Soil colour spectra of prehistoric pit fillings as a new analytical tool to measure changing soil characteristics over time on a regional scale

史前的坑里充满了古老的表土材料，这些物质在那里保存了数千年。这些坑填充物的一个特点是，它们的颜色根据土壤材料重新定位的时间而不同。土壤颜色是土壤形成过程和土壤性质的结果，因此它可以指示特定时期的土壤特征。就我们所知，没有调查分析和解释这些土壤颜色随时间变化的原因。拟议的项目将从下莱茵河流域(德国西北部)黄土地区不同考古时期的坑填土中调查土壤参数。它的目标是实现彩色光谱的测量，作为一种新的分析工具，用于快速分析大量的土壤样本：主要目标是将分光光度计测量的高分辨率颜色数据与通过传统成壤方法和中红外光谱(MIRS)分析的土壤参数联系起来，主要侧重于烧焦有机质(BPCAs)。这一工具将使我们能够量化土壤性质在几千年的时间尺度上、在区域尺度上的不同史前时期以及一般黄土土壤中的变化。关于在区域范围内改变土壤性质的详细信息对于确定过去的土壤质量是必要的，它有助于增加我们对史前土壤耕作实践的了解。此外，这些信息还有助于增加我们对不同考古时期农业系统的了解。

Prehistoric pits are filled with ancient topsoil material, which has been preserved there over millennia. A characteristic of these pit fillings is that their colour is different depending on the time the soil material was relocated. Soil colour is the result of soil forming processes and soil properties, and it could therefore indicate the soil characteristics present during that specific period. To the best of our knowledge, no investigation analysed and explained the reasons for these soil colour changes over time. The proposed project will investigate soil parameters from pit fillings of different archaeological periods in the loess area of the Lower Rhine Basin (NW-Germany). It aims to implement the measurement of colour spectra as a novel analytical tool for the rapid analyses of a high number of soil samples: the main goal is to relate highresolution colour data measured by a spectrophotometer to soil parameters that were analysed by conventional pedogenic methods and by mid infrared spectroscopy (MIRS), with a main focus on charred organic matter (BPCAs). This tool would enable us to quantify the variation of soil properties over a timescale of several millennia, during different prehistoric periods at regional scale and for loess soils in general. Detailed information concerning changing soil properties on a regional scale is necessary to determine past soil quality and it helps to increase our understanding of prehistoric soil cultivation practices. Furthermore, these information could also help to increase our understanding about agricultural systems in different archaeological periods.