 Hello everyone. Today I would like to talk about how by using soil as a source of data, source of information, you can identify areas which have been used as gardening areas or agricultural land in medieval or modern era towns. This is all based on research that we did in Wrocław, together with Cezady Krawawa, who was responsible for the bulk analysis. So bulk analysis, Agata Sade, who did the botanical analysis, Radek Minsky, who did the archival queries, maps and written sources, and Jacek, who directed the excavations. This was a commercial excavation in the town center. I was responsible for the for the microbiophilology here. So when we look at old plans of European cities, this is the example of Wrocław, but I expect that the situation is similar, could be similar in other European cities. In Barbara's presentation, we saw a similar picture, for example. So we see the city itself in the center, often surrounded by certifications, and around it there's a semi rural area, the hinterland, the suburb, right, which has a completely different character. We can see field plots, we can see gardens, we can see orchards. These things are also mentioned in written sources, but then when the city develops, the character of these areas, it totally changes. This is a hundred years later, so there is no sign of certifications anymore, but we see the railway coming here, we can see what, prison being built, and we can see some houses being built, and these are multi-story houses with cellars also. The early 20th century, well, the completely different pictures, as you can see a dense network of rows of buildings, also multi-story buildings with cellars. So there is a complete transformation of the landscape here, and the old land use sometimes is preserved, for example, in the street name of the German Gattusstraße here. But of course the history of these places is also preserved in an urban stratigraphy, as we saw pictures that can go meters deeply, if it's of course well preserved. The special place in these urban profiles is reserved for dark earth, and this is also in relation to the question of identifying gardens or areas that were used for agriculture. We heard about this already, we heard the definition of dark earth more or less. I would just, I like to add one terminological issue here, because in the literature, three terms are used for describing these types of sediments, the horizons. So in Western Europe, as we perceive it together with Northern and South in Europe, the term dark earth has gained acceptance and popularity in calling these things, but in the Eastern part of Europe, the term cultural layer is much more popular. But generally we're describing the same thing, and it's important to remember, as Janik mentioned, that these first two terms are descriptive terms. They don't imply one formation history, they don't imply a uniform set of properties. Whereas soil scientists who also study similar proposals use the term androsols, and this is based on the recognition of certain properties. Certain properties have to be present in the soil to call it an androsol. So there's some terminological confusion here, but we often describe the same things, but what has to be remembered is that these formation histories can often be very different. So we identified this homogenous, thick, seemingly homogenous, thick humid-rich deposit on rescue excavations, which would be listed here. So we are within the old subterranean in Roswell. We were able to study five profiles in the excavation. So this is the situation macroscopically. This is what we encountered in the fields. So the horizon is very well visible. It's sealed by late 19th century layers comprised of rubble, slag, or kinds of anthropogenic materials. This space was used as a trading place, as a parking space in the early 20th century. So this is all sealed. The buried horizon is clearly visible here. It's locally differentiated into two or three sub-corrisons. This is also visible macroscopically. Up to 60 centimeters thick, very poor in artifacts. I mean, literally, we found like 50 pottery shards during the excavations, and it's like six heirs of land there. So it's really poor. Also, in some places, these were very much visible. We interpreted these as signs of possible digging. Okay, so we wanted to know how this formed. What's it doing there, basically? So we considered three main hypotheses, three main factors which might have contributed to the formation of this. So first one, natural pedogenesis in alluvial material. We're very close to the river there, too, a confluence of two rivers, actually. The second factor, pedogenesis in materials accumulated in the result of ancient occupation, something that has been noted as an important factor for the formation of dark earth in many European cities. The third one has agricultural, horticultural activities. And we use the methodology, which is as follows. So bulk analysis, microbiology, and mechanical analysis. Unfortunately, just two microbiological samples, well, financial constraints, obviously. And this was all preceded by a detailed survey in archives and on old maps, just to see the picture also from that perspective. Okay. So in terms of soluble analysis, the texture of these, of this buried soil, it's loamy sand or sandy loam. pH is neutral to alkaline. The density is highest in this AP3 horizon. Organic