Starting in 2026, the Research Unit FOR 5837 | Times of Rise and Failure (TORF) – Integrative research on the cultural landscape development in the North Frisian Wadden Sea region during the Common Era aims for the systematic multidisciplinary investigation and spatio-temporal reconstruction of the medieval coastal landscape of North Frisia (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), that drowned during a severe storm surge in 1362 AD. Today, abundant relics of the once cultivated land lie hidden in the tidal flats, that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Wadden Sea’, extending from the Netherlands to Denmark.
In TORF, scientists from archaeology, geophysics, geography, geology, history, molecular biology and geoinformatics join their expertise in an interdisciplinary team, that has arisen from intense joint research in the Wadden Sea since 2015 within the course of three different DFG-funded research projects. Research culminated in the discovery of a large church, probably the one of famous Rungholt, some 7 km off the coast of Nordstrand Peninsula in 2023.
The Wadden Sea is a globally unique ecosystem in a highly dynamic coastal landscape. However, it is also the relic of a cultural landscape intensely shaped by humans. Especially since medieval times, efforts to cultivate the low-lying coastal areas produced a similar cultural landscape all along the southern North Sea coast, including dikes, drainage and peat extraction. Yet, human impact culminated in a series of self-enhancing processes like land subsidence and increased tidal range and storm surge levels, rendering the landscape highly vulnerable.
In North Frisia, systematic large-scale interventions only began in the 12th cent. AD and, within two centuries, caused the transformation of a natural coastal environment into a highly productive but also sensitive cultural landscape. By the effects of natural extreme events, much of North Frisia’s embanked cultural land was lost during the so-called 1st Grote Mandränke in 1362 AD and turned into a sub- and intertidal landscape. Until today, North Frisia stands as a striking symbol for the devastating effects of storm floods.
Despite our strong progress in research during the past decade, North Frisia’s medieval landscape is far from being fully understood. Important questions, still unsolved, concern (i) the cultural landscape’s extent and appearance before 1362 AD, (ii) the sea level development as starting point for land reclamation, (iii) the influence of extreme events and adaptation strategies against them, (iv) the human impact by settlement, cultivation and land use, (v) the social, political, clerical and economic organization, (vi) the effects of human impact on the overall coastal vulnerability, and (vii) the costs and benefits of land reclamation or reasons for its abandonment.
Since wide areas of the drowned landscape have not been reclaimed after 1362 AD, they act as a ‘time capsule’, and the widely preserved archaeological remains are of enormous value for the cultural heritage of North Frisia and the entire Wadden Sea region. Most important objectives are (i) to record, reconstruct and comprehend the manifold interactions between humans and their environment, (ii) to understand the rise and failure of human efforts to secure resources, expand settlement activities and fight against land loss by extreme events and (iii) to better comprehend the cultural and natural heritage of the region and to raise public awareness against coastal risks.
The TORF Research Unit combines seven subprojects and the coordination:
Since wide areas of North Frisia’s drowned landscape have not been reclaimed after 1362, the tidal flats act as a ‘time capsule’ allowing insights into medieval colonisation techniques and contemporaneous coastal protection infrastructure (e.g., farmland structure, settlement density, drainage systems, sizes of dykes and tidal gates), economic activities and socio-political structures (e.g., land use and management, trade activities, size/distribution of parishes). The tidal flat’s archaeological potential and value have been largely recognized before the 1970s when they were designated as excavation protection area.
Medieval archaeological remains preserved in the tidal flats are of enormous value not only for the cultural heritage of North Frisia, but the entire Wadden Sea region. Yet, recent studies show, that tidal dynamics can cause erosion of archaeological sites and sedimentary archives within a few years. Accelerating sea level rise and more frequent storm events will increase these processes of exposure and erosion and, thus, make research in this field a highly urgent issue. Moreover, while climate change is widely recognised as a threat to coastal protection, ecosystems and recreational values, impact on archaeological remains in the Wadden Sea region is hardly acknowledged and long-term consequences remain yet undetermined.
Learn about the challenging research in North Frisia’s tidal flats!