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sister_luckSundays are reserved for some fun activity (and while the school year is on, usually some lesson planning).
This week we went into town where the shops were open for the annual festival celebrating the restoration of the tower of the main church. Any excuse will do.
The kid got new shoes and a new suitcase.
Then we exchanged two bikes for three and cycled to the next event.
The local river (you've seen it before, my school is next to it and several of the castles around here are situated next to it) is prone to flooding when there is lots of rain. The people living down river from us are not too happy about their streets and basements filling with water.
So the water management group for this river is in the process of building a huge detention basin. But unlike in the linked article the area is not excavated for reasons that will become obvious soon. Instead dams were built which were strengthened by a sheet pile wall.
The weir is not yet finished and this gigantic project has been an inconvenience for the residents especially as several cycle paths had to be closed off. So there was a big information day on Sunday where there was a bouncy castle for the kids and lots of information for all of us. We did a tour of the building site, talked to several scientists involved and saw interesting artefacts.
So why not excavate the whole basin? That would be much easier, right? Nope, you'd have archaelogists swarming the place. The river valley was an important habitat for Neanderthals, early modern humans and just a little while later the Romans. As it is, the state sent in a small team of archaeologists to sift through the areas where there had to be some digging for the drain channels and the weir and the rest is left undisturbed in the ground for future generations.
Poster showing some of the finds and the different strata they came from.
They found lots - different tools made from flint and lots of bones of the animals hunted by the people staying by the river including the skull of an auerochs and the bones of horses.
The archaeologist in charge had a little booth where we were able to see many of the artefacts.
One of the dig sites:
There was also a biologist who showed us the animals living in the river - including Eastern Crayfish introduced from America in the 1890s.
It was interesting and educational in a good way. The kid took many pictures of his feet.
This week we went into town where the shops were open for the annual festival celebrating the restoration of the tower of the main church. Any excuse will do.
The kid got new shoes and a new suitcase.
Then we exchanged two bikes for three and cycled to the next event.
The local river (you've seen it before, my school is next to it and several of the castles around here are situated next to it) is prone to flooding when there is lots of rain. The people living down river from us are not too happy about their streets and basements filling with water.
So the water management group for this river is in the process of building a huge detention basin. But unlike in the linked article the area is not excavated for reasons that will become obvious soon. Instead dams were built which were strengthened by a sheet pile wall.
The weir is not yet finished and this gigantic project has been an inconvenience for the residents especially as several cycle paths had to be closed off. So there was a big information day on Sunday where there was a bouncy castle for the kids and lots of information for all of us. We did a tour of the building site, talked to several scientists involved and saw interesting artefacts.
So why not excavate the whole basin? That would be much easier, right? Nope, you'd have archaelogists swarming the place. The river valley was an important habitat for Neanderthals, early modern humans and just a little while later the Romans. As it is, the state sent in a small team of archaeologists to sift through the areas where there had to be some digging for the drain channels and the weir and the rest is left undisturbed in the ground for future generations.
Poster showing some of the finds and the different strata they came from.
They found lots - different tools made from flint and lots of bones of the animals hunted by the people staying by the river including the skull of an auerochs and the bones of horses.
The archaeologist in charge had a little booth where we were able to see many of the artefacts.
One of the dig sites:
There was also a biologist who showed us the animals living in the river - including Eastern Crayfish introduced from America in the 1890s.
It was interesting and educational in a good way. The kid took many pictures of his feet.
