Photographs of archaeological traces. Over the last years I was commissioned by magazines like GEO, National Geographic Germany and Smithsonian Magazine to photograph reports about different archaeological excavations. A documentation about the Celts in central Europe, about Pompeii in Italy, the Messel Pit in Germany and Atapuerca in Spain.
Reports on the Celts, the people who lived in Central Europe between 800 BC and the turn of the century. Researchers are certain that the Celts as such never existed, but rather a multitude of tribes that shared a common culture. Here are three examples from the rich world of Celtic research that I have photographed.
Keltenblock – chambered shaft tomb of a Celtic princess from the Heuneburg.
Archaeologists at work on the chambered shaft tomb of a Celtic princess from the Heuneburg. The team led by Prof. Dr. Dirk Krausse is examining the valuable find, partly lying down, millimetre by millimetre. For pictures of this kind, I usually use a fine lighting system consisting of many small mobile flashes that can be used to illuminate both the people and the finds.
Salt Mine from the celtic period in Hallstatt
Deep down in the prehistoric salt mine in Hallstatt, Austria, there is a Celtic mining room. The Celtic miners extracted the ribbon salt in heart-shaped plates. Lighting such a fascinating site in such a confined space is a great challenge. In complete darkness, my assistant and I worked on this sophisticated lighting concept, in which the heart shape of the salt slabs should be very clearly visible.
In the narrow corridors, excavation director Hans Reschreiter examines fir wood shavings in the wall, which served as lighting during Hallstatt period mining. The once huge hall of the mine was filled in by a stream of rubble during the catastrophe around 350 BC. Today, only narrow passages lead to the early Celtic salt mine.
Investigation of Celtic finds from Mormont
Restorer Karen Vallee examines pottery shards from the Mormont in the Musée cantonal d’archéologie et d’histoire museum in Lausanne. On the Mormont in the canton of Vaud (Switzerland), archaeologists discovered around 250 pits from the time of the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe. The pits and sacrificial shafts contained numerous animal and human bones.
I photographed this story about the Celts for GEO magazine. Again, we had to develop some lighting ideas to be able to tell the story in pictures.
Report on the treasure in the House of Menander in the Roman city of Pompeii for National Geographic Germany. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius claimed thousands of lives in October 79 AD. People living around the volcano died from hot ash, incandescent rocks and air currents of up to 800 degrees. The volcanic eruption covered Pompeii for centuries under a layer of ash several metres thick.
House of Menander
The House of Menander was one of the most beautiful town villas of ancient Pompeii, decorated with valuable frescoes. On the left, that of the eponym: a Greek comedy poet esteemed among cultured Romans.
House of Menander
In the 1920s, the archaeologist Amadeo Maiuri discovers 18 dead bodies and a silver treasure in the house of Menander. Who were the dead? Members of the rich owner’s family or their slaves, and who were those with pickaxe and pick – looters in search of riches?
Jens-Arne Dickmann has been researching in Pompeii for a long time and accompanies this case scientifically. Author Angelika Franz wrote the exciting text for this report, from which I quote here again and again.
Via Stabiana in Pompeii
For centuries, a layer of ash several metres high covered ancient Pompeii. From 1863 onwards, Giuseppe Fiorelli, director of the National Museum in Naples, had the houses uncovered from above and plaster models of the dead made. To date, around three quarters have been excavated again.
Plaster cast of a victim
A plaster cast of a teenage slave is on display in a showcase in the Macellum, the former market. The plaster cast of a child from the House of the Golden Bracelet (Casa del Bracciale d’Oro) is in the museum workshop.
An extensive cave system runs through the Atapuerca limestone massif in northern Spain and is considered the most important site of human fossils in Europe. Researchers found the oldest bones of prehistoric man on our continent.
A million years ago, the caves had a dream location. The Arlanzón River provided plenty of water, and the overlap of Mediterranean, Atlantic and continental climates brought a high diversity of species. Herds of deer, fallow deer, wild boar and bison passed through here between the great flood plains of the Ebro and Duero rivers. People could lie in wait for the animals outside their cave entrances. The caves must also have been so enticing to people at the time that tribal wars must have broken out over them.
It was an interesting photographic journey for GEO kompakt magazine through time to a distant part of European human history.
Sima del Elefante
The caves were uncovered during the construction of a trench for the railway line through the Sierra Atapuerca. Today, scaffolding protects the various caves.
Cueva del Mirador
Archaeologist Josep M. Vergès uncovers the grave with the skeleton of a 15-year-old girl.
Gran Dolina
That the Gran Dolina was once a cave is hardly recognizable. For thousands of years, sediments have filled the interior of the more than 18-metre-high room. The lowest layer is one million, the top one around 200,000 years old. The path below is the cutting of the former railway line.
El Portalón
The coordinates of the excavation site are measured with the tachymeter. Bones from the Bronze Age were discovered in this cave.
Near Darmstadt lies the Messel Pit: a disused open-cast oil shale mine where archaeologists have recovered a large number of fossils that provide evidence of life 48 million years ago. For researchers, the site is a fantastic laboratory to see what evolution could have given to life. The superbly preserved fossils have given palaeontologists unprecedented insights into the adaptive strategies of mammals in feeding, locomotion and even reproduction.
Grube Messel
Around 48 million years ago, the Messel Pit was the site of a deep lake—some two miles across at its peak—where thousands of animals perished. Over time, layers of clay and dead algae preserved the specimens like flowers pressed between the pages of a book.
Ailuravus macrurus
A time capsule of life in the Eocene: a three-foot-long, squirrel-like rodent.
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