carbon is elevated in the buried soil, and it's also quite rich in bases. When we look at it, the micromethological picture, but as I said, just two slides, unfortunately, showed good signs of mixing, of fauna activity, that the microstructure was channeled. The APB, the middle layer, the middle sub-horizon, was visibly more porous than the lower one, which corresponds with the higher density of the lower most sub-horizon. The material was very poorly sorted, unsorted places. The lower most blackish in places, horizon, the APB3, you can see this results from manganese staining, iron staining. This is probably the result, because the terrain drips in one of these places, kind of like creating a small depression. So perhaps this is responsible for this, for anaerobic conditions, for the alternation of these conditions. What was also very visible is there were more organic remains in the APB2, so the middle sub-horizon. And, well, what was apparent was the scarcity of anthropogenic inclusions. Some charcoal, not really much. Some bone fragments, very tiny ones. And some dusty and silk coatings in the lower most horizon, especially. A bone like that. The botanical picture. Well, the majority of plant macro-remains were located in the upper amongst two sub-horizons, APB1 and APB2, the upper ones, which corresponds, of course, with the micromapology there. And the charcoal, the charcoal came from forest species. Trees like, it was oak, elm, beech and pine, and especially beech and pine are in common sub-settings. We're talking about the alluvial settings there. Singles, chart zeograms, I mean really singles, one or two or three, I guess. Some seeds of elder variant raspberry also were identified. And the rest of these macro-remains were just unburned by the spores of weeds which occur in anthropogenic habitats. So, when we combine all these results and try to come up with a history of formation of this horizon, and we look at the first hypothesis, the natural pathogenesis in alluvial material. Well, we decided to reject this because the thickness is unusual for other known soils in such settings because other profiles were obviously studied in the city and in its surroundings. There's also no sign of freshwater input indeed in different sections. Second hypothesis, pathogenesis materials accumulate in the results of past application. Well, we don't have these materials. It's not the case. We read some papers describing darker formation as a result of such processes. Well, these thin sections which are described are full of anthropogenic stuff. We didn't have that. It's just a very different picture. So, we can speak in favor of this third hypothesis that the formation of this horizon is related to some particular cultural, agricultural activities which happened there in the suburbs. But the question is, what kind of a garden soil are we dealing with? What process led to the formation of it? So, we would suggest that triple and double, okay, thank you, that triple and double digging was used to create this soil. And what is this about? What is triple and triple digging? Well, it's a certain agricultural technique that allows us to enhance the thickness of the eight horizon. It's often used by gardeners. Well, to be honest, the only depiction that we found of this technique comes from, I think, a Dutch gardeners association. So, this is taken. And it's still in use of this technique. So, it's still something that happens. We basically dig the soil in three spins in the triple digging, of course. So, you remove the first 20 centimeters, put it aside, remove the second 20 centimeters, put it aside. You mix the following 20 centimeters. You make the subsoil and add some of the humic top so you can add some manure also there. And then you replace. So, you put the first spit in the place of the second one and the second one in the place of the first one. And if you apply this several times, if you apply triple digging once in a while, if you apply double digging, just mixing of the two uppermost horizons more often, in result, you get an increased thickness of the eight horizon. And you have these sub horizons, which show different properties, obviously. So, what we would also suggest for Komunipariske is probably a science of addition of certain manures. We would suggest ash based on the presence of these charcoal forest species, for example, and hence phosphorus there and hence rich, rich, rich bases. So, that might be a sign of manuring, because we haven't identified any other signs in conception, for example, of additives, any kinds of other manures. What has to be noted, this is very intensive, this is a very intensive agricultural technique. It takes time for this to form. So, it was not just an ordinary field, probably had to produce something that could sell well. Or the workforce perhaps was very cheap, just perhaps that was the case. We suggest that it was used for vegetable growing as a vegetable garden. And such soils just to conclude, this is the end. Such soils might be very common in suburban areas of medieval towns, of modern era times, modern era cities, because, well, gardens were there. We know that from written sources. We know that from depictions. So, we might find these more often. Of course, if the stratigraphy is preserved, because that's the basic priority. Okay. So, thank you for your attention.