Paleotopography and anthropogenic deposition thickness of the city of Aachen, Germany

The main objective of this study is to reconstruct the pre-Roman topography under the city of Aachen, Germany. Aachen has a 2000-year settlement history, and enormous amounts of anthropogenic deposits have accumulated during this time; these deposits are thus also visualized. The key data used are archeological excavation records and geological drilling documents that contain elevation and spatial data, and the Kriging algorithm was used to interpolate these data to produce two high-resolution raster datasets showing both the paleotopography and thickness of anthropogenic deposits. The paleo-DEM was then employed to reconstruct the course of former streams running through the study area. This research provides new insights into the topographic preconditions encountered by the first Roman settlers. As the accumulation of anthropogenic deposits in distinct areas of the city is linked to specific historical periods, the results also reveal the developmental stages of the ancient city.

本研究的核心目标为重建德国亚琛（Aachen）城市下方的前罗马时期地形。亚琛拥有两千年的定居史，此间累积了海量人为沉积，因此本次研究亦对这类沉积进行了可视化呈现。本次研究所用核心数据为包含高程与空间信息的考古发掘记录与地质钻探资料，研究采用克里金（Kriging）插值算法对上述数据进行插值处理，生成两套高分辨率栅格数据集，分别对应古地形与人为沉积厚度。随后利用古数字高程模型（paleo-DEM）重建了研究区域内古河道的流经路径。本研究为首批罗马定居者所面临的地形先决条件提供了全新认知；由于城市不同区域的人为沉积累积与特定历史时期存在关联，研究结果同时揭示了这座古城的发展阶段。