This dataset compiles historical socio-economic, demographic and hydrological records from between 1611 CE to 1800 CE to provide contextual information for primary-source data on salmon catches in the Mulde catchment and the German Elbe river system. Local economic conditions are represented by a historical series of market prices for "grain" (Korn, probably rye), selected because it offers the highest temporal density among the available grain-price records. The series was compiled from Kamprad's annals by Schellenberg and extended to 1841, with reporting intervals ranging from 0.2 to 16 years (mean approximately four years). Prices recorded in Thaler, Gulden, Groschen and Pfennig were standardised as decimal Gulden. Demographic conditions were reconstructed from annual baptism and burial records of St Mary's Church, which provide numbers of births and deaths for 1637–1841; earlier records were destroyed in the city fire of 1637. A deaths-to-births ratio was calculated as measure of excess mortality. Reports of city fires, food-supply crises and disease outbreaks were additionally extracted from local chronicles. Historical flood and drought events were compiled from published datasets and chronicles covering the Mulde sub-catchment, the German reaches of the Elbe and other Elbe tributaries. These records were collected to document socio-environmental conditions potentially relevant to the operation and maintenance of salmon-catching infrastructure and to longitudinal river connectivity.
This dataset contains information extracted from text-based primary sources concerning the construction, operation and maintenance of the salmon weir at Leisnig, Saxony between 1616 and 1767 CE. The archival documents were retrieved from the Dresden State Archives and transcribed selectively according to their relevance to salmon catches, fisheries costs and revenues, damage incidents, and legal disputes relating to salmon fishing. For each relevant entry, the year, locality, planned and realised revenues and costs, catch numbers and weights, timber requirements, and reported causes of damage, including ice, floods, warfare and unspecified causes, were recorded where available. Brief content descriptions, archival references, source types, communicative occasions and additional notes were also documented. The extracted information was entered into a structured database that combines quantitative variables with qualitative annotations, thereby preserving the archival provenance and documentary context of each record.
This field campaign is part of the DFG projects SPP 2361: On the Way to the Fluvial Anthroposphere and Local pathways to the Fluvial Anthroposphere at Echaz (Rhine) and Eger (Danube). A comparative analysis from c. AD 1100 to 1800, which aim to investigate the pre-industrial floodplains of Central Europe.
In spring 2023, during the construction of a new logistics building in Nördlingen (southern Germany), soil-sediment profiles were hand-excavated, each to a depth of 1 m. The profiles NEP 1, NEP 2, NEP 3 were sampled and analysed. The following analyses were performed on the bulk-soil-sediment samples: grain-size analysis, XRF-based elemental analysis, CNS-Analysis, pH-value measurements, urease activity, microbial biomass carbon analysis, stable isotope analysis, molluscs and microfossils analysis, and luminescence dating. In addition, charcoal samples from all three profiles and one additional sample from NEP 4 profile (this profile was not sampled for soil-sediment analysis) were collected. Charcoal samples were determined to the lowest possible taxonomic level and radiocarbon dated.