field conditions. The objective is to improve the attractiveness of the method for archaeological issues...

We performed geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations in the Wadden Sea off North Frisia (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) to map the remains and to determine the state of preservation of the medieval settlement of Rungholt, especially its southern dyke segment, called the Niedam dyke. Based on archaeological finds and historical maps, Rungholt...

The shift to the early Holocene in northern Europe is strongly associated with major en-vironmental and climatic changes that influenced hunter-gatherers’ activities and occupation during the Mesolithic period. The ancient lake Duvensee (10,000–6500 cal. BCE) has been studied for almost a century, providing archaeological sites consisting of bark m...

https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14030484 Magnetic mapping is a common method for investigating archaeological sites. Typically, the magnetic field data are treated with basic signal improving processing followed by image interpretation to derive the location and outline of archaeological objects. However, the magnetic maps can yield more information; we...

We present a case study of multi-coil frequency-domain electromagnetic (FD-EMI) prospection of a wooden ship wreckage from the 17th century. The wreckage is buried in a sandbar in the German part of the tidal flat area of the North Sea. Furthermore, the wreckage was excavated in advance and covered again after investigation. This ground truthing ba...

The presented 3D seismic system operates three transducers (130 kHz) from a stationary lander and allows non-destructive imaging of small-scale objects within the top decimeters of silty sediments, covering a surface area of 0.2 m2. In laboratory experiments, samples such as shells, stones, and gummy worms of varied sizes (down to approx. 1 cm diam...

Wetland environments, with their excellent conservation conditions, provide geoarchaeological archives of past human activities. However, the subsurface soil is difficult to access due to high groundwater tables, unstable sediments, and the high cost of excavation. In this study, we present a ground-based non- and minimal-invasive prospection conce...

This study aims to enhance the geophysical 3D imaging of submerged and sedimented archaeological features while preserving them in situ. New information shall be derived and therefore added value generated in comparison to standard seismic processing and imaging techniques. Multiple 3D seismic attributes are tested for their feasibility in detectin...

In recent years, Seismic Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) has been established as a high-resolution prospection method. Since 2014, the Applied Geophysics working group at Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel applied FWI to seismic SH data with different degrees of complexity for near-surface characterization tasks related to archaeological prospection...

In 1362 AD, a major storm surge drowned wide areas of cultivated medieval marshland along the north‐western coast of Germany and turned them into tidal flats. This study presents a new methodological approach for the reconstruction of changing coastal landscapes developed from a study site in the Wadden Sea of North Frisia. First, we deciphered lon...

Water-layer multiples pose a major problem in shallow water seismic investigations as they interfere with primaries reflected from layer boundaries or archaeology buried only a few meters below the water bottom. In the present study we evaluate two model-driven approaches (“Prediction and Subtraction” and “RTM-Deco”) to attenuate water-layer multip...

This article summarizes the results of a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the umbrella of the SPP 1630 from 2012 to 2018. During the field campaigns archaeological, architectural, geoarchaeological and geophysical investigations were carried out. The research focus was on the topographical and economic development of Ain...

Loess-Palaeosol-Sequences (LPS) in the Central European region provide outstanding terrestrial polygenetic and multiphase archives responding to past climate and environments over various spatial and temporal scales. As yet, however, the geomorphological and pedogenic processes involved in LPS formation, and their interplay with changes in ecologic...

We present a case study of a bog showing how an integrated approach of multi‐method geophysical sounding and local soil sampling can be used to identify, differentiate, and map organic sediments. Our study is based on ground‐penetrating radar (GPR), electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and shear‐wave seismic (SH seismic) profiling applied to sed...

Kettle holes are common ice decay features in formerly glacial landscapes like those in Southern Scandinavia and Northern Germany. Here the kettle holes are represented either as dry depressions, wetland areas or lakes. However, the majority of these features are silted and part of the present farmland. We investigated a small kettle hole at Tyrste...

We investigate the relative fractions of remanent and induced magnetization of the fillings of neolithic long pits in order to develop remanent magnetization as an additional parameter for the archaeological interpretation of magnetic maps. We determine the Koenigsberger ratio – the ratio between induced and remanent magnetization intensities – for...

We investigate the applicability of offshore geoelectrical profiling in the littoral zone, e.g., for archaeological prospection, sediment classification and investigations on coastal ground water upwelling. We performed field measurements with a 20 m long multi-electrode streamer in inverse Schlumberger configuration, which we used to statistically...

We apply seismic full waveform inversion (FWI) to SH and Love wave data for investigating the near‐surface lithology of an archaeological site. We evaluate the resolution of the applied FWI algorithm through ground truthing in form of an excavation and sediment cores. Thereby, we investigate the benefits of FWI in comparison to other established me...

The recent COVID-19 pandemic is of big and world-wide concern. There is an intense discussion and uncertainty which factors and sanctions can reduce infection rates. The overall aim is to prevent an overload of the medical system. Even within one country, there is frequently a strong local variability in both -- political sanctions as well as other...

