DFG funding for research into historical landforms around the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Tarnowski Góry

The project proposal: “Exploring a complex mining landscape and its development using geoarchaeological methods” at the UNESCO site of Tarnowskie Góry has received a grant of €343,093 from the German Research Foundation (DFG). The bilateral project is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Silesia in Katowice as part of the Weave Lead Agency scheme. 

Mining in Tarnowskie Góry in Upper Silesia looks back on a long tradition, which began as early as the 12th century with the extraction and smelting of galena and silver, and in the 16th century became a major industrial centre in Central Europe through galena mining. Although the area was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017, systematic archaeological, sedimentological, geomorphological and pedological investigations of the thousands of shafts and spoil heaps, as well as the cultural and geo-ecological legacies, are still in their infancy; historical sources document activities from the 16th century onwards well, but leave earlier phases unclear. The German-Polish cooperation project is conducting a multi-methodological geoarchaeological analysis for the first time to identify and classify the mining structures, uncover the complex Architecture of this unique cultural landscape and reconstruct the most important phases of its development – with the aim of gaining new insights into geoarchaeology, history, geomorphology, soil science and Environmental Sciences, and serving as a model for other mining regions.

Publication on this topic:

A. Bonhage, T. Raab, A. Raab, A. Schneider, I. Malik, M. Wistuba, W. Verschoof-van der Vaart (2024): Land Use Legacy Landforms at the UNESCO Heritage Site Tarnowskie Góry, Upper Silesia, Poland—Stratigraphy, Soils and Age. Geoarchaeology. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.22028

I Malik, M. Bohr, M. Wistuba, T. Raab, A. Bonhage, W. Verschoof-van der Vaart, A. Raab, B. Woskowicz-Ślęzak (2023): Multi-Period Ore Exploitation in Upper Silesia, Central Europe. Journal of Field Archaeology. doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2023.2200583