Phases of soil erosion-derived colluviation in the loess hills of South Germany

In South Germany, soil erosion is as old as farming and dates back to Early Neolithic times. Its sedimentary products form thick colluvial and alluvial sediment bodies in all drainage basins. Numerous local studies exist but the extrapolation of findings from local case studies to a regional scale has been problematic. Here, a graphical approach is used for frequency analysis of existing data. A frequency distribution for optical dates on colluvial sediments from the beginning of agriculture until 1200 AD was constructed by: (1) representing the optical ages by Gaussian-distributions and (2) summing all the single curves. The resulting graph clearly shows phases of increased colluviation during periods of stronger human impact. A first significant increase occurred during the Bronze Age. During the Iron Age/Roman period and at around 800 AD, distinct maxima appear in the distribution, and highest frequencies are present towards the end of the analysed period at around 1100 AD. Conclusions that can be drawn from such an approach are limited by sampling bias and other factors, but for the analysed period, and on a regional and long-term scale, colluviation seems to have been mainly triggered by intensity of land use. Climatic fluctuations are of only secondary importance. Rainfall events that were sufficiently erosive to produce colluvial sediments occurred throughout the agricultural periods. The limiting factor for colluvium production was sensitivity of the landscape to erosion, and this is a result of land use.