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In 2022, I was able to visit the excavation site Bilzingsleben, which is mentioned in the article, and can highly recommend a visit to everyone interested in sc

In 2022, I was able to visit the excavation site Bilzingsleben, which is mentioned in the article, and can highly recommend a visit to everyone interested in science. The site itself is just a quarry, but they have built a museum right above the place where they found fossils of thousands of creatures. You can then stand over a control table like in the spaceship Enterprise and trigger 3D animations of those animals and humans in their natural environment on a large screen on the wall on other side over an excavation ditch. But the best thing was getting to know to the curator of the site. He himself took part in the excavation, published scientific articles about it and seems to know everything about the site, its excavation history and palaeological topics related to it. I was able to talk with him for more than an hour. The excavation site is located about 20km north of Erfurt (Thuringia, Germany). In the summer it is open Weddensday to Sunday and on holidays from 10:00 to 17:00. For those with a camper-van: it is no problem to stay in their very quite car park for the night for free. Its Web-site can be found at http://www.steinrinne-bilzingsleben.com/ http://www.steinrinne-bilzingsleben.com/ (in German).

treprinum 3y ago
How about Grube Messel? Is it similar to Bilzingsleben?
- Archelaos 3y ago
  Grube Messel is still on my agenda. (It is literally like this: I have bookmarked the location in my navigator app.) However, from what I heared, both must be quite different. In contrast to Messel, there are no spectacular finds on display in Bilzingsleben. What is associated with Homo Erectus is on display in the Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle.[1] The scientific worth of Bilzingsleben is that it is sort of a Homo Erectus version of Pompeji (of a much, much smaller size, though): the place was covered with mud at a certain time during a flood disaster, which hindered decomposition and later errosion. It is now more or less completely excavated. So the site itself is just a big ditch. As I said, the best thing about my visit was the opportunity to talk with a real expert curator. I have hardly ever met a museum guide who knew so much about his subject matter. I hope he is still there. [1] Photos and descriptions of this and a few other nice finds are available online https://nat.museum-digital.de/search?q=Bilzingsleben https://nat.museum-digital.de/search?q=Bilzingsleben (texts in German, navigation available in English)

treprinum 3y ago

How about Grube Messel? Is it similar to Bilzingsleben?

Archelaos 3y ago
Grube Messel is still on my agenda. (It is literally like this: I have bookmarked the location in my navigator app.) However, from what I heared, both must be quite different. In contrast to Messel, there are no spectacular finds on display in Bilzingsleben. What is associated with Homo Erectus is on display in the Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle.[1] The scientific worth of Bilzingsleben is that it is sort of a Homo Erectus version of Pompeji (of a much, much smaller size, though): the place was covered with mud at a certain time during a flood disaster, which hindered decomposition and later errosion. It is now more or less completely excavated. So the site itself is just a big ditch. As I said, the best thing about my visit was the opportunity to talk with a real expert curator. I have hardly ever met a museum guide who knew so much about his subject matter. I hope he is still there. [1] Photos and descriptions of this and a few other nice finds are available online https://nat.museum-digital.de/search?q=Bilzingsleben https://nat.museum-digital.de/search?q=Bilzingsleben (texts in German, navigation available in English)