We investigate how suitable ground penetrating radar (GPR) and geoelectrics are to prospect the remains of submerged wooden archaeological constructions in the water column. For this purpose, we determined the contrasts of electric resistivity and dielectric permittivity from measurements on present-day wood samples, serving as simplified approxima...

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 Meso...

We present two examples of seismic full waveform inversion (FWI) on small scale archaeological canal structures and compare the results with coring and excavation data to evaluate the benefits coming from FWI concerning resolution and material contrast. In the first example, the applicability of a combined low- and bandpass filter FWI strategy for...

The aim of the central geophysical project is the prospection of archaeological sites situated on the transition zone between land and sea. For the prospection of this amphibious zone, established geophysical methods can be applied for the land and sea sites apart from the shore, though some logistical and physical restrictions may apply depending...

This contribution is focused on a common utilization of microgravimetry (very precise and detailed gravimetry) and geoeletrical methods (ground penetrating radar and electric resistivity tomography) in the detection of subsurface cavities in non-destructive archaeological prospection. Both methods can separately detect such kind of subsurface objec...

The prospection of (geo-)archaeological sites yield important knowledge about the concept and the utilisation of pre-historical and historical infrastructure. The satisfactory conduction of classical prospection methods like archaeological excavations or geoarchaeological vibra-coring might be challenging in the case of large sites or difficult und...

Quantitative acoustic marine habitat mapping needs to consider the impact ofmacrobenthic organisms on backscatter data. However, the sensitivity of hydroacoustic systems toepibenthic life is poorly constrained. This study explores the impact of a benthic community withsparse abundance on seafloor microroughness and acoustic backscatter at a sandy s...

This study presents the results of a marine geophysical survey performed in the Igaliku fjord in southern Greenland in order to understand the harbour setting of the former Norse settlement Garðar (modern Igaliku). The aims of the survey were (a) to reconstruct the former coastline during the first centuries of the Norse settlement period (c. 11/12...

The unique size and development of prehistoric megasites of the north Pontic Cucuteni-Tripolye Chalcolithic groups (4100–3600 BCE) challenge modern archeology and paleoecology. The extremely large number of houses (approximately 3000, mostly burned) necessitates the development of multidisciplinary technologies to gain a holistic understanding of s...

The unique size and development of prehistoric megasites of the north Pontic Cucuteni-Tripolye Chalcolithic groups (4100–3600 BCE) challenge modern archeology and paleoecology. The extremely large number of houses (approximately 3000, mostly burned) necessitates the development of multidisciplinary technologies to gain a holistic understanding of s...

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 inte...

We present a new three‐dimensional (3D) marine seismic data acquisition system, named PingPong, developed for archaeological prospection in shallow water. Prospection targets for the system are ancient harbour sites and sedimented remains of shipwrecks. The prospection of such targets often means working at the transition from land to water, in are...

Mycenaean chamber tombs are composed of air‐filled burial cavities and, therefore, can be detected by non‐invasive geophysical methods. In this study, an electrical resistivity tomography (ERT)‐based approach was used to detect graves at three different sites in the area surrounding ancient Olympia. We collected ERT data at the necropolis of Mageir...

The full waveform inversion (FWI) of strongly dispersive Love wave data is a challenging task. Amplitude, phase and dispersion information not only depends on the density and shear modulus distribution in the subsurface, but also significantly on intrinsic damping. This is especially a problem in near surface data applications with complex undergro...

The western Peloponnese was repeatedly hit by major tsunami impacts during historical times as reported by historical accounts and recorded in earthquake and tsunami catalogues. Geological signatures of past tsunami impacts have also been found in many coastal geological archives. During the past years, abundant geomorphological and sedimentary evi...

Throughout mankind's history, the need to secure and protect the home settlement was an essential one. This holds especially true for the city of Ainos (modern Enez) in Turkish Thrace. Due to its continuous settlement history since the 7th/6th century BC, several different types of city walls were built-sometimes even on top of each other-several o...

Sea level rise and an intensification of storm surges associated with climate change demand non-invasive evaluation methods to estimate the state of coastal defenses. A promising tool is seismic full waveform inversion, a data fitting optimization approach to recover high resolution multi-parameter distributions of the sub-surface. In this study we...

A successful and efficient archaeological excavation campaign requires a high resolution seismic imaging approach to resolve small scale near surface structures. The resolution of classical first arrival traveltime tomography (FATT) is limited by the first Fresnel zone, while the inversion of surface wave dispersion spectra requires a (local) 1D me...

EAGE 2018 presentation: "2D full waveform inversion applied to a strongly-dispersive Love wave field dataset"

The full waveform inversion (FWI) of strongly dispersive Love wave data is a challenging task. Amplitude , phase and dispersion information not only depends on the density and shear modulus distribution in the subsurface, but also significantly on intrinsic damping. This is especially a problem in near surface data applications with complex undergr...

Ongoing excavations at San Giuliano in central Italy are providing detailed evidence for testing explanatory models of cyclical shifts in settlements and socio-economic organisation from the Etruscan to medieval periods ( c . 800 BC–AD 1300). Download free here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4822C8FC7248063...