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Positive crop marks of an early medieval cemetery in an oat field

This cemetery was first discovered by the author in 2014 on a satellite photo[1]. But it was not until the early summer of 2017 that the cemetery was detected on the basis of our own aerial surveys. That year the field was cultivated with oats and in the low morning sun a larger number of burial pits could be recorded due to different growth heights of the oat plants. Because of the east-west orientation of the graves and the typical row formation, it is to be regarded as early medieval.

Positive vegetation features of an early medieval cemetery in oats (recording date 19.06.2017).
Fig. 1: Positive vegetation features of an early medieval cemetery in oats (recording date 19.06.2017).
Nine days later, the yellowing of the oat plants slowly sets in. Since the plants above the burial pits are better supplied with water, they still show a rich green colour, while the surrounding plants show a distinct yellow colour. As a result, the individual burial pits can now be easily distinguished from each other, making it possible to count the graves. Only the recognisable graves already add up to a number of more than 500. The complete cemetery will probably have considerably more graves, which are located on the eastern edge of the slope, but because of the different soil conditions (large dark green area) are not distinguishable by vegetation features.
Positive crop marks of an early medieval cemetery in ripening oats (recording date 28.06.2017).
Fig. 2: Positive crop marks of an early medieval cemetery in ripening oats (recording date 28.06.2017).


[1] Krause/Later 2015