Research assignment and main focuses of research
The Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research (NihK) investigates the evolution of the natural landscape and the man-made environment within the Lower Saxon coastal area of the North Sea using a combination of archaeology, historical geography, botany and geology.
Emphases of research are
1. in the field of cultural sciences: archaeological and historical-geographical investigations towards the reconstruction of past settlement and economy and of man-made environment within the clay district, the moorland and the pleistocene dry land, especially:
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- archaeological studies of rural and early urban domiciles and agricultural land to determine its function for rural economy, craft, trade and social structure. - historical-geographical investigations into past settlements and the cultural landscape. - analysis of archaeological and historical-geographical data towards the reconstruction of spatially delimited settlement and economic areas in pre- and early history. |
2. in the field of natural sciences: geological and botanical investigations into landscape development, especially:
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- studies of sea-level change during the latest geological period with emphasis to the last 10.000 years. - studies of vegetation history as a mirror of climate and settlement history. - the reconstruction of man-made environment and agricultural economy in the area of prehistoric settlements. |
3. applied cultural and natural scientific research towards the historical-ecological conservation of man-made cultural landscapes in the Lower Saxon coastal area of the North Sea.
