The investigation area is not only featured by favourable climatic conditions. Also the geoecological conditions benefit a permanent settlement in this area. The wide valley of the river Blies takes a course approximately from north to south. The valley sides are mainly exposed to west resp. east resulting in a favourable micro climate due to high solar radiation and wind protection.
In the area of the blies valley
near Reinheim quaternary sediments of the river are deposited. A- and B-terraces
are proved on the inner as well as on the outer river bank (WEISROCK &
FRANOUX 1993). Meanwhile the Blies partly incised in its pleistocene deposits
and flows in rocks of the middle trias. At the base and in the middle of
the slopes west of the excavation area the marls of the middle Trias (mm)
outcrop building spring horizons. In the vicinity also gypsum and rock
salt occurences are known (SCHNEIDER 1991). Above follows entrochal limestone
(mo1). Its morphologically hardness results in steep parts of the upper
slope. The flat upland area is built of ceratite limestone of the middle
trias (mo2).
Today's cultural landscape
results from soil- and relief-forming processes and intense anthropogenic
impacts. There are different phases in the landscape
development in the investigation area.
During the cold stages of
the Quaternary the geomorphological development is dominated by periglacial
processes. Obvious river terraces 5-50 m above the recent water surface
of the Blies give evidence of the cold stages and the warmer intervals.
They documente ancient levels of the stream bed of the Blies. The sediments
of the recent valley bottom are divided by its soil types and contents
of humus in cold stage and warm interval deposits of the Würm and
Holocene. With the end of the last cold stage also periglacial processes
end and warm stage soil- and relief-forming processes dominate.
In the early holocene this
part of the Blies probably was divided in several branches in which conspicous
processes of accumulation and erosion took place. Due to the stabilising
effect of a growing forest cover erosion processes were reduced. From the
mesolithicum until the Celtic-Roman period
there was nearly no change in forms of the valley bottom as the human impact
was small. With the beginning of agriculture soils and relief were changed
intensively. The results were soil degradation inducing a change in vegetation
cover and the usability of land as well as the development of haugh and
alluvial fans. In a number of relief positions displaced sediments can
be indicated next to the natural sediments by its colour and its content
of humus. The phase of sedimentation are reflected in the profiles of the
soils and sediments in the flood plain. By means of this profiles the historical
development of the area can be reconstructed. Especially the finds make
a temporal classification of the layers by its dating possible. Unfortunably
in many parts of the flood plain the the layer order is disturbed by agriculture
and sand pits making the reconstruction of the micro relief partly difficult.
Literature:
Schneider,
H. (1991): Geologie des Saarlandes. In: Sammlung Geologischer Führer
84. Stuttgart
Weisrock, A.,
Franoux, D. (1993): L'environnement du site de Bliesbruck-Reinheim: étude
du fond de vallée de la Blies. In: Blesa - Veröffentlichung
des Europ. Kulturparks Bd 1, S. 223 - 